allanp

Cool, the captains view was a very nice touch

My last MOC to use the flex system was my red hawk rescue. http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=420770 Most of them are 15 or 16 years old but they still work perfect in this model to control the blades. Never had a problem with them but I know it's not wise to expect too much of them so I don't put too much strain on them.

It's believed that there is also a new part that the wheels fit onto, like a gear box housing thingy for portal axles, which i'm very much looking forward to.

Good luck (psst, 8258!)

Maybe you could try the new mini LA's or pneumatics.

The unimog is gonna top both of them

I would recommend the 8258 due to it's awesome size and complexity, surpassing the 8043 on both accounts (it really is big!) but not too hard to build. To be fair tho, no set is too difficult nowadays due to each step of the instructions consisting of only 2 or 3 parts. 8258 IMHO not only has may more parts, but a better selection of parts. Having 8 wheels is far better for making your own designs than having tracks. It also contains 7 gear racks which is useful for steering and so on. The 8258 has also been out longer so it won't be as easy to get in the near future as the 8043. They both have a similar play value and performance, nither of them can lift much weight. 8043 may also be a little dissapointing if it doesn't work as reliably as a technic set should.

Should be good for a future technic challenge competition

Loving the MOC index so far. There are some that i've not come across before.

I actually saw it during my daily check of new posts in the technic, mindstorms, model team theme.

Looking great as per your usual, love it!

Ok, i've come up with these for you. The first is probably the simplest way of doing it: However if you want the non-reversing feature to be silent then you may want to experiment with something like this: I can't say how successful the silent version will be without building it but I hope it at least gives you some ideas to work from.

There are alot of people on brinklink who buy multiple sets just to break them up and sell the parts as spares. If you can sell all the parts you can get a fairly high return. Also there may be people who have (perish the thought) given up the hobby for one reason or another and so are selling off their collection. So there will probably always be micromotors and rare sets like the 8868 available, for a while at least. SWEEEEEEEEEEEEET!!!!!! I'll deffinately be looking out for that

Glad we could help Just sorry you couldn't get your motor working again

That looks really cool, seems to be alot of avatar inspired helis lately. For a moment I thought your x-wing was the entry

Yeah, being that an LA is nothing like a hydraulic! Sorry I couldn't resist! Anywho it's operated by a rack and pinion which in my opinion isn't very realistic but at least it's a little more interesting than an LA in that you have to build more gearing down.

Well they may spring back and touch when taken off the back, but they must not touch each other when they are installed onto the motor, they must touch only the commutator otherwise this will indeed cause a short circuit. The spindle should keep them apart from eachother.

Ah, these illustrations really help what I was trying to say

These motors are quite notorious for failing. One thing you must check first is that the electrical contacts on the back of the motor are clean and free of corrosion. Another thing to try is to literally drop the motor onto a hard tiled floor. This can sometimes loosen a jammed internal working which is usually what goes wrong with these things. If this doesn't work you can remove the back carefully to reveal the commutator (a small metal/copper shaft that is slit into segments) and the tiny metal contacts (little fingers) that brush against the commutator will be on the back part you took off. Make sure these contacts do touch, are not too worn and are clean. You may also want to try turning the commutator by hand using minimal force and fingers only. Using tools will likely ruin the motor beyond reasonable repair. After that it gets more tricky to go deeper into the motor. However if you wish to buy a replacement then www.Bricklink.com is probably your best bet. Hope this helps.

Yeah, the v8 is better than the v4. I'm surprised they went with that actually, they can usually have a v6 in there. That pimped out b-model is great, love the functionality of the front axle.

I wonder what cc that engine would be if it was all scaled up to life size? Probably be a 25 liter v8

Ah, well that makes a little more sense to have it that way now, thanks TechnicJuan. @ Meatman As long as you don't intend to put much power through it, like by motorising it, this gearbox should be fine. However if you want something more straight forward you could use this, which is a standard 4 speed I use for mid sized MOCs. Would fit nice into the extreme cruiser me thinks!

Very slow, much slower than the XL motor. According to http://www.philohome.com/motors/motorcomp.htm (great resourse!) the motor turns at 35 rpm, compared to 220 rpm of the XL motor. Now I hate that the PF motors have any sort of gearing down inside them. I really want to do that myself which is why I often still use the old ungeared 9v motor. However the micro motor is the exception as about 1 turn every 2 seconds is actually a very appropriate speed for this motor considering.

From looking at the picture, the right set of gears transmits power to the 20t bevel gear whilst the left gears transmits power to the 12t bevel gear. This gives you the different speed ratios (12:20, or 3:5 I should say) between front and rear pairs of synchros. You are right, it is more complex than it needs to be. But at least it's different. Sooooo many MOCs use the flawed* setup used in the 8448. Problem is, this setup has the same flaw but 4 times over . *flawed meaning two gears are not spaced closely enough to be properly meshed causing the gears to slip, making it no good for transmitting high levels of torque. I do like the use of the new CV part tho. Hopefully it is being used as a spline shaft as the new parts work great for this. And if this model is not motorised, this gearbox should be fine just for moving a fake engine.

Awesome control there! I love the different swivelling functions of the interchangeable parts, and the control is really precice placing the beam on top of the glue stick. Now when is TLG gonna make longer cylinders so you don't have to double them up! (Sorry, had to get that in somewhere ).