Hrafn

I vote for the Blacktron (1st gen) color scheme!

How will the wave selector activate the gears in the right order? Right now you have 1-N-4-N as the wave selector rotates. You can't squeeze two gears from the 16/24 differential into one wave selector position.

This is extraordinary! The aesthetics are better than most A-models, and I am impressed you fit in a sequential 8-speed. The '+' and '-' markings are a small detail but a clever one.

Thanks, that is a good read. My son has the vehicle base described in the interview and I had wondered about the design and manufacturing processes involved. I would be interested to hear about the engineering involved in developing some of the more complex Technic parts like the frame with ball joint

Disappointing but not entirely surprising. To avoid the problem, the housing and red gear would have to be joined by radial pins or something similar that would prevent separation.

@SaperPL thanks for that cogent explanation.

Yeah. Meanwhile TLG introduces things that aren't actually needed, like , uses them in 3 sets, and then never uses them again. Without an inside view of what's happening at TLG, it's hard to know why these decisions are made. Maybe the Technic team has reasons of their own, maybe it's a matter of the relative power of the different design teams. Maybe TLG has concluded that the way to make Technic as profitable as possible is to focus on large supercar sets, not on mechanical functionality. The last would not surprise me.

These are clever! Thanks for sharing.

I like bumpers 2 and 4 the best, but 3 is good too. 2 and 4 don't block the view of the angry "face" formed by the headlights and grill. As for color scheme, how about black with a white stripe or two down the middle to make it resemble a skunk?

Here is another use of the 4L differential: an automatic R-N-D gearbox. The yellow connector blocks the differential from rotating, so the output is the same speed (but opposite rotation direction) as the input. When there is no input, the output can spin freely. The yellow axle joiner is the input, the red is the output. The clutch gear does result in a non-trivial amount of wasted energy in D and R gears. And R is not geared down from D, unlike in my previous prototype below; but this design is much more compact.

I admire your dedication and inventiveness in the face of limited resources! And the rooms turned out great. When you say "apartment", is this a space you rent, or own? In the States I can't imagine a landlord letting a renter make so many changes.

This is great! The density of functions in the superstructure is impressive.

We're you able to make any further progress on this?

Very impressive! Nice to see a collaboration between people with complementary skills as well.

Thank you so much for sharing this for free!

On my 2.0 I have seen that occasionally, connected motors make small back and forth motions (much less than a full rotation each way). I haven't seen any pattern to the behavior.

Superb job on the mechanisms! I quite like the minimalist canopy, too - the two twisted flex axles manage to evoke the shape nicely.

@SNIPE what is the part number for the wheel with seven pinholes? And what is its outer diameter? Thanks! EDIT: nevermind, it is 68327 (https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=68327#T=C&C=86)

Somewhere on this site I recall seeing a similar suggestion, but maybe more robust. It was basically a 2L thick liftarm (with two axle holes instead of pin holes), with the tow ball socket at the end. Imagine one of the 5L arms with 2L cut off the end and the pin holes converted to axle holes.

Here is another way to do it that should be more robust. In Drive gear, the output turns in the opposite direction to the motor input. Or a long skinny variant

It does, but 12:28 does not give the right ratio of 1/2. 14z meshes with double bevel gears as if it were 12z, but gives the right ratio, which is why this works. 14z gears are kind of a pain to use and somewhat fragile (not to mention long out of production) so I don't really like using them, though. 12:12 and 8:16 (using the 16z side of the old 4L differential) would work but the 12z gears aren't clutch gears. There may be another solution using chains.

Every so often I put together a proof of concept or small creation that doesn't need its own topic; this is a place for such things. First off, a proof of concept for a brake/neutral/drive gearbox. Input is via the green axle connector. With the 20z gear selected, the differential has half the angular velocity of the input, so the output is braked and the motor is not strained by the braking. Off the top of my head I could only come up with the 14z/28z mesh to get the brake to work properly - is there another gear combo (using any of the differential housings) that works? This thing is way too large to use in my current project but let me know if it is useful to you.

Scale may be a consideration as well. In my current 15-wide project, it is semi modular; true modularity would probably add bulk since at this scale even a one-stud change is noticeable. In a really large model I would definitely want to adopt a modular approach for the most part. In between, it depends.

@heyitsdisty, look at the physics of whips. This appears to be a two segment whip, in essence.

This is a neat project, thank you for sharing your progress. I agree that motorization of the lift is not necessary.