Blakbird

Better not read Technicopedia then.

Making good progress. A draft is in review now.

Fascinating question. The answer is the same as for many questions: "it depends". An excellent photo review is probably equivalent to an excellent video review. A poor video review is not as good as an excellent photo review, and a poor photo review is not as good as an excellent video review. So how do we decide? In my opinion, Technic reviews are fundamentally different than other LEGO reviews in one important way. For a Technic review to be truly excellent, it needs to answer the question: "how does it work?". It can be said that a video is worth a thousand words, but sometimes those words are important. I'll give an example. Eurobricks Reviewer Academy member Masked Builder did a review of the 41999 crawler. It's filled with dozens of big, beautifully lit photographs showing the build, the box, and the model. This is exactly what you'd expect from the Academy! However, it says very little about how the functions work, how the gears are braced, how the design is engineered, etc. By contrast, I reviewed the 9398 crawler (nearly the same model). My photos are complete rubbish compared with Masked Builder's, but the review has a lot of words explaining how the whole thing works and how it goes together. I'm not sure I would say either of these is better than the other; the ideal Technic review would contain the best of both. This problem extends to video reviews. While a video is good at demonstrating all the functions, it is very difficult to include a lot of text in a video review, and I think a Technic review needs a lot of text (though maybe some people don't read it). Really good video reviews (like Sariel's) do a good job of trying to include enough text to give a general idea of how everything works. So the perfect Technic review would have: Lots of big beautiful photos of the box, instructions, parts, build and model. Lots of text and diagrams showing how everything works. AND A brief video demonstrating the functions. In my opinion.

Bam. Good progress so far.

Please stop making things that make me feel so inadequate. Your creations are incredible! I could stare at this for hours (or at least 15 minutes until it runs out ).

It is true that not much stepping has been done, however the conversion from LDD to LDraw took a couple of weeks of solid work. Unfortunately, unless there is a way to extract just the changes, I'd pretty much have to start over and do it all over again. On the other hand, maybe the new groups in LDD are good enough that the conversion is not necessary. More groups makes things easier in LDD, but actually makes conversion to LDraw harder because each group has to be exported individually and then reassembled into the whole. I wish LDD would export the groups as submodels. I've already collected all the parts for this model, so maybe I will just build the first version. I'll have to take a look at the changes and decide. Gerger, if you would be willing to make some pictures of exactly what you changed, then I could modify my existing LDraw file instead of starting the export from scratch. If the mods are too extensive to do this, then don't worry about it.

Hard to guess without seeing your model. Each XL motor should go to a different receiver and each receiver to a different battery. Both batteries need to be on, and those two channels need to be connected together on your transmitter. It is all in the instructions.

Fantastically constructed scale model. The looks are so much more accurate with this Model Team type styling than with something like 42009. Well done.

I don't think that digital and physical entries mix well in the same contest. There's are just too many things that you can do in one and not the other, and vice versa. I do like the idea of digital models though, and maybe that is in an idea for the next contest. There are a lot of tricks that are unique to digital building, and it would be interesting to see those skills pitted against each other.

Li-Po's do not have infinite life. At some point they will reach an age where they will no longer take a charge. The charge circuit is looking for a certain voltage which is apparently never being reached. Either the charge circuit itself is broken or the cells are not taking the charge. Either way, I wouldn't leave it plugged in any longer. In some cases I've had success with "resurrecting" Li-Po batteries by cycling them a few times. Try running the battery down with a motor, then recharging it, and repeat a few times.

12 hours and still blinking is a problem. Shouldn't take any more than 2 hours. I suppose if you were using a transformer with a very low voltage the charging cycle might never complete.

I've got my pledge in for a couple of S-Bricks and am happy to support this worthy project. My only problem is I don't own a smart phone so I'm really hoping to be able to use my PS3 controllers at some point! If I had my ultimate dream for this type of product, it would be to be able to use my 2.4 GHz R/C controllers instead of Bluetooth.

Yes!

Glad to hear it! Thanks for posting the picture.

As requested:

In honor of this model being highlighted again, I've made a cutaway render showing the internal moving parts. You can see: Crankshaft Pistons Cams Rockers Valves Butterfly Valves Fan Flywheel Distributor Alternator (M-motor) Timing Chains If you look closely, you'll see that I did not model the valves correctly. All are shut so the cam rollers are interfering with the rockers in some places.

I wish I had 57 points to distribute so I could give one to every entry. I completed my vote (at great difficulty) and keep going back and looking at it with regret because I wish I had given some points to another entry.

I have lots of other hobbies. I usually end up focusing on one for a couple of years and then spending more time on another: R/C (airplanes, helis, and trucks) Amateur Astronomy (I used to make and sell home-made telescopes) Music (I play guitar and was once in a heavy metal band) Video Games (Whenever I have time. I wrote some text based adventure games when I was a kid.) Rocketry (I build and fly rockets. Personal make size is 10 feet length, and max altitude is about 10,000 feet, and max speed is about Mach 1.8)

Thanks for designing it and taking the time to make those complex instructions. I always enjoy building new and different things, especially when the style is also different. Unfortunately, I do not remember the exact step. I do remember that there was nothing missing in the instructions; I just missed the parts. The issue was due to the fact that the steps do not say which parts are new in each step, and sometimes it takes quite a bit of searching to figure out what has been added. In many steps there is only one part added, so sometimes when there is more than one part I might add one of them and then think I am done. Some steps can only be reversed with some difficulty. For example, many times something is anchored by pushing in a long axle, but there is no way to push the axle back out from the other side. Some time before BrickCon I will have to extract my batteries because I need them. I will report back on how much work it was. Right this is always important and in this model it is especially important. There are many parts through which the long axles which drive the arm must pass, and they all be aligned carefully. My axles turn pretty freely, but it is still a lot of weight. I think the final installation of the wires may also put stress on the motor itself, perhaps pushing it to the side a bit and causing friction. Looking forward to the final base!

75% of these entries could be real sets and I'd buy any/all of them. Very high bar has been set in this contest. 5:3 6:2 7:4 21:3 22:2 24:2 31:2 41:1 51:1

Merging with "what set should I buy".

Magnificent! Great work on an unusual model. Always nice to see some more pneumatics in a new MOC.

Which more common battery box? The regular 6xAA PF box will not fit. The 6xAAA battery box has the same form factor as the lithium so it will fit.

Yes, that is normal. That is the internal clutch in the linear actuators slipping at the end of stroke. If you are hearing the sound anywhere other than the end of stroke, then you may have a build problem.

Besides the difference in storage capacity, the other difference between AA and AAA is current output. You can pull more amps through AA and therefore you have more power. However, the LEGO battery boxes limit you to 1A and since both kinds of batteries are capable of this current, I'm not sure you will see much difference in practice. Overall run time will be the difference.