DLuders

If you saw this summer's "Toy Story 3" Disney movie, you recall that the 3-eyed Aliens saved the day with their skill in operating "The Claw". Well, "Willgorman" posted a YouTube video and said, "My son was inspired by Toy Story and asked if we could build a Lego Claw. We built the [600-piece] skill crane using a Lego Mindstorms NXT and RCX kit. You can find more details including instructions at http://www.battlebricks.com/lego-skill-crane/ . Special thanks to Pentaho for loaning us their Hadoop Elephants!" On BattleBricks, he wrote, "The skill crane uses the NXT to drive the claw, programmed using LeJOS NXJ. The claw itself is powered by a Lego RCX Robotic kit, programmed in NQC. The model was created using MLCad, a great design tool for Lego building! You can find the model, complete part list, and building instructions here. Below are some pics of the game along with additional construction details. Have fun!" "The claw is made up of three Lego beams, it was the most difficult to engineer because of the angles, but my 4 year old son insisted it have 3 and not 4": "The top of the claw includes an NXT motor for moving it back and forth, and an RCX motor for moving it up and down": "The middle track motor drives the claw forwards and backwards": "There were lots of wires connecting everything together, rubberbands were used to keep things organized. I had to raise the NXT up in the air because the wires weren't long enough": "The controller consists of 4 NXT buttons and one RCX button. I also have a utility button on the RCX used for raising the claw back to its original height":

On http://www.dennisbosman.nl/lego/no57.html , Dutchman Dennis Bosman posted a lengthy description, 8 pictures, and the video below of his "Volvo NL12 with Bulthuis/Van der Peet Self Unloader" . It is BIG at 127.5 cm long, 19.2 cm wide, and 30 cm high, and it has a wheelbase of 29.3 cm. I can't paste the hyperlinks to the photos or copy the text on his website, so I highly recommend you click on the link above to see it. On YouTube, he wrote, "Video of my latest MOC; the Volvo NL12 with conveyor belt trailer. It carries about 18 kg of beans and unload itself within ten minutes. Thank to the massive torque of the two connected 9V RC motors the trailer is able to unload the beans (actually potatoes) quite properly. Read the whole story on my website: www.dennisbosman.nl."

Oh, I didn't know that! The 8888, 8889, 8890, and 8891 Lego Technic Idea Books have a lot of fun items!

@ ms09: I think the folks at NXTasy.org would like to hear about your NXT tank, and the programming you developed for it: http://forums.nxtasy.org/index.php?showforum=10 .

There are more pictures and videos of Lego MOCs made with the Rotacaster Omni-Wheels on http://forums.nxtasy.org/index.php?showtopic=5914 .

If you can wait JUST A LITTLE WHILE, LDD 4.0 is supposed to be released soon. There could be some improvements to the software that will allow you to build your MOC a lot easier.

Here's a video of trebbekechet's "Lego Rodeo" Mechanical Bull that "bucks" a Lego Technic Figure off of its back. A Mechanical Bull was featured in the 1980 John Travolta movie, "Urban Cowboy". The random twisting and bucking action will send you to the chiropractor!

Here's an interesting YouTube video of Satbir's stop-action build of the 8274-2 Lego Technic Dragster, which has steering and a V8 engine. 1,247 frames were rapidly compressed into one continuous stream: It may not be well known that the "B-Model" of the 8274 Combine Harvester set is a Lego Dragster. Ctx83's stop-motion YouTube video below shows that being constructed. If you have the parts, you could download the Building Instructions from Lego Customer Service or BrickFactory (Page 121 onwards). You can view the Peeron 8274 set inventory. The USD $45 8274 set is still available from Shop.Lego.com . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEntxrKSwtQ&feature=related The 8274-2 Dragster is in the spirit of the 8847 Technic set, which is featured on Blakbird's Technicopedia website.

Grohl, you have a great imagination! There aren't many AFOLs who would think to convert the 8045 Mini Telehandler set into an Orca "Killer Whale"! INTO

On MOCpages, Legodenny/ Papi1198 posted his Lego Technic Buggy. On his Brickshelf Gallery, there are 23 pictures that may show enough detail that you could build it yourself. He wrote, "Here my complete own designed RC Car. I used the RC module from the Set 8366. It was important that the buggy is light but very robust. The model weight 1,2 kg with 6 batteries. So he is very fast. Video follows. denny76@live.de ." The Lego RC module does not have the limitations of using the Power Functions infrared transmitter/receiver combination (which only has a range of 10 meters (33 feet), and is affected by bright sunlight). As you can see, it doesn't look at all like the 8366 set; the Technic Panels, robust construction, and Power Functios LED lights mean that this buggy can go offroading in almost any conditions!

Cool! Did you submit this as an entry for the September 2010 Lego Technic Challange? I like the hinged body so that it can closely follow the terrain, and the rotating Gattling Guns are innovative! Now, "Search and Destroy" all Bionicles!

On LUGPol, Barteq posted details about his Man KAT 4x4 truck that he made using parts from the 8169 Lamborghini Gallardo LP 560-4 set. Features: -Drive: 4x4 with a single Power Functions (PF) XL motor and 3,89:1 gear reduction with differentials -Steering: PF Medium motor and 5:1 gear reduction -PF LED Lights -Weight: 1.5 kg -Size: 46 x 22 studs -Brickshelf Gallery with 20 pictures: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=443547 . I'm sure that many students would MUCH RATHER build Lego Technic MOCs and roll them over their school books, instead of reading them....

On the Lego Technic Designers Blog, designer Ricco Rejnholdt Krog wrote: "Again we have received a lot of cool pictures of very exiting Technic models from you. This month (September) the Technic challenge was to build models with tracks – We wanted you to make the coolest, toughest and strongest models with tracks. It’s really great to see so many of you still are submitting models for the competition; we are having a great (hard) time selecting the 10 models that you can vote for starting tomorrow! As mentioned before, we receive a lot of great models from our Technic adult fans. We have chosen some of the models that really caught our eye and that we want all of you to see. These, along with others, will go into the pot where we will select the 20 Adult submissions for a final Technic Adult Fan voting round in November! Remember this was the last Technic competition for this year. Next month we will give you the possibility to vote on the final 10 Technic competition finalists. Yep …it’s going to be so exciting to see who the final LEGO® Take the Technic challenge winner 2010 is. Thank you all for your submissions - stay tuned for the final voting round in October!" "Drill System" submitted by user "lucanicolini": "Jonny5" submitted by user "nxt2010nxt": "Quadtrac" submitted by user "Zblj1987": "Tracked Explorer" submitted by user "Chrizzle77": "Walking Tracker" submitted by user "A_Dejan": "Front Shovel" submitted by user "SkandinavcFH":

@ Atr: Your Jeep Willys MOC is great! For those who would like to build it themselves, could you possibly post the individual JPG images on your Bricklink gallery, or on Lugpol? The YouTube video's screensize is a bit small for folks to see some assembly details. If there is a series of JPG images, one could then use Adobe Acrobat Professional to compile them into one, PDF instruction booklet....

Yes, these are high-quality custom ALUMINUM parts available from the Inanimate Reason Bricklink store in Florida, USA. See this previous Eurobricks post about them. I have bought well over $1,000 of these parts, and I highly recommend them.

@ Seluryar: Maybe you'll now want to MOTORIZE your 8053 Lego Technic Mobile Crane! Atixnaid posted a YouTube video, and said "This is my reproduction of the #8053 lego technic set. Release this summer. Around 1300 parts. More information on http://www.setechnic.com/Forum/topic2745.html ." [Here's the Babelfish English translation]

Here's a YouTube video made by aklego that shows a "Lego Truncated Octahedron" gizmo:

Today, Sparramc posted a YouTube video that features 4 of the Rotacaster Omniwheels on his "Lego NXT Flexibot". He wrote, "The Shape-Changing Rotacaster Flex-Bot is acts like a Chameleon, but instead of changing colour, it can morphs into a variety of different configurations. The front and rear pairs of arms are controlled in pairs change the configuration the Rotacaster Omni-wheels relative to the Robots body. Each Rotacaster Omni-wheel is driven individually via a Small Lego Power Functions Motor. The Arm pairs are driven individually by a pair of Lego Mindstorms NXT Servo Motors. "The home position for the arms is controlled via a set of 4x Lego Mindstorms RCX type Touch Sensors before the position of the NXT Servo Motors is set. The Power Function Motors are controlled via a Hitechnic Infra-red Link Sensor and 2x Lego Power Function Infra-red receivers. The Robot is controlled via a Sony PlayStation2 Controller interfaced to a Mindsensor PSP-Nx-v3: Sony PlayStation2 Controller interface for the NXT. "Full project detail and source code are available at: http://www.rjmcnamara.com/. "I've been working with GM of Rotacaster Australia, Mr. Per McKinnon to develop Rotacaster Omni-wheels for Robotics Platforms. Initially for the Lego Mindstorms Platform as it's what I use. "It all began when I simply enquired via the Rotacaster website to if they had considered making there omni-wheels available to the Robotics world. Too my amazement, within 24hrs I had the Rotacaster GM saying that had not considered that market and asked if I would be interested in going along the development journey to make it happen. Of coarse I said yes. "Having used the other available Omni-wheels on the market, the Rotacaster is a superior product in all aspects. These Omni-wheels are simply a beautiful work of Engineering (ART). The Rotacaster are the only Omni-wheel I'm aware of that will track in a "Killough Platform" like theory suggests, resulting with virtually nil slippage on all household hard floors surface. The "Durometer Type Rollers" in the Omni-wheel exceeded all my expectations by a long way after trying those offered from other manufactures! The "Durometer Type Rollers" work like a sticky compound race tyre on a high performance race vehicle. "Many thanks to Mr. Peter McKinnon from Rotacaster for having faith in me to take on the challenges involved with developing what is an Industrial Rotacaster Omni-wheel, into a product suitable for use with Lego Mindstorms & Technics Robots. "The Actual cost of the Lego-Rotacaster Omn-wheels and date of availability is yet to be released. The standard non-Lego R-2048-01 Double 48mm individual Wheel Price is AUD $13.75(including GST). Around USD $12.00 each. "Rotacaster (www.rotacaster.com.au) hope to make Omni-wheels for use with other Robotics platforms in the future. Contact Rotacaster with you Robotic Platform Details. Mr. Per McKinnon and the Rotacaster staff are great to deal with and their enthusiasm for this project has amazed me with Peter flying from his base here in Australia to the U.S.A. to oversee the development and tooling up. "Rotacaster Wheel Limited Phone: AUS +61 2 4925 2200 USA +1 312 212 3950 Address: P.O. BOX 866, The Junction, NSW, Australia. 2291 Website: www.rotacaster.com.au ."

You have these two methods to motorize the Lego Technic 8297 Off Roader II set with Power Functions elements: (1) MacGyverek's Brickshelf Gallery http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=358965 has a set of photos & LDD renders, plus a Parts List: (2) "Pimped" 8297 (scroll 1/2 way down the list on http://www.bouwvoorbeelden.nl/home_eng.htm to find it). Dutchman "bouwvoorbeelden" wrote, "Yes, you will recognise this model as the Lego Technic 8297 Off Road car. But this is not a normal 8297. It is thoroughly PIMPED! This car has: - a complete new roof with Spoiler, Air Inlets, Antennas and Six Rally Lights - Widened windscreen - Protective Side Bars and extra Bull Bar at the front - Exhaust pipes - A turning steering wheel in a restyled dashboard - Metallic look with Black details instead of grey - Transparent motor block - Two Infrared Sensors in the roof - Two extra motors for remote driving & steering" It has an MLCAD file, a movie, PDF Building Guide, and a Parts List.

@rjk1977: This TechnicBRICKS post talks about the Firgelli 4" Lego-Compatible Linear Actuator. I would think that it would be GREAT to use to lift the boom on your MOC, IF one could get ahold of one somewhere. Here is a Spec Sheet: http://www.firgelli.com/pdf/L12_datasheet.pdf .

Eurobricks TECHNIC AFOL Mahjqa's ORIGINAL MOC "Stilzkin Bridge Launcher" entry in the May 2010 Technic Challenge (from http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=41820&st=0 , posted on May 15, 2010): cristaling's Technic Challenge competition entry, September 2010 (from http://technic.lego.com/en-us/competition/VotingDetails.aspx?contentid=bea5fa74-ddd3-4173-bcb0-4dd43ca6f66d ), a blatant rip-off copy: Sariel's (Paul Kmiec's) ORIGINAL MOC Skywalker Excavator (from http://sariel.pl/2009/01/excavator/ , posted January 6, 2009): daranguan's Technic Challenge entry, September 2010 (from http://technic.lego.com/en-us/competition/VotingDetails.aspx?contentid=8ba4c6ec-48aa-4713-9c09-00e8a7d5194b ), another blatant rip-off copy: CAN YOU SAY, "PLAGIARISM"?

The end of summer in the Northern Hemisphere often features FAIRS and CARNIVALS with old-fashioned amusement rides. On Flickr, Bill Ward writes this about his MOC: "This amusement park ride, known in various parts of the world as the Scrambler, Twist, Twister, Cyclone, Sizzler, Merry Mixer, Grasscutter, or Cha Cha. In my part of the world (California) I've always seen it called the Scrambler. "I built this model for the 2009 Bay Area Maker Faire where it was a part of BayLUG's largest ever public exhibit. "The operating mechanism is similar to the real thing - a central axle drives the whole mechanism, and rubber tires attached to each arm's driveshaft transfer that motion to the ends of each of the three main arms, where a 90 degree gear causes the 4 cars to spin around." Click on this Flickr link for many pictures. VIDEO: .

On SeTechnic, babasorhum posted many pics and a great description of his "Crawler-Mounted Power-Driven Circular Saw". The Babelfish English translation (scroll down the page a bit) of the original SeTechnic post in French reveals: "Hello with all! Here my MOC for the contest: It is about a crawler-mounted power-driven circular saw...." "The design is in several “modules”, to assemble only with the assistance of some parts. It is more to facilitate transport without all to break, and I even find this technique of assembly by “modules” very interesting in it. "Here the MOC close with being gone up, with its various modules: "Here each module in detail, with a bond towards a photograph not to overload the forum too much....The frame with its two parts (the back part contains the XL for the propulsion, the M for the compressor, the two mini pumps, the air tank, hitch-hiking, the M and its two jacks mécas for the direction as well as the M for the rotation of the turret, and the BB - which comes to position with the top of the two jacks mecas - and its two receivers IR): http://c1.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/123/l_267f0e8d76c6476399ba69535c9c4788.jpg The grip: http://c4.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/116/l_60e3950e89a042bdb30177d736b880a3.jpg Caterpillars: http://c1.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/77/l_1e7c11d6c9124b2798fd7872982a83c0.jpg The extensible arm: http://c2.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/103/l_3171aecc1f204b1fbafb7fcdbf95a475.jpg The arm unit/cabin dismounted: http://c1.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/124/l_49f085f2074f4b058f8f780da3169d60.jpg Then gone up: http://c3.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/152/l_36df4f99e38b4de080462364af5fca9e.jpg Here the frame assembled on its caterpillars: http://c4.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/121/l_f3510590e48b48df936a4ec7a0edde3f.jpg ...the MOC counts approximately 1500 parts...." YouTube videos about the Air Compressor: ...and the Propulsion: ...and the Direction: ...and the Turret: ...and the "Exit of the Arm": ...and the Pneumatic Functions: ...and the Total Operation of the Machine: 68 Photos on MySpace!

@ drdavewatford: Recommend looking at this Eurobricks topic to try to get your Micromotor to work.

Maybe you could make it into one of those BRP Can-Am Spyder motorcycles: