[MOD] 42009 Mobile Crane - MODs and Improvements

[gerger]

I plan to do the same thing. Were you able to use regular LEGO string with studs on the end for this, or did you need a custom solution?

No. the LEGO string with studs will be too short to form a loop. imagine 5 panels each at 11studs long, that's about 55x8mm=44cm; nonelastic fish line should handle it well as it's smooth along the string and it's transparent. If go for PURE Lego, standard lego string will also do very well.

I have assumed you need 1 short PF extension and 2 long extensions. Is this correct?

Yes. (please forgive and ignore my written comments in the file, that's only for myself an easy reference which part go to which sub-model, a readable way during stepping)

I also noticed you reduced from 3 LED sets to 2.

3 LED set can fit actually but it's just very packed and not much visual different, therefore I just use 2 instead of 3.

• MK II version is 3503 parts, so it actually has fewer parts despite the improvements. Much of this is due to pins.
  

Correct. My version2 LDD file shows 3476 parts by removing the dumpy, then swap in +14 shock absorbers +5 L motors +2 LED +1 switch + 2 Long PF extension cables + 1 PF short extension cable +1 rubber band +1 string, will add up to 3503parts in total.

I always wonder if you have unlimited budgets and parts because I read from another thread that you just finish building RH400 Mining Excavator and now the crane, awesome!

[Theo van Vroenhoven]

I always wonder if you have unlimited budgets and parts because I read from another thread that you just finish building RH400 Mining Excavator and now the crane, awesome!

Add time to this! I always thought that Americans had very little spare time since they were always at work...

[nerdsforprez]

No. the LEGO string with studs will be too short to form a loop. imagine 5 panels each at 11studs long, that's about 55x8mm=44cm; nonelastic fish line should handle it well as it's smooth along the string and it's transparent. If go for PURE Lego, standard lego string will also do very well.

Yes. (please forgive and ignore my written comments in the file, that's only for myself an easy reference which part go to which sub-model, a readable way during stepping)

3 LED set can fit actually but it's just very packed and not much visual different, therefore I just use 2 instead of 3.

Correct. My version2 LDD file shows 3476 parts by removing the dumpy, then swap in +14 shock absorbers +5 L motors +2 LED +1 switch + 2 Long PF extension cables + 1 PF short extension cable +1 rubber band +1 string, will add up to 3503parts in total.

I always wonder if you have unlimited budgets and parts because I read from another thread that you just finish building RH400 Mining Excavator and now the crane, awesome!

That is what I had to do with my model. I used regular LEGO string, but not the sting with studs. Regular Lego string worked just fine.

[Blakbird]

I always wonder if you have unlimited budgets and parts because I read from another thread that you just finish building RH400 Mining Excavator and now the crane, awesome!

No, not unlimited so building these two models in the same year was hard. I fund most of my LEGO hobby by selling parts and instructions. I don't really earn any profit but it funds more LEGO which allows me to keep going.

Add time to this! I always thought that Americans had very little spare time since they were always at work...

There are lots of different kinds of Americans, but those of us who live in big cities do tend to work too much. That's why we need diverting hobbies!

[jantjeuh]

Add time to this! I always thought that Americans had very little spare time since they were always at work...

Blakbird isn't human, he exists outside time and space. He doesn't even understand the concept of 'time'.

[Blakbird]

Blakbird isn't human, he exists outside time and space. He doesn't even understand the concept of 'time'.

Wow, I didn't realize you understood me so clearly. I'm impressed!

Gerger, can you give us any information or photos on how to route the extension wires for the outrigger motors?

[squizz]

Hi Nerds, have you some more photos of your crane ? It looks awesome! Cheers Pete.

[jantjeuh]

Wow, I didn't realize you understood me so clearly. I'm impressed!

It's the only feasible explanation for your massive up-to-date MOC collection I feel sorry for Mrs. Blakbird, I guess she doesn't have any living space left.

Edited August 28, 2014 by jantjeuh

[gerger]

Gerger, can you give us any information or photos on how to route the extension wires for the outrigger motors?

Here you are the cabling route from L motors back to receiver:

Connect L Motors and extension cables at location above Axle3, and mount under decking (on both side)

Both 50cm cables go to the right of front outrigger.

and through 1 stud space right next to mini LA (below the bush)

then go back to the space under fake engine..

all the way through battery box area..

and finally connect to the receiver. ( Noted there should be 1 stud space next to the switch, which is handy to stack all LED cabling there, as this picture shown during V1 upgrade)

[Blakbird]

I've completed a first draft of the instructions and posted it at my Bricksafe. For the most part I stuck with the steps that Gerger already created with a bit of re-ordering here and there, some buffer exchanges, and a lot of rotation steps. The carrier is about 600 steps over about 130 pages. I started building it last night. I've completed the first two axles and the instructions are working well.

After the carrier, the instructions just do the superstructure all in one step. I'm trying to decide what to do about that. The main part of the superstructure can be built with Jurgen's Ultimate 42009 instructions which already exist. The boom can almost, but not quite, be built with afol1969's instructions. This boom is longer so those instructions really need to be modified. I'm putting off deciding what to do about the superstructure until later.

Feel free to download the file and give me some feedback, but I probably won't be putting a whole lot more work into the carrier as long as everything is clear enough that it is buildable. I'm not going for perfection.

By the way, I ran into an interesting LPub bug. The image below shows Page 25 which for some reason had pages 1-24 overlaid on it. A good way to save pages, but it is hard to build this way!

[Zerobricks]

OMG Now thats some UBER HARD CORE building instruction.

You never had that before?

Edited August 28, 2014 by Zblj

[jantjeuh]

Cool feature for those people that always complain that current official instructions are 'too easy'.

[camaudio]

yeah, these are perfect in my mind.

not to complex that you have to really focus, but not a page turner either

[kamsohal]

thanks blackbird for this.feedback will be given once i go through it.

[JDC]

Beautiful!

[gerger]

I've completed a first draft of the instructions and posted it at my Bricksafe. For the most part I stuck with the steps that Gerger already created with a bit of re-ordering here and there, some buffer exchanges, and a lot of rotation steps. The carrier is about 600 steps over about 130 pages. I started building it last night. I've completed the first two axles and the instructions are working well.

You take only 4 days to finish the instruction, that's very fast, Blakbird! Impressive! and it's look great. One suggestion if not too trouble is to have sub-model preview before the actual assembly, then will make it very clear. And page numbers. I believe it's buildable already.

Blakbird isn't human, he exists outside time and space. He doesn't even understand the concept of 'time'.

I believe it now!

[Kumbbl]

very impressive, both the model and the instructions - cudos to gerger and blackbird - and of course many many thanks!

I'm eager to build this beauty from my two 42009 sets...

But nevertheless some questions:

- How practicable is gergers model? i ask cause of the suspension: Isn't it too wobly or is the whole chassis "stable" enough to slew the crane (even with extended and lifted boom) without bouncing too much?

- Are the LAs (and the connected motor) able to lift this long and heavy boom without struggling too much?

- if i understand you right, then the whole upperstructure is 100% from Juergen Ultimate 42009 apart from the arm which is 100% the longer version build by Alex Zeimet (afol1969) - right?

subquestion: gerger, i'm not sure if you have enlarged the boom of afol1969. If yes, then the question: Would your model work also with the original boom of afol1969?

- Are there electronical part lists for gergers latest version, e.g. a bsx-file which i could import in rebrickable? Same question for the longer boom?

Sorry if some of my question are already answered somewhere in this long Thread - maybe an own Topic for this oustanding MOD (actually a MOC IMHO) would be justifiable, which then describe all necessary about the final version of gergers mobile crane...

Thanks a lot for some hints and answers!

[nerdsforprez]

very impressive, both the model and the instructions - cudos to gerger and blackbird - and of course many many thanks!

I'm eager to build this beauty from my two 42009 sets...

But nevertheless some questions:

- How practicable is gergers model? i ask cause of the suspension: Isn't it too wobly or is the whole chassis "stable" enough to slew the crane (even with extended and lifted boom) without bouncing too much?

- Are the LAs (and the connected motor) able to lift this long and heavy boom without struggling too much?

- if i understand you right, then the whole upperstructure is 100% from Juergen Ultimate 42009 apart from the arm which is 100% the longer version build by Alex Zeimet (afol1969) - right?

subquestion: gerger, i'm not sure if you have enlarged the boom of afol1969. If yes, then the question: Would your model work also with the original boom of afol1969?

- Are there electronical part lists for gergers latest version, e.g. a bsx-file which i could import in rebrickable? Same question for the longer boom?

Sorry if some of my question are already answered somewhere in this long Thread - maybe an own Topic for this oustanding MOD (actually a MOC IMHO) would be justifiable, which then describe all necessary about the final version of gergers mobile crane...

Thanks a lot for some hints and answers!

Kudos to everyone collaborating on this project. I am just getting around to reading and looking @ all the photos. It is fun to see a project like this come to fruition, especially given that there are multiple people invovled in the project. Just quickly wanted to reply to one of the questions above. For what it is worth, the L motor power the LA to lift the boom on my model just fine. No problem. THerefore, I think that the L motor and LA shoud be able to lift the boom on this model just fine as well.

[Eigenbroetler]

I've completed a first draft of the instructions and posted it at my Bricksafe. For the most part I stuck with the steps that Gerger already created with a bit of re-ordering here and there, some buffer exchanges, and a lot of rotation steps. The carrier is about 600 steps over about 130 pages. I started building it last night. I've completed the first two axles and the instructions are working well.

After the carrier, the instructions just do the superstructure all in one step. I'm trying to decide what to do about that. The main part of the superstructure can be built with Jurgen's Ultimate 42009 instructions which already exist. The boom can almost, but not quite, be built with afol1969's instructions. This boom is longer so those instructions really need to be modified. I'm putting off deciding what to do about the superstructure until later.

Feel free to download the file and give me some feedback, but I probably won't be putting a whole lot more work into the carrier as long as everything is clear enough that it is buildable. I'm not going for perfection.

By the way, I ran into an interesting LPub bug. The image below shows Page 25 which for some reason had pages 1-24 overlaid on it. A good way to save pages, but it is hard to build this way!

Nice draft! but on page 5 step 31, there seems to be a half bush floating mid air, and it levitates quite a few steps. :)

thats all for now, keep up the good work!

[afol1969]

@blakbird & gerger:

Amazing work you've done, respect!

Now I'm back from the holidays, so lot of news tor read about the crane. Gerger made an update and stepped the carrier, and blakbird has started with the instructions. So no need that I make the instructions by myself, but I can review the MLCAD and LPUB steps to see if any changes can be made, for ex. to make steps clearer and eliminate errors, combining steps to use more parts in one step and so on.

Also I've seen the steps need different rotation angles to make all parts built visible.

Making building instructions is a massive work, so I understand that blakbird is not going on perfection, but I can do that task. My offer on collaboration for the project is still valid.

Greetings

Alex

[Blakbird]

You take only 4 days to finish the instruction, that's very fast, Blakbird! Impressive! and it's look great. One suggestion if not too trouble is to have sub-model preview before the actual assembly, then will make it very clear. And page numbers. I believe it's buildable already.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by your suggestion. I admit that I did this much faster than my normal instructions and did not take as much care so there are certainly things that could be improved. I wanted it to be buildable as soon as possible because it is a holiday weekend in USA and I intend to finish building it.

I can release the file when I am done if people want to make improvements.

I can add page numbers to the final PDF file.

But nevertheless some questions:

- How practicable is gergers model? i ask cause of the suspension: Isn't it too wobly or is the whole chassis "stable" enough to slew the crane (even with extended and lifted boom) without bouncing too much?

The suspension is quite stiff and there are 14 shock absorbers. Nevertheless, I think the outriggers will actually help to stabilize the model even though they cannot lift it.

- Are the LAs (and the connected motor) able to lift this long and heavy boom without struggling too much?

I can't answer yet. The boom is not as heavy as you might think, and this L-motor does not need to go through a big gearbox like it does on 42009 so I think it will be OK.

- if i understand you right, then the whole upperstructure is 100% from Juergen Ultimate 42009 apart from the arm which is 100% the longer version build by Alex Zeimet (afol1969) - right?

As it turns out, no. The boom is nearly that of Cristophe except that it is 11 studs longer and there are some color changes. However, there is no reason you could not use the instructions of afol1969 except that then the parts list won't be quite right. If you want to do that, start with only the carrier parts list and use a separate parts list for the boom and/or superstructure.

I wanted to use afol1969's instructions, but because of the changes I ended up having to redo the whole thing myself which also resulted in draft2 of the instructions. I built the boom last night and can confirm it works well (although the second stage was installed backward in the digital file). I have fixed a couple of things. There is no string in the instructions for the second stage, so use afol1969's instructions for that. I also added the return string as discussed in the thread about the extended boom.

I was hoping to use Jurgen's instructions for the superstructure, but again it turned out there were quite a lot of changes. There are rollers underneath, cosmetic changes to the panels, and a bunch of color changes to parts inside. Because of this, I spent all day recreating all the instructions for the superstructure from scratch. I am happy to say that I am done, and the final 200 page draft3 is running now.

Again, I think you could use Jurgen's superstructure with no mods if you want, it just means the parts list would be different.

subquestion: gerger, i'm not sure if you have enlarged the boom of afol1969. If yes, then the question: Would your model work also with the original boom of afol1969?

Yes, it has been lengthened, and yes the original would work.

- Are there electronical part lists for gergers latest version, e.g. a bsx-file which i could import in rebrickable? Same question for the longer boom?

Yes, there is a link to the parts list several posts back. It is on my Bricksafe account with the instructions.

Nice draft! but on page 5 step 31, there seems to be a half bush floating mid air, and it levitates quite a few steps. :)

Nice catch. I've fixed it.

While I am sitting here waiting for the new instructions to render, I also did some messing around with the boom angle. I was not quite happy with the fact that the boom only raises to about 45 degrees. The real crane can go to more than 80 degrees. I found that by changing the cams which attach the linear actuators to the boom to 3x3 bent liftarms, you can get extra lift by using a different hole. This means it won't be able to retract all the way down, but you can just change which hole you use when stowed. It is not perfect, but it allows the model to be displayed in a higher position. Here is a picture after the mod:

[Blakbird]

Draft 3 of the instructions is now posted. I did the superstructure in a big hurry so I'm sure it is not up to my usual standards, but I also think it is good enough for any experienced builder to build the model.

[JDC]

Blakbird,

Would you please show a close up of the attachment point of the LAs and the 3 x 3 Bent Arms?

[kamsohal]

what happened to draft 2?

[gerger]

I have. I posted it earlier on this post... here it is again. Videos are embedded in my MOC pages. Specifically, of it trying to lift the 8070.

http://mocpages.com/moc.php/383148

http://mocpages.com/moc.php/388884

I was not quite happy with the fact that the boom only raises to about 45 degrees. The real crane can go to more than 80 degrees. I found that by changing the cams which attach the linear actuators to the boom to 3x3 bent liftarms, you can get extra lift by using a different hole. This means it won't be able to retract all the way down, but you can just change which hole you use when stowed. It is not perfect, but it allows the model to be displayed in a higher position. Here is a picture after the mod:

Ok. I re-look into the boom again and did some tests according to Nerdsforprez's suggestion (to moved the boom's curved liftarm back one stud to allows the boom more vertical rise) It's a brilliant move! I also trial and error different positioning for the technic cam (#6575) and finally have a work around for the boom to rise more vertical and at the same time to retract all the way down. The result look like this:

And the fix is very simple as below.

To move #32009 one stud back (toward the front):

Positioning for the technic cam #6575 : attach the half stud hole with the boom; and attach the very last hole with LAs.

However, if updating into Ldraw / LDD, the virtual result will be same as Blakbird's suggestion: the boom can not retract all the way down. But in physical model, the weight, flex of turntable, etc will allow the boom to lay down perfectly.

Edited August 30, 2014 by gerger