Daniel-99

Hello everyone! I want to share with you my Monster truck that I build for an outdoor winter driving. It has a lot things to improve, but even this imperfect build gives a lot of fun! Yes, this post is mostly not about technical aspects, but about the whole concept and the driving experience it gives! Some highlights: All wheel drive and steering Solid axle suspension with permanently locked differentials Planetary wheel hubs Strong transmission with metal U-joints and metal bearings Brushless motor 1000 kv 3S Li-Po for power 2 GeekServo for steering 120 mm RC wheels with great grip Removable body Together big wheels and powerful motor makes this Monster Truck a real beast. It has both torque and a decent speed. Planetary wheel hubs give enough reduction to obtain the precise control of torque (that is rather unusual for Brushless motors). All wheel steering with deferent steering modes (made as an option of my RC transmitter) bring more fun to the driving. It also increases the climbing abilities of the Truck (as it is shown in the video).

It looks stunning! The development process was an interesting thing to look at as well! Hope to see it in action, to conclude if all the technical solutions work together. P.S. I made my version of Trial Unimog last year (see the post on EB), but it looks like a toy comparing to yours!

I was thinking about automatic transmission for quite a while. Here are my thoughts: If you want to build a playable and durable RC Lego car, then you should avoid unnecessarily gears, giving as much power from motor to wheels as possible If you want to build a "realisitc" prototype, then it should have an "automat": a robot, that shift gears depending on the velocity and torque of wheels, detected by special sensors... Mechanical automatic transmission is not that realistic nowadays

The perfection has been achieved with this car! Well done!

Sweet truck! It would be cool to see its performance in the snow.

This model is so good, that I can not let myself to skip this post! Both chassis and bodywork are the best examples for Lego C+ RC cars. Did you tried to build a front independent suspension as the real in the real car?

Nice! By the way, I am using the same Brushless motor in my latest creations. Though I don`t have a baja truck yet.

This is my contribution to the Tuck World. I made RC crawler from Unimog U4000. Link to EB post:

Great car, clever modularity and nice post! Wish to see more mods of Hilux!

I checked all hidden text and photos, I love the way you were able to fit all RC stuff in such scale! Unlikely I have no Instagram account, so I will wait for a longer video of youtube \ Eurobricks \ Rebrickable. P.S. I am using Brushless motors in my latest MOCs (I made a post a week ago) as well ;-) In combination with planetary hubs they bring Lego cars to the whole new level!

Awesome car! I am very interested in RC version of this car, do you have a video with driving tests \ review?

Yes, I am slightly mad at fast lego cars. My Unimog is build in 1:18 (approximately), so the top speed in real life is 8 km/h x 18 = 144 km/h and it is not realistic, but it is fun to play outdoors! The low gear was build especially for trial purposes, in order to obtain a good control over the truck. As I understand "automatic" gearbox in real live does not mean "mechanically automatic", there are plenty of sensors of speed, torque and so on.. and a smart controlling system that swiches the gears (of NORMAL gearbox). Modern automatic gearboxes use the same principle with planetary gear several times to archive wide range and small steps.

This Tatra looks brutal! It would be interesting to see more derails about the electronics (how many motors for propulsion is used), transmission (what is the gear ration) and total weight of the car.

Thank you! There is a video about this gearbox made by its creator, but it is in russian. If you will need an extra details, I will try to answer your questions with more photos and technical aspects.

Hello everyone! I am glad to introduce you my Mercedes Unimog U4000. I made it last autumn for trial competitions and it became my first successful RC Lego model with Brushless RC motor. Technical aspects: - Brushless RC motor 1000kv with a custom 3D-printed planetary gear. - Custom 3D-prined planetary 2-speed gearbox with remote control (by Geek Servo) gear ratio 1:1 or 1:5 - RC remote control - 3S Li-Po for power - Geek Servo for steering - Transmission with metal bearings - Planetary wheel hubs - 4-link live axe suspension at the front - 3-link live axe suspension at the rear with free articulation - 85 mm RC tires - Light-weight bodywork, total mass is about 1.2 kg I tested this car on various terrain both indoor and outdoor. It reaches about 8 km/h on normal speed and about 1,6 km on low gear. Since the transmission has several reduction gears (made with planetary gears) Brushless motor feels good in this trial car. It gives the truck more power than it will ever need, so the truck can take a significant weight on board (if one change shocks to the hard one). Oscillating real live-axe and grippy tires provide a constant contact with road, so the truck climbs rocks easily both with closed and open differentials. Due to the reference, the gravity center of the truck is moved to the front, so it struggles a bit with going down the hill, but appears to be a great climber. It can beat Lego Zetros both on low and high gear!

Hello everyone! I would like to introduce you my new top-tech mid-scale Trophy Truck "Falcon". This car is a TRUE RC car in Lego clothing. Technical characteristics Full independent suspension with positive caster on all wheels Minimalistic and strong transmission with metal CV-joints 4 - wheel drive 4 Buwizz motors for propulsion (1 motor per wheel) Custom RC controllers adapted for Lego 3S Li-Po 35C 2600 mAh for power GeekServo for steering soft RC wheels 75 mm Custom wheel hubs with metal bearings Light bodywork, 1270 gram of total mass Instructions? Some of you might be interested in instructions. Well, there will be non, I am sorry! Here I will explain why instructions for this car are impossible. Falcon has 4 Buwizz motors for power, which can be easily changed to Buggy motors or Mould King version. Power source and controllers could be replaced with two Buwizz 3.0 units (in theory). But there is no way to replicate both suspension and transmission with lego parts only. Non-Lego solutions: Custom 3D-printed parts, such as wheel hubs, steering arms, suspension arms with 4,5 stud length Modified Lego parts Hand-made parts from plastic bottle ;-) Broken Pythagorean theorem in suspension metal parts, which make the whole car rigid Chassis Falcon has same chassis as a Wilde beast, but with shorter wheel base and suspension arms. So I will not dive into details here. Bodywork I was inspired by a Trophy Truck by Keymaker`s armored Trophy Truck. Though I reduced some details and widen the body by two studs to fit the chassis. Made for outdoor driving This car is not a shelf model. It was made for regular, extensive and extreme driving. Recall, that the elder brother Wilde Beast had a problem with motors: they were not strong enough to translate all the power from Li-Po battery to 90 mm RC wheels. That is why Falcon was made in a smaller scale to fit 75 mm wheels. Now motors does not struggle at all! Enjoy drifting on sandy road? - easilly! Lego Outdoor cars usually struggle from dust and dirt filling the transmission. This car has a minimalistic transmission without Differential, so there is noting to break. The weakest parts of lego cars (wheel hubs with CV joints) have been replaced with custom hubs with metal bearings - no more plastic dust in transmission! And nothing to brake! Massive 3S Li-Po provide an hour-long continuous driving. RC controller with physical buttons is very comfortable to use. After two weeks of tests I added fenders for the front wheels to keep the inside of the car from being filled with stones. 4WD drifting is a fun thing to play with, but I got tired from cleaning the car from small stones after each driving session!

The video quality is great, the road has a challenging surface, which is also good. Though the car is a bit too slow, even for trial truck (it is worth doubling the speed in the future trial models). Also I noticed that the truck does not have a "continuous" motion: it is moving by periodic micro-steps... I guess that might be caused by the transmission or lack of power of the motor (to find the problem, it is worth trying to power your truck with a Buwizz 3.0 unit cause it will give more power to the driving motor).

Thank you all! I spent a lot of efforts in the chassis and I am glad you liked it. The body is definitely a bit flattened ;-) I tried my best to build a body over the flat chassis, but there is much to improve.

Hello everyone! I am glad to introduce you my new Lego MOC. It is called "Wilde Beast" and it is a 1:10 scale 4-wheel drive pickup truck. Technical characteristics 1:10 scale, 1.630 kg of total weight All wheel drive with 4 x Buwizz motors powering each wheel separately 2 x Geek servo for steering 3S Li-Po for power RC radio + Wixy units for control Full independent suspension with customizable hardness Custom wheel hubs with metal bearings RC wheels 90 mm (12 mm hexes) Metal U-joints in the transmission Robust 3D-printed steering bones Positive caster angle on all wheels Back to the beginning The main Idea behind the build was inspired by real e-cars. This cars has no gearbox, and each wheel gets connected to an e-motor independently. I tried to replicate this principle with Lego bricks and some custom parts. Bodywork This car has is a 1:10 scale pick-up truck body, Though it is a bit too short for a normal pickup. The body was made to be light and it is build on the chassis with a half-stud off-set in order to make the wheels seating symmetrically in wheel arches. (It was an obligatory decision due to the positive caster angle). There are many things that can be improved in the bodywork, but the current one perfectly satisfy my needs: it is light but make the car somewhat recognizable as a car. Hope to find white fenders to the front wheels some time! All the driving elements are located in the lower 5 studs of the car, so it is very stable. Suspension Wilde Beast has a full independent suspension with positive caster, which is very unusual for pickups. Moreover it was made to be customizable for different purposes. 9L shocks connected to the lower bones of the suspension play main role. At the same time upper bones of the suspension has their own set of shocks which can be customizable! Custom wheel hubs provide a natural King-Pin Inclination. Transmission "A good transmission - is no transmission"... This was my main philosophy for this car. The car has 4x Buwizz motors for propulsion, each motor is connected to one wheel of the car via half-axle (which uses metal U-joints). "Gear Ratio": Slow output of Buwizz motor -> 95 mm wheel. Such solution has its own positive and negative aspects. Positive: extremely low friction stiffness fast cornering (e-differentials) High maximal speed (over 13 km/h) Negative: Too big stress on motors (a smaller wheels would work well) Car does not go straight due to the difference in motors Let me explain the last "problem" in more details. The motors used in the car are "the" same from the view-point of a lego builder. Though they are "different" from the physical view point: each motor has individual characteristics, such as resistance, max power, max rotation speed and so on... This difference can not be seen in slow models (with max speed under 7 km/h) but they became critical at speeds over 10 km/h. As the result, car is always turning to one side and the driver need to correct the trajectory with a steering. There are only two ways to fix this problem: either to make a mechanical balancing via differentials, or to test each motor separately, and make individual power curve to it. A steering system with build-in hygroscope might also help. Controls The car is controlled via RC radio. The whole system is very similar to RC car setup. 3S Li-Po is used for power, it powers controllers for driving motors (called Wixy). The controllers provide the power to Buwizz motors by a signal of receiver. The model is steered with 2 x GeekSevo, though one would be enough here. To see a detailed description of the system, see here: Conclusion The Wilde Beast was a great research project for me. I tried to replicate a real e-car layout and my goal was achieved. Car is very fun to drive, but the driver needs to pay a careful attention to the road. The main problem of the car is the lack of the e-brains which would allow to calibrate the driving motors... P.S. I will definitely make another car with same chassis on smaller wheels to reduce the load on motors.

I saw your brilliant trophy truck! Yes, brushless motors are on the next step in the hierarchy of electric motors, they provide such a torque an speed which can not be achieved with Buggy motors ;-). Currently I don`t have a brushless motors set-up for Lego, but I will look forward to get one!

I wanted to build a fast car with "normal" hubs and 4 x Buwizz motors. Here are the first results. Currently it has 2 Buwizz motors on the front, but I will add two more motors to the rear at September. Specs: Buwizz motors for propulsion 3S Lipo for power RC control system independent suspension custom wheel hubs with metal bearings and metal U-joints positive caster on all wheels 95 mm RC wheels minimalistic transmission This is only the first draft of the chassis, the bodywork will be added later, and it will clearly increase the total weight. To deal with extra weight, I will install two more Buwizz motors. I will try not to exceed the limit of 1,7 kilos. Current chassis drive very smoothly. Thanks for the metal bearings and Buwizz motors which have a very low friction. It drives so smooth, that it requires the braking system! Such layout is very efficient, but does not allow to drive slow due to the specifications of motors. So such chassis wont be able to perform at trial or extremal off-road. It it applicable for fast driving at the rough terrain such as country roads. So the layout with 2 speed gearbox has it`s own benefits, though it can not be that efficient. Here is a short driving test:

5,5 studs sounds very good!

I see. The visible disadvantage of big gears is their size, though they are very neat gears in terms of transmission efficiency. Also it is worth noting, that raised suspension will cause more stress at the CV joints, especially an the front axle. Which hight you are trying to achieve with the ground clearance? My tests showed that the outdoor car needs at least 3 studs.

Nice progress! Version 2 is way cooler then V1, and I appreciate the new transmission, though the bodywork can be slightly improved . What is the weight distribution of Version 2?

Hello Eurobricks! Here is a Blue Mamba V2 - a wild mix of energy and rigidity. The story begins. Several months ago I build a fast off-roader for the King Of The Hammers competitions. The main idea behind that car was the minimalistic transmission. Well, there were now gears in the transmission, but there were CV-joints at the front axle and they were very weak! There was no way to fix that problem until one Russian AFOL comes with the custom wheel hubs with metal bearings and metal U-joints! These hubs allow to use a variety of RC wheels with 12 Hexes. Awesome! I purchased a set of custom hubs, and started the development of the Blue Mamba V2. Before diving into details I want to highlight another principal change in V2 project. V1 Mamba was powered by Buwizz 3.0 unit, but it drowned with my mid-scale trophy truck this spring. So for V2 Mamba I bought a custom Lego-compatible compatible RC controllers “Wixy” provided by another Russian AFOL. These controllers allowed me to use all benefits of GeekServo and Powerful 3S Lipo with 2600 mAh capacity. Bodywork. The car has a minimalistic bodywork. All panels used as structural elements. There is a plenty of space for the cockpit if one would sort all the wirings. The only decorative element is a fake V6 engine located behind the cockpit. Currently I have no PF motor available to make the engine work, but I keep in mind such possibility. Drivetrain. Blue Mamba V2 is a true E-vehicle with 4 PF L-motors powering each wheel independently without any transmission. Custom wheel hubs with metal bearings and metal U-joints make the transmission totally undestroyable. My goal was to minimize the width of the car. But the complexity of the front axle provided a lot of restrictions, so I had to widen front axle by 2 studs comparing to V1 Mamba. V1 Mamba has a steering motor located in the cockpit and linked to the front axle with new CV-joints. I replicated same configuration to the V2, but driving tests revealed big wobbling of the steering system, so I decided to place a GeekServo on the front axle (luckily it is very compact). A small regret is that GeekServo is not powerful enough for this wide and grippy RC wheels, It can not return them back if the car does not move. Likely, a positive caster angle of the front axle helps to back steering when car moves. Suspension. Mamba has 3-Link bridges at both axles with heavy-duty suspension arms. I had many attempts with the spring attachment. Finally, I understood that a responsive suspension requires a direct mounting of springs to the axles. 9.5 L shocks has very good springs (comparing to the soft 9.5 L one), but they were too hard for the car because all motors were placed on axles. An interesting idea came to my mind: why don`t you place these shocks diagonally? It works like a charm! Control. Car has a low center of gravity due to the placement of motors and 3S Lipo batteries. In addition, it has a proper wheel base and grippy tires, which makes the car very stable. Accuracy of GeekServo and RC transmitter provide a very smooth driving experience (though a stronger servo motor would improve the performance). Finally, 4WD helps to go through any terrain, such as sand, grass, etc… The top speed of the car is about 8.5 - 9 km/h. So it is very interesting to play with it outdoors and take it for a walk, since it has enough speed to drive back and forth while person walks. I tested this car with 120 mm RC wheels. The motors have enough power to handle and increased load while all the other plastic components (such as steering elements) were struggling a bit... On my opinion, 95-100 mm wheels are the optimal solution for fast outdoor cars. From one hand they provide a decent ground clearance and able to roll over the bumps. From the other hand they does not provide a lot of stress to the Lego parts. ' Conclusion. After multiple outdoor tests I conclude, that Blue Mamba V2 is the perfect Lego car, which is capable to go through any terrain with decent speed. It is strong and efficient and very controllable vehicle, which is pleasure to drive! Though It is too fast for trial. It is hard to go 2 km/h balancing between obstacles and barriers. But this is not a disadvantage, simply because each vehicle has it`s own areas of use. P.S. Speaking about Wixy Some of you wanted to know more about "Wixy" setup. So I placed all the component on the desk and marked them as follows: Wixy units RC receiver 3S Lipo PF motors Geek servo "Wixy" unit plays a role of an RC ESC unit, and it connects to the other electronic components in the same way: B-cable transmit the power from Li-Po batteries to the bottom PF connector (input) of Wixy units. A-cable feeds an RC receiver for Wixy units and translates the controlling signal at the opposite direction. Unusually for drive the "Channel 2" is reserved. PF motors get connected to the top PF connector (output) of Wixy units. GeekServo gets connected to the receiver. Two Wixy units provide enough power to feed GeekServo, otherwise I can plug and extra power from one of B-cable outputs (there is one specific 3-pin one). At the second picture all components are connected. It is important to note, that a Single "Wixy" unit can transmit only 3A to the motors, but it is the maximal power which PF connectors can handle . So you have to use one unit per Buggy motor. Luckily, 3S Lipo as an enormous amount of power, so it can handle 10 Buggy motors easily! Hope I cleared out the "Wixy" setup for you, but if you have any questions left, do not hesitate to ask them!