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Wow, I did not expect to read such a nice story when I checked this topic. Great to see such generosity happening in these times! Well played :)

Thanks for the info, so that's some kind of built-in learning algorithm that you can use for those specific tasks (I thought you can program your own to work with Mindstorms sensors and motors). Anyway, nice addition!

Thanks, that's great to hear! When is the next release scheduled? Any feedback on the acceleration problem? Have you or anybody else experienced it?

Wow, that sounds really cool! Do you know more / is there more info about the machine learning update? Is that enabled by Python programming or something else?

Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be a solid mesh to me either, meaning it could be the case that it slips under torque, and also that it gets jammed easily because the teeth don't seem to catch each other at the right distance. That image / build does not seem to do justice to this question, we'd need a solid framing to understand how easy it is to make it slip and feel how smoothly it rolls. Maybe it could fly in manual builds when the axles are held on both sides.

Thanks for the info, that makes sense! I guess it will be best to buy some of these and start to experiment with them :) The motors have axle holes on both sides right? So you should be able to put an axle into them into two ends. I believe you can put a 2L axle into one hole, and put another motor onto the other end of the 2L axle, this way coupling two motors, creating a bigger, stronger motor (of course you also want to connect them with pins). And the other axle hole on both motors will still be free to use as output. It makes sense to try that with the continuous rotation motors (though it could also be useful with the angular servo to have a really strong servo). I hope this works, as it seems to have great potential.

Thanks for those links and the explanation, that sounds really interesting. So what's the practical difference between the Red end Green ones? Is it that the Green one allows more precise control due to the position sensor (like the PU vs PF L motor for example)? What's the advantage of the Red DC motor then? Is it more powerful? Different speed? When searching for the the different colors (there's also a blue one), it seems to me that there are some gearing differences (speed / torque) among the continuous rotation ones (blue: 90 rpm, green: 160 rpm, red: 180 rpm), and the red also seems to exist in a regular and continuous servo version (all on aliexpress). Also, it looks like these motors could be stacked onto one axle (techincally connected with a 2L axle), to form a bigger 3x6x5 motor from two 3x3x5 motors. Can you confirm that? Have you tried something like that?

What do you mean by Servo & 2 Motors? I have been wondering about these Geekservos, whether they can be used as regular motors, not only as (angular) servos, is that the case? It seems to me that some of the non-grey colored variants are 'continuous rotation servos', which I guess is synonymous to 'speed servos' (you can regulate the speed instead of angle), and would be good for driving cars? I could not find much info about it, only some aliexpress description which I don't really trust. Could that be something like speed servo mode in PU motors? @2GodBDGlory, this link was recently posted in another thread about connecting Geekservos, it may be useful for you: https://dronebotworkshop.com/servo-motors-with-arduino/ . I'd also be really interested in putting together a minimal drive-steer system with LiPo batteries, control circuit and Geekservo motors.

Very nice use of those servos, it really shows how far the limits of lego building could be pushed if the proper electronics were given in a more easy-to-use packaging.

The Lego PU servos (L motor) have more positions than 15 (theoretically I think at least 256, but maybe even 360), but still they seem to be much inferior in terms of controllability, even though the resolution seems comparable. They have a lot of lag and can only arrive to a given position after a number of steps. That's interesting to know, thanks. Does the RC receiver have some sort of control unit in it that the Lego IR unit or a BuWizz does not have? I wonder why the Geekservo is not compatible with Lego wires / connectors, and I suspected it has to do with extra wires required for control signals. Is that the case?

Not sure how that works, I asked them already but haven't got a reply yet. Anyway, I don't think that would help, if I just replace the BuWizz with another one in my build, it will probably cut out the same way. And I cannot really just add in one more BuWizz, since the model is designed to have the single BuWizz built into the central part of it. That would be my guess too, so changing the gearing to slower at the wheel means less torque (hence power consumption) on the motor, that makes sense. Not really an option though in this build..

And in which way did you need to change it? Faster or slower? May sound stupid, but I guess it's not trivial to know which one can mean less power consumption. The only way I could change the gearing is making it faster at the diff (currently using heavy-duty diff with red gear, there aren't that many gears in the drivetrain), and for that I'd either have to use weaker old diff, or the new yellow gears which I cannot even buy yet.. Anyway, that's not the optimal solution, as it would decrease climbing performance and controllability. It would be better to have some actual software solution, and I thought this issue has already been addressed in the firmware. I cannot even try acceleration times, as the BrickController app does not have such an option..

I am currently testing my build for the BuWizz camp coming up soon. I am using one BuWizz and 2 BuWizz motors. The performance is amazing (never had so much fun with a lego car, it really feels like playing with an RC toy), however, the BuWizz itself shuts down completely occasionally. It does not react to the power button, but if I put it on a charger, it comes back to life immediately and it's not depleted (for example at 60%), I can still continue playing with it without recharging. This repeated 3 times today after about 5 minutes of play each time (maybe each time it took less time to shut down again). Did anyone have similar issue? Any ideas what could be the reason? Is it maybe drawing too much power occasionally? (The firmware is up to date according to the BuWizz app, and I am using BrickController2 for control).

Interesting stuff, I have been eyeing that Geekservo for a while, would love to test it in a build, but don't have the rest of the electronics (and the experience) to run it. I wonder why Lego servo seems far inferior to it in precision. Is it the ESC that does the trick of precise control (which the Lego system does not have)?

Glad this came back, I did not miss the first post, but did not have time to reply. I looked at the instructions and it seems like a really interesting build, the front axle especially, and the drivetrain as well with the placement of the buggy motor. Cool choice of source model too :) I really like it in DBG with the red rollbar and those custom RC4WD tires.

Nico, first off, the video format is really great, you talk about so many interesting and important things! Thanks for all the info. I might try something similar for one of my next creations :) About the model, great work on that suspension, really nice compact design on both axles! And I completely agree with you that it's more important to catch some definitive features of the model in a clean way that fits lego pieces nicely than to get everything into correct scale, or get every tiny detail with a bunch of non-coherent pieces. I think coherency of parts, continuity of shapes and surfaces, is often overlooked unfortunately. One detail I wonder about, you built the hood with a curved panel, but the real truck seems much more square to me at the front and the round one gives it a different character. Did you think about / make an attempt to build the hood without the curved panel, but with a more defined edge? I suspect that the curved panel makes it much easier to make that turn from the side to the top of the hood, but maybe it could be possible to build an angled version?

It's great they came out with this in DBG color, just ordered a bunch of them through Bricklink! They will be pretty useful I think. I'm on the same page with you on this one, especially now that the half pin has friction variant (I mean the other end), they allow for a less wobbly connection. I believe though that a half liftarm may fall off easier from the half pin than from the 3/4 pin if it's only held by 2 of them for example. If you use more to hold it, it seems to be good enough though.

This is a pretty neat alternate build, I like how much of the functional elements of the set are reused, great unusual functions, and I also like how well the color consistency is kept despite the set having many colors. So did you try one LA per outrigger and that was too weak?

That's great speed and well working suspension for the scale! The overall body also looks nice, the only thing I don't quite like are those bare axles in the pillars and the fenders. Maybe this connector in red could be used for the fender ends? And for the pillars, some of these 1x2 thin liftarms could fit (turned inwards)? Or maybe even better, 2 of these round bricks on a 4L bar? Just had a similar issue in a build recently..

Wow, that's an awesome looking little alternate :) Glad to hear that you find the challenge interesting, I completely agree! Keep in trying! The green parts and the wheels of this set also interest me. I wanted to build something green recently and considered buying this for that reason, but sadly found out that even some basic panels don't exist in green..

I am testing the Controlz app on iOS for controlling BuWizz3, including the usage of an Xbox Series controller. First of all, the app has a nice overall interface, I especially like the way the control programms are put together. Although I often do get lost in the menu system, going back and forth between editing/running/layout screens. It may take some getting used to, but maybe the icons are also a bit confusing sometimes (for example I never know whether to look for the hammer icon or the gear icon to set something up). Anyway, I ran into 2 usage problems: - First, servo steering does not seem to work properly (with PU L motor), it does not return to center, I mean it does not even try, it stays on one end (I set the slider to return to center and have negative values as well, and the slider does return to center). Furthermore, if I watch carefully, the steering does not even seem to move to any position I set with the slider, except for the two end points, so it seems to behave as if it only got +/- 1 signals or as if the motor was in normal mode (not servo). @_Ozzee_, should this be working properly? On the other hand, the strength of the steering is pretty good, it moves well under my medium heavy model with ease even on rough terrain. - Second, if I use it with the Xbox controller, it sometimes overshoots for the acceleration, i.e. it keeps going even after I release the joystick. Also, occasionally, it has a delay when I start moving the joystick. This does not always happen though, sometimes it works well, and sometimes it suddenly seems not to receive signals in time. (I guess the problem is not the controller, because it works fine with the BrickController app). It seems more like an interference issue, as if something was blocking the signals for a while, or the received signals are not processed in time by the app. Anybody experienced anything similar?

Finally I bought an Xbox Series controller to be used with BrickController, as that seems to be well supported by iOS devices. I have tested it with a Technic Hub, it works fine, even the servo auto-calibrates and works fine, and I can adjust it with manual calibration (though it would be nice to have more accuracy there with +/- buttons instead of the slider and 5 degree increments). However, I currently need it for a BuWizz3 model. It connects fine and basic control of motors works, except I cannot calibrate the servo for steering. When I set the motor type to servo and go to the config screen, it connects to the BuWizz3 but the buttons on the config screen seem to be disabled, neither the auto-calibration, nor the manual calibration button seems to be active or have any effect when I try to press them. @imurvai should they be active/working for BuWizz3, or is this something that's not implemented? Without this it's pretty cumbersome to use for steering; the only way I could get it to work is to build the model such that the steering is centered on exactly the zero position of the motor (which I suspect is the absolute zero position of the motor, and not the closest 90 degree position). And I think this is the answer to this question of @wower, initially I had the same, it went to the maximum right position after startup, then I rotated the steering gear in my build 90 degrees (technically moved the steering rack under it) and now it is centered properly. Any chance to address this issue? Is there anything that prohibits enabling calibration for BuWizz3? One more thing, I have the feeling that the servo does not operate with full power, as it does not always move under my model's weight when the model is stationary, however, with the Controlz app, it does move with ease, that one seems to use more power. Is the servo power limited in the app?

Sure, in this case, but I have been thinking that maybe with half pins, other motors' sizes could be reduced. Not necessarily the width, but the length, by maybe eliminating the part on the back that is only used for pin connections, and using half pins elsewhere on the side. Just a thought, not sure if it could fit and would be stable enough though. Thanks!

Thanks for that link, looks interesting, I like the ida of half pin mounting points to reduce size, curious how well they hold! Have you tried them? Is it as powerful as an M motor?

I didn’t expect it to happen this year, so that’s great news!