suffocation

Thanks, lads The mLA controls the polarity switch, enabling three steering modes: front-wheel, four-wheel & crab. The Bionicle tooth on the side shows which mode is currently selected. The M motor in the superstructure drives a fake inline engine - my nephew wanted "one of those jiggly things" running even when the crane was in operating mode

Took some new, post-lockdown pics with some more details of the internals.

There's an iconic/ironic case of the pot calling the kettle black here

For maximum speed yes, you'd need BuWizz. Two units would probably be better than one.

I'd go with two L motors per axle, four in all. That should ensure more than enough torque and speed, especially in ludicrous mode. Furthermore, L motors are great for structural reinforcement, so you could easily gut out most of the car's innards without compromising its stiffness.

Funny thing is, that Tesla would probably be just as fast if not faster with four motors instead of eight. You get to a point where the added torque isn't needed and the extra motors just become dead weight.

@Mr Jos This might help: https://bricksafe.com/pages/hateofallhatreds/mocs/12.-cherry-picker/wip

+2 Not to mention the inspiration coming from your (jb70's) Mocs.

Actually, the flashing is the same in both battery boxes. The difference is that the dead battery box carries on flashing indefinitely - I left it plugged in overnight and it was still flashing this morning - whereas the working one stops flashing after a couple of hours, as expected. It's the original Lego charger (could've bought five bottles of Nero d'Avola with that money ).

I'd check the axle collection thread:

I think the stacked frames may be an issue. Stacked frames don't quite measure up to their theoretical height, so e.g. four stacked frames will measure a fraction of a mm less than four studs, which is more than enough to generate unwanted friction, especially between bevel gears.

Thanks! I can probably find someone able to handle the task - if I try it my clumsy self, northern Italy's likely to get wiped off the map Couldn't agree more! At least three of my models would be lost without it. It sat there untouched for three months (bloody lockdown and bloody remote working). I tried using it today but it was drained, so I charged it for a few hours but to no avail. I do have another one which I also recharged and now works fine, so I'd rule out any problems with the charger. As I mentioned before, the light next to the charger port does flash when the charger's plugged in, so I assume the circuitry "thinks" it's recharging the battery. Also, the power light does come on if I press the button with the charger plugged in, however the second I remove the charger the whole battery goes dead.

Apologies for going full necro on this thread. One of my 8878 batteries has just gone belly up. If I plug in the charger, the light next to the charger port flashes away like a demented Christmas tree for hours on end but once I unplug it the battery won't switch on. So, big question - is there any way to replace the LiPo battery inside? Note that my electrotechnical proficiency on a scale of 1 to 10 is a fat zilch.

It's a black 5x7 frame Not yet. There seem to be very few track lengths where the tracks will sit just right and I just happened to chance on one here I haven't tested the tracks under heavy load, though, so I may have to tweak things further down the line. Gonna use the BuWizz app, like I did here.

My youngest nephew fell head-over-heels in love with the Manitowoc 31000, so this is the ab ovo stage of my half-arsed attempt at building something very, very loosely based on it. The hardest part so far has been designing solid, form-locked modular tracks. They're geared down a mere 9:1 - far from realistic, but very playable.

@Jundis This isn't exactly what you're looking for, but it might help. (I believe it's by @Superkoala)

I think it looks fine but hey, de gustibus non disputandum est

I might've already shared this - can't remember, getting senile. It's loosely based on Nicjasno's Unimog axle. It can be easily adapted to work with portal axles and to match your desired track width.

Sets like 42042, 42043 & 42082 are great for seeing what can be accomplished with just one motor and a well-designed gearbox.

Not jumping to conclusions - the three stacked frames are clearly visible.

I was thinking the same thing. The first time I noticed it was, I believe, in 42082; since then, it seems to have become rather recurrent, at least in larger sets. Very lazy building technique.

@jb70 Thank you so much!

Only as far as official sets go.

People called Romanes they go the house. Functions (or lack thereof) aside, the set looks like a great parts pack if bought at a very Black Fridayish 30% off.

Torque tube aside, have you got the parts for this? https://bricksafe.com/pages/hateofallhatreds/ideas/axles/floating-axle---no-ackermann It can be adapted for portal axles and Ackermann steering and it's beautifully bouncy. I used an older version on my off-road tow truck.