gyenesvi

I am not a crane guy, but I really appreciate the dedication you put into this model. The source is a really good match, and I guess it must have been a lot of work, both designing and doing the instructions, actually I would not have believed that somebody would come up with such a meaningful B model for this set (I mean something that is different enough from the A model, uses the key parts and the electronics for good, even controllable from the Control+ app). Great job!

Yeah, that's what I calculated too, and just gave up there.. @Ryokeen, yes I know all that, I used to work in the field of computer graphics, that is why I believe it could be better. Basically, I'd be fine with non-raytraced, non-photorealistic renders for animations. Something similar to what is currently available in the main build view of Studio. Why can't I make an animation with that level of realism? Maybe even better lighting/shadow casting can be done, it would be okay to have 1 fps rendering instead of real-time, that could still give us reasonable times for short animations. But 1 min / frame or even 45 mins / frame is way too much and unnecessary I think. To me it seems it can use low poly meshes, you can set the detail level for the build view and if you set it low, it gets blocky. But anyways, sorry for the off-topic, agree that we should not go on here..

And how long does it take for you to do your animations? I am not willing to wait hours or even days for them to get done. Last time I tried on my laptop it would have taken so much. If I compare that to the real-time performance of games, it seems completely out of proportion. I don't need photo-realistic ray-traced rendering for simple animations.. Also, are you using Studio for your models? I always thought you are using LDD, because that has the ability to animate hinge sequences and add pneumatic hoses, unlike Studio, as far as I know..

Hi Folks! Let me share my latest alternate build, a Polaris RZR buggy built from the Audi RS Q e-tron (set 42160). As usual, I was trying to build an off-roader that is somewhat technically different from the A model, and improves things where I found it necessary. Although the set does not have too many interesting suspension/drivetrain parts (and is also lacking connectors quite a bit), the suspension can be somewhat varied. The model was mainly inspired by the following real world counterpart, a Polaris RZR Turbo S, although it has many variants with some differences in the looks (such as the side being closed in some models). These buggies have trailing arm rear suspension with radius arms, something I have never seen built in lego form, so I was trying to replicate that, and the new hubs just gave a nice possibility for it. Besides that, the Audi is heavily missing all interior, so I decided to try and build something with full interior :) I believe the root of this problem is the difficulty of the electronics placement in the Audi, most prominently that of the (screwed) hub, so I had to build the chassis accordingly, which this model nicely allowed. I think my alternate model is the first one that does not have any electronics in the cockpit.. Features independent front suspension independent trailing arm rear suspension with radius arms efficient drivetrain with coupled motors complete and clean interior with two seats, dashboard, steering yoke and middle console lightweight body Drivetrain In order to maximize performance, I definitely wanted to couple the two drive motors. It is a very easy to lay out the motors that way, but since with coupled motors the drivetrain must pass through the middle of the chassis, then the battery cannot be placed in the middle. It cannot even be placed above the driveshaft, because then either the lid or the button cannot be accessed (or neither, if the model has an interior). So the hub must go somewhere else, well, the candidates locations are in the back. I ended up placing it upside down in the back, to allow access to the screws, and the turn on button can be pushed through a lever. That leaves the drive motors to be placed on the floor. Steering As for the steering motor, I also wanted to put it into the front, not interfering with the cockpit. That's also a bit more difficult if you want your steering to be linked both in front and behind the axle, as in the Audi. I think the Audi has dual steering linkage because it needs it due to its screwed up steering geometry; because of those red connectors on the steering hubs to which the links are connected, the links are mounted half a stud higher than should be, and that would cause significant toe in/out and bump steer; so they solved it by making the linkage symmetric, pushing the wheel hubs in both directions. Actually that half a stud matters more than I thought, the links are quite tight, and are under some stress. Not sure how Lego allows such bad practise, though I can imagine they might even say it is intentional to allow less slack in the linkage. Well, a tight linkage becomes useless if they add a gearing after the steering motor (as in the Audi), and you control the whole thing with the touch screen; it will be unprecise anyway, so the tightness of the linkage does not matter much. It would have been much cleaner if they just designed a proper steering hub with the steering arm in the middle, as in case of the planetary one. Then the whole half stud offsetting could have been easily avoided.. Anyways, I decided I don't want wrong steering geometry (even with the dual linkage, it did have some bump steer, I guess because only one rack is driven by the steering motor), so I just flipped the hubs upside down to allow proper geometry (no half stud offset vertically). Here's the complete driveline and steering geometry. It works like a charm, no toe in/out bump or steer, and it has little slack. Suspension The front suspension is a simple independent one with double wishbones, similar construction to that of the Audi. However, the rear one is a trailing arm with radius arms. This seems very similar to an independent one with double wishbones, especially because here I could only implement some of the radius arms with the wishbones. The main difference is that the springs are attached to the trailing arm itself instead of the wishbones. Also, I believe in real life, the trailing arm is the main load bearing structure, and the radius arms only help stabilize the wheel sideways (whereas here it's the other way around). Furthermore, I believe that in real life, the trailing arm and the wheel hub is one solid unit without a pivot. However, in this lego model, I could only imitate this with a pivot at the wheel hub end of the trailing arm. If there was no pivot, then the wheel hub would move non-parallel to the ground as the suspension is working, and then the radius arms would need bal joints on both ends to be able to follow its movement, which I could not implement here due to parts availibility (maybe would be possible with more links). Nonetheless, this simple setup nicely approximates the real thing, and is a somewhat novel suspension technique in lego I believe. It would be nice to understand better how it works in reality, so if anyone understands this better, let me know in the comments. One thing I don't quite understand is that the radius arms introduce sideways movement of the wheel as it moves vertically, and I don't get if there's a trick to make the trailing arm follow that sideways movement, such as being placed at a slight outward angle.. Interior Many people complain about the Audi lacking any interior. I think the reason is a mix of two things; cost saving, and the inability to place the electronics outside of the cockpit (due to the screwed hub). So I decided to make a full interior just to show it's doable even with the mighty screwed hub and only using the Audi parts :) Besides the two seats and dashboard, I added a middle console with a gear stick and built a steering yoke. Bodywork With the bodywork I simply tried to roughly replicate the lines of some variation of the real buggy, for which the many panels proved useful (especially the roof is a nice match). I definitely wanted to reuse the stickered curved panel with the front lights, and because of that the nose came out a bit blocky, so that's a compromise. Also, the nose is about a stud too long anyway due to space requirements for the front axle and the steering mechanism. But otherwise, the shape is quite okay I think. Here are some more renders and photos. More renders and photos are available on my Bricksafe. Building instructions are available on Rebrickable. Let me know how you like it! Cheers, Viktor

Seems like yet another nice event! I love these small builds, they are so cute, varied and yet realistic :)

Oh man I really like this model! You have built it in a good scale, packed great functions into it, and I have to agree that this is your best looking model I have seen :) And those fender parts work really well here, and if those are an exact copy of the Ford GT ones, I guess sooner or later they will come in black as well. The front suspension is a really interesting work with that asymmetric drivetrain, I would not have thought that is possible in a fairly clean way actually.. good job! Truth is I never paid too much attention to Suzuki off-roaders as a child, but lately I really started liking them, they are kind of cute ones and have great potential for turning them into small lego models, I am also planning to build Jimny and Samurai models in this scale!

I really like walking mechanisms, and it already looks interesting, but are you sure it fits the vehicle category required by the contest rules? Or is that something you have confirmed with the jury already?

Wow, that IS some next level compactness :) I like the drive motor placement, and how the servo holds the front section. Cute one!

Just for the record, I was not the first to use the old differential piece to achieve the 3:1 gear ratio in a gearbox, I believe @Zerobricks have also used it before. But yeah, I guess we are all excited that such constructions can now be shrunk drown from 8 to 4 studs in length, that's a significant improvement :)

Thank you very much, I'll check them later, and actually I think it was quite quick :)

Great model, and thanks for the great experiment; that's all I needed to know about the new gearbox parts :) So they are useful in practise, even for high torque applications; really good news! The independent left-right drive with such a high travel independent suspension is also something I want to try with a similar Buwizz motor/gearbox layout (just with 2 speeds). The third speed is just the icing on the cake!

That looks beautiful, very nice curves, well done! Great details and photos!

We do have this thread for such a purpose, though not pinned.

That looks amazigly playable! Very well engineered and great design as well! I like how it can rotate its understructure while keeping the upper part fixed. How did you synchronize the two movements so precisely?

Well spotted, great to know!

Thanks a lot! I doubt anybody else would be working on new parts but you.. And if we wait for the Studio developers, it's never going to arrive unfortunately..

Has anybody seen custom Studio parts for the Audi set? It's missing the new wheel hubs and the tires. I checked @Philo's home page and they are absent in the 2023H2 parts pack, while all the Liebherr crane and Yamaha parts are there. Why is that? Any chance of making them @Philo?

Cool idea, and nice start, some sections are quite nice, and the conversion between the SP1 and SP2 version is a nice touch. Unfortunately I have to agree with others about the boxiness. And what's even worse for me is not the flat shapes themselves but all the clutter on the flat surfaces being built from many small parts. And it's all worse on the SP1 version, as that by nature has more flat surfaces. At first I thought it's due to part limitations of this being an alternate model, but now I see it's not an alternate of the Daytona set, right? So what's the reason for all the small parts, when some sections on the hood could be done much smoother by using more 11x5 and 11x3 panels? Is it that you don't have more? So I think the SP2 version is a better choice for avoiding the boxiness, so I'd focus on that one in the presentation and just mention that it can be converted to SP1 as well. But more importantly, I would use more of the bigger panels that you can free up from the cover of the second seat to build the hood section with less clutter. I'm especially not a fan of the curved line where the openable clamshell separates from the rest of the hood, that line gets lost in all the clutter. I'd try using 11x3x2 wing panels there to make that line more defined, and possibly give that section some curvature. Also, a bit less clutter on those protruding things behind the seats (don't know the name) would be nice maybe by using fewer larger wing panels. There's a video of the real build and some functions, it's just hidden behind the instructions link, which I guess many people don't follow. I definitely agree you should link your videos in here, as that would show the real build immediately. It looks better than in renders, and also shows the openable parts and the conversion, which I wasn't aware of at first look.

Thanks for the detailed video, it has bee really informative! The performance of the small angular motor indeed seems good enough for this model size. And I love how you adjusted the model colors for the motor :) Plus it's good to see a model with a single L motor performing well enough. I love the UTV as well, looks nice and drives well. These could be great categories for future Buwizz competitions as well ;) That tow truck is pretty cool, the transformation concept is genius, and well implemented! I like that you like to build such things just for the challenge of building it, totally understand that :)

Cool idea and nice looking model, I especially like the hood section as it smoothly gets narrower at the front. However, I have some technical criticism. First, the suspension seems kind of non-existent, it seems that there's more flex in the parts than the actual suspension travel, although there would be space under the fenders. The other thing is that the front fender wobbles around too much with the wheel. I understand it should steer along, and I guess it should also move up and down with the suspension, but the way it tilts forward/backward as the model drives looks kind of odd. I guess it's been hard to fix it to the wheel though. Can you show a picture about how that's done?

Many people would want to use their own existing controller I guess, so it should be possible to separate that out. Yes, I am only interested in parts independently, not a kit for one model. I want to mix and match. What does BM mean? This is what I need. But this does not list all the parts. It would be good to see them listed separately from kits, so that I can clearly see what parts you have. Well first thing is list all the parts you have, and for all parts provide clear photos and indicate separate price. Also show / describe how they connect to other parts. I want to know what I can build from these parts. It's supposed to be like lego after all. For example I don't even know what length of metal driveshafts can I build? What lengths exist as parts, and how can I join them if I need to? Also, it's still not clear what inputs the diff can have (just axle or U-joint as well)? How do I use it in a live axle? How do I join a U-joint to the input end and a straight axle to the output end? (though the output end is now more clear because the guys here posted photos, but from the website it's not clear) So does that mean that the motor has two pinholes in the front? Are there only two? Or more? Can it be supported on the rear end as well? We need connection info for all parts. Also sizes. What's the size of that motor (how many studs length/width/height)? For the wheel hubs, what connections do they have? (pins, axles, U-joints), are they the same size / geometry as lego hubs? What rims can I attach to them and how? Things like these.

Yeah, that's what everybody wants, but we don't know if this is it or not. The electronics just seems like anything you could buy in an RC shop, not more lego compatible in any way (no lego casing and mounting points, just electronics and wires). Well there's just one positive review either, who has actually tested some of the components (other than the seller himself, which does not count as a review). So I'd say it's pretty much a gamble yet. My biggest problem is that we don't even know what the components are exactly, and what their specifications are.. There is no remote included afaik. Neither battery, it seems.

I love these small models as well! There's a great challenge in cramming all that stuff into a small space, and you have some nice tricks in these models! How did you find the performance of the mini angular motor for steering off-road? I also bought that motor, but after initial testing it seemed quite weak, so I have not yet built anything to test it properly on real rocks. Was it strong enough for you to turn the wheels in stuck situations? Also, you power it with Buwizz 3, but it's meant to be powered with 7.2V system as far as I remember having read. Isn't that a problem on the long run? Are you running it on 100% power?

Now that's some nice off-road performance, and also good speed in high gear! It's great to watch that suspension at work. Actually, those axles would have issues if there would be differentials in there :) Those axles are from @Attika, and he had the so called quarter stud problem in the original version, which were built with diffs; in short, it would require to have lego axles that are about a quarter stud longer because of the downward angling of the driveshaft coming out of the diffs. With axles of regular length, they can slide out of the differential under torque, because the diff only holds them on half stud length, and so if there's quarter stud movement allowed, it can disengage. So this is solid exactly because it does not have a diff, and so the axle in the middle is a single piece connecting both sides, so it cannot slide out of the diff. And I think this helps a lot to make it good enough without diffs, because this way the wheels don't go in opposite directions when steered (as would be the case with a high scrub radius steering). So all in all, it's a nice combination.

Really nice builds, I love the drift car especially, great looking design! I also like the mini trial one with the realistic suspension. Though wonder what the 6 links are for, I can understand 4 + a panhard rod, but what's the 6th? Steering link? The event and the race categories also sounds interesting, I like that you kept the model sizes fairly small and restrictive on the electronics. I would like to participate in such events in the future, I wonder why it was not advertised around here? (or is it just me not knowing about it?) It would have not been too far for me..