Mr Jos

EDIT: Instructions are available now on Rebrickable and it can play whack a mole! /EDIT For a MOC I'm making I want to open several gates individually, around 4 to 20 of them. I don't want to use 20motors (many hubs and motors needed) and it would become to big near the gates. So I thought about using pneumatic cylinders = small at operation location. The valves can be located at a further location, but the same issue, I don't want to have an autovalve (=1pump+1motor+1valve) for each cylinder, as in my latest finished MOC the RC Material Handler. To reduce the amount of needed motors I've been making several prototypes in the last half year already, but all failed to be reliable and use only 2motors (needed most times 3motors) I came up with a setup where 1 motor has on 1side a pump, and the other side operates the valves individually. The second motor makes the movement from 1 valve to another possible. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think this is the first pneumatic setup that can operate more cylinders than there are motors. Air pressure can be done in advance, when waiting for an operation at a complete safe location (0:04). Valves can be opened (0:14) and do some extra pumping if wanted at a small position in between valves (0:16). Cylinders can go in and directly extend again (0:27). Or just make all cylinders move in without extra pumping (0:32). This prototype also shows why encoders are needed, both need to be at exactly the correct location or it would break. If the lever switching the valves is not 100% flat, it will crash into the valves levers.

That would be already a big "-" point, putting a gearbox in it. If you then have to choose to operate the main boom, or smaller one, and switch the gearbox each time, you can't do smooth movements where both move at the same time and different speeds. That's exactly what I like about the RC models I make with Lego, making it move realistic because each function has its own motor. The size of this crane is big enough to get them inside anyway. A good improvement for me would be using a gamepad to control this machine. Left joystick for driving (FWD/REV/LFT/RGT), right joystick for both boom movements (Main up/down/Sub up/down), L2+R2 buttons for turret rotation as they also can control the speed for smooth movements, left arrows array for the hook up/down. And then you still have enough buttons left over for special 'menus'. Like override button when it tilts to far (as in a real one, override button constantly pressed to go over 75% load limit, else it will not allow to move further away).

If you want to program with MicroPython on the EV3 (= with PyBricks), you will indeed need a micro SD card. It will not work without it. You just flash the SD with the file you can download on the Lego education website with a simple software like BalenaEtcher. Then you put this SD inside the EV3 (Tip!: Put a little bit of tape on the end of the SD, so you can pull it out easily later). If you pull the SD card out, start up the brick it just works the same as before, nothing gets changed to the original firmware. If the SD is inside and you start it up, the PyBricks firmware will launch. By putting the USB programming cable in the top of the EV3 you can download a program you make with Visual Studio Code (VSC) to the EV3. When the cable stays connected you can debug your machine by printing some lines on screen with data you want. If you remove the cable, you can still launch your downloaded programs without a connection to a computer needed. PyBricks is just, very powerfull, together with the EV3 you can make very fast responding machines and do complex calculations, multitasking etcetc.

The advantage to PF is that I get a better range, as the IR receiver does not work that great. And as extra problem, when I would bring this to events it might get trouble with other IR remotes around, as it would need 2 of the 4 channels to operate all 4 functions. Other advantage is the adjustable speed that is possible with the PS4 joysticks. When lowering the arms you want to open the valves slowly to prevent a sudden drop, this isn't easy with PF. PU is something I don't have anything for yet. No hubs and 0 motors. I did make the 3D designs for PF and PU motors in the triple compressor, but I decided not to launch them, as the interest is sub zero. I don't know if this is because the set is set as free instructions, but all my paid MOC's have done way better off the line. Overkill, for what I show in the video, yes. If you would completely make it automatic, like you say, make it grab pins and dump them in the hopper itself, and repeat over and over then the EV3 might be perfect for it. I did already program some definitions to do that, but pneumatics are very hard to repeat over and over again. You can't measure the pressure/angle of each boom, with linear actuators that would be easy, two fingers in the nose and done. The final reason I chose the EV3 is, because this MOD was made for RM3 to promote Mindstorms, but Lego knew what was happening I suppose, not enough people interested in the line anymore. It shouldn't be the price scaring people away from this.. I recently bought 4x EV3 education sets complete for 125€ each. That is incl the rechargeable battery, 3motors and a hub. Cheapest I ever bought was 70€, you just need to wait for the right people selling it when they need quick cash.. Hope to see what you have done with your EV3 soon!

Nice, a lot of machines I hadn't seen before!

Motors having no direct reduction would eat ABS, the RPM is way to high without a gearbox, so removing all internal gearing would be a no-go. Separate encoder would be good for measuring other rotations, but it would also require and extra IO port for every motor if you want encoders on all of them in your build. Main audience wouldn't be interested in having to set up all these things for MOC's, in programming the controller to do all of these cool things you mentioned. It's all I do with my MOC's, and there's 0 interaction at all. Guess it's to complicated or whatever to take a look into it. Physical coding blocks would be a mehh... for me. Would make the build unneccesary bigger and complicated for most, as stated above. For the MOC'ers of us I'm not worried, as long as I have a PyBricks install left on one of my laptops I will be able to run my EV3's forever. No updates needed, as it works perfect. If you rely on the Lego app, yep, forget it. Just like they ditched EV3-G, many people still search for it, but it's nearly completely gone from the web. The same will happen with these preset control+ apps, but there will always be ways to get them working again. Why make another controller just for Lego, just take an already available bluetooth controller and make it compatible, save the design costs. I understand that LEGO will never say, if you want to control the Liebherr LR13000, you will need to buy a PS4 controller as extra to control it. But they could just make an extra PS4 program and say, it's compatible with it but not required, it would work with your smartphone as well. This would make many people happy. If only people were interested in it I would make programs for every Technic machine to operate it with PS4 controllers, but there just isn't any interest for it, even when free.

Hello all, Fixing the "horrible manual operated" machine handler with motors and a tactile remote! [Edited the title "[MOD] RC Material Handler set 42144 remixed" purely as I had proven my statement in the LR13000 topic, people are drawn to drama, no interaction if you keep it calm. Removed some explanation text, added a spoiler to the boring part, the video is now easyer to find.] I recently was invited to become a member of Robotmak3rs RLOC. As a Mindstorms remix project I took the currently available Material Handler, set 42144. For the automation I chose the Mindstorms EV3. Only open the spoiler if you are interested in how it was designed and have the time, it's photo heavy. Else just take a look at the video of it working under this spoiler, it's not a supercar, sorry. I'll keep it short to keep the attention, here's the video when it's in action. Free instructions can be found on my Rebrickable page; LEGO MOC RC Material Handler PS4 controlled by Mr_Jos | Rebrickable - Build with LEGO Robotmak3rs Facebook Community page; Robotmak3rs , RM3 community FB page ROBOTMAK3RS Please leave a comment good/bad/criticism, as anything is better than no feedback on how to improve.

Ok, I get what you mean now, after just watching the activity logs. It's no responses to others their content indeed. Or some loose communications. But I did remark some things from @Unbrickme video just a little before, so need to give it some time to reply like @kbalage did. He did reply on youtube comments when I asked something, so it's not just bringing out content and no connection with the public. But maybe a bit extra community-involvement on EB, when using EB as a podium as well wouldn't be to bad. But as I said before, that goes for more people than only these 'big fishes'.

Fair to take all other reviews in this mindset then, his wasn't the first one posted here (I think 3rd or 4th review video so far?) I do have to say I would agree with you IF each reviewer made their OWN post about each set. Not like here, it's posted in the 'group' post for a set, for me it does fit in here and doesn't bother me at all. I did watch all of them, and have to say in each one I learned new things about this set. From Unbrickme's video I learned that even in the lower structure there are a ton of frames, and not only the 'few' new frames in the booms make the price skyrocket. It does look like a good parts package if the price will lower a bit more. But let's see what happens tomorrow. The embargo time is at 10am, then I can post my new model/MOD here and on Rebrickable, if it's as usual getting 0 replies, then EB answers your question itself, and they like just controversy and talk about that.

Love that you show it turning in the water and through those stones haha. And to clean the white balls in the rear, put one of those long frames on the ball assembly, and play whack-a-mole. It will come out flying, find the ball on the floor, clean it and put it back in. About the weight measurement being 'easy' to make it to kg, it's not. There's a lot of mathematics needed, yes Lego could have done it, but it's not straightforward like 7° tilt = 512gram. You need to use the current angle of every boom part, height of the object (so you will need to give in the size) and calculate the position of this object together with the mass of the crane in this position. A 500g object lifted close by the tracks will give a small tilt, the same object far away lifted up will give a much larger tilt. For every position in between you would need to calculate constantly if you want to show it on screen. The speed of all functions are pretty fast it seems! (And nice torture tests!)

I can see this set end up as a tower crane pretty soon with these frames. But it will not be a set I'll buy soon, I don't buy sets normally at all, just if the parts interest me to make MOC's. Only 42128 (2x) and now got 42144 (2x), both for making MOC/MOD. I don't see the value in spending 500€+ to make a tower crane MOC however. [But I do have to say that making the highbay racks of my warehouse is something that no set will soon beat in repeatliness]

You can code a calibration with PyBricks, normally there is a run untill stalled function. You should let it do this, to teach it the upper or lower limit.

I suppose using only 8T straps, using 4 of those on each corner when lifting, will only grant you a capacity of 24T to lift, if you keep the angle under 30° for each. Would recommend to get 10T or 15T round slings or chains. @gvo25 nice build!

From what I read from Anton's website, the PS4 should be connected to the ESP32, and using the BluePad32 library. That should capture the data, then with the UART data communication cable to SPIKE hub it should be able to transfer these inputs. It's all explained in the steps following the above link.

Does anyone know how I could find/import the special parts to make a Stud.Io MOC model from this set? I'm missing the claws (studio only has v1 = #11953, not the v2 = #19540) and all the pneumatic hoses, can't find any at all in my studio on this laptop.. Some year ago on my older laptop I had tubings in the main pallette to MOC 42128, but can't find them anywhere now. Am I missing an 'update' button somewhere in Studio to import newest parts? I would like to make my instructions as accurate as possible. What I made is very fun to play with, so I hope to be able to share them with decent instructions. Edit: Found the old hoses under 75c... will look into it tomorrow if I can find the correct lengths. Still missing the claw piece. (Bonus points if anyone has the pneumatic pressure gauge to be used in Stud.io!)

The title of your YouTube video has a small typing error [Mindstorns --> n instead of m] Good that you are able to save/share those nostalgic videos.

For me it was a fun to watch video (It would have been on my YouTube feed anyway), and I couldn't agree more with the main topic. I'm working at the moment on a RM3 project and ran into these same issues. It's a current gen Technic set mixed with an older gen mindstorms set (EV3), and I wanted to operate the functions with either sensors or Lego remote control. 4 motors need to be individually and all possible together be run, so the 2ch remote is out of the box. Using sensors (gyro's) also failed as they drift to much, I used 8 of my 12 gyro sensors to find 3 with 0 drift when 30seconds stationary, but they started quickly drifting after 1minute of moving the levers. Solution was using a PS4 controller, works like a charm, many buttons and gradually able to operate the model, but this makes it harder for the normal user. I got it all set up in like 10minutes total, programming the PS4 part, pairing the devices, but a first time user will struggle. About the title I do have to admit I thought I would watch RacingBrick show how to repair broken electronics. I'm very interested into that! As I have several broken down EV3 motors. But I'm fine with it, and it did work, attention was drawn, many comments, muuuuch more as whenever I post anything. Always learned, there's no such thing as negative advertisement, it's all about bringing attention to the product. And in this case it fits perfectly in this subforum being Technic/Electronics/Mindstorms.

I started recently with "Make a sorting station to bring the white/orange/other Lego balls to a filling station (I use other 14mm balls for testing now as I don't have any LEGO ones yet) [Intake of GBC]" A small conveyor leading to a ball pump, working with 1 motor brings the balls up, and at a steady interval. Depending on the motor speed the amount of balls per minute can be regulated. With this prototype I tested the max speed at the ballpump crank where the pump and sorting arm still work reliable. I ended at 600°/second = 100balls/minute exactly, so this is with 50balls each 30seconds good above the 30balls/30seconds GBC standard. Next step will be adding loading stations to each of the 4 paths, or maybe I will keep it at 3 stations+keep the 4th for bypass to keep the 30balls/30sec flow if the pallets move to slowly around later.

What exactly should it do? Go up and down constantly? The platform needs to spin in only 1 direction, or can go down in the other direction? How big is the piece being lifted, and how heavy? What speed should it go up, and how many rotations per minute? Would using 2 motors be ok?

A rotating platform that gets elevated and has 2 more independent movements possible; XL Lifting arm with multiple spinning functions. - LEGO Technic, Mindstorms, Model Team and Scale Modeling - Eurobricks Forums A rotating platform that gets elevated and has 1 more independent movement possible; 42128 C Model - Fairground Tilting multiple spinning platforms - LEGO Technic, Mindstorms, Model Team and Scale Modeling - Eurobricks Forums

Next time if you have in your opinion golden photos, put a watermark on it with your name before you post them. Then people don't need to bother crediting a photo taken from the internet on a public forum, it's not a news agency here. You could have sold them as a NFT instead of sharing them (oh no, it was Sariel's or another one's video). Anyway, very nice to see these new elements. I wonder how well they will work in a powered model, but soon enough people will try this out I guess. Perhaps this new gearbox could be used to operate 4/8 pneumatic valves with just 2 motors in a small footprint. That's one thing I would try out, as I want to make a MOC with 20 individual valves+cylinders, but not using 20motors.

It's not this orange robot, but I do have instructions only for my 6 DOF robot arms, no need to buy the bricks with them. Someone who created his 6 DOF with the basics of my program (I helped him understand my code so he could modify it to RI). All these robot arms of me work with full kinematic control, and can even be teached with a PS4 remote, it will then find the shortest straight path and move 'smoothly' to the positions learned. Instructions are available on Rebrickable

Well done @Heppu I would have liked it 100% if it would clip in like original instead of using screws. For now I use the Lego rechargeable batteries and constantly plug them in during events (8h+ running/day). A solution like these DIY would be good for me, to save the life of these batteries. Now I have 12 EV3 bricks and 11 batteries. I modified a laptop charger to be able to charge 8 EV3 bricks at a time (with 2m long cables each, soldered together) from 1x 230V AC socket -> 12V DC 5A

Incredible.. well done

Haven't seen this one before yet, a worm screw that can be extended as long as you wish. (per 6L length) I see many opportunities to make long feeding screws for XYZ plotters/machines.