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Blakbird

Technic Regulator
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Everything posted by Blakbird

  1. Blakbird
    The old 14 tooth bevel gears really only mesh with themselves or with the old differential.
  2. Blakbird
    That new thumbnail helper is really cool. I think the only weakness is that the thumbnails are really small, but I see that you are just using the thumbnails already generated by Brickshelf which have a fixed size. Personally, I'd prefer that the "tools" side menu be on the right side of the screen instead of the left because otherwise it overlaps the input cells a bit. Nice work, as always!
  3. Blakbird
    Tatra's do!
  4. Blakbird
    42009 already uses a thicker cord than normal, so that may be it. For MOCs, I just went to the fabric store and bought 100 yards of black cord so I'll never run out.
  5. Blakbird
    Hopefully it was clear that we're talking about transformers for powering LEGO motors here, not computers or industrial applications. In this context, input power is meaningless. All I care about is that I'm getting somewhere in the neighborhood or 9-12V at somewhere in the neighborhood of 1 Amp max current. The power that it takes at the wall to provide me with that doesn't really matter as long as it is less than the 15A at which the household breaker will blow, and you'll never get anywhere near that no matter how inefficient the transformer is. My point with the rating is that when you buy a "10W transformer", you should reasonably expect that it provides 10W of usable power, not that it consumes 10W at the supply. 10 Watts is a reasonable target for purchasing a transformer for use with LEGO. To get back on topic, the transformer you should use to power the train regulator for Barman's V-8 should be 9-12 Volts DC and capable of 1 Amp (1000 mA) or more. More doesn't hurt you. Something like this: http://www.radioshack.com/nte-57-9d-1000-3-ac-dc-9v-1a-1-35mm-plug/55057421.html#q=AC/DC&start=4&tab=tab3
  6. Blakbird
    I can't try the actuator because it does not fit on the superstructure. First I have to rebuild the superstructure into Efferman's design, and there are no instructions for it yet. The actuator itself is lovely and I look forward to using it.
  7. Blakbird
    Where do you see orange on the Arcos?
  8. Blakbird
    Same reasons as described above. If they already have a bin of gray connectors sitting around, they won't pay to make a batch of red just to make the model look nicer. Just a cost trade-off. It is not that red costs any more than gray, it is just related to what they have in stock.
  9. Blakbird
    I remember when you made that valve! I was very impressed at the time and still am. However, obviously a LEGO offering would be self contained and much smaller.
  10. Blakbird
    Well, that clears up where the rumor got started. Some of the transformers are mislabeled. Rest assured, they all output DC. If you actually have access to an oscilloscope, it would surely be interesting to see the output. If the output were actually AC, you'd expect a frequency to be listed (i.e. 60 Hz). Obviously anything designed to run on batteries but that can also be plugged into the wall is going to need to be DC. All LEGO motors including train motors are DC.
  11. Blakbird
    I don't think there is any way they'd lift the boom. Too heavy. Unless they've also increased the max pressure. Even the long ones are still far too short to be scale on this crane.
  12. Blakbird
    LDView is the tool to use to view the file and step through the building steps. Start with the submodels and step through each of those and build them, then go to the top level model and combine them.
  13. Blakbird
    No, no! There's never been a Lego that should use AC power. All Lego motors, controllers, battery boxes, and regulators have been DC. You'll instantly fry your regulator with AC. Luckily, I don't think anyone makes such a thing as an AC transformer for consumer use, so it is hard to screw up. I'm not sure how the AC rumor ever got started. I can't think of any toy that runs on AC. I think at some point people got confused because people were calling it an "AC transformer" because it plugs into the wall, but of course if it output AC then it wouldn't be a transformer. That does sound terrible. I've also never seen a transformer rated for input power since that would be meaningless. It would just be telling you how much it is going to heat up your room! The output is always the rating.
  14. Blakbird
    It works very well, but generally requires an M motor and compressor for every valve. Not very cost efficient.
  15. Blakbird
    I predict it will be less than a month before someone claims they can make it fly by motorizing it!
  16. Blakbird
    A motorized proportional valve would be truly awesome. We've been waiting for that for a long time.
  17. Blakbird
    Yeah, the way the model is designed can really change how difficult it is to build. As an example, I've built both Lipko's V12 and Jovel's Black Dragon. Neither had instructions but both had a CAD file. In both cases I broke the model into what seemed like reasonable modules, but then there was no way to put them together without taking the modules apart again. Both these builds took me a long time. The upshot is that it was very satisfying once I finally finished. These illusory "modules" Do not easily become this: I made that CAD file for Crowkillers' Murcielago, and the reason it appears modular is because that was the easiest way for me to build the file. It was not necessarily done with ease of physical building in mind. On the other hand, many CAD files are conversions from LDD and then they are just one big pile of parts with no submodels. These are a real challenge. I did the instructions for Drakmin's Snowspeeder and I went through 8 or 9 iterations of the steps before I thought it was actually buildable. It looked good on paper but then I couldn't put it together. Nothing beats test building.
  18. Blakbird
    I'm sure it will be back. When they make a part, they make a LOT of them. Then they use them until they are gone and they won't make more unless there is a good business reason to do so. In many cases, they can get by with another color that is already in stock which saves them the cost of putting another color back into production. It's all just business. As soon as a Star Wars or Bionicle set needs it, they'll start making it again. Then some Bricklink store owner will buy 10,000 of them and the market will be covered for a while. This is what happened with the Ferrari spoked wheel cover. It was out of production and cost a fortune, then it showed up as a tail rotor in a helicopter and prices plummeted. Now it is scarce again.
  19. Blakbird
    I don't think there is a pattern unless you're Alan Turing. They are just identification numbers.
  20. Blakbird
    Yes, that's what I mean. An LDraw model is not just something to look at, you can actually go through the building steps and look at them in 3D. I don't see any difference between that and the video. You can do all the same things. I've used the LEGO building app and find it a bit annoying. Although the technology is cool and will probably open the door to an even younger audience, I just find that it slows me down by about a factor of 3. Too much sitting around waiting for the next step to rotate into view.
  21. Blakbird
    800mA is a little low, but should run the engine without any problems. I use a 1.2 Amp transformer at 12V. Using it for running the crane is probably a little low on power; should be at least an amp. Also make sure you have good clean terminals on the regulator because dirty terminals will lose voltage. Something is strange about the rating of your transformer. If it is 9V at 800mA, then thats 7.2 Watts, not 14 Watts. I don't know how they can claim 14W when it is only half that. Suspicious.
  22. Blakbird
    With only 7 stages of movement, I'm not sure you will be able to open the valve to the right "slow" point with the servo, but it would be fun to try.
  23. Blakbird
    That would be nice, but honestly LEGO doesn't care about the secondary market. There is nothing in it for them. They aren't going to spend money bringing a part back just to make it more available to adult builders. I think they are aware of us and they do their best to work in the parts we need when they already have a case for using them. For example the 6L thin yellow liftarm has made a reappearance after many years.
  24. Blakbird
    They were not originally rare because they did come in quite a few sets. However, they have become difficult to acquire because of all the red MOCs of recent years with instructions. So they are not exactly "rare" (there are a lot of them out there), rather they are scarce.
  25. Blakbird
    In a sense, we already have that. The vast majority of fan created instructions you see were created with LDraw tools and then organized with LPub. If you have the original LDraw file then you have 3D instructions. In fact, I often keep this file next to me while I build so I can always go to a step and rotate the model around in space if I am not sure where something goes.
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