Lego Tom

DIY cables offer some real benefits if one is capable. They can be made to exact lengths, mitigating the need to hide excess cable and they can be made using more flexible wire, making runs easier to do. Given the ends are available, I might give this a go.

There is no picture and nothing to click on.

Ich kann nichts verstehen, was er da sagt.

The poll seems to be missing an option:

You will probably get better response if you post in the Technics section. That's were the programmers hang out: https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/forum/115-lego-technic-mindstorms-model-team-and-scale-modeling/

Yes, it's per year - but it's a 'rolling' year that starts on the date people contribute.

A forum that I moderate has a 4 level donation system. They are $30 (Bronze) $60 (Silver) $120 (Gold) and $200 (Platinum). Donating at any level eliminates ads but as the donation level increases, so 'extras' such as larger avatar and more PM storage/space. There are several members who contribute at the Gold and Platinum levels. Donations can be made via PayPal, even if you don't have a PayPal account.

I just finished with "A" section. The gear box is complex but not any worse than some of LEGO's more ambitious endeavors. However there are some oddities in construction that forced me to use tweezers because my fingers are too large to fit into spaces to insert a gear where needed. The engineering is also a bit different from LEGO, which isn't bad, just different. In some other complex builds, I started to adopt the habit of adding a bit of silicone grease to gears and sometimes axles (long runs through multiple parts or places where stress will be high) and due to the large number of gears in this set, I would recommend doing so. It doesn't take much and not only helps the gears run smoothly, but quietly as well. This is certainly not a project for a novice and if someone buys it for their 10 year old, I hope the kid is of advanced intelligence or sticks their parent(s) in a crappy nursing home for revenge. Again, perhaps because of my old eyes, the instructions aren't always clear on where parts or assemblies join. In the case of assemblies however, when you do figure it out, they go together very well without the extra effort LEGO assemblies sometimes take, I suspect due to their softer material. Still, I am not a fan of the two piece frame/box pieces! I'll make note of the rope in step E160!

@efferman: I'm sure you'll enjoy the kit! I borrowed one of your photos to show the two-piece parts I referenced that have to be assembled to make the one piece LEGO equivalent:

I recently bought and received the CaDA Military Crane Truck C61507W and even though I just started in on it, I have some observations. First of, the box is first class. Very sturdy with nice cover art of the model. Inside were 5 boxes, numbered 1-5 plus the manual. Again, the boxes are very nice and have an outline of the model on them. I opened the one marked #1 and took out the parts. Upon opening, I noticed there weren't any pins! WTH??? I started going through the other boxes and I noticed that the parts bags inside didn't necessarily correspond to number on the box. In box #5, I found a large bag of pins - yay! Another thing I noticed almost immediately is the plastic used is not soft like LEGO plastic but very "old school" hard. This doesn't bother me except I wonder how well it will hold up down the road, say 10 years from now? The next thing I noticed was CaDA has a lot of parts that LEGO doesn't make. Most of them are pretty cool except for the two piece rectangular frame pieces. Perhaps as someone alluded, CaDA made them this way to avoid a patent infringement (China infringe on patents? Say it ain't so!) but the end result is a bit of a PITA to use. Yes, it works but it requires adding pins to hold it together. In some builds, this won't matter because you'd be adding pins for other purposes, but if you have no pins in the two short ends of the frame where they fit together, don't expect it to stay together very long. The instructions are not up to LEGO standards. They aren't bad, but they aren't great either. The worst part about them is the low key highlighting that can be very hard to pick out, especially on black parts. Additionally, in Chinese fashion of reading right to left, they often show assembly instructions on the right resulting in the assembled part on the left. No, it doesn't take rocket science to figure out but the first time I saw it messed with my head a little bit. So far, the model seems to be good, with no problems putting parts together or marrying sub assemblies to each other. When I finish the model, I'll come back and add any additional findings.

I just checked their brick page. They have 15L regular beams but the longest flip-flop is 13L. That doesn't mean they might not be available in one of their sets, just that you can't buy them separately.

I believe 11 is as long as they have in the flip-flop.

The springs, in conjunction with the battery box provide feedback of the weight distribution for the app.

Tires? Who needs tires?

Given last year's crane, price would probably be closer to $800 unless maybe it was a generic, in which case the price might only be $795.

Oh yes - a Taylor Swift LEGO set! Pardon me while I clean up the vomit...

Huh, well that's pretty darn cool!

That is totally impressive!!!

Holy cow - 30 mph and not stalling? Incredible! Nice build and I like the sound effects on the video.

The turntable worked fine, but I did end up adding a second set of roller balls under the counterweight I had added. It helped take out some of the bounce when moving as well as relieving some of stress from the added weight.

Like others, I would have no problem making a monetary contribution to offset the lost revenue in not seeing ads. Something using PayPal for donations would be ideal.

Thanks for the info!

What am I Missing here? Buwizz 3.0 is rated at 2200mAh. Decent AA rechargables often go 2800mAh and cost far less than the Buwizz unit, even when you include the cost of a charger. Is not having to open the battery box to remove, recharge and replace 6 batteries really worth the cost difference? Or is the big draw it uses a different interface? Inquiring minds want to know!