rgbrown

What I was thinking of is that the sliding friction should be less because the teeth are more parallel over the duration of contact. This presumably depends heavily on the tooth profile. My impression of technic gears is that bevel gears have much greater friction than spur gears, but I've never actually tested this. I keep intending to do some proper measurements, but never quite manage to find the time!

Haha, this thread is getting hilarious But larger diameters give less friction. (everything else being equal)

Why not just techniccreations.com? That doesn't seem to be a problem (e.g. TechnicBRICKS)

I agree! Have you ever done any efficiency measurements when building your clocks? What's your opinion on meshing bevel and spur gears?

Was messing around with the creator snowman (30008) and, seeing as it's topical, I thought I'd share the wee space shuttle that resulted: Photo on flickr edit: second photo!

I think the distinction is pretty clear in the official sets - Technic models focus on technical functions and use primarily technic bricks or liftarms, Model Team / Creator focus on realistic appearance, using mostly system pieces. With MOCs it's a different story, because many builders aim to achieve both. So you can't split the categories. I regard many MOCs as both Technic and Model Team / Creator (e.g. Sariel's various models). +1 for a EB overhaul with user-supplied tags. It's the way forward. And search functionality that lets you search more often than once every blue moon without flood control biting you. Time to modernise!

yurgh ... I really dislike these black colour schemes with blue and red showing through. I think the reverse-engineered red version looks much nicer.

To add to what others have said, the "safe" solution would be as follows: Get a transformer that supplies 9V or less (not more) Make sure it's rated for at least 1A at 9V. If you try and draw too much current you run the risk of damaging the transformer and at worst creating a fire risk. Wire it to the internals of the battery box, not the top. This shouldn't be too hard, and that way you get the benefit of the overcurrent protection provided by the battery box. The battery box trips at about 1.3A I think (there's a thread somewhere on here where it's been tested). The train regulator will have its own overcurrent protection. That said, if it's just a single M-motor that's not working very hard you won't be drawing anywhere near 1A, and you wouldn't need to run through the battery box like that and you could use a much lower current transformer. However if you're going to increase the power functions component of your build significantly then you'll need to be a bit more aware of the potential issues.

Open up the Building steps page of the LEGO Club website and click on "Test Case" (has a picture of a guitar) and lo and behold: an 8070 alternate with instructions! Presumably they'll put the picture and description up soon, but in the meantime it's hiding away there.

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers, we really appreciate it. I hope those kiwis of you out there have heard from your friends and relatives down here. The city is basically in shock. Most houses have no water, the sewage system is broken, and half the city is still without power. I'm fortunate - I moved my family out to the inlaws house about 30km north of the city, where we have water. Ironically, I was giving a lecture at the university when it hit. I had just finished the safety briefing and promised the class that of course we wouldn't actually have an earthquake today ...

off topic for the forum I know, but spare a thought for my city, Christchurch, New Zealand, which has just been rocked by a pretty nasty earthquake. My family and friends are ok, but there've been a number of fatalities. And the house is a shambles :(

Other things that are important - don't run them completely flat - if one goes flat before the others, it can end up being driven in reverse, which kills it. When the motors start slowing down, time to recharge.

Also, modern ones have much lower self-discharge than older ones -- should be able to hold the bulk of their charge for months on end.

I like it! Especially the parallel park manoeuvre. 3:1 gear ratio, yes?

8295 Telehandler. They stuck 3L liftarms (with boss and pin) to hold the mudguards into the middle of the steering linkage as if it were a parallelogram, which it isn't. Whenever you steer it, the geometry gets stressed. See picture for what I mean.

Yes, as I said earlier . Except I had a rotating flex cable up the middle, instead of a rope. Not my idea though, I've seen clocks built this way.

Just noticed this: http://shop.lego.com/Product/?p=88000 . May be of interest! Apologies if it's already been posted.

Most (all, Blakbird?) of the sets so far on Technicopedia have LDraw models

If the functions are really low torque, you could use a flex cable through a flex tube through a driving ring. But I'm guessing this is not what you want

This subject has come up often recently - I can think of at least three topics where the same discussion seems to be happening. See also this one

What a nifty device - I hadn't come across one of these before. Clever use of geometry! I wonder if they (real ones) ever had any practical use?

It might run under win98 compatibility mode if you have windows vista/7 -- maybe XP has this feature too, I can't remember (I don't use windows much). It might run under wine in Linux. Everyone: I presume this software isn't available on the internet anywhere? Edit: just found this - this may be exactly what you want http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7bmmg_notice-lego-technic-8450-cybermaste_tech

And how is that a bad thing? That just means the model is not genuinely 12+ I think the new instructions are great. My five year old has built 8043 with minimal help

I was surprised to find these by the same designer - but at second glance they actually look fairly similar - clean, panelled finish, with small amounts of SNOT to add to the look I think Alfred is the proverbial mad scientist of the group I agree - it's a shame he's not there any more

Some really interesting replies. I also most enjoy building the mechanisms, and sometimes find the "decorative" features a bit tedious to put together - I start to accelerate when I'm not building the functional parts. I also find it really interesting how so often the models seem really flimsy as you build them, but eventually the reinforcement comes and you end up with a really solid block. I'm also trying to pay more attention to studless techniques, so that I can remember how to use them myself. Need to keep practising! That's what got me thinking about building styles, because there are so many different ways you can accomplish the same task, and different sets seem to have entirely different building methodologies, whereas with studded building there are much more immediate and obvious solutions. I do appreciate little bits of Lego system building - like the SNOT work on the front of the cherry picker, the back panel of 8043, or the blades of the bulldozers. I guess as creator is my other favourite theme this is no surprise!