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Blakbird

Technic Regulator
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Everything posted by Blakbird

  1. Blakbird
    My favorite convertible top is on Jovel's Black Dragon. It is not R/C, but it could easily be made to be.
  2. Blakbird
    Yes, that is a rubber band. If I remember right, it is used to keep the drop axle centered when lifted (the wheels are castered and can turn). You will see what to connect them to when the submodel is installed in the main model.
  3. Blakbird
    I'd like to think that you are preaching to the choir here, and that our fellow Eurobricks Technic members all know who you are, support our hobby, and wouldn't be dumb enough to pirate your book. But maybe I'm wrong. As much as I agree with everything you wrote, I also think that pirates don't give a flying $&@! about who they are hurting or the potential legal consequences of their actions. They do what they do because they care only about themselves and typically operate entirely without consequences. These are the same types of people who steal iPods from cars because they know the police will never do anything about it. I wish some well placed words would sting their consciences, but I don't think they have any.
  4. Blakbird
    It has been many years since I built this so I don't remember, but I know the u-joints were difficult. I think I pried them open with a needle nose pliers.
  5. Blakbird
    Great entries, everyone. This forum has really become a much more exciting place since Jim took over. The quality of the entries was outstanding, and the MOCs that won are just fantastic. I thought it was interesting that the second place winner actually got more votes than first place, just fewer points. Shows you the importance of F1 style voting.
  6. Blakbird
    I've finished the LDraw files for the ball factory. Now to get started on a parts list....
  7. Blakbird
    Great work, this is an epic truck. Which tires did you use for your final version?
  8. Blakbird
    Making good progress on the ball factory:
  9. Blakbird
    The quality of the entries in this contest was ridiculously high, making the selection of only 6 winners extremely difficult. 26: 10 25: 6 21: 4 18: 3 41: 2 28: 1
  10. Blakbird
    I think credit goes a long way. I display people's MOCs at BrickCon all the time, but I always talk to them first about it and then I make sure to credit them on the MOC card. Because I am often the Technic coordinator I get to select the prize winners and I make sure to never select myself (or anyone else who has built someone else's MOC). I also collect a lot of MOCs and occasionally have to sell one. For example, I bought a copy of tbone_tbl's Serenity ship (from Firefly) and then later realized I had nowhere to display it so I sold it to someone else. In this case I paid for the original physical property and later resold it, crediting the designer. On the other hand, I would not resell any instructions I've bought because they are not physical property. Where it really gets difficult is when the original IP was free. For example, if someone releases free instructions it is certainly not OK to resell them, with or without credit. But what about if you build a model from free instructions? The person doing the building has invested a lot of their own time in collecting the parts and assembling them. Can that model be sold? I think this is the hardest category, and simply notifying the original designer goes a long way toward avoiding problems.
  11. Blakbird
    Upon more research it looks like the video author is already working on his own LDraw version, but I'm going to keep going with mine anyway because I learn a lot in the process of lining everything up. Sleep? That would cut into my time for my other hobbies:
  12. Blakbird
    An even bigger prize would be to actually make instructions. Might be fascinating to have a contest to design a certain type of (reasonably sized) model and the prize would be the creation of full instructions for it so everyone can build it.
  13. Blakbird
    All good questions. The LEGO actuators work just fine to lift the boom, but the scale and attachment points are totally wrong. Also the stroke is too short for a proper final boom angle. The Firgelli should improve on both of these, but my money is on the third option: Efferman's custom linear actuator. It looks more scale, but also requires more mods to integrate. So far, full instructions are only available for the first option, but LDD files are out there for the other 2. The model is in dire need of a counterweight. The poor turntable is loaded very unevenly and has a hard time staying together. If you end up going with Efferman's superstructure, it already has a much larger counterweight. The suspended version is what I have built and has some problems. I haven't built the newer version but probably will. Consensus seems to be that it is better. Instructions are available for both.
  14. Blakbird
    I am not immune to those thoughts. In fact I am currently going through a big batch of downsizing.
  15. Blakbird
    YouTube user "The ReBricker" (no idea if he has any affiliation to ReBrickable) has reverse engineered and has created a set of excellent . I am in the process of watching them and creating LDraw files from what I see. I'm not hugely into GBC, but I do find it fascinating and Akiyuki's modules are the most mesmerizing I've seen. If ever I was going to build one, this would be it. Here's what I've got so far:Module 1 - Battery box (I would probably use a train regulator) Module 2 - Initial Drive Assembly Module 3 - Load Turner Module 4 - Bucket Wheel Module 5 - Empty Bucket Mover The assembly to so far:
  16. Blakbird
    Start with all of them and go from there.
  17. Blakbird
    To each his own. I think the offroad (9398) tires look terrible because Tatra's don't use balloon tires. But use whatever you enjoy!
  18. Blakbird
    That would be fantastic. I've already considered making some renders, but the conversion from LDD to LDraw is too buggy so there are lots of holes.
  19. Blakbird
    I downloaded your LDraw file, fixed all the angles so it could be assembled in space, and then made a render:
  20. Blakbird
    No, motors don't blow up instantly from over-voltage. What they do is get hot and then eventually burn out. Running at 11.1V is going to spin faster but also draw more current for a given load. The correct way to get more speed out a motor is to gear it up mechanically. LEGO motors are very carefully quality tested for reliable capacity. Personally, I would not intentionally overload the motor or otherwise defeat those limits. Use gearing.
  21. Blakbird
    I got my tires here. I think they are much better than 9398 tires.
  22. Blakbird
    Another mechanical marvel. I always love to see what you will come up with next. I assume the accuracy of this clock is based entirely on the speed of the driving motor. How do you control it? Do you simply apply full power continuously with a train regulator?
  23. Blakbird
    I could not find any 9L orange liftarms so I used green which actually looks fine. For the wheels on the top of the green boom, I am still waiting on my orange parts to arrive from Finland. I have not ordered the 6L green tiles yet for similar reasons. I will get it done right eventually. As I was building it I was thinking that this model would be a pretty good use of SBrick which would allow several things. Not only would the slew speed be proportional, but you can actually program the profile so that the slider end point is less than 1, and therefore max speed is less. You could arrange a more intuitive control layout with some graphics to show the operator which control is which. SBrick does not offer this functionality yet, but I imagine eventually you will be able to use formulas to combine channels. For example, I'd like to see a control which ran both the drag and lift motors at the same time in opposite directions for pulling the bucket along the boom.
  24. Blakbird
    Yes, I am using standard receivers and it works great.
  25. Blakbird
    An interesting idea. It looks like we can't edit the map, are you intending to curate all the entries yourself? There is already a thread about 41999 license numbers here; you may want to mine it for information to fill out your map. Looks like you've got some pretty detailed addresses on the map. You might want to make those a bit more generic (just city name) before making this too public.
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