johnnym

Has been a while since I last showed some of my creations. I recently did an alternate model for the 42123 set with a special functionality and wondered if something like that could not also be done with the parts from 42093. And this is the result, the MDB attaccabrighe - an Italian fastback with gull-wing doors and a high-powered supercharged I4 engine (currently not fully color correct because of unavailable parts and also still WIP): Now about the special functionality: It's engine is swappable! So far you can use an I3, a V6 and a V8 as replacement engine for the stock I4 engine (all engines also compatible with the AMX 4s). The original I4 of the AMX 4 Turbo and the original V5 of the AMX 4 Biturbo can't be used unmodified in the attaccabrighe though, as it's engine bay is 2 studs narrower than the one of the AMX 4s and the V5 also requires a different crank shaft. The engines are attached to either two axle holes or two pin holes. The attaccabrighe will eventually be made available on Rebrickable and also receive a selection of aftermarket parts (like the ones for the AMX 4s) and maybe also some OEM modifications (e.g. wide rear wheels!) Sports cars like the AMX 4s or the attaccabrighe of course also need an opponent apart from themselves. And there is one car that has enough potential to keep up with them - the MM Hammond Executive. More on that one later, for now just one picture showing a WIP model aside the attaccabrighe:

I like it. And I fully agree, the 42075 was a cool set and the main model had good looks. Making a wrecker out of it was a great idea! One thing I noticed when loading this page: The pictures are only scaled down to 1024x768 for display but actually still have a resolution of 4032x3024 for the last one for example. So loading this page takes quite some time if the pictures aren't already in my web browser's cache. See, on BrickSafe for example you can link to lower resolution versions of your pictures which would make this page load much faster. Isn't something like that possible on imgur, too, maybe?

Hey, that was long due! Nice how it worked out.

Wow @steph77, this looks so cool! I love all the detailing. The color scheme is also nice, is the main color dark-azure or medium-azure? And where can one hear the sound of the engine?

So three 30° steps (incl. 90° => 30°,60°,90°)? Well, definitely better than 90° steps. And they keep their angle when you hold the controls at specific positions? Unfortunately I haven't yet found a source in Germany and they are not exactly a replacement for the PF Servo motor. Do you have a part number maybe? It's not that they don't work with BuWizz for me, they just go to their 90° extremes there when you exceed a specific position of the controls, so you can do -90°, 0° and 90° but not the 7 steps in each direction like on PF IR receivers.

@Zerobricks Bummer. I hoped to use these CaDA Servo motors as "cheap(er)" alternative to used or NOS PF Servo motors. According to the linked document, at least the older round version of it looks very much like a PF Servo motor internally, if I'm not mistaken. Well, doesn't say much about the workings, but as - at least the newer version (JV5029) - works like a PF Servo motor on IR receivers (w/ or w/o a little help of a real PF plug), it might not be too hard to get it going with BuWizz.

I think this fits in here: I recently bought a CaDA POWER SYSTEM PRO Servo (JV5029). According to this document (posted here already earlier) this is expected: to be compatible with BuWizz (and others like SBrick, but I only have BuWizz 2.0 and 3.0 units) as motor to be not compatible with LEGO IR receiver I interpret (1) as working with 7 steps in each directtion plus 0° position and (2) as working with 1 step in each direction (i.e. +/-90°) plus 0° position. @brunojj1: Does this reflect your experience with the CaDA Servo motor (JV5029)? My interpretation could of course be wrong and the reality also looks different for me: I first tested this servo motor with a BuWizz 2.0 unit using a horizontal control (with spring) in the BuWizz app (version 2.1.4) and it only moves one 90° step in each direction when going over a certain position of the control. Well this was not what I expected. So I went on and tested it with V1 and V2 IR receivers and the IR train control and guess what, it works there with 7 steps in each direction - i.e. like the PF Servo motor - most of the time. With "most of the time" I mean, that it sometimes (i.e. seldomly) overshoots (on the first three steps or so) and resets itself to the 0° position but you can go on from there. On my V2 IR receiver it doesn't work correctly on both ports (i.e. only in one "direction", but all 7 steps there and also back to 0° in 7 steps), but when I connect a PF Servo motor between a port and the CaDA Servo motor it also works correctly on my V2 IR receiver, so maybe this is a contact issue of the connectors. UPDATE: It also works when I put the dark bluish gray connector of a PF extension cable between a port and the CaDA Servo motor. So for the IR receivers the CaDA Servo motor behaves like a PF Servo motor, but for BuWizz 2.0 it does not, which I find strange. @Zerobricks Do you maybe have an idea what could be the differentiating thing between the PF Servo motor and the CaDA Servo motor (JV5029)? Because the behaviour is certainly useful for IR controlled PF driven models like 9398, but not so much when using BuWizz for control of RC race cars like these. Another observation: This CaDA Servo motor only resets itself to the 0° position on "startup" when it was at a different then 0° position when power was removed.

@Mr Jos: Fascinating to watch. Because of the speed the parts move on the last belt, does it always work to move the arm quick enough from one extreme to the other (edge case, I know)? Or maybe you slow down the last belt, but I didn't notice a difference in the video? If only the motors, sensors and and hub wouldn't be so expensive. Though I can't complain if I consider the amount of PF/PU motors, PF battery boxes and IR receivers and BuWizzes I have bought for my race cars. Could really use that now, as I have a few sets in parts laying around waiting to be inventorized and sorted afterwards.

I see, sorry, I didn't look too closely, just noticed the similarity. Thanks for the clarification. I agree, that's a really good reason to keep that vent.

This is the same vent as on the R32, isn't it? It's cool and seems to be very common on S13s, but why don't you go for something different this time? E.g. two smaller vents, one on each side of the hood or something like that (if it can be adapted to the 180SX style front)? I personally would like an opening in the upper part of the bumper of your 180SX, but that wouldn't modify your otherwise clean hood - not that I'd consider it need be. I hope you'll also make a red version with black roof, I like red more than black.

I really like the side shape of your re-interpretaion of the 8880. The rear reminds me a little of the first Toyota MR2.

@HorcikDesigns: Looks gorgeous! Though not as good in the 90° from the side view - not sure why. Maybe the steps in the tank and seat, these seem to "blur away" when moving to the other angles. But I still absolutely love it. The yellow stripes on the tank are great, too. Shaft drive looks also nicely integrated. Awesome work.

Oh, there is: https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-40851/johnnym/42109-wpower-functions/ I did this in early 2020. It's not exactly the same, but very close. My goal was also to do it w/o the new frames. And there's also this one: https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-52954/l1anchu/power-functions-rally-car/ ....which seems to be closer to the original 42109 for some details (e.g. hood), but is also a premium MOC/mod. Both are listed in the "Alt. Builds" tab for 42109 on Rebrickable under "Modifications (MOCs)". And BTW @Ngoc Nguyen great idea to have a directory of PF conversions for C+ sets.

@nicjasno Nice! I really like the Sierras - well, my parents owned a few in the past, though actually a sedan and some station wagons. The huge rear lights look really familiar. BTW, the tumbler tyres also "fit" to the used rims and might give a nice alternative to the used wheels. They come out sightly bigger though.

I'd like to show a MOC I'm working on since yesterday. I wanted to create a big buggy - well it became sort of fast pickup, but driving characteristics are buggy-like I'd say - since quite some time, but always found some other themes to look into (smaller scale RC cars, manual models and recently motorbikes). But yesterday it finally break through. I had and still have lots of fun with Antoine DDP's Night Racer - that thing is just insane and seems to be made for skate parks. This mainly comes from the two RC Buggy motors that drive one rear wheel each. So I wanted to have a similar configuration for my model, too. So two RC Buggy motors for a start. The Night Racer uses one BuWizz but it's very hard to use it on fast mode. So two BuWizz (2.0 in my case) for power and control in my model. During construction the wheels got bigger and bigger and I'm now using Claas tyres on matte-black three-hole rims. I started with the fast output of the RC buggy motors (actually the Mouldking replicas in this model) but it seems like this is too much - either for the motors or the power supply - because the model needs some break once in a while until it can go fast again. So I changed to the slower output and it seems to work better now. Here are pictures of what I have now: RWD with one motor for each rear wheel, independent suspension, positive caster on the front axle which also uses the old wheel hubs. The rear axle might be moved 1 stud towards the rear, as for the original RC Buggy motors one needs a little room where the power cable is attached. The replicas don't need that much space so I didn't take care. I hope it will still look "right" with the longer wheelbase. I'm still unsure if I should create an interior or not to save weight. I could use some ideas about how to make the rear axle wishbones less flimsy, maybe connecting front and rear part with another liftarm could help? Sorry, no video yet, as it's wet/snowy outside ATM. I hope I can make some outside runs later the week. So what do you think for a start? @Jim: When creating this topic, the preview didn't work for me. This seems to be new, as recently it did work for me in another topic.

@JRS86: During watching a video about a Mega Construx MOTU set, I think I saw two of these cool pieces we discussed about some time ago (the headlight piece from your other bike), but in brown (video should start at the correct point in time). Like with yours, there is a hole in the part, because the claws of the Talon Fighter attach there with some sort of bar or so. I don't see if there's a stud on top though. So I think this piece could actually come from Mega Construx. Not sure if they have any part database for verification.

Saw that already, thanks a lot! Looking forward to those.

I see, that fits!

Nice and really fast! I plan for something like that since a while, too, but want to use four of the "newer" hulls from the Katamaran. What parts did you use, I don't recognize the hulls on your boat?

Ok, brought this bike forward a little more and now it has: standard breaks at the front and induction breaks at the rear exhaust "cannons" gauges and electronics (incl. radio) headlights and police lights (though I want to change them to trans dark blue but only have one ATM) and revised rear lights tubing around the turboshaft engine with external torque transformer; as this one's a "standard" turboshaft engine the tubing is symmetric compared to the engine used in the Renegade. Being an interceptor this one has two large water/methanol boosters, one on each side. continuing with the fiction it has computer controlled active suspension, e.g. for supporting jumps or lowering the bike when driving at high speeds and also power steering. Coloring is still not final everywhere, but more like I wanted it to be compared to the last photographs. All pictures on Bricksafe.

Beautiful! Will there also be Deutz's and Fendt's?

Wow, that's a lot of liftarms and pins used, very impressive - did you already have the parts or did you order them? And it looks pretty good and makes a nice display for any sorts of verhicles. And it only slightly sags. Is there a chance to pretension it in some way as to avoid that sagging?

I know that you can do that in the PoweredUp app since a while, but IIRC this still requires some sort of (graphical) programming for example to "initialize" the steering and hence the original argument still holds true. For the BuWizz app, I create a profile with controls and just select the respective outputs for each control and I'm ready to go. Why TLG is not able or not willing to do that with the app that is meant to be used with the RC models is not comprehensible IMHO.

Within the Control+ app?

I totally agree to that and I believe this is also true for other LEGO themes nowadays - which is really sad. Maybe I already resigned and unconsciously accepted that fact and now see most sets just as part packs only. But you are right to emphasize that change of purpose. It reminds me a little of the history of Apple. Indeed, Control+ really limits the possibilities. I see no reason, why TLG couldn't create a profile that allows to create controls for the configured hubs and motors like for example the BuWizz app can do. Well, you could try to replace the two BuWizzes with two RC battery/receiver units, but yeah, you can't do that with what is available now from TLG. That was your point, or?