This little project to show and share interesting Lego creations in mainly Lego Technic theme is now one year old, thanks to everyone who visit this blog!
I need one of this:
Hope we can celebrate more anniversaries and make that this little blog continues growing!
4, yes 4 new and fantastic Great Ball Contraption Modules From the GBC virtuous Akiyuky
The first two modules where new and fabulous versions of Archimedes screw and Spiral Lift modules, the 1st Spiral and 1st and 2nd Screws where smart and beauty too.
In addition this awesome pneumatic module, I'm really impressed and fascinated with the precision of movements and the sequence timing.
And finally a new concept in GBC (at least for me), the Zig-Zag, I will replicate this module too, for sure !!
Nice new creations of probably the best and the most creative GBC builder.
This is my 4th Lego Technic compressor, after little modifications it has been used in a pneumatic sequential GBC module that I will present soon. Very simple yet effective.
"BallMageddon is an all LEGO scrolling sign that uses 2-inch diameter DUPLO balls as its display element. Seven builders, 11 NXTs, over 800 DUPLO balls, and many 1000's of LEGO elements.
Each character took a bit over 3 minutes to display. This was shown at BrickCon 2011, at the Seattle Center on October 1-2.
BTW: The final "BrickCon 2011" segment took approximately 45 minutes for the contraption to display in real time."
If you don't understand how the CVT (continuously variable transmission) works at this previous post...
This creation from Nico71 can explain it perfectly! Just watch the video, all explanation inside!
As he wrote on the video description:
"Based on modified version of Zblj's Transmission. This CVT enables a variation of the speed (and the torque) from 40rpm to 200 (1/5, 1/1) with constant speed for the motor (200rpm). The two mechanical tachometers show respectively the speed of the motor and the speed of the output."
And the rotation of the yellow connector shows when the torque limiter slides.
By the way since the previous CVT post I've found two more examples of cvt gearboxes:
The firs one is made by Sheepo that uses two conical surfaces concted with a wheel, as some motorcycles do.
The other cvt gearbox is a compact and very smart idea by Rob Stehlik at Robs Lego Design site
"My Lego CVT is a friction drive assembly, and it is really just a quick concept that wouldn't be very practical in real applications."
"These pictures show the full range of the white disk. One of the wheels is the input, and the other is the output. The speed of the output can vary from much slower than the input speed to much faster. Sounds real technical doesn't it? I didn't bother calculating the exact ratios."
Nice example of unloading module that manages to receive lots of balls form a train module and give them at approximately one per second, as GBC rules said.
"The Oldham coupling and Schmidt coupling are two various mechanical solutions for transmitting drive between two parallel axles that are not aligned in line".
As wroted on Sariel's Webpage: ( Visit for full explanation, instructions, more information and Moc's)
That makes this two mechanisms an alternative to universal joints, which are long, and to gear wheels, which only fit in specific spacings and affect power/speed ratio if not meshed at 1:1 ratio.
The Oldham coupling consists of two identical rotors, each connected to one axle, and a sliding element between them. In short, the Oldham coupling is short and maintains 1:1 ration, but is complex, fragile and has large diameter.
The Schmidt coupling consists of three discs or triangles connected with links, it can work while its input and output are moving relatively to each other. That makes it an interesting solution for transferring drive to the moving elements of your construction. The Schmidt coupling is also extremely robust and can handle high torque while generating minimum backlash.
A "real" Schmidt coupling, as you can see the Lego Technic version works perfectly...
While preparing the GBC for the 5th Hispalug Meeting i've decided to build a replica of this extremely interesting and complex model from Akiyuky, in the design procces the need of specific pieces make me realize the level of building precision that this module requires.
Excellent creation by Barman, controlled with Power functions.
As wroted in the video description:
"Minifig scale Technic container crane, that can load and unload containers on the 10219 Maersk train, the trucks or in the depot.
Using Power Functions to controle the train and crane.
Train is powered by 2 PF train motors
Crane moves by 3 M-motors and a old 9V micro motor (red)."
The last car presented at Sheepo's Garage is a MINI Cooper Mark I, featuring several mechanisms that appear in the real car, as this builder has accustomed us.
Lego Robot Beats Human World Record For Solving the Rubik’s Cube!
Solving the Rubik’s Cube puzzle popularized in the 1980s is an exercise in futility for many of us, but to a world class “speedcuber” it’s a challenge of mere moments. The currentofficial human record for the Rubik’s cube 3×3 puzzle is just 5.66 seconds. I know a robot that did it in 5.35 seconds. Take, that humanity! (Wait a second…) The puzzle solving bot is called CubeStomer II and you can watch its record breaking run in the video below. Made from Lego, powered by an Android smart phone, and created by two mad geniuses, CubeStormer II has a pedigree that sounds like it came from a children’s cartoon. That’s fitting, because I think the Lego NXT robot is a sure sign that humanity has gone meta. Why waste time on solving trivial puzzles when you can build a robot to waste time solving trivial puzzles for you instead?Both the NXT bricks and the SII smart phone feature processors made ARM, who commissioned the CubeStormer II and who will be showcasing the Lego robot at ARMTechCon 2011 in Santa Clara next week (Oct 26-27). The real geniuses behind the high speed Rubik’s robot, however, are its creators: Mike Dobson and David Gilday. Dobson built the original CubeStormer early in 2010, while Gilday has constructed several other Rubik’s solving robots that are equally impressive. These Lego lunatics are at the top of their game with the CubeStormer II. Humans competing to solve the Rubik’s Cube get to study it first before their time trial beings. Not only does CubeStormer II beat their puny human records, it doesn’t need to study! Let there be no doubt about it, robots rule Rubik’s.
CubeStormer II is controlled by four Lego NXT ‘bricks’ that communicate via Bluetooth with a Samsung Galaxy SII smart phone. A special app on the phone takes a picture of the cube, solves the puzzle virtually, and then relays the solution to the Lego robot. From click to finish the whole process takes just seconds. You have to see it to believe it:
Huge model! Very well designed and full of details.
The real thing:
"This is a model of the backhoe dredger Pinocchio, owned by the Belgian DEME Group. Equipment of this kind is used to dredge harbour bottoms, canals and the like. The soil is deposited into barges floating alongside the dredger. The floating on the water is simulated by setting up the model on 4 (yellow) columns. The most striking features of Pinocchio are the 3 spud legs and, of course, the Liebherr 996 Litronic digger. The spud legs can be lowered onto the seabed by winches. In reality the spuds can be forced into the bottom using the power of the winches, but this proved to be too much of a challenge for my model. My spuds are lowered by the winches, aided by gravity, and as soon as they touch the bottom, wires become slack. The spudwires of this model are looped over sheaves in the top of the spud legs, to make it look more realistic. Pinocchio has no propulsion of itself, and to make it move, the forward spud leg is fitted in a spud carrier, which can travel athwartships over a few meters. When the vessel is floating, the forward spud firmly into the seabed and the two other spuds raised, she can “walk” forward or aft. The Liebherr excavator is quite a monster, driven by 2 powerful V-engines and fitted on the pontoon on a flexible mounting."
Of course more information about the MOC in the Marinus blog:(highly recommended)
"It's a 1:20 scale replica of the Hercules C-130J by Lockheed Martin. The C-130J Hercules is a transportation aircraft for the military. The 'J' model is an improvement from the first Hercules and the most visible improvement is the six-blade propeller. For more information about this aircraft, please visit it's official homepage at Lockheed Martins."
From the same author of the Truncated Octahedron, the builder Aklego has several nice Moc's that mix Technic and mathematics concepts, lovely creations, no matter if you understand it or not ^_^ All the videos on Aklego'syoutube channel
"Do you think it's impossible to make Lego fly? Then you have to watch my "Flying lego"! Without the use of any non-Lego parts I lift Lego up to 5 meters into the air.
Another impressive creation by Anika Vuurzoon, who was recently featured in this BLOG ENTRY , it has built lots of lovely creations, uses my loved technic figures, and make precious videos. Hope this won't stop!
No words can describe the last device added to Akiyuki's ball factory! Mechanical precission complemented with an smart electronic ball separator and accurate robotic arm, stop reading this and wach:
"This is a catapult I made to control a video game that was made by me and two other guys from my college. The catapult is built on top of an old PS/2 mouse. I have attached rubber bands to the encoder wheels of the mouse so the gears can control it. The video game is about destroying a castle by shooting at the screen. The goal is to free Maria's lover prince Pear who was captured by the evil wizard Haxor. It's the players job to aim at the castle with the catapult and to avoid hitting prince Pear. More info on the game on http://www.digipult.nl"
I found this some days ago in Brixe63's photostream at Flickr and until I saw the following image I don't realized that all parts where built in lego pieces!! ALL PARTS!
In their sitelaurens gauwloos pubkished this 10 modules GBC with some interesting features, and reinterpretations of known gbc concepts and techniques.
"This Lego great ball contraption "GBC" has 10 different modules and are sturing with 8 PF-M motors and 2 PF-L motors. It took me 1 month to finish it. It is 2 metre long and 30-40 centimetre width. It contains: A ball shooter, a moving bridge, 2 ball lifts, a ball accelerator, a ball wheel,.... It is powerd by 2 PF-battery boxes and 2 switches to have the righe direction. there are also many delays with gears and worm gears. You'll see that I have used tracks for the lifts and for the ball wheel and a big shock absorber for shooting the balls."
And finally my own first prototype of automatic gearbox, mixing Misha and Zblj concepts, two differentials to switch between 1:1 and 1:5 gear ratios, and a third differential to unlock the 1:5 gears when more torque is need and lock it when less torque and more speed is wanted, also the 1:1 gears got anti-return device in order to prevent the stop of the entire gearbox.
The Pancake Bot (PB) is basically a 3 axis CNC made that uses the Z coordinate as the Pancake Batter Dispenser Control. This one just happens to be made out of LEGO.
Yes, I say MECHANICAL instead of electronic, because this module is all made without mindstorms, wedoo or other electronic devices... mechanical automatism brought to perfection
Just see how great this is:
The loading module
And a closer image of the automatic loading mechanism:
The switch-clutch selector, equivalent to the vintage monorail LEGO system, see the output gear and the clutch selector in booth sides:
