Phoxtane

Looks awesome. I hope you guys make the goal! I've no idea if it is possible without completely redesigning everything, but what if the outer shell could be removed and swapped with one of a different color, much like the AAA battery box? The feeling I'm getting is that you'd end up changing the molds for the shell, and that's expensive. Perhaps as a super-stretch goal?

I've heard good things about using vinyl dye. You may have to temporarily cap the inlets on the tank so you don't end up flushing leftover vinyl dye throughout the pneumatic systems.

Maybe remove one of the two trans-clear pieces at the top and center the remaining one?

Can this be taken up with the Lego Ambassadors, please? The system is obviously being abused, and even though I'm not into the whole convention-exclusive collectibles, I have been following the discussion surrounding them with some interest. I don't think I'm far off in saying this is like a kick in the teeth for some people.

We're stuck with oil for a while. Consider how many devices run on fossil fuels; here in Wyoming our main resources are land, natural gas, coal, and I think cattle. And while that's opened up many opportunities for the state via taxes on utilizing these resources, it won't last. The problem is that even over 20 years changing from fossil fuels to renewables would change *everything*. I don't think Greenpeace can solve that. If you ask me, nuclear power is the best intermediate fuel source we have, but who wants that in their country? Especially after the Fukushima disaster... Forgive the rambling. Greenpeace just isn't big enough to force a change on a worldwide scale of immense proportions that a shift from oil would require. I think it would be easier to start if car manufacturers kept getting pushed for higher and higher fuel economy until it is actually easier to develop a hybrid or an EV. Then, oil could be saved for things like plastics and jet fuel and whatnot - thus maintaining our favorite plastic toy! I did find an article a few months ago that said Lego wanted to move from plastics to renewable resins within the next 10-15 years. I'll have to find that link again later.

Nice use of the solar panel. That's not a Technic piece you see used hardly ever!

After a bit of digging, I found the instructions for the car pictured above. It is a revamp/rebuild of the 8081 Extreme Cruiser by Thirdwigg: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=538248

In order to make that work, I'd end up with some sort of setup where the power for the differential enters from the side, or from in between the differential and one set of the bevel gears. Even then, the points where the power exits the frame to the suspension would be spaced very far apart. It could work... but it'd be more workable in a Tatra-style truck, I think In the above picture, it looks like the differential is held in place by two small L-beams, and then connected to the wheels by a CV-joint piece that connects directly to an unsteered 42000 wheel hub. It looks as if the only suspension arms are the lower ones; I'm not quite sure how the upper half of the hubs is secured. Even so, this means that there isn't a parallel linkage- and as such, the rear suspension is practically a Tatra setup.

That's the minimum distance I've found for a CV joint and a U-joint to connect; they're butted up next to each other. That's pretty much the only way to get power from the differential and maintain the parallel linkage at the wheel end of the suspension arms. In order to retain the traditional suspension setup, the only width savings I can see would be in the hubs themselves or somehow produce a floating differential setup. I recall seeing a car with one in this forum, but I've no idea where it's gone to. Apart from that, I think a more feasible solution is to move away from the traditional independent suspension setup; but how? EDIT: Found it:

I think I'm quite close to getting the axles completed. Here's the progress I've made: Notice the problem? The rear axle is about 4 units wider than the front, if I'm measuring correctly. That's with the rear tires flipped around so the deeper face is towards the center, which shaves some distance off. If I can keep an driven independent suspension with differential in the back, I'l be happy. I don't think it can be done without some serious trickery though, which is way beyond my level [admittedly, pretty low to start with]. I think some sort of trailing-arm suspension would work; perhaps with the suspension arms running parallel front-to-back, rather than branching off perpendicular to the chassis. The problem then becomes an issue of getting power to the wheels.

Done and done: However... another problem has arisen. The small pieces behind the steering rack are giving me enough grief with catching on the frame, and the steering rack being difficult to brace properly due to these parts has led me to decide to abandon this concept and turn to The Unofficial Technic Builder's Guide for help. There's a small steered independent suspension unit in there [page 226] that will fit my needs perfectly. Thanks for all the help!

If I move the links parallel to the suspension arms, then the hubs will have the wheels toeing out. This was how I managed to keep the wheels straight when the steering is centered. Thing is, I think that's how it was done in the Hummer images that were linked earlier, so I've no idea how they managed to get around that issue. Perhaps the shocks mounted in between the links and the suspension arms are what keep the links from collapsing? If so, then I can just put a beam on the- Oh. I see what is going on here now; the shocks are mounted between the linkages and the suspension arms on the Hummer model in order to prevent this issue from occuring. As such, I've added some half-width 5L beams on the ends of the arms to do the same thing. I think I'll end up with a greater steering lock as well!

I went back and did some poking around with the linked images. I was able to tease out this assembly here: It's much better than any of my previous attempts to build anything more than a basic suspension system, that's for sure. I even think it's Ackermann-correct! However, if turned too far the steering tends to collapse in on itself, due to the linkages going parallel and then inverting in relation to the connections on the hubs. I'm not sure how to correct this, as a servo motor will move the steering rack enough to cause a collapse every time.

Not in the rear I hope. That's where I'll need it. Perhaps it could be done with a floating differential?

Both great ideas. I wasn't able to work out how to attach the custom hub, so I went ahead and used the older black hubs and wound up with this; Upon further examination, it appears I've replicated the dark gray A-arm, but with more pieces and in a bulkier package! I guess we all have to start somewhere. In addition, since these are the same size, this suspension unit is still too wide for the size of the 42009 crane wheels. Which leads me to the next line of inquiry: Perhaps another drive suspension unit could be built with these? I don't think there's really a good way to build a powered drive unit with these guys. Perhaps some sort of independent trailing arm suspension in the back would work? I don't think there's a good way to power those as well. I'll have to ruminate on it for a bit at work.

Well, after a good while of tinkering, I managed to come up with this: This is meant to be the rear axle, so it requires a driveshaft, but not steering. The current problem is that I haven't got enough space to wedge another U-joint or CV-joint in between the small hub and the current U-joint. In addition, I haven't got a place to attach a link to keep the hub locked and I haven't got an upper attachment point for the shock absorbers. I decided to keep it simple and start with the core of the device, which I knew was going to involve a differential and most likely a 5x7 frame. The issue is, this isn't nearly as workable for the front axle, even given how unworkable it is so far! Should I go back to the 42000 hubs, to make life easier on myself? Or do I need to custom-build a hub out of small pieces to make this work? I'm up for either so long as it works.

I'm trying to build a suspension system out of the new snowmobile suspension arms and the hubs that come with 42000. I was hoping to make it small, but I'm having issues actually designing it and making it compact. (In other words, I've no idea what I'm doing...) As such, I'd like to build a compact suspension that'll fit the wheels that come the 42009 crane. Since it's for a typical car, with front wheel steering and rear/all wheel drive, if I can do that also, it'd be perfect. The main problem I seem to be having is attaching the wheels to the hubs, having a hub that'll allow for a driveshaft to pass through, and then mounting the whole assembly in such a way that I can still attach a shock absorber and steering assembly, if needed. Sadly, I'm not as good with Technic as I had thought.

On the other hand, I've heard that at least a few of Lego's sets go through a heating oven that warms them mildly to see what happens to the model when the clutch power is decreased slightly by the heat. This could be an issue with some models, though I don't think Technic would be as susceptible to these issues.

You know, I should really start converting my time estimates directly from weeks to months. It'd make things simpler for everyone. So, after a good long while, I've: - Finished sorting all of my Lego pieces [48,500] - Been to Germany for a whole month - Started on a new timelapse video project Currently, my plans for Lego Technic are to build a small RC rally car and to film a piece of equipment I built for the new video. The timelapse portion of this video includes 11,400 images - all of which are too dark, an issue that has plagued my previous videos. In an attempt to remedy this, I threw one into Photoshop to play around and see if I couldn't fix it. Thankfully, applying an auto-contrast to the image fixed the darkness issue! That still leaves me with roundabouts 11,400ish images to do this to. Thank God for actions and batch processing to get this done en masse... I won't even bother giving a time estimate as they tend to grow longer every time I try to put numbers to them, so I'll throw it into Valve Time and say it'll be 'soon'. See you then!

I must have missed that bit. I'm sure I can make it work though! Besides, I will be getting a new computer hopefully this fall that's got a lot more oomph to it... How does one get 12 cores in one computer anyway, unless it's one of those blade-based systems?

[image removed as per moderator request] How hard is it to set this up? I think I can handle it - my computer has four cores to work with but only 4 gigs of RAM - and I'd love to do these, especially since it seems to give better results than LDD-to-POVRay *and* takes less time. Would it be possible for you to make some sort of write-up on how you do this?

As for what's next: a lake bed exploring ROV! You may be able to do it by flipping over the boat hulls and keeping everything in the bubble produced when the inverted hull is submerged. That's really dicey though, so I'm imagining a device encapsulated with a two-liter soda bottle that acts like a hamster in a wheel - by spinning the bottle around itself.

I see a downside to all the attention this will end up receiving when it's officially launched. If you thought the current ratio of 'junk' projects to 'proper' projects was bad, what happens when every kid who visits the Lego home page sees LEGO IDEAS plastered over every available white space? Cuusoo/Ideas needs a way to filter out those projects as fast as they can and to get it implemented ASAP. As for the one year time limit, this is a good thing IMO. It keeps things moving along and will help with the clutter issue as I mentioned above. Perhaps the archived projects could be viewable on the author's profile?

I second this. There's a reason they do the land-speed record tests on the salt flats!

It could also be that way because there's no good way to remove an axle from the piece. It's really smooth, and feels slippery as a result.