Hey,

there is this new creation i finished a few weeks ago.
You can get the instruction and studio file for free.
The build is split into the chassis and a camera turret.
The chassis is based on 8880 - yes the legendary.
The camera arm is based on a set i really like: the 8839 supply ship.

I just want to say hello with this build.
have fun.

Link to Camera Dolly Chassis: (link missing at the moment)

Link to Camera Dolly Turret: (link missing at the moment)

 

About the Camera Dolly

The chassis is a completely new development from the parts of the 8880 Super Car.
The idea was to connect the two axles of the front and rear wheels with a frame that is as lightweight and stiff as possible.
The motors for drive and control and the camera arm are integrated in the frame.
So nothing special.

Maybe worth mentioning is that the XL motor drives the differential of the rear wheels via a cascade of gears.
To keep weight down and friction in the drivetrain low, the front wheels are not driven.

The large XL motor is integrated into the frame. This has moved the gear racks for the steering to the outside.
Because the original 8880 Super Car has Ackerman steering, the dolly car has Anti-Ackerman steering. This means that the outer wheels steer more than the inner wheels. The advantage of this is that the dolly car automatically slows down in very tight curves due to the increased friction.

More exciting is the camera arm. This is built from the parts of the 8839 Supply Ship.
The arm can rotate on the turntable. The idea here is to get the camera arm into the desired position before starting to shoot. To do this, the arm should be folded up or supported with the hand during rotation.

The folding of the camera arm upwards or forwards is done by a multi-jointed construction. This means that when the arm is pulled down at the rear end to fold the arm up, the front part is pushed up. This special design reduces the load on the gears compared to direct control of the arm.
To stabilize the camera, there is a camera gimbal at the end of the arm, connected via a Technic Brick and a rubber band. This gimbal can rotate freely in space and keep the camera in a certain orientation independent of the position of the chassis in space.

Please have a look at my short video...

If you want to build your own camera arm from your very own parts, you can get some inspiration from the assembly instructions of my arm. This will definitely save you a lot of time and you won't lose a big gear like I did.

Cheers

Edited April 22, 2024Apr 22 by pow
Changed the title. and more details in description, links dead at the moment

Would you be so kind, and use more proper title, this is not tik tok.

Hi Jurss,

thank you for your comment.

no problem i can use more proper titles in the future. And i'm sorry if i broke written or unwritten collective law.

But @Jurss ,can you please explain: What do you mean with tik tok? I don't want to get you wrong.

Best wishes

Edited November 8, 20222 yr by pow

7 hours ago, pow said:

Hi Jurss,

thank you for your comment.

no problem i can use more proper titles in the future. And i'm sorry if i broke written or unwritten collective law.

But Jurss, can you please explain: What do you mean with tik tok? I don't want to get you wrong.

Best wishes

The title doesn't really match the content, it's click bait. Looks like a fun build though.

Interesting, I have never seen a LEGO camera car before. I like the suspended camera arm, but I am not a fan of fixing the camera in place with a single rubber band 

10 hours ago, pow said:

 problem i can use more proper titles in the future.

Regarding this: you can still update your title by editing the first post. Just look at how other theads are named to get an idea how things are done here 

@pow

I have changed the title. You can always change it to a more fitting one, by editing the first post.
It is a good practice to match the title with the actual build you are showing.

Very interesting creating, btw

Thanks @Gray Gear , yes the development of the arm took it's time. And it looks pretty neat. If something looks clean and simple you can tell it is well developed.

If using some strong rubber band to fix the camera it works pretty well. The problem lays in the rubber itself. it dries out.

And It definitely is fun to build. But the time i put into this project is immense. Even creating the build instruction took me four days. Routing all the plates, so that the instruction works, is ten times more complicated compared to liftarm builds. Because bricks stack on top each other. so adding a detail on a deeper layer has to be planned very well. Otherwise your instruction becomes spaghetti.

@Milan appreciate your friendly words and thanks for changing the title.

Namaste.

7 hours ago, pow said:

If something looks clean and simple you can tell it is well developed.

Sometimes, yeah. As long as the rubber band is new and very strong this is probably fine, and a lightweight solution.

7 hours ago, pow said:

But the time i put into this project is immense. Even creating the build instruction took me four days.

That's actually quite ok I'd say. I think a lot of people here spend a lot longer for some of their bigger MOCs. Creating Instructions for my last 1:8 Technic Car MOC took 100+ hours, over 2 weeks of time taken off work to do it...

7 hours ago, pow said:

Routing all the plates, so that the instruction works, is ten times more complicated compared to liftarm builds. Because bricks stack on top each other.

What programm are you using? That doesn't sound right. I have made instructions for both system and technic builds (both involving functions) and I haven't noticed any difference in difficulty making the instructions 

I suggest adding a more detailed description to your post, because at first, I did not really realize what this is all about, I was like, "okay, he put a camera on a car using a crane arm, nothing special, but why do you need 8880 for that?", and I was completely missing that it actually acts like a gimbal, stabilizing the camera through the use of pivot points and rubber bands. It's one thing that it's more detailed on Rebrickable, but if someone is not interested after reading your short description on here, he won't follow the link to Rebrickable, and miss the essence.

Now that I understand the core idea, it makes more sense to put it on a full suspension chassis, since that also acts as a stabilizer :) Cool idea!

I'd even change the title again to reflect that it is a gimbal, as that's the novelty :)

Hi @gyenesvi , you do have a point. ...that's a good idea. Ill update the post later. Ha, I just learned that I even already follow you on rebrickable. :)

Edited November 13, 20222 yr by pow

12 hours ago, Gray Gear said:

What programm are you using? That doesn't sound right. I have made instructions for both system and technic builds (both involving functions) and I haven't noticed any difference in difficulty making the instructions 

At the moment i use Bricklink Studio. But going to switch to a different tool i plan.

Yeah the struggle with the bricks happened, due to the fact, that the car tries to build up relatively early before all brick layers where settled. you can't just add a brick layer from aside, as it's often possible with liftarms.

there is one example, where i integrate a 2x8 technic plate. as resting point for the m-motors. that happens relatively early in the build. but the whole steering mechanism was missing at this point. the steering builds up(upwards) relatively fast connecting to the sidewall. so what to build first? when building up the sidewall the counter part in front of you has to be build up too and the view on the steering axles is blocked - very suspicious.  ...Amazing that you are interested in those details.

What tool are you using? can you commend on a tool that works also on linux?

best wishes

Edited November 8, 20222 yr by pow

No experience with Linux.

I use LDCad, and LPub3D for the Instructions. Much better for builds involving technic imo.

On 11/8/2022 at 11:23 PM, Gray Gear said:

No experience with Linux.

I use LDCad, and LPub3D for the Instructions. Much better for builds involving technic imo.

Thanks for the tip. LDCad is available for my Linux distribution. Unfortunately there is no prefabricated build script for LPub3D yet.