Lipko

Every single models I bought got into the spare parts bin pretty quickly. The more motors and special parts, the sooner it is bought and thrown into the said bin.

Thank you for your comments! Don't praise the idea in advance, the execution will decide how an entry will do. Anyway, I'm thinking about adding a second pair of wings, because the two pairs would nicely balance the load on the motor. At the moment, the wing-flapping motion dies way before the full motion range of the motor is used, because it can't lift the wings. The other thing is that the model is only 180 pieces at the moment, so there's plenty of place for adding stuff. We'll see, I could balance the wings with rubber bands too. The hardest will be to make the slithering worm look cool. The working prototype is already done, and based on this little fellow: It will be hard to make it look a killer-horror-terminator-insectoid....

Wind-up Insectoid toys using the new pull-back motors. The initial idea is to make the three life-cycles of a butterfly: larvae, cocoon and the butterfly. All models would work and use a wind-up mechanism with the new pull-back motors. Since the cocoon wouldn't be an interesting model (I guess the butterfly could get out of the cocoon), I thought that it would be more interesting to build a separate legged walking insect as the second model. Would that be a valid entry? The relation between the 3 insects would be the fact that they are insects and they use the same principle for their motion. Anyway, the fist prototype of third model is done: a flying insect. Features flapping wings. I still haven't decided yet, if it's going to be a butterfly, or a dragonfly with 2 pairs of wings. The wind-up mechanism works by turning an ratcheting axle (see last image, behind the eye of the insect) then pulling the axle outwards a bit.

42010. Although I would love to build 42009, I think I have enough bulk of Technic for MOCing already, I will buy only some parts or small sets with parts not available elsewhere for some time.

No, LDD misses some very obvious parts. Like the 42000 or 8880 tyres, 8070 (and some other models') suspension hubs, all flex axles (that are bendable), just to name a few, plus the old parts mentioned by the OP. The align tool, that so many people flame, is actually very useful and quite smart, if you use it properly (never use it on complex models, especially Technic, because in its calculations the, the align tool involves all the rotating parts (pins for example) in a continuous assembly). See the digital tools subforum for some hints.

The new angle connectors are pretty strong, I use two of them in a bit similar suspension, and they haven't fallen with some hours of rebuilding and pushing the suspension like crazy. I think it would be possible to change the old connectors you use.

Oh, I didn't notice that the weight is written there. Then it's should be doable to look at similar-to-the-entry sets (many panels, or many connectors, etc) to approximate the part count from the weight

Yes, of course you'll need an autovalve for the pilot circuit. For the synchronized movement/starting: You still can have problems with a centralized power supply, if the length of the tubes to the cylinders vary. Is it possible to include Mindstorms in your aeroplane project? It would make many things easier.

Are you concerned about the stress or that the pump would continue pumping? I'm not sure, but if you power the "pilot"-cylinder with the same pump as the work-cylinders, then switching the 4 valves would mean that the same pressure goes to the pilot- and the work-cylinders and that would immediately release the pressure from the pilot, as long as all the work-cylinders reach their end positions. Plus it shouldn't be hard to attach the pilot-cylinder in a way, that its end positions will be the same as the end-positions of the valve lever, so the stress would be on the cylinder, not on the lever. I hope that was clear, I'm not sure about my English at the moment... EDIT: okay, the biggest issue with this is that probably it would be hard to set the neutral position of either valves.

I heard a pretty good rule of thumb: weigh the model without the heavy PF stuff. One piece is approximately 1 gram in average. So 0.5 kg per model and you're good* *confirmation needed

No, because I don't have four or five valves.

Why don't you just place the four valves parallel and control it with a simple controller? Or control a single valve what you use to operate a small cylinder that turns the four main valves?

Not that I'm afraid that my idea is stolen, but I'm afraid that I can be accused for stealing if I post something after another similar entry. But forget it, it's only my dumbness I guess, I was accused with stealing in the previous competition too.

I have a genius idea but I'm pretty sure that 10 other entries will have the same... Are there any ideas how we can make sure ideas are not stolen? I mean what will be considered plagiarism? This "triple" theme idea is awesome, there's rooms for some very different and distinct ideas, but I fear many contestant-thought-unique ideas will be repeated. Would the same basic idea (for example truck+trailer+car on top, or horse+car+driver) mean plagiarism? The only thing I can see as a solution is a fixed and relatively late date when contestants can start publishing their builds (be it WIP or finished). Well, maybe my whole question is stupid, and whoever posts his/her idea first is the idea "owner" and any other entries with the same idea are plagiarism.

I like it when we talk about these realistic suspension angles. What are the realistic values for those angles? Probably a few degrees. Not something you would notice in Lego, since the slack of a Lego suspension is more than that anyway. gee, why not adding windshield-wiper or a radio or working ignition system or a starter unit or air conditioner or adjustable steering wheel or working valves with proper timing and pre-ignition regulation, or something else pretty much default in cars? Why it's always the suspension details and the almost useless brake-systems that everybody wants? Or working pedals that pretty much do nothing but moving some linkages that doesn't have anything at their other ends. The reason why not so many realistic stuff is packed into a Lego car because it wouldn't be that cool, if it would work at all. A sci-fi horror thriller western porn comedy wouldn't be that cool either.

I wouldn't rely on a continuously sliding friction gear. I don't know how long the gear would work as a friction gear.

I agree that you need a better color style. The chassis has almost the same color scheme as the body, and it's hard to tell where the body begins, the model seems just a big blob of grey and red parts.

I guess this means that there is no official statement about legal/illegal connections in Technic. Many people say that being able to create the connection in LDD means the connection is legal, but you can abuse the fact that "clicking/snapping", collision detection and the visual representation of the model in LDD are separate things. This means you can make connections where the holes are not perfectly overlapped or there are minor collision between the parts.

The biggest issue with Cuusoo is that they aren't showing some random projects on the main page. Pretty much any sites have this feature. There isn't even a "browse random projects" feature, with is pretty outrageous IMHO. Without these features, you have to do an enormous advertising campaign outside Cuusoo to get that 10,000 supports, unless you get many (tens or hundreds of) supports in the first few hours (literally). Otherwise your model disappears from the Cuusoo lurkers pretty quickly. The only Technic model I know of that won the 10,000 was Sheepo's Land Rover. Which was featured pretty much everywhere, Lego sites, car sites, even printed magazines and was (is) a model that generates huge interest outside of the Lego fan-base. Anyway, I supported because I also think this is one of the best motorbikes. It looks cool and seems to be built with legal techniques and seems quite sturdy. Most Lego bikes I have seen looked so fragile and looked like only display models that require instructions just to be held in hand.

Well, this seems to be perfect, since it can shift modes even when it's steered. I want to make a telehandler once and make a manual version of this steering. I already have an idea but I would love to see other ideas too.

Can we have a closer look at the rear suspension?

Or how about a combination model of two sets?

How about a mini-contest where you have to utilize pull-back motors (maybe at least two of them)? Two pretty cheap sets came out with those this year, so it shouldn't be a problem to get a few of those motors. For the big contest maybe the theme could be "modularity" where you have to build modules and can combine them in different ways to make totally different machines.

The front suspension is okay in that regard, but the rear is going to fall apart in the current setup. But it can be saved by using the same piece as for the kingpin holder in the front suspension. Plus the half-axles are still longer than the wishbones.

Se already posted that he's building a huge bicycle.