Blakbird

I don't entirely agree, and I only think differently because I analyze actuators for a living. While an idealized model of a linear actuator is a "two force member" in that the pinned ends only allow tensile or compressive forces, in reality there is no such thing as a pinned joint. As an actuator moves through its stroke, it typically also rotates. The excavator is no exception. This motion creates a frictional bending moment applied at the "pin" at either end. This friction is proportional to the load on the actuator. A LEGO linear actuator has no bearings, and therefore the friction at the end under load is not inconsiderable. Therefore, I do expect to notice the bending in these new looser actuators. Another significant component of bending on actuators is initial eccentricity. If the actuator is not straight (and these are not straight when fully extended), then compressive forces cause an inherent moment simply due to the geometry. The bigger the load, the bigger the moment. So it remains to be seen how well this new design will work. While I've no doubt it has less friction, I'm not yet convinced that a less stable actuator is a net improvement. I received my service pack today. I've not installed the new actuators yet, but I have trouble finding the massive freeplay in the rod when extended to be a comforting thing. As already mentioned, the pitch has not changed, but I also wonder about the longevity. Conchas showed when he disassembled his actuator that heavy load produces plastic shavings inside the actuator. The new design has essentially just loosened the tolerances on the thread. This will make it easier for "chips" to pass between the threads without jamming or slowing down, but it will not actually reduce the rate of "chip" production at all. From this point of view, I think heavy load will still end up destroying the actuator over time; it will simply take longer to notice the problem.

Thanks for mentioning that; it is actually a mistake. I updated it to add a link to the fundamentals page since I am showing it at BrickCon, but I accidentally uploaded some of my work on 1996 on the home page as well. Sadly, 1996 is nowhere near ready since I am still rebuilding my collection.

If you are experienced with Technic, you can tell just by looking. Sadly, there is no way to get a per step parts list in LDView, but you can see the parts per step in MLCAD. You also cannot click on parts in LDView. It is just a viewer. Again though, you can do that in MLCAD. MLCAD has a much longer learning curve than LDView though. Glad it is working. Good luck with the car. Nathanael's Concept Car (mentioned) is MUCH simpler, but I too hope to see instructions some day.

The parts that begin with "LS" are Lsynth parts. Lsynth is a tool to make flexible parts like flex axles, hoses, and belts. I actually made all the flex parts for this CAD file for Nathanael myself, and there are a lot of them. To see these flexible parts, you need LSynth installed. Follow the link to do so. If you don't want to actually install LSynth but just want the parts to work, you can get those LS* files here. Put them into your ldraw/unofficial directory. Here is what the car should look like in LDView once you have all the parts. There are quite a few instruction steps imbedded in the file, especially for the chassis. Go to the chassis submodel by hitting Ctrl-M (or picking submodels from the menu) and then use the arrows in the toolbar to step through the instruction steps. Rotate the view to see which parts are being added each step, and you should be able to build the model. If you haven't already, build the stock versions of 8458 and 8466 first. They are great models and it will be good practice. Happy building!

I don't mean the actual parts are unofficial, I mean the LDraw part files are unofficial in that they have not been approved by the Ldraw Steering Committee yet. Part files which have not been approved do not appear in the part library that you download which is why they are missing when you open the file. You need to download the unofficial parts with LDView to see them. But you are correct, all the real parts come from those two sets. If you have those, you have everything you need. If you are new to Technic, I would not recommend starting with this model. It is an extremely complex build. I have built every Technic set ever and I still found this very challenging and made lots of mistakes before I got it right.

It is very unlikely that anyone is going to create full instructions for this old model now. To do so for a model this complex could easily take someone 1000 hours. However, I built this model using only the CAD file. I recommend using LDView as a viewer. Some of the parts are "unofficial". You can set LDView to automatically download unofficial parts in preferences, which will take care of the problem. Also make sure to use Ctrl-M which will let you view the sub-assemblies.

It is a common expression used by teenagers in the USA. I only know because I have a teenage daughter. Like most expressions, it doesn't really mean what the words say, and I'm not sure the kids using it even know what the words mean. I'm not sure where people from other countries pick up the expression except perhaps from chat rooms or message boards. Never take English advice from message boards with teenagers on them! I have never heard an adult (in my country) use this phrase. For an actual "epic failure", see military battles with massive loss of life. It is not possible, by definition, for anything done by the LEGO Company to be an epic failure.

I remember seeing this MOC a couple of years ago. I really like the originality, and you can't beat pneumatic sequencing.

It does look better! But the arrow shows tht the spoiler moves forward (toward the roof) from the deployed position, but I can't see any sign of it in that last picture. I thought of that too, but the rear bumper is already pretty solid, so I don't think there is anywhere to fold down into. That would be pretty cool, but it would suggest a much more complicated mechanism than the simple arrow in the picture would indicate. The simplest solution, of course, is that they simply left it off of that computer render for some reason. I can't see any other images that show what the retracted spoiler looks like. Edit: I recant. The lower left picture clearly shows a 4 bar linkage supporting the spoiler. If these bars were the same length then the spoiler would stay parallel to the ground which wouldn't make any sense. However different lengths would allow it to rotate down and cover the exposed rear battery box.

What happened to the rear spoiler in the lower right picture of the Supercar?

I'm actually teaching a class on motors and gears, I will draw extensively from the Fundamentals page during that session (along with providing the web address for more information). I don't really have a way to promote it during the public display though. I'm still trying to figure out a good place to link it from the main content of the page.

Yes! In fact I've already done so for 1977 and 1978, but it turns out I made them kind of hard to find. There's a link at the top of each model page which says "more information" and leads to the alternate models. I need to figure out a way to make this more obvious. I'll be doing all of the others at some point.

Also keep in mind that this is an 84 page instruction book for 3 different models, so most new model files wouldn't be much bigger. Even less so when you consider that LEGO breaks them into multiple books and therefore multiple files. Thanks!

I don't have a list of which are vector and which are raster, but NONE of the last several years have been vector. 8456 is an example of a reasonably large set that was vector.

Just a quick update on some developments... I'm going to have a Technicopedia related display at BrickCon next week, so as part of that effort I decided to finally register the domain name technicopedia.com which is now working. For the moment, the links with the old address should still work to, but may not work forever. Anyone with links or bookmarks to my site should update them to the new stable address.

I did not know that. Every version of these airport fire trucks I've seen in real life has been lime green, although a Google image search shows red versions as well. Some kinds of cars just should not be red. I like blue though. Gold and pink are right out.

The quality of the PDFs is only bad because they choose to make it bad. All of the PDFs for instructions in modern years are just crappy raster scans of the printed instructions. So LEGO starts with a digital CAD file of instructions in Maya, prints those instructions which causes a loss of quality and color saturation, then scans the print which causes another loss of quality, then compresses the massive scanned file to make it reasonably downloadable. Incredibly inefficient. In days of yore, they used to create a vector PDF file directly from the instructions source file. These looked awesome and were actually smaller files. See the link below for an example. I don't know why they don't do them all this way, but they may not actually want people to have a very high quality file that could be sold or used to print instructions as good or better than LEGO produces. Set 2129 Instructions

It is sadly far too late for them to change the color. With the dealer catalogs already out, I'm sure the packaging, instructions, and much of the part bag packing is already in work or done. It would be a major expense and delay to change color. I am also guessing that the reason they chose red is that they already have plenty of red parts in production and not adding new colors makes it cheaper to produce. Personally, I would pay good money for a "color pack" if they offered a supplemental pack with different colored body panels. I would vote for blue for that Viper GTS-R look. A few black parts which already exist could easily make it look like a Viper ACR.

What does need have to do with anything? Seriously, I have been waiting for a LEGO planetary system for a long time. This particular version is too large to be of much practical use, but I like the idea.

The body styling and headlight configuration make it look like a Dodge Viper to me. If that was an inspiration, it should have been blue! I like the model, but the wheels are kind of weak. There are several cool wheel covers to choose from which could have been used. I guess we can add them. Chrome wheels would be even better. It's hard to tell from the pictures, but I wonder if there is any chance that the rear wheels will be the larger size from the 8146 Nitro Muscle. I like the scissor doors. There are no stickers now, but this is a very early image so we could still end up with them.

The regular version looks like this: The special BMW dealer version looks like this: There are some differences in the spoiler sticker and packaging, as well as what comes in the box. The only confirmed person in the world to have one is HyperBlade which is why I am stalking him.

This seems a reasonable possibility for the function of the part. It could be metal though if it were cast. As long as it is a semi-decent casting, it would not require any machining operations and could be made in large batches. No safety clutch is required as long as they do not intend to use these with motors. Basically think of it as a liftarm with a variable length. The 8862 backhoe used liftarms for these functions.

See my previous post. The bevel gear may rotate the entire body of the actuator, but not extend it directly. True, it wouldn't work mechanically. But if the actuators are just friction devices then all they do is hold the arm in place at a given position. It's not a Technic set, but my son has the set below and it works exactly like that. You just manually move the boom into position. I'm clearly on my own with this opinion though, so hopefully consensus in right!

Excellent, a controversy! It will be interesting to see what the truth is. Honestly, I hope you are right since "dummy" actuators would be lame.

If there's one thing that's not idiot proof, it's the world. For proof, see the world.