Blakbird

I like your brick built scorpions! Clever solution.

For those of you eagerly waiting for an update, I'll provide some status. As you know from above, a huge project is being undertaken to get LDraw files for every model so I can use them to create renders for the history and category pages. I now have only 24 files to go to have all of Technic history covered. Every file I have has been individually rendered and a revolving animation has been created. (The links go to my Bricksafe folders with compilations of those pictures.) I've created renders of the years 1977-1995 which are already posted on the site, and I'm also ready with most of the years 1996-2014. Regarding 1996, I've completed the writing for about half the models which has involved the taking of about 1000 photographs (including animated GIF frames). Last night I also photographed all 52 models from 2010 to 2014 so they will be present on the category pages. Every category page will be updated to include all the latest models. Phew! This has kept me very busy. I had forgotten how much work this site is, and in hindsight I can't recall how I managed to progress with it so quickly in the beginning. I must have been younger and had more energy.

Something fishy is going on with red #3's. The front bumper of 42029 mysteriously uses light gray #3 connectors instead of red even though the rest of the bumper is red. I'm sure they need to have a certain amount of need before producing more, and maybe they have a huge stock of other colors to use.

Thanks Philo! You mention 8257 in your post but the model you completed is 8245. Are you working on 8257 next? I just want to make sure I record the status right. By the way, I just finished looking through your file and that is some impressive LSynth work! The bungee cord looks like it was a lot of work and even the lower rubber bands are deflected around various parts.

Do it however you like and I'll adapt. My preference is lots of submodels, especially for things that rotate together. A single LDR file is actually the hardest to use for making internal renders. Building steps are not necessary but appreciated.

Incredible work! Now you just need an airplane at the same scale to pull.....

We really are. I'm amazed at the progress. 41 of the 68 models I needed are done, 27 to go. I certainly can't blame you there. I got sidetracked for 4 years with Technicopedia!

This one. I think you actually posted the link. The stands and soft boxes are by no means professional quality, but they are adequate for what I am doing and, most importantly, provide gobs of light.

Yes, but the Terex has 1000 more parts!

I'm using a 3-point light setup I got from Amazon.

They don't look blurry to me, though I'll admit they can't approach the clarity of Jim's photos. I'm using autofocus. There is no such thing as LCD finetune because you can't use the LCD to preview the image. It is a true SLR, and therefore the reflex mirror is blocking the CCD. I'm using a Nikkor 24-70mm zoom. This is a good quality lens (~$400), although any zoom lens is arguably less perfect than a fixed focal length, purpose built lens of similar quality. I'm also using f/16, so I could get more depth of field by stopping it down even further. The camera and lens are ~10 years old, so the lens is a bit dirty. I'll never understand how dust and sediment manage to get on the internal lens elements, but there is no way to clean it. I've read that the first generation DSLR's (mine is a D70) do not have anywhere near the same performance as a modern camera. I am still happy with the result though.

i thought I would share a photo I took using my new lighting setup.

Let there be light!! What a difference some light makes. Take a look at my old light setup compared with my new light setup. And now take a look at the first picture I took with my new setup (make sure to click through to the full size version).

In case I haven't said it often enough, I just wanted to reiterate my thanks to community for the level of support being provided here. It is really helpful! We're already more than halfway through the files I was missing, and altogether my records say I have files for 227 Technic models. Use the "multipart menu" and select "import model" to add the submodels and make an MPD. I'm going that right now. I'll take care of the flex parts as well.

The simplest feature on this huge model (apart from the lights) is the slewing of the superstructure. The below image shows how an M motor is geared down 22.2:1 through a worm gear. Use of a worm gear is useful not only to give a large gear reduction in a single stage but to prevent the whole thing from swiveling under any sort of external loading (like wind, or pets). The ring gear of the turntable is fixed to the carrier, so the rotation of the 8 tooth gear on the superstructure causes the superstructure to rotate. The 8 tooth gear protrudes out the bottom of the superstructure along with the upper half of the turntable, but the whole thing snaps easily onto (and off of) the carrier. This function works very well and I have no complaints. The M motor has plentiful power for this application. The slew rate is probably a bit faster than scale, but close enough to look good.

I have no intention of changing the instructions to reflect any of my brainstorming ideas. These are just thoughts as I go through each function.

The long one.

Good point on the rubber band. It appears that LSynth only looks at the orientation of the first constraint for band synthesis, and assumes all other constraints are in the same plane.

Considering that this is a scale model, I'd only want to use a single actuator because that's what the real Grove uses. I have not measured the angle, but with the modification of moving the 1x11 double bent liftarms the boom can rise to the position shown in the picture as long as you have a long enough actuator. Yeah, I know. The boom rest was a practical consideration for the model, not a scale detail. With no boom rest, the boom bounces all over the place while driving. Whether or not to use it is a personal decision. Balancing the boom on the cabin in a real vehicle would be a terrible idea. The poor driver would have to endure the pounding of that massive boom.

As far as I can tell, that part does not yet exist in LDraw. 12787 42590 might be a reasonable substitute.

I decided to do a quick test to see what kind of fictional actuator it would take to make the boom motion realistic. By moving the rotation point forward to the furthest axle hole on the superstructure and moving the attachment point to the boom to a scale location, the following pictures show the ideal actuator. It would be about 50 studs long and have a stroke of at least 15 studs. Of course there is no such actuator so it was just an exercise. On the other hand, I thought I would see what it looked like with a Firgelli actuator. It would actually work almost perfect, albeit with a low boom attach point. However, this solution would eliminate the need for one of the L motors and the associated gearing. Any solution that moved the rotation point of the actuators forward like this would also greatly increase the stiffness of the raised boom.

Now I'll talk about the boom luffing mechanism. This system uses an L motor to drive a pair of parallel linear actuators geared down 5:1 as shown. Even though the boom is quite heavy and the mechanical advantage is poor, the system seems to have ample power to lift the boom. The only problem with this system is that the travel of the linear actuators is far too short to properly mimic the range of motion of the real machine (approx -1.5deg to 82 deg). Gerger has partially addressed the low maximum boom angle by eliminating an interference by moving a pair of 11L double bent liftarms forward one stud (as shown in this prior post). This works well enough at the cost of some strength in the aft part of the boom. As the image below shows, the real Grove GMK6400 attaches the actuators much further forward, nearly at the front of the cab, and uses a very long stroke. It may be possible to use an aftermarket actuator to mimic this attachment point and stroke. The other issue with the main boom and superstructure is that it simply needs MUCH more counterweight and/or a longer arm on the counterweight. You can see the turntable straining visibly when the boom is lifting, and if your turntable is not tight it might pop apart. The guide wheels that Gerger added help a lot with this. If you again look at pictures of the real crane, you can see that the counterweights are not present in the roadable configuration and only get added at the site. The way the model is currently built is in the scale roadable configuration so it really doesn't represent the counterweights at all. It might be possible to simply clip something on, much like the real thing, when using the main boom. Note that if you change the attach point of the actuators to the boom such that you get maximum elevation, then the balance of the superstructure is OK. It is when the boom is at a lower angle that there is some trouble. I also decided that the model needed a boom rest for when the boom was stowed, so I just added a couple of Bionicle teeth to the roof of the cabin. It works very well to center and support the boom during transport.

Of course! If unofficial parts are required to build the model, go ahead and use them. With the LDraw library being as up to date as it is lately, I don't think you will need many, if any.

I was referring to the metal actuator linked in a previous post, not your 3D printed actuator. I would be interested to see how it works as well though!

Thanks everyone for the rapid progress on this. I hope I've got the first post up to date. No, don't worry about B models.