MP LEGO Technic creations

Some significant progress on the bodywork has been made, everything tried physically before creating digital model in Stud.io First I started at the front: Then I got an idea to move the distance sensor a bit up and connect it to the grille. After tests, I'm happy to see that there's nothing in the way and the tractor is able to stop autonomously before an obstacle, however everything at least a bit taller than the tractor itself is not detected due to angled placement of the sensor, so it's able to drive under those. And some more photos of the current state: Unfortunately, some shapes had to be simplified (which doesn't mean its structure was easy to design ) I hope I'll be able to make some further improvements. Now I'm going to order a lot of missing expensive green parts...

Here's a short climb test video:

I'd like to ask about this part. If you use both parts of the same colour, it works just fine and rotates smoothly. However if you change one of them to a different colour, there seems to be much more friction because it requires much more force to use it as a joint then. Does anyone know why this happens? Is it supposed not to use two-tone hinge plate?

@efferman There is a second BB:

Some minor improvements of the cabin have been made And I've started the front bodywork Of course with working lights

Thank you I've just weighed the cabin as it is (still unfinished) and it weighs roughly 300 grams. I guess it will be strong enough unless you'd want to lift some heavy things. If you don't mind its price of course By the way, the front and rear hydraulics have enough power to be able to lift the whole tractor (at the moment about 2 kg) off the ground!

@JoKo and @gyenesvi Thank you! The mechanism is not automated yet - I need to figure that out in the Mindstorms app first And yes, I'll definitely build some bodywork to make it look like the original, right after I'll find the right combination of parts. Even though it looks very boxy, the whole tractor is full of angles or curves, which will be difficult to recreate without too many gaps here and there. Moreover, I'm struggling with the lack of documentation (I couldn't find any photos from the side). I'll still try my best though

Here's how the remotely operated cabin attaching process works: And a few photos: And I'm working on an incline climbing test video as well Thank you for visiting!

Time for another update! For this tractor I've chosen Rolland Rollspeed 7136 trailer. I know, dark turquoise is quite similar to regular green so it's rather not in contrast... The real pain was to find parts that exist in dark turquoise - especially brackets. It was built first in real life to try all the functions and modeled in Stud.io afterwards. Contains about 2090 parts; front ladder is still left-to-do. These are current functions: Linked live axles suspension with torsion bars on both axles Rear wheels steering connected to the tractor via a rod Large LA for bed elevation - connected to tractor's PTO Pneumatically opened tailgate - 2 short thick pneumatic cylinders; connected to tractor's pneumatic outputs; opens up to 90 degrees for maximum unloading efficiency Manually foldable front support Manually opened grain chute at the back (or whatever it's called) And now with the tractor: Hopefully the next update will be in 1-2 days with real-life photos (haven't had enough time to take those yet).

I've found some time today and began with rear fenders - I have to say that those look somewhat thick compared to the original, though they are able to hide a pair of working lights. And here is how it look together with the cabin: I've also started testing the real build - no serious issues spotted yet. The performance has improved - now it's able to climb inclines of about 45 degrees (I used plastic board so if surface with bigger roughness was used, it could be even better)

I've already built the previous version of the tractor (with the central differential) a week ago or so and I'll just swap it for those knob gears when I'll have some time. I'll also make a few tests and photos of the real thing afterwards

@gyenesvi What do you think about this version with the central diff removed and with the gearing you've mentioned? (I'm still not in that phase to leave the rear diff lock out completely ) This version requires only minor modifications of the concept - replacing the differential with 3 knob gears.

I've just made a quick attempt to fit the drive motors back-to-back and it seems that it's a perfect fit - no more space left for lenght reduction (currently with the old gearing, just the diff removed). However, there's definitely not enough space for mounting the diff lock the way it was done before.

And I forgot to add some more info obout the original tractor: I believe that it isn't able to drive autonomously on roads, though it's capable of automatic field work as well as being remotely controlled Some of its features Battery module with a capacity of 1,000 kWh of energy storage which is housed along the full length of the chassis (approx. weight of 18 tons) 500 kW (680 hp) of power is available for the electric powertrain Depending on the electric attachments or electric machines, up to a maximum of 1,000 kW is available to drive them The tractor was designed as part of Germany’s GridCON 2 project, with the goal of zero emissions from agricultural machinery The machine is basically cabless, except when its driven on the road - the cab can be hung in the front linkage and you can move the tractor to the land manually The cab makes it possible to drive the tractor both autonomously and manually, with or without a cab Communication between the cab and the tractor is wireless The cab can be detached in the field to be used as "an office" and to keep an eye on the robot In addition, the prototype can work in swarms, which allows it to work together with several robots at the same time, in such a case, it may then be desirable to be able to monitor the work from a central cabin I haven't decided yet how to replicate its autonomous features - it's definitely going to stop when an obstacle is in front of it. Again, if anyone has any ideas, I'll try my best to implement these!

It's used to lock the rear diff. For more info you can take a look at this topic from @JoKo: Thanks! I'll love to see your approach to the 8R. I also started this model by looking at JD lineup but as I wanted it to be powered by Powered Up/Spike/Mindstorms, I quickly realized that there simply won't be enough space for all these functions (or even for batteries ) in these. And yes, you're right - the downside of the current drivetrain means exactly this. I'd place it on the central diff if I found the correct gearing for 81/107 mm tractor tyres. Maybe anyone else could help? I'm facing an issue with steering - it takes ages before the tractor turns (I wonder why because if Powered Up / C+ is capable of this function, Mindstorms should be able to steer quick as well, shouldn't it?) Yup, there are some other autonomous tractors but none of them has as good shape as this one! However, although it seems pretty boxy, its bodywork is full of curves/slopes that most likely won't be easy to recreate even from system bricks (still looking forward to this though) Indeed. I'm not aware of any other concept with the same approach. And as a bonus - it stops the model from looking as those vacuum cleaners/garden mowers I agree. It's definitely not an ideal solution. First of all I wanted to not to include a central diff at all but tries to find a proper gearing for used combination of tyres failed. (But I suppose someone could have better ideas than me - but then the space is quite limited so I wanted it to be done by 2 pairs of gears which would have 1 stud offset of axis as well) The next idea was to use one motor per axle with different speeds (as mentioned by @JoKo) but then, wouldn't it loose some of its power on inclines? (Probably doesn't matter as the current version can loose traction as well - I was aware of this problem, which is why the batteries are placed right above the front axle). At the end of the day - this function works better than if it fasn't there but I'll see whether it can't be made even better (of course I mean less useless ) And I'm glad @JoKo himself, the author of the original idea, likes it! I'm open to any other suggestions or criticism and please let me know if I forgot to answer any questions!

I know that I shouldn't start another build before finishing all those previous ones but you know, when you get an idea, you sometimes just can't resist... Well, this time it's an electric tractor - John Deere SESAM 2 (Sustainable Energy Supply for Agricultural Machinery) because I've realized that it would be useful to have something to pull a trailer full of harvested "beets" from my ROPA harvester. I've decided to build this specific one because I wanted something that no one has built before (presumably) and I find this concept quite interesting as well. The problem I've faced from the very beginning is lack of any documentation - I can only build according to the video below (and photos that are mostly from this video). All I know is that it is based on a 6R tractor and its cabin comes from some kind of a harvester. The idea si that it can work as an autonomous tractor as well as a classic tractor (well, you can attach a cabin ) I also wanted to try designing a model in digital form before ordering all those expensive green parts This is where I got: Powered by 2 Mindstorms RI Hubs 7 motors (already placed), a distance sensor at the front and 4 pairs of lights (front, rear and indicators) 4WD with central differential and automatic rear diff lock (@JoKo will know ) by 2 Large Angular motors Steering via 1 C+ L motor Rear PTO (1 Medium angular motor) Front hydraulics (1 Medium angular motor) Rear hydraulic (1 C+ L motor) Sariel's pneumatic pump with switch for power output Pendular front axle First prototype of the front grille: Cabin: The internals: I know, it's already quite crammed inside but as I've already built it IRL, I'm really satisfied with the result! Everything seems to work well, the drivetrain is efficient (thanks to batteries at the front it can easily pull heavy objects) The only thing that isn't that fantastic is the diff lock (as many of you definitely spotted even in the beginning) - it works well, however it's only useful when one of the rear wheels is lifted off the ground. I can only pray that the front pendular axle will always copy terrain and have enough traction at anytimes I hope I'll manage to make a few photos of the real thing this week. Thank you for reading & comments with any suggestions are welcome as always!

@ZHK You're right, this really helped me to solve the issue - since then I've already bought a second HUB for one of my upcoming models. Even though I've managed to solve it this way, I've forgotten about the process I've done some time ago. However, I find really useful (and I suppose not only for me) to have the instructions as clearly written as you've done . I believe next time this wouldn't take me a few weeks of trying various solutions. In any case thank you for sharing the information about the process!

I really wonder why the 3L axle used for an A-pillar is gray in this photo while in other ones it's still reddish brown?

@Repkovsky, I installed the PyBricks software on the hub, but it didn't react anyhow (none of tested programs did anything). When restored the LEGO firmware, the hub behaved exactly like before. One thing that I've noticed - the default program, which can control motors and sensors is completely missing (as it was before) and I've no idea why. I guess I'll have to try some other and more difficult solutions. Otherwise I've got an expensive and useless part that can be used only as counterweight in my models However, thanks for response.

Hi everyone, as the Mindstorms won't be sold anymore next year and there was a sale at TLG website, I decided to give it a chance and ordered a Mindstorms HUB (88016). It already arrived yesterday and I wanted to try it immediately, when connected to the app though, it kept updating firmware again and again for like 2 hours before I lost my patience. It's posible that the first firmware update somehow got interrupted and wasn't able to finish properly. I'd call it like "the HUB does niether have the default version nor the new one, though when trying to re-update the system detects a part of it and shows an error message" It seems that the hub always disconnects when the update's complete and when I connect it again, this starts from zero. I'm not allowed to do anything else in the app, so I decided to try installing it on PC instead of my phone. Didn't get any better. Even the SPIKE app didn't help and updating through a wire as well. I'm not sure, whether this issue that wasn't discussed earlier or if it's even possible to solve that, however I'd be really thankful for any ideas!

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@Thirdwigg Thank you! I also hope I'll be satisfied with it one day but as I know myself, I probably won't Most of us (I believe) know the feeling when you're quite happy with a MOC that you've just finished and the next day you already aren't... Or implementing new parts that weren't available back then but you suppose using those would've massively improved something that you didn't like that much before. And then it goes again About the wires, I might have not specified it well. I'm also fine with those behind the cabin but wires going from the cabin to the DBG box at the right of the cabin and then back to C+ HUB look awful to me. However that could be only my personal feeling. And now the railings. Variety of yellow bars seems to be pretty limited (3L doesn't even exist). Maybe rigid hoses and these connectors are the right way to go? I'm indeed happy with how filling the bunker's gaps turned out, though there still remain some blind spots (the real machine also doesn't work flawlessly so this makes up for unintended authenticity...) Yup, a lot of testing was done because when I solved a few issues of beets getting stuck, this caused new problems here and there. For example if a beet got stuck at one place, the others had to be unloaded around it and no more beets were stopped at the same place. However, when I improved the smoothness of this part, the beets went on another trajectory and got stuck elsewhere and much worse. The real pain was when the unloading belts broke and 5.500 beets fell everywhere inwardly the machine - then it was necessary to disassemble almost everything to find all beets again (no, I didn't count them afterwards ) I consider the bionicle teeth as a clever idea either. First of all I wanted to use classic 1L spacer but that didn't go as planned. Beets could stuck between it and the tracks' gap easily. Then I tried to use some slopes in front of it as a cover but that was too complicated and flimsy, it even got stuck directly with the tracks and beets were no more needed because of slopes' sharp edges The next logical step was to look for a part that combines slope, 1L spacer and doesn't have any sharp edges in direction of conveyor's travel direction and there it is! Similar process went with other parts as well. In fact, the leftover pieces could've easily fill the bunker completely...

@Arie, that looks great! It's indeed a good idea when you're building a classic harvester, however beet harvesters work a bit differently. Anyway, here's the promised update: I've made many visual improvements, changed a few parts' colours to match the real machine's colourscheme. The interior with the driver's seat is also done. Now let's take a look at some technical improvements. The most "radical" one is of course the unloading system. The longitudal unloading belts (bunker's floor) were changed from small links to 12 rows of chains to prevent beets getting stuck in the gaps between links The unloading conveyor's been added, the belt is not divided into 2 sections (as it is on the real machine) to ensure that the beets won't get stuck between those anymore As the belts are now connected together, one C+ L motor was left unused so I implemented another function - partially foldable unloading conveyor via 2 small LA (I believe it uses a similar system as @BondemandClausen's Tiger V8-4), although the LAs would've had enough travel to fold it completely, that'd collide with other components whose folding I've ommited In order to unload as many "beets" as possible, many sections of the bunker were smoothened The other changes made include: Partially rebuilt the front part, the front wheels are supported by two small ones with a tyre - compensation of the hollow space used for transporting beets between the front wheels towards the cleaning sections The front axle steering now uses a small LA, which provides more power (the small angular motor remains) than the previous solution. Reworked the rear pendular axles' "suspension" because the previous version was an absolute catastrophe Some cleaning sections' small updates Here's a view inside the rear part (if anyone's interested) And a few words about the visuals... I'm aware that the rear cover is angled much less and sits a bit higher but that's caused by the internal structure. And of course an obligatory view from below: There remain two things that I (visually) dont like: Too thick railing - I have no idea how to make it better (only using rigid hoses which looks a bit off as there are thin parts of hosing and thick parts of connectors Wires behind the cabin - especially visible from the right Anyway, thanks for reading & any feedback is highly appreciated!

I've just seen a similar photo in Instagram. It's definitely the normal yellow (hooray) and has s bunch of new panels.

@Arie, the picking mechanism itself isn't a problem, I've already made a perfectly-working one. However, the issues happen after it. The beets are supposed to be moved by worm screws to be cleaned, which is absolutely impossible to do, as the brick beets are round . My current solution uses small links but that's not very reliable. I'm happy you like it anyway! P.S. The trailer's going to be the Rolland Rollspeed 7136