Lego Technic - Blog Posts
Nice LEGO work! Glad to see MOCs are still shared by folks.
Thank you very much !
And as a proper answer, here is a little silly thing I made recently !
Still working on making it reliable, but’s a fun little project on the side of other things I have going on !
✨Another custom vehicle !✨
It has eyes !
This horrendous prototype is a follow up to this post.
Now here is a video of how it works (using the same remote from the other post, that thing is universal !). I wish I had a way to display the good all-terrain capacities of this vehicle (other than wood and seashells...
Details beneath !
Side view :
There are plenty of things here to discuss. Firstly, the suspensions ! Three spring pistons : one of the 'new' models, two much older ones (System, can you believe it ?). At rest, the two small white discs in the middle don't touch the tread, but as soon as an object pass underneath, they get involved. The advantage of this system is that, with every part mobile, the obstacles can be passed easily. And I added rubber grips too.
These treads are powered by PF XL motors. Very very heavy and big, they have the same speed as other motors but much more torque. We're talking of Mindstrom-level torque; this means that In theory, I can add as much weight as I want and keep it at a more than decent page.
You can also see that I fixed two of the biggest flaws from my previous model : firstly the RC receivers have been turned to get signals from multiple angles. Secondly, to rotate the tower, I used a worm gearbox with a PF M to really slow it down; and the wires have been fixed to have a broader angular range.
The turret ? The turret !
These eyes are the best addition to this MOC.
You might notice that I have a servo and a PF M on the turret. This is because the weapon here is a harpoon with a cable. And it has a winch ! All of that with only four controls : two for treads, one for rotation, and one to fire/retract cable.
How ? Well I'm glad you asked. The firing works just like in the previous vehicle : the servo's arm presses on the spring-powered projectile and it flies, along with the cable connected to the other motor.
As for the retraction, it's slightly more complex : on the remote, I press the firing lever the other way around : this causes the servo's arm to go on the winch and it fits nicely, so that when the PF M rotates, the thread can't escape the winch (a video will be in the reblogs, because Tumblr doesn't want me to upload two videos at once...)
Major problems here are the following :
the PF M often detaches itself from the turret
the harpoon often get stuck on the treads
the thread is too short (yeah...)
✨Custom technic vehicle !✨
Something which I had never really posted on before was that, although I enjoy bricks (or Bionicle parts) a lot, I also like to mess around with Technic, when I have the occasion to.
Most of this one is a bunch of additions made on top of the 42065 set, because it's an overall really fun set, with enough space inside to cram in some additional mechanisms.
Here is a video of that thing performing :
...And the remote !
Of course, details and close ups under the cut !
So, here is the (non exhaustive) list of what I added/changed :
Colours of the middle line and addition of some decorative tubes;
A fancy blade at the front;
Plenty of lights;
A turret.
I'll discuss all of these below (except for the first point, which is quite straight forward.
The front :
So, the main plate I used for the vehicle's blade is often used in large Technic cars, mostly for roofs; but used the other way around, it has a nice shape. It's not very functional, but it's aesthetic, and inside are two of the lights I have integrated (some of the cables are visible on the right).
The side :
From here, we can see my beautiful mess of cables (I forced the top open to show it, because it's not as opened at rest). Most of the large cables here are getting power from the battery to the RC receivers; while the small cables are all lights (I might have used too many-).
You might also notice the there are some bumps on the tread pieces : these are rubber grip pieces which I stole from a Nexo Knight Fortrex (it's doing fine without them). These make the plastic less slippery when on rock, but it does a poor job on grass (because grass blades get caught in the gaps of the treads pieces) - to fix that, I would use some of the old rubber treads, but they're way to small to be used as suchs. Instead, to remedy to the problem, I changed the original motors from the default PF M to PF L, which have more power and torque (and can thus reach their max speed even with the added mass). While the two motors have the same theoretical speed, this modified model drives faster than it's standard counter part (it's funny to take over other cars, don't judge).
Back view :
Here you can see the PF M I was talking about (bottom right, the second one is at the front of the vehicle). You may also notice that I have a second mess of cables , because my two receivers are here.
Two major problems with that :
The placement of the receivers makes it so that I can't control the vehicle, unless behind it (oops 1);
Because one of the receivers (on top) had bad wiring with one of the tread motors, the turret is heavily limited in its movements (oops 2).
Turret :
So ! That's the most interesting part of it (obviously).
Now, please note that it was my first time trying to do it, and plenty of my design choices were bad, but fixed in my V2 (will probably be posted next week~).
The way it works is actually quite simple : I have a motor underneath (PF M) positioned horizontally, which is connected directly to the light gray gear (just under the trans green piece on the left) which itself connects to the black base gear on which is mounted the turret. Because of the direct motor connection, the turrets is a nightmare to aim. Not good.
As for the cannon, it's just a servo and a spring cannon. When the servo is activated, the grey technic piece presses the projectile and it flies. Surprisingly simple. (It also lights up the green lights on the side, for fun).
Anyway, this is a fun project to play with. Next week, I might post the V2, which is...Quite different. You'll see :}
And bonus cat picture !
