Jeroen Ottens

Hi Blakbird, Can you elaborate a bit more on the paddleshifters? How do they work? Is there a mechanism inside to keep the knobwheels at 90 degrees all the time (asking against my better judgement I must confess)? So far only techlug explained their working, but only in French, which I am not so good at, nor is Google translate .

Thank you. My first gearbox for the DB11 I created mid March, but that was a 5D+N+R speed gearbox. The first 8 speed with this configuration I designed mid april. But that version was much higher because the levers were on top. The yellow lever is the real enabler for this gearbox, that one just popped into my head one morning when I woke up. Once I had that, the rest was just making the geometry as compact as possible, while still bracing all the gears properly. The position of the diff is of course easily moved. A mid mounted version is very well possible, but will take room too. I think it will still be too big for a 1:10 car. The size is approximately LxWxH 15x15x5 studs without the diff on top, so that is a sizeable chunk.

thx. All I have to do now is to design the rest of the car around it I am really torn on the Porsche at the moment. On the one hand I really want to have those rims, tires, orange elements, etc. as soon as possible so I can start building the bodywork for the DB11 in real life. But it is such a badly engineered set that don't want to encourage TLC to make more of these mediocre sets by buying it...

My sentiment exactly. From a marketing point of view I think this is almost the worst reaction they could have given. It totally ignores the sentiment in our little community... (which in the long run probably won't matter, unless this is a sign of a deeper disconnect to their fanbase)

This is unbelievable. The solution proposed does not make the gearbox worse. Lego chose to use 6 bevel gears in the geartrain and to have a large gear ratio between 1st and 4th gear, that is what makes the geartrain bad. This statement is so lacking any introspection and humbleness it is almost hilarious.

I already tested it in real life and there are no issues with grinding nor stalling... Of course I still have to ensure that the levers are all always at 90 degrees, but I solved that problem already multiple times in my previous MOC's so I'm quite confident that I'll solve that on this one as well

Hi, After the truly disappointing gearbox design of the Porsche I thought I could maybe cheer you up (or rub more salt in the 42056's wounds) by showing you how my 8 speed (+ neutral and only 1 (!) reverse), flappy paddle operated gearbox works. I have tested it now thoroughly in all gears and no geargrinding, no stalling, just smoothly turning wheels, gears & pistons... . Still, since I do not have the new smooth connectors inside the driving rings I cannot test the actual switching (and no Paul, I will not sacrifice my precious few new driving rings by breaking out the pins ). However, unlike the Porsche's version I do have some elastic elements in the design that will ensure that the levers are always at the 90 degree position and thus no unwanted double engaged drivingrings can occur. So let's start with a picture of the entire geartrain: On the left is the 8 speed gearbox. You can see three axles coming out of that. The two grey ones are for the motor and the black one is for the paddleshift mechanism. The grey ones go both to the switch in the center of the assy. The upper grey one is directly coupled to the wheels (ratio 1:1 from the diff), this will power the R of the central selector. So no matter what the actual gearratio is, the reverse will always have the same ratio. The lower grey axle is connected to the output of the gearbox. The output of the middle gearbox is then brought to the fakeengine. In the next picture the gearbox is shown from the underside: The gearbox consists of two main parts. On the left there is a 'standard' 4 speed gearbox driving by the red and blue lever that are 90 degrees out of phase. The gear-ratios for this part are 1:1, 1:0.8, 1:0.6, and 1:0.48. Apart from the ratios this is no different from the Porsch design (but in a completely different layout). The knobwheels are used to rotate the axle with the red and blue lever, that consequently will switch the driving wheel. The output of this part of the gearbox is then transfered to the input of the single drivingring on the right. This driving ring has only two positions with ratios 1:1 and 1:0.333. When the knobwheels are turned 90 degree three times, the left gearbox will have moved from 1st gear to 4th gear. By turning it another 90 degrees this gearbox will jump back to 1st gear. But at this moment the green lever will push the rightmost knobwheel 90 degrees as well, thereby engaging the right driving ring from one end to the other end. (It is not very clear from this picture, but the yellow lever that actuates the green driving ring is actually a combination of two 2L liftarms in a perpendicular arrangment. This way a 90 degree rotation results in a 2L movement instead of the standard 1L movement that a single 2L liftarm would give.) The yellow lever has an elastic band connected to it, so that it will always be pulled in either of it's two positions. Because the first gearbox was the input of the second gearbox you now get the following outputs extra: 1:0.333, 1:0.267, 1:0.2 and 1:0.16. I you try to turn one more time the mechanism will block itself, because the yellow lever can not rotate further (the same is true if you try to switch from 1st gear to a lower gear). The gearbox is quite compact, so if anybody feels the urge to replace the Porsche gearbox with a more authentic one (albeit with one gear too many) feel free to adept this design to do so. I hope my explanation made any sense, but if not, please do not hesitate to ask.

Thanks for the review Jim, even higher level than your usual superb level... A small question on the doorhinges. Are these just a standard single pivot point, or is this done through a linkage system?

Hi, Another update. I worked most of the time on the central column, which is not very exciting, but took me a lot of time to hide all those axles & gears that needed to be hidden. I also modified the gearbox slightly (I'll upload some cutaway pictures in the future PvdB) to make more room for the rearseat. In order to get a feel for the space around the gearbox I modeled some bodywork as well. It looks like I could still move the gearbox further to the back without sticking out of the rear. I think I can use the new fender panels of the Porsche in the rear (so sorry Appie, it will be a bright orange car now)... The interior will be either be white/black or white/azure (I got a dark azure steeringwheel from some Chima set I guess). I fear that white/azure is too flashy for this car. OTOH orange is already quite flashy anyway... The doors are a bit of a headache. On this side I have 2 large panels behind each other. The advantage is that I get that nice slope at the bottom of the door.The disadvantage is that the door is not a smooth surface and I will get some issue at the top of the door... Alternatively I can use the Porsche doordesign, which has a smooth surface, but lacks the slope... What do you think?

Yep, well spo Yep, well spotted...

It's not April's fool yet... But why has this topic turned into a HoS?????

When I worked there the debate was ongoing in the technic dev department. One of the arguments was to get clear distinction between lego system and lego technic because of branding purposes. The other argument of the studless camp was the better possibility to build in 3 dimensions. And I suppose for the designers it was a new and interesting constraint to make their work more interesting. I personally was at the time in the studded camp. Especially the combination of the two (like the 8448) where a studded frame was given smooth looks with studless parts. In that same period the fake-engine brick was introduced. Markus and I used it (extensively ) in the power puller and I remember arguing with the parts configuration control board whether or not it should have studs and hollows on it or not (we had a studless prototype as well). Evidently we won the argument, but in hindsight I do regret that. Especially that underside is a pain in the *** in the studless era.

I saw some pictures with the gearshift mechanism in a non-orthogonal position, even though the whole mechanism was assembled. That shouldn't be possible, right?

Hi, I have built the gearbox IRL and it works surprisingly smooth. Of course I had to adjust the real model a bit (there were some impossible constructions in the LDD file), but the main gearbox mechanism is just the same and works like a peach. The gearbox has two outputs that will be combined in the dashboard where the D/N/R selector is located. One output is for the R, that will always rotate at the same speed independent of the selected gear. The other one is for the D and that one will change it's speed dependent on the gear selected. I made a short video to show it in action. I only filmed the 1st and 8th gear, but the others are working as well (I felt it would be a bit repetitive to show them all ). The selector mechanism is not working yet, there is way too much friction in the driving ring connector, so I need the frictionless variants of the Porsche. Furthermore the changeover catches are not properly fixed yet. I think I will redesign this part a couple of times before I have it reliable enough for my taste, but for a first attempt I am really happy

Aah, now I see it. Once you know where it is it just stares you in the face

Same here, I can find a couple of 11L beams, but no 9L...

Where is it located? I haven't spotted it yet.

Yeah that is really a shame... I am afraid I have to ditch the brakes with these rims

It looks like you also get 4 reverse gears :thumbdown: , so it is a 4D+N+4R gearbox instead of a 4D+N+R gearbox... It really feels like looks were the toppriority and the rest trailed way, way after that I wonder how stiff the chassis will be with all those beams with vertically oriented beams. My mechanical heart just cries out seeing so many beams placed like that. I'll still buy it for sentimental reasons and the rims, but boy, this is such a missed chance...

Thanks for the picture. A couple of questions: Does it have an axlehole at the inside? How deep is the offset? 3 or 3.5 studs? What is the inner diameter of the rim at the inside? 7 studs? Why are you saying that? I can't see the travel limitation (but I am a bit jetlagged, so maybe that's the reason )

I know (and I do share your concern) but I first wanted to have an idea on how to assemble it in such a tight spot. Now that I have figured that out I will build it in IRL and see how it performs. The gearratios are not outrageous, from the top of my head it shifts from 1:1 to 4:25, which is not much more than a standard 6 speed gearbox.

Hi, Time for another update. The past week I have been busy in LDD to see if I could fit the 8 speed gearbox in the space behind the rear seats. This is the first attempt that sort of fits. The rear seats might be a bit high though. For now I opt for white as the interior colour and orange as exterior (sorry Appie ), but if the new fender pieces don't fit in the rear I might reverse the scheme. Things that are not OK still: - Gears at the back need proper bracing - One of the switches needs a springmechanism to lock it to either left or right - One of the switches needs some bracing to prevent it falling out at the underside - The suspension setup is a simple double wishbone instead of a multilink A view from the front: The long axle is for the gear switching mechanism and this will lead to the flappy paddles at the steering column (this is a left driving setup. It is an English car after all ). The axles to the motor are hidden inside the central column. A view from the back: Here you can see a few of the 20-something gears needed in this gearbox. Friction might become a real issue, but at least all the internal gears are properly braced. But as you can see some gears at the back are not braced at all yet. I hope you like it and as always comments and questions are appreciated.

The red line is the right one for non-steered rear axles If you choose the blue one you have to make the last rearaxle steerable as well, but in the opposite direction and with a much smaller turningangle then the font axle

Thanks a lot for the renders. Fitting that gearbox in the space around the rearaxle was the biggest challenge and your renders clearly show how filled that space behind the seats is. Thanks again

I know the set was released around 1999 (I designed it the year before the power puller ), but the reason for asking was that it is listed in the overview page, but it is not listed in the individual years so I got confused... ANyway, I have no objection to the argument that it is not a technic model (allthough the black 19L flexaxle is a nice unique piece in that set ). In that case I do have to point out that the main list on the homepage of technicopedia does incorrectly list this set as a technic set