Jeroen Ottens

Wow! This is an amazing gearbox. I've always had the vague notion that it should be possible to use a differential in a gearbox to combine multiple inputs, but I always shied away from doing the math for it. Even though a 10-speed gearbox is not really realistic I think this is one of the most innovative gearboxes I've seen for some time.

No video, because all the functions depend on the servo ability of the Control+ motors. And since there is no proper SW platform to do these kind of advanced programs I can's show anything... I don't even know myself whether the functions work... More photos will come. The design process was not really my standard process , but it was a fun exercise. The motors are divided as follows: 1 L motor to select the functions such as the chairs, the ridemode, the spoiler and the doors. 2 L-motors to drive these functions (one for each side) 1 L-motor for the sequential gearbox 2 XL-motors for drive 1 L motor for steering It is a good suggestion to have some logic to check for the doors vs drive. Of course that does require some init-sequence when you start the car to ensure that the SW knows the state of the doors. Thanks. These frames are really amazing. This model has ~3100 parts, so 500 parts less than the Sián and a lot more functions (and lot easier bodywork). Most of this economy of parts is due to the use of these frames (I used 11 of them in the chassis).

Hi, Here is my latest MOC, a 1:8 scale replica of the Audi R8. I got inspired to start working on this when T_LEGO showed his Lamborghini Centario. From the get-go I wanted to incorporate as many functions as I could imagine in this model. Furthermore I wanted it to be largely motorized, modular and designed in an efficient way with a stiff and light chassis inside. The chassis To start with that, the chassis of this model is extremely stiff and light. This is due to the extensive use of the new 7x11 frames. No less than eleven frames where used. Instead of the classic central column I made a chassis that gets a lot of it's stiffness from the sides as well. Here you can see how the frame sits in the model: The model is modular as well. It splits in three parts, the front axle, the midsection and the rearaxle. Each section is connected to the next one with two 3L pins-with-bush. To strengthen the connection further also a connection over the wheels is made with beams. In the picture above these beams can be seen quite clearly over the right front wheel. The motorized functions Now to the functions. First of all I wanted to use a small gearbox centered around a waveform selector to be able to select four different functions all driven by one motor. I placed two of these units in the car, one behind each seat. This then gives eight functions in total: – Move the seats forward/backward (2x) – Recline the seatrests (2x) – Open the doors (2x) – Select sportmode or comfortmode – Raise/lower the rear spoiler The doors are scissor doors. This is not a standard feature on an Audi, but I first developed the chassis before I decided on the make of the car. And apparently there are aftermarket door kits to upgrade your Audi to scissordoors, so it is not completely unheard from. The gearbox The next feature to mention is the gearbox. I wanted to build something different than the regular 8D+N+R gearbox that I used in the DB11 already back in 2016. So this time I made a transversal mounted, motorized, double clutch, sequential 7+R gearbox. Instead of using a 4-speed combined with a high-low gearbox this gearbox consists of two gearboxes that each have half of the gears. The gearbox on the right of the car has the R-2-4-6 gears and the gearbox on the left has 1-3-5-7. The gearratio range is bit limited, the highest gear is 2.1x the lowest gear (The full range of ratios is: -9.6 / 12.8 / 15 / 16 / 20 / 21.3 / 25 / 26.67). The sequential selector The sequencer mechanism is a bit more convoluted, because it should alternatingly switch the left and the right gearbox and furthermore it should also switch between the two inputs of the gearboxes. When the 1st gear is selected the left gearbox should get the power from the engine and when the 2nd gear is selected the enginepower must go to the right gearbox. The sequential selector starts with the lime coloured knob gear. This one is driven by a Control+ L-motor, used as a servomotor. The lime coloured knobgear drives the yellow knobgear, which, through a 12:24 gearreduction, drives the yellow axle with a 2L beam-with-crossaxle. Every quarter rotation of the motor will result in a 45 degree rotation of this 2L beam. That gives eight positions between the two end points (0-45-90-135-180-225-270 degrees). The motor can be calibrated with the endstops. The next red knobwheels are used to drive the two gearboxes (orange) and the input-switch (blue). As uou can see in each hole of the knobgears a 2L bar-with-towball is put. These towballs drive the orange knobgears and the blue knobgear. The orange knobgears are only switched every half turn (and out of phase of each other). The orange axle has a 90 degree locking mechanism, which is basically a 5L beam that is springloaded against the #2 connector. This way the waveselector is always at 90 degrees increments, even though it is not constrained fully at the input. The blue knobgear is switched back and forth with every 90 degrees of the red axle. Also this move is springloaded to ensure that the blue gearselector is always either left or right. The rest of the designprocess When I completed the chassis, the motorized functions and the gearbox it was time to decide which car I was actually going to build. It had to be a two seater, with a mid-engine, preferably all-wheel drive, a relatively long area behind the seats and not too much inward-taper on the sides towards the rear wheels. Especially that last requirement did throw out most of the modern hypercars. In the end it was a choice between a Pagani (Zonda or Huayra) or the Audi R8. Since I already had made a Pagani before I decided to choose the Audi.The bodywork of an Audi gives quite some interior space. Especially next to the V10 engine where some gaping holes that could easily fit a Control+ XL-motor on either side. That gave me the idea to also motorize the drive & steering. So I added that too. The suspension setup Until this point in the design I had a pushrod suspension setup in the front with ride height adjustment. For an Audi that actually didn't make much sense, but I had that designed as the first thing when I started. But when I wanted to motorize the drive and steering I needed place for an extra Control+ hub. And the only feasible place was right above the front differential. So I ditched the pushrod suspension and replaced it with a more standard suspension, but still with rideheight adjustment. When I started to play with it I noticed a difference in stiffness between the two rideheights, so I did the maths to see what was going on. I attached the top mounting point of the suspension springs to a small lever than can rotate 90 degrees. When the lever is vertical the springs are angled more inwards and the wheels are lower then when the lever is horizontal. In that case the springs are oriented more vertical and the wheels sit a bit higher. As a consquence of these changes in geometry the suspension is about 20% stiffer in the sportsmode than in the comfortmode. The car is quite heavy, but with two springs per wheel the car sits about in the middle of the springtravel in comfortmode. In the following picture the change in geometry is shown: As you can see the car sits about one stud lower in Sportsmode, but the suspensiontravel is also 0.5 studs less. Since the springs have the same stiffness in both setups this means that the effective stiffness of the sportsmode setup is 20% higher. I calculated about ten different geometries, but it turned out I had accidently chosen a geometry that was the best compromise between difference in stiffness between the two modes and difference in rideheight between the two modes. Since I already had a Control+ hub over the rearaxle it was then a small step to use the same suspension setup in the back and change the ride-height-adjustment feature to a sportsmode feature. The steering geometry Also in the steeringgeometry I wanted to do that little bit more than the usual LEGO supercars. Of course it is an all wheel driven car. But next to that the frontwheel setup has a small casterangle and Ackermann geometry. Final thoughts Cramming this many functions in a car will lead to some compromises. In this case the interior space is quite small. Ideally the chairs could move another 4-5 studs backward, but that space is now occupied with all the gearing for the motorized functions. Also the building process has some pretty tricky steps where large modules have to come together while aligning a couple of axles at the same time. Also the drive mode selection probably requires manual help. The car is likely to be too heavy for the motor to lift it a stud. A big letdown from the Control+ architecture is the lack of programming capability. These hubs are essentially useless unless you make something that uses the exact same setup as either offroader, small racecar or the excavator. I personally feel that LEGO dropped the ball on this one. I hope they soon release some form of a programming environment to really use these hubs. Until than, or until Sbrick pro is launched with Control+ support this model will stay WIP. Comments, suggestions and questions are as always appreciated Leg godt, Jeroen

42113 seems to have the 3x13 curved panel and the new SIAN tapered panels in DBG, but also the 3x5 curved panels (in the tail). I guess the bottom half of the cementmixer is normal blue, with the top half dark blue. Quite a nice combo with that white stripe inbetween. And it has the biscuit piece in white.

Very informative review. Thanks. Can it be that you made an error in the gearbox? Or more precisely in the 90 degree limiters? It looks like the two LBG liftarms that are pushed against the orange #2 connectors are mounted one stud too far outward. They are now angled, instead of straight up. That could also explain the troubles you occasionaly had with the shifting.

Interesting company. But it looks like these are more geared towards light & sound additions. That I sofar have no need for.

Thank you all for your reactions, that really helped narrowing down the options. I actually did have a chance to look at the new Sbrick Pro interface and that does seem to have a wealth of logic blocks to program with (a bit like the MindStorms interface). I think that this is the best offer out there at this moment. So I changed the title of the topic. Is there anyone that is interested in programming the things I need in the new-to-be-released Sbrick app?

I have no idea what is available in terms of SW platform. I'd say today there are three kandidates, SBrick, BuWizz and Brickcontroller2, since these are available to the general public. I wouldn't want to ask you to make yet another controllerplatform I guess. The current apps that are offered by SBrick and BuWizz are quite rudimentary when it comes to even slightly more complex logic than a tank-steering or a blinking light. But I think both are working to expand their SW platform to also enable Control+ applications. It would make a lot of sense if they than also add more 'programming' features. I have no experience with Brickcontroller2, so I don't even know what is possible in that platform, let alone what SW it uses. So, if one of these platforms is using C asm or freebasic for their code it could be interesting.

Hi, I found myself lately developing more RC models. I have a spaceshuttle in the works as shown here a while ago which uses a Control+ hub and three motors to control eight functions. I also have an BMW X3 that I haven't shown yet. That one uses two Sbricks to control four motors and 4x2 leds. And I have a new 1:8 supercar in the works that will use two Control+ hubs with seven motors to control eleven functions. For all these models some extra logic is needed to make them work. I am looking at functions like: - Find the endstops of a Control+ motor and then divide the space between it in 4 or 8 equal partitions. - Select a function on the smartphone display, then, based on that selection, move the aforementioned Control+ motor to one of the 4 (or 8) positions and then start another motor to run the function - A LED light is used as main light as well as indicator light. The indicator function can be triggered either by selecting the right signal button or the alarm button. Deselecting these buttons should bring the light back to the previous state. Furthermore a skin needs to be made that shows all the functions on a smartphone/tablet interface. Even though I have some experience with programming I prefer to spend my time on designing models instead of designing user interfaces and underlying logic. So I am looking for someone who is willing to do this kind of work for me for a fee. If you are interested you can PM me. @Jim: I assumed this kind of post is allowed here. If not, feel free to move it to a more appropriate forum. Edit: from the discussions it followed that the new-to-be-released Sbrick Pro app is the best candidate platform for this.

Well, this is something different. The post is nearly unreadable though. It would really help to only present a few good photos instead of a lot of bad quality ones. Having said that, it certainly is an interesting build. I'm especially intrigued by the dual clutch gearbox. What is the purpose of the middle wave-selector? It looks like it engages the old catchover switch, but that doesn't seem to engage with any clutchgear besides it.

Superawesome. I never thought I'd see such a 'steam'train made from LEGO Technic. And then in such a nice body , fantastic.

So close... It looks great so far, keep it up, regardless of the competition

Hope is delayed disappointment

I agree, even though the details in this car are fantastic, this lacks continuity on the outside.

Beautiful lines. Is that roofline attached to something in the front, or is it just laying on top of the bonnet?

It isn't finished yet... I was busy with it, but then a commission took my time, then the TC18 and then @T Lego came with his Lamborghini which detracted me once more and inspired me to build my next 1:8 car. However, the Spaceshuttle is still sitting on my desk, so I do have the intention to finish it and make instructions.

That door mechanism is sweet! I might want to reuse that on one of my next cars if you don't mind. I look forward to the synchronized lid, that is a serious challenge as well in my experience.

Very interesting concept so far. Ingenious roofmechanism with the 3x5 quarterellipse. Are you going to make the movement of the decklid synchronized to the roof, or will that be operated with a separate knob? The door mechanism looks very good indeed in terms of function and range of motion. How did you achieve that? Ideally the would be tapered inward a bit more to the rear I think. Styling of these doors is a bitch, the details are quite small in this scale and those curved lines are hard to capture. I think that gearbox in the front is quite innovative, so I'd keep it. Maybe it is possible to reduce the slack in the system by pretensioning at least the steering geartrain. Not sure how to do that though. I like the idea of the semi-modular chassis, but I fear the compromise on stiffness. If I had to choose between adding a gearbox and this feature I'd choose the gearbox.

Beautiful

Very impressive! Especially lifting & extending the boom is a challenge in this scale. My only nitpick would be the extension of the outriggers, the stroke is somewhat short because of the use of LA's. Couldn't you fit a gearrack inside the outriggers?

Interesting solution for the doors, I like that out of the box thinking. The front is bit square and high. It does not ooze that sleek bonnetfeel from the real car. Is there a chance to lower the bonnet (at least at the front) with one stud? The rear is a bit cluttered, but given the scale and the amount of curves needed that will be hard to improve upon.

Very cool.

Having built quite a few convertible roofs in the past years I know how hard it is to get them working while keeping them compact. So well done. But I have to agree with @Jurss and @vectormatic that the proportions are a bit off for an MX5.

This is insane . You can't even see it is LEGO anymore... brilliant creation.

Wow, that is a fantastic looking car It ticks so many boxes for me: - Manual model - Sequential gearbox (it doesn't have a D-N-R switcher does it?) - scissor doors - fantastic clean bodywork - modular design And then those dark azure accents on the rear diffusors, I just love those! The only really tiny nitpick would be the head lights. I have no idea how to do those better though. And maybe the hood is bit cluttered with small and overlapping panels. But to be fair, this is a fantastic creation. LEGO will have no chance to beat this one with 42115