42055 - Bucket Wheel Excavator - MODs and Improvements

[Gabi_BC]

^^ Sadly no, it is in stand by since i did not have the time to work on it. I will get to it eventually. 

[jon hirst]

This is my very first attempt at building in Lego so I hope everyone will forgive my lack of skills and experience 'cos I find it quite difficult to achieve what others have . . .however:

This model out of the box does have a few issues and I still believe it is well worth the challenge and making a few modifications to improve things.  The addition of additional motors and RC is already beautifully covered, (although 4 or even 5 motors will be required.)

The first issue is the lack of steering and slow nodding movement forwards and back.  This is due mainly to a long drive chain and the fact that the track footprint is much shorter than it's width.  To overcome these issues I've used one XL for the drive and a L motor for the steering and run them through a simple subtractor unit.  It works well . . . now if I could only incorporate the battery into the base as well !

I'm currently moving the whole upper assembly a few blocks towards the back in an attempt to further reduce any 'nodding effect and is looking possible . . . 

The discharge conveyor is easily extended and lowered by a block or two but the main working boom is not only a little short but also bends under the weight of the bucket wheel assembly . . .  this is now work in progress so wish me luck.

 

I'm hoping others can improve on my weak attempts !

Edited November 29, 2016 by jon hirst

[Imanol BB]

Hi Jon, welcome to Eurobricks, i must say that i think that you have made a very great work, i had made a modified base which had 2 L motors, each one driving a track, but i am very impressed how you came up with that sub-tractor system, i hadn't even thought of using one, maybe you would need to make some modifications for the upper superstructure to make it fit and rotate properly, but i think it is worth for such great modification, and i think that the extension of the tracks is a great modification too, i knew that they were too short but for some reason i never changed them, and looking at your modifications, i imagine that they must work very well, i am very impressed with your current work, for being your first post in this community, i think you have given a big contribution, and a lot of inspiration for further modifications

[jon hirst]

Thank you for the very warm and encouraging welcome.  So appreciated!

Yes using the subtractor diffs the model now ambles around my lounge as well as any model car and at sensible speeds too.  As it stands the upper parts as per the kit fit perfectly with no mods required but I as still trying to improve upon things.  I've now added an L motor to allow rotation and hope to add a further L motor as suggested in previous postings to adjust the bucket elevation.  The only work the original XL motor now has to do is drive the conveyor belts.  Give me a few months  'cos I'm still learning !

Great site ! ! ! !

[jon hirst]

Well it all works . .  unfortunately not all at the same time as I haven't enough motors and very limited RC gear . . . .  

It's very heavy, 1 metre long and 375mm high  (over 100mm longer and nearly 30mm lower than the kit)  It moves and steers really smoothly and the boom is now almost straight and is perfectly balanced (with the aid of 200gram chocolate bar !)

The turntable assembly is still wobbly so lots of work needed here, perhaps loads of rollers and stouter fixings.  I need to find a way of installing the base unit battery box into the base and still have access to it and I need to pretty things up (more part shopping)

Now to strip down and try to improve further and I may try something even more outlandish but more akin to the real thing !

 

Still learning 4 weeks in . . .  perhaps by this time next year eh ! ! ! 

 

I'd post a decent photo but I'm only allowed 30kb . . .  not sure why.  Here's a tiny tiny photo anyway . . .

[M_longer]

Just now, jon hirst said:

 

I'd post a decent photo but I'm only allowed 30kb . . .  not sure why.  Here's a tiny tiny photo anyway . . .

You can try uploading your pictures to Bricksafe (or/and Flickr) and post them here :)

[jon hirst]

Thank you M_longer . . .  I'm still learning !

[jon hirst]

Has anyone tried working with the new toothed quadrants and worked out what the narrow grove is for as nothing except the little bevels seem to fit . . . it must have a purpose !

My attempt at roller bearings using little bevels . . . 16 to a circle, but of course the standard 'joiners' cannot be used so some form of firm support would be needed.

 

Just my 'newby' thoughts . . . and my TINY photo (23kb . . . 0.023mb)  upload has failed again and if they get any smaller they'll disappear !

 

Edited December 6, 2016 by jon hirst

[Ngoc Nguyen]

10 minutes ago, jon hirst said:

Has anyone tried working with the new toothed quadrants and worked out what the narrow grove is for as nothing except the little bevels seem to fit .

I think most pieces in Lego are developed for more than one use, as that's what Markus said in the Lego Technic blog. That grove allows the quadrants to be in effect an XL turntable, as demonstrated in the official set. However, I think the grove is also intended to be held by some edges. Notice that the gear quadrant has the same interface with the 42043 gear rack: bevel gear compatibility + grove.

On another note, for those who would like to speed up the BWE without having to modify too much, simply replace the 12z and 20z gears in step 506 with two 16z gears.

[Ngoc Nguyen]

I've FINALLY achieved what I've always wanted while modifying this set. My aim is to increase the bucket wheel & conveyor speed, at the same time still retain some protection measures. And here is what I come up with.

Instead of
20z 12z
      24z 8z
      24z 8z

in the original setup, rearrange them as

24z 8z
24z 8z
      12z 20z

This increases the speed significantly, while still allow enough force to not slip the clutch gear 24z. You can even change the 12z - 20z into 24z - 8z and the clutch gears still don't slip, but that would be too fast to be enjoyable.

[Catalinanmb]

Hi,

Would you be so kind to post a coupe of photos of the gears you swapped, or indicate the steps in the original building instructions?

Thank you in advance.

[Ngoc Nguyen]

4 hours ago, Catalinanmb said:

Hi,

Would you be so kind to post a coupe of photos of the gears you swapped, or indicate the steps in the original building instructions?

Thank you in advance.

 

Step 506 507 508 in the instructions.

Instead of
20z 12z
       24z 8z
       24z 8z

in the original setup, rearrange them as

24z 8z
24z 8z
      12z 20z

 

[Catalinanmb]

Thanks.

[Ngoc Nguyen]

22 minutes ago, Catalinanmb said:

Thanks.

If possible can you update about how the new arrangement works out for you?

[Catalinanmb]

Will do, I'll start building it in a coupe of days.

[Catalinanmb]

I've applied the mod, it works brilliantly. Thanks again for sharing.

[DanFraser]

On 20/10/2016 at 8:44 AM, Gabi_BC said:

^^ Sadly no, it is in stand by since i did not have the time to work on it. I will get to it eventually. 

I would love to know if more has been done on this!  Fantastic model!

[OneMoreRobot]

14 hours ago, DanFraser said:

I would love to know if more has been done on this!  Fantastic model!

Same here, looking forward to building it

[Gabi_BC]

I can share the LDD files of what has been done so far (still in standby sadly, but at least job related things are good so more parts money )

The main areas that are still uncovered are the discharge conveyor and carrier, some details on the bucket wheel arm and the slewing system/turntable (i think at this size a modified turntable would be needed to have stability)

Will be back later with download links for current files.

Edit:

As promised, https://www.dropbox.com/sh/zep52tlzm9s4jnb/AACG4eum8UNC7r1XiaK6oCcla?dl=0 

Feel free to do any modifications, adjustments and corrections to it and share them. When i last worked on it i was devising a way to keep the cab level while the main arm goes up and down. 

Edited January 19, 2017 by Gabi_BC
Uptades

[DanFraser]

Oooh!  Something to play with!  Don't know if I'd ever be able to produce something to even my liking but I'll have fun.

[designer-han]

Just being in the process to build the BWE from my spare part collection. I was wondering if some of you run into the next to 'issues' as well.

1) I used initially the DBG treads of the 42042 Crawler Crane, and experienced a very jerky run (including stalling) of the treads over the sprocket wheels. This has all to do with inner tread shapes (bad = triangle based, smooth = square based).
I know that TLC changed a couple of years ago the tread design; but I did not expect that the Crawler Crane treads of 1 yr before the BWE should fail. I used the older treads I had, and no issues at all.
My questions is: what are the shapes of the official BWE DBG treads??

2) The conveyer chain of the BWE (upper chain, from buckets to middle section) to jam once in a while. I guess this has to do with the older DBG treads I am using (have more slack). Does anyone experienced this as well?

Edited January 27, 2017 by designer-han

[lucio]

 

rc phenomenal ... congratulations

 

[Rygar]

On 19/1/2017 at 3:20 PM, Gabi_BC said:

I can share the LDD files of what has been done so far (still in standby sadly, but at least job related things are good so more parts money )

The main areas that are still uncovered are the discharge conveyor and carrier, some details on the bucket wheel arm and the slewing system/turntable (i think at this size a modified turntable would be needed to have stability)

Will be back later with download links for current files.

Edit:

As promised, https://www.dropbox.com/sh/zep52tlzm9s4jnb/AACG4eum8UNC7r1XiaK6oCcla?dl=0 

Feel free to do any modifications, adjustments and corrections to it and share them. When i last worked on it i was devising a way to keep the cab level while the main arm goes up and down. 

Is it possible a PDF version?

[Gabi_BC]

I'm back

question: is it possible to set the motor RPM via the sbrick app such as to eliminate the need to build a reduction gear? 'cause if so, i'm considering switching all the control system to sbrick

question2: is there a limit to what bluerender can take until it tells you to leave it alone? 

Happy spring everyone!

 

Edited March 1, 2017 by Gabi_BC

[Imanol BB]

Oh my, good to see you back, and the BWE looks very nice, about your questions:

1): As far as i can remember, it was possible to set the voltage for the output connection to the motor, so it should be possible to set a low speed, and the motor should work if it is not under too much stress.

2): I cant say for sure if there is a limit for the files used in Bluerender (and if there is, which is it), i haven't experienced any problem with Bluerender so far, but i can imagine that my computer would have many problems to run this huge model.

So far the model is coming out nicely, the rear conveyor belts are amazing too, i hope to see it built in real life in a future, nice work.