2GodBDGlory

That's better than it could be! Hopefully that works for you. Were there any Vietnamese stores you used that would be entirely shut down?

I'm not familiar with the mechanism, but it seems that it could easily be accomplished with a gear on a friction pin, or just having enough gears involved that they have enough friction on their own I'm not familiar with the mechanism, but it seems that it could easily be accomplished with a gear on a friction pin, or just having enough gears involved that they have enough friction on their own

After TC30 got me back in the Technic habit, I've been plugging away some more at this model. I've now got three L motors installed to drive the functions, and a servo motor to shift between different modes. So far all the installed functions (drive/steering, turntable rotation, front blade, and first boom segment) are working satisfactorily, so hopefully they all keep working under the model's full weight! There's a lot of complicated gearing going on, so there are a lot of potential failure points. I ended up having to use chain for a both the drivetrain from the servo to the shifter (probably a good solution), as well as from one of the L motors to the gearbox (a little scarier to have transmitting that torque), so hopefully that keeps holding up. I've also pivoted from the original contest-legal solution of using a 8878 rechargeable battery and two IR receivers, to using the much nicer MouldKing 6.0 battery. Furthermore, the more I look at the model, the more I feel like its proportions match a NORMAL excavator, rather than the MINI excavator I was planning on building. To do a proper mini, I'd have to push the cabin further back into the section occupied by the mechanicals, but everything should work fairly nicely with a normal excavator, so I think I'm going to move to that. It'll still have the front blade and the claw/thumb by the bucket, which aren't nearly as typical on full-size excavators, but probably exist somewhere? It feels like most of the challenging parts have come together, so hopefully I can have a finished model to present before too long!

Looks very impressive! This looks to me like the best LOTR set since Rivendell, with more impressive scale than The Shire, and less ugly source material than Barad-Dur. So it checks Faramir off the list of most-wanted minifigures, but we're still waiting on Eowyn?

That is a real shame about Bricklink! So are you thinking you can just use a VPN to get into the website, and then hope the seller doesn't care what country they're shipping to?

In my opinion, 3D prints are pretty self-consistent. If you print the same thing several times on the same machine, it should be the same size. However, there can be inconsistency between different printers, so any parts would have to be designed for your printer's tolerances. It does sound like a realistic option to me, though! TPU is a rubbery material that can be printed, and I believe it works well for seals. It's also not a grippy rubber at all, so maybe there wouldn't be too much resistance to motion, either?

That is cool! And again, I love the perseverance displayed in this thread

That's a neat idea! The axle holes do give some versatility for operating the switches using motors, etc., but for most manual applications a pinhole would be a lot more convenient

If I remember correctly, I think GT86 was the overseas-market name for North America's first-gen FR-S/BRZ/86

Nice work, that looks very compact!

DANG that looks cool! Nice work!

@steph77?

Impressive! I guess I was wondering if there was a way to just use the original controller for people who don't have a gamepad, but that's probably a niche situation that's not worth developing for.

Huh, cool! So that's gamepad support for the MouldKing hubs, as well as GeekServo compatibility? Do you know if this works on 6.0 hubs? Does it also work to use the GeekServo alongside the original controller?

I think they are attached properly; it's just that it's using rims that are wider than the tires.

Thanks for sharing!

I've tried printing TPU tires, and while they were soft enough, they weren't grippy at all. You could flex them, but they wouldn't stick

That's some MOC inspiration there! I've done FWD transverse engine cars with motorized sequential transmissions, but I don't think I've ever done one with a manual shifter. It'd be some interesting linkage work to get that to work with a transverse transmission

As a Suzuki 4x4 fan (and driver), I love it! So it's pendular suspension front and rear? I love that the I-3 isn't just a limitation of the three crank pieces from the Bronco, but actually accurate to Samarai engine options

Ha, nice! I like the style, for the size especially

Ooh, I'd say that worked out really well, especially for an alternate model!

Oh no, there's not much more frustrating than that! It's great to see you developing your skills and making newer, better instructions!

That looks quite thoughtfully designed; nice job!

Looks quite nice!

I think what he means by an object to gcode converter is what is usually called a slicer in the 3D printing world, i.e. Orca Slicer, Prusa Slicer, or Ultimaker Cura. I'm not sure how getting Lego to understand gcode would work, but a slicer would be the first step!