Blakbird

Instructions for Akiyuki's Bucket Wheel Tower are now tested and complete and are available here along with a Brickstore parts list. 96 pages 1415 parts At first I thought all I had to do was make one bucket and this just copy it 12 times: 6 black and 6 red. Of course, it should have been obvious that there need to be at least two different kinds of buckets because they need to overlap. This means there needs to be one type which has a support close to the tower and one which hangs further out. It also turns out that the bottom bucket is quite different to allow it to pick up balls. Finally, the red and black buckets are different because of parts availability. In the end, there are 6 different bucket types. Having done all that CAD work, I wanted to make sure that I'd actually built them in a way which would work so I made the following animations as a test. These serve as a good way to understand the interleaving of the buckets. I call the trough at the bottom the "skate park" and it was also more trouble than I anticipated. In particular, the height of the inlet ramp was always off by 4LDU, but I finally found a way to make it just right. I have no idea if Akiyuki did it the same way since this part of the model is not visible, but it works perfectly. The only timing in this model involves making sure all the 40 tooth gears are aligned so the buckets stay parallel, and ensuring that the red buckets are clocked 90 degrees out of phase with the black buckets. This module works great. It has no real issues. No jams or dropped balls. The only "improvement" that could be made is that it has no real output ramp; the balls just drop from the top. Some later Akiyuki videos show a possible output idea. I want to thank legolijntje for his help with stepping the "tower" sub-model while I was working on other projects. Enjoy!

Glad to hear you are working on this one. For whatever reason, this is my kids' favorite and they keep begging me to build it.

Done.

It's beautiful! I love the way you did the whitewall tires.

Excellent! I'd love to be able to build this one. You may of course do as you like, but my goal is to have a final set of instructions with a similar layout and format. I'd be willing to do the LPub work to make the instructions look like the others if you could get the file in order. Someone will also have to test the build and make sure it works prior to publication.

By the way, I would love if it people would post pictures of any of these modules they happen to build. Even with instructions, it seems that people inevitably build a little differently with color differences or other variations. I'd like to hear and see how it goes! My goal is not to post any module until it is reliable, but even so I'd be happy to hear about any improvements.

Instructions for Akiyuki's Six Heads are now tested and complete and are available here along with a Brickstore parts list. 117 pages 1696 parts There were certainly some challenges with this module: While at first it might seem a simple matter to make one head and then convert it into 6 different colors, it turns out that each head is different due to part availability. Not only are some parts in non-matching colors (like the nose of the lime green head), but some parts of the assembly are actually built differently like the base of the neck. The sloped parts in this are are critical or the necks collide and jam. After putting everything together in MLCAD and lining it all up nicely, I noticed by counting holes that my input hopper seemed one stud too far to the right compared to Akiyuki's. After further scrutiny, I realized the the necks actually all curve to the left when down due to the stresses in the parts, resulting in an input hopper which needs to be one stud left compared with what the computer would imply. The tiles at the bottom of the input hopper need to be flush with the bottom of the sloped ramps, but they always came out 4LDU either too high or too low when using plates to support them. Finally I realized that they need to be supported with Technic connectors, then it comes out perfectly. Although everything looked great in the file, when I first built the module it didn't work at all. The heads just sat there and didn't move because a pin in the center of the driving link wasn't constrained and so the link just buckled. I agonized over the videos for a long time before I realized there was a constraint that can't be seen behind the driving link. I added single frictionless pin to each head which completely solved the problem. The instructions show all the heads in the down position at the same time which can never really happen. I did it this way because it was just too complicated to align all the heads properly in the file, and having each head be different would actually make the instructions harder to follow. Hopefully it is obvious that each head needs to be connected to it's driving link. In case it is not obvious, the 5th head in not LBG but actually pearly light gray. Of course it could be built in LBG instead to save money. The cheapest version would be to alternate between black and red heads which would match the colors of the bucket wheel tower. This module is a lot bigger than you might expect. It is actually roughly the size of the bucket factory. There are also a couple of differences between my build and Akiyuki's: My output hopper is 6 studs narrower than Akiyuki's. The original design has margins on the left and right which are unnecessary because the heads never go there. In addition to reducing part count, the narrower hopper reduces the overall footprint of the model since the hopper is the widest part. Akiyuki's output ramp is built with DBG bricks assembled sideways. I used a tiled yellow ramp inspired by the LXF file posted by GBCPeter on Doktor-Brick. Other than the crankshaft timing which is detailed in the instructions, there aren't really any timing steps in this module so it is quite easy to build and get working from the PDF instructions. The only minor complaint I have about the module is the motor placement. It sticks out on the back side and is quite conspicuous and also easy to bump. It would be better if it was hidden under one of the hoppers where there is plenty of space. I've run the module a lot for my kids and it works great at any speed. It can clear balls very quickly. Enjoy!

I'm making a couple of slight color adjustments for my build just to make it fit in better with my other modules.

I don't have any objection to your duplicating any of the content in this topic (or my other topics) on the wiki, but I wouldn't want it to replace this forum. I think a permanent article (like Technicopedia!) is a great idea for these modules. They are worth it. Incidentally, I want to remind everyone reading this topic to check the opening post regularly. I am making updates to that post as we go along so it serves as an index of the current project status.

What do you mean by "base template"?

Don't worry about it just yet. I may end up making changes to the file first.

Good news everyone! Instructions for Akiyuki's Invisible Lift are now tested and complete and are available here along with a Brickstore parts list. 135 pages 3203 parts I have to start by crediting Akiyuki for the design, and then of course The Rebricker for his reverse engineering. I set up the LDraw file using The ReBricker's video as a starting point. Although the model will function if everything is oriented as shown in the instructions, the PDF does not specifically discuss the aspects of timing and tuning the model, so I still recommend the videos for that, especially if you have problems. I built the file in the "rig position" which is the position in which you show the build to align all the timing. When getting to the last steps of adding the actuator arms, I found that the position of the arms looked really weird and I suspected it wasn't right, so I thought I must have made an error in alignment. Since MLCAD allows parts to overlap and interfere, it is easy to build something that can't really exist. I ended up scrutinizing some of Akiyuki's videos frame by frame. You know how one of the first animations was a series of photos taken to determine whether or not all 4 legs of a galloping horse were off the ground at the same time? In the same way, I wanted to find out if there a point at which all 4 antennae were at the same level and toward center at the same time. This image clearly shows all 4 at the same level, and this image clearly shows all 4 grabbing the ball at the same time. In retrospect, this makes perfect sense because this is the state at which the ball is passed from one pair to the next. If the antennae were not all at center at the same time, there would be a moment when the ball was falling. It just so happens that this is the state in which the machine is at the point of timing alignment. My file differs from The Rebricker's in a couple of ways. The most obvious way is the ball ramp. He used a simple sideways stack of DGB 2x2 corner bricks. I noticed that Akiyuki's original uses black sides and a LBG base which I wanted to replicate, so I came up with a way of doing it with SNOT. I think it looks really good and it works perfectly. When I first built the model, it was not very reliable and would drop balls regularly. I found that the problem was that one of the sets of antennae (front right) was not really moving far enough forward and therefore was not gripping the balls tightly enough. One solution would be to adjust the actuation link for the cams down 1/2 stud, but there was no obvious way to do that. Instead I added tires to the rollers. Akiyuki's design uses tires on the left hand cams but not on the right hand cams. I added tires to the right front and now it works perfectly. YMMV, so do what you need to do to get yours to work correctly. Enjoy!

Thanks! These files will make my progress much faster. I will make sure to credit you on the instructions. Thanks Philo. So far I have found LDraw parts for everything I need. Only the most current modules would use something not available, I would think.

Here is my current progress on the Cycloidal Drive. I love LEGO geometry!

Tilted rotors was a huge amount of work to reverse engineer, but I am 99% sure I got it right. I made a few animations to check the motion and it looks perfect. Really looking forward to building that one. Any extra info you could give me on Catch and Release would be helpful. I agree that one doesn't look too complicated, but it still takes a lot of time to build from the video. Absolutely!! It would be super helpful if you could give me a file for the cycloidal drive. I just built the bucket wheel tower from my instructions last night. There were a couple of issues that I am working on correcting in the file, but the model now works perfectly with no issues so I don't need anything for that one. Anything you have on Fork to Fork would also be helpful. Shoot me a PM. I can do that. Give me a few hours. I also plan to add other information to the first post including part count for each once I know it. That would be awesome. It doesn't look too difficult to reverse engineer from the video, but photos from many angles makes everything much easier, and if you have already built it and can confirm your interpretation works, that's even better. As I mentioned above, I have the bucket wheel tower working perfectly, so I don't need any help there. I also started with that file, but I found that there were a lot of errors in it. I moved virtually every part in the file (same with bucket wheel tower) so I finally just gave up and made my own file from scratch. I love that module and it is also on my list, but because it is not Akiyuki it will not be part of this topic. That's exactly my intention. A standard set of instructions in my usual style with my rendered covers. Of course I am not planning on selling these; they will all be free. I probably won't spend the effort to make them perfectly "TLG easy", my goal is just to make the models buildable for the average AFOL.

I've already collected the parts for six heads and will be testing later this week. If you want to test tilted rotors, I don't have the parts for that yet.

Update: Information regarding modules from 2018 onwards are represented after @Blakbird's original post. I want to keep BlakBird's section of the post as he left it, to honour the immense amount of work he put into it. ( @Ankoku @9v system) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Original Post Start ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- G%$ #@&% it. Thanks to Akiyuki, The Rebricker, and the rest of you &%$*ers, I've now caught the GBC bug and it is going to cost me a lot of time and money. It all started with Akiyuki. Well, GBC didn't start with Akiyuki, but I was more or less "meh" on the whole concept until he came along. His ingenious mechanical solutions are mesmerizing, perplexing, and wonderful. Although I admired them from the start, I figured there was more or less no chance of me replicating them from the videos, especially since the one I was most interested in was also the most complicated: the ball factory. My involvement therefore remained stagnant (and non-existent) for a couple of years until The ReBricker showed up and proved that you really could reverse engineer the Ball Factory and then went one step further and posted video instructions for the whole thing. "Fine", I thought, "I'll just build that one." A few months of LDraw modeling, part collecting, building, testing, and display case building later I was hooked. It was one of the greatest building experiences I've ever had. This forum has repeatedly wished for a comprehensive set of instructions for the GBC modules of Akiyuki, and I've decided it is my responsibility to help make your dreams come true. With that in mind, I've compiled a list of all of Akiyuki's 31 non-Mindstorms modules with the goal of creating and/or finding complete PDF instructions for as many of them as possible and compiling the resources here. I've made a lot of progress already. Here is the list along with whatever I know about building material available. (currently 31 of 31 complete) Pinball PDF instructions available from Blakbird and Courbet 992 parts Presentation Topic IO file Zigzag Stairs PDF instructions available from Courbet 481 parts Presentation Topic IO file Cup to Cup - Type 1 v1 PDF instructions available from djm v2 PDF instructions available from Blakbird 1089 parts Presentation Topic Cup to Cup - Type 2 PDF instructions available from Courbet 1222 Parts Presentation topic IO file Elevator Module PDF instructions available from Blakbird and Courbet 1621 parts Presentation Topic IO file Marble Run PDF instructions available from Blakbird and legolijtje 1140 parts Presentation Topic IO file Catch and Release PDF instructions available from Blakbird and jesuskyr 711 parts Presentation topic IO file Ball Factory Video instructions available from The Rebricker PDF instructions available from Blakbird 4428 parts Detailed review by Blakbird Spiral Lift Short Version 876 parts PDF instructions available from Blakbird Presentation Topic IO file Tall Version 1455 parts PDF instructions available from Blakbird and 9V System Presentation Topic Pneumatic Module PDF instructions available from Blakbird and jesuskyr 543 parts Presentation Topic IO file Archimedes Screw - Type 1 PDF instructions available from Blakbird and Courbet 995 parts Presentation Topic IO file Archimedes Screw - Type 2 PDF instructions available from Blakbird and Courbet 739 parts Presentation Topic IO file Archimedes Screw - Type 3 PDF instructions available from Blakbird and Courbet 768 parts Presentation Topic IO file Zig-Zag Lift PDF instructions available from Blakbird and jesuskyr 800 parts Presentation Topic IO file Basket Shooter V1 PDF instructions available from Blakbird and djm V2 file from 9v system 2226 Parts Presentation Topic Train Module - Type 1 PDF instructions available from Blakbird and Courbet Motor (157 parts) Switch (167 parts) Unloader (324 parts) Siding (106 parts) Loader (603 parts) Crane (3046 parts) Complete Set (4569 parts) Presentation Topic IO file of full layout Train Module - Type 2 PDF instructions available from Courbet Motor (160 parts) Unloader (751 parts) Siding (178 parts) Loader (835 parts) Presentation Topic Wheel and Steps PDF instructions available from Blakbird and Courbet 1198 parts Presentation Topic IO file Step Module V1PDF instructions available from Blakbird and jesuskyr V2PDF instructions available from Ankoku and 9v system 1785 parts Presentation Topic IO file Fork PDF instructions available from Blakbird 878 parts Presentation Topic IO file Six Heads PDF instructions available from Blakbird 1696 parts Presentation Topic IO file Bucket Wheel Tower PDF instructions available from Blakbird 1415 parts Presentation topic IO file for 8 bucket version Lifter Triggered by a Stuck Ball Video instructions available from The Rebricker PDF instructions available from Blakbird 1068 parts Presentation topic IO file Spiral Staircase PDF instructions available from Blakbird and jesuskyr 1923 parts Presentation topic IO file Tilted Rotors PDF instructions available from Blakbird 1223 parts Presentation topic IO file Invisible Lift Video instructions available from The Rebricker PDF instructions available from Blakbird 3203 parts Presentation topic IO file Cycloidal Drive PDF instructions available from Blakbird and jesuskyr 2081 parts Presentation topic IO file Fork to Fork PDF instructions available from Blakbird and jesuskyr 1743 parts Presentation topic IO file Planets PDF instructions available from Blakbird and Courbet 1558 Parts Presentation topic IO file Strain Wave Gearing PDF instructions available from Blakbird and Courbet 2789 Parts Presentation topic IO file Zig Zag stairs V1 PDF instructions available from 9v system 469 parts IO file Here's a montage of some of the LDraw work I've done so far which also gives you an idea of the relative scale of the modules: I'm not going to post any actual instruction files until I (or someone else) has tested them by physically building the model and proving that it works. I'm a stickler for accuracy, so I'm trying to get as close to Akiyuki's originals as possible. I already have PDF instructions ready for 4 of them and just need to test them out. As I build each model, I'll post a mini review about what I've learned and then I'll post links to the instructions and parts lists so anyone else can build them too. (Update: See bulleted list above for which instruction files are currently available.) As always, help is welcome. If you have successfully built any of these modules and are willing to share your information, please let me know here. In particular, I need LDraw files to make instructions. In a pinch, I can make them myself if you have detailed photos. In an even tighter pinch, I'm making everything myself from the videos, but it is slow going. Enjoy! Akiyuki GBC modules with instructions available to buy from the man himself ( In 2018, Akiyuki started to create instructions for some of his modules. Some for free, some require payment. For anyone who has tried to reverse engineer one of his modules, the price he charges is more than worth it. ) Hockey Stick Lift (2018) https://akiyuki.jp/en/works/1234 Catch and Spin Robots (2019) https://akiyuki.jp/en/works/1423 Heart Chain (2019) https://akiyuki.jp/en/works/1509 Peanut (2019) https://akiyuki.jp/en/works/1587 Akiyuki GBC modules with free instructions Cars with adaptive cruise control (2019) https://akiyuki.jp/en/works/1667 Spiral Lift GBC module compact type (2020) instructions by @FernandoQ https://akiyuki.jp/en/works/1841 New modules which currently don't have instructions available there are currently no new Akiyuki modules that need instructions Modules that were inspired or modified from this project Modules by @FernandoQ Serpentine PDF Instructions 1356 parts Pasillos/ Tilting ladder PDF Instructions 1140 Parts Modules by @Berthil Related threads Train System @Doug72 has created a dedicated thread for the Train System here: It contains many improvements, mods, additions etc. which anyone interested in the train system should check out! EV3 @9v system has created a dedicated thread for Akiyuki's EV3 modules: A thread dedicated to modules like the Ball Cleaner, Container Transporter and Fast Ball Sorter Robot.

Sounds great! I'd like to convert the file to LDraw and make some renders. At that point I can also put on the correct wheel covers.

You mean like this?

Yes, I am talking about a real one not a LEGO. Sorry, I cannot tell you about it!

The telescopic actuators on most dumpers are indeed single acting. There is no need to provide pressure to retract the bed since gravity will do that, and the addition of a retract fluid area would reduce the rod diameter and increase the chances of buckling. However, double acting telescopic actuators do exist for specialized applications. I'm working on one right now!

Corvette C3 Stingray Builder: Madoca 1977 Category: Car Instructions: Yes Topic

Nice job on the modifications! I like the way it looks with the black on bottom half.

I just wanted to take a moment to say that these are the best quality photo instructions I have ever seen. Not only are the photos themselves excellent, but the per step parts lists and post processed arrows really make these stand out. I don't think LDraw instructions could possible be any better. With that being said, I'm still going to model it in LDraw so I can make some renders! Ok then, it sounds like either battery will work because they share the same form factor. I'm not sure if the current limitation of the box itself is any different, but the current capacity of AAA cells is very low. It is impressive that this model will work with them. That also implies that the V2 receivers are not necessary because the battery box does not have enough capacity to ever make use of them.

Excellent! I will be building this as one of my next projects. I think you might have the wrong battery box in your ReBrickable parts list. It shows the AAA battery box which probably doesn't have enough current capacity. Should it actually be the rechargeable battery?