Lego Nerf Hail-fire Tank Sneak Peek

Well, to make a long story short my few attempts to make videos on the projects seen in my last HQ video didn't turn out well and I came up with an idea that was just too good to pass up. It's actually funny how I got it, some random YouTuber commented on my Barricade turret video "you just need to make then the barricade can hold 100 bullets XD", and three ideas ran through my head:

1. That grammar is terrible
2. Barricades can't hold 100 darts, are you crazy?
3. But Hail-fires can hold 144!

And thus the Hail-fire turret was born. But this time I didn't leave it at a turret. The most common comment I get on my stationary guns is that I should mount them on a tank. I figured since I was already making the most epic Nerf turret ever I might as well go all the way and make the most epic Nerf tank ever. So I made a Lego tank that can fully operate a Nerf N-strike Elite Hail-fire, giving it a massive capacity and awesome range.

I made a sneak peek video where you see from that tank's point of view, the full video will come within the next few weeks.

Lego Nerf Hail-fire Tank Sneak Peek

DroidFreak Enterprises HQ - August 2012

There's a lot of big news this month. The biggest, and part of the reason why this is a week late, is that I'm now at college. Not to worry - I brought my most useful Legos with me, but I'm really busy with classes and homework during the week. The next big bit of news is that I started a new Nerf blog, NerfingTech, at nerfingtech.blogspot.com. It doesn't have much yet, but as soon as I get my new camera (Hint-read the video description) I plan to add some more. The rest - well, the rest is Lego creations. Watch the video to see a crossbow, a tank, and a Nerf mine/shotgun all made out of Legos.

DroidFreak Enterprises HQ - August 2012

Automatic Infinitely Variable Transmission

This is a mechanism I actually invented quite some time ago, I just never posted it anywhere until I remembered it last night because of another complex gearing project I'm working on (Hint - It involves a tank and 4 differential gears).

This project uses a pair of differential gears to create a transmission that has an infinite number of gear ratios and automatically cycles through them as resistance on the output changes. It's gear ratios range anywhere from 1:3 (Output spin 3 times as fast as motor) to a sort of powered neutral gear where the output doesn't spin but the motor spins and still applies torque (Similar to an automatic transmission car stopped at an intersection).

I discovered later that this sort of a transmission is usually called a CVT - Continuously Variable Transmission, but as far as I can tell IVT - Infinitely Variable Transmission is an interchangeable term. I also found out that others have made similar Lego CVTs using two differentials, though I didn't copy them at all (I found the others after I made this) and I think mine is the only one where how it works is explained thoroughly.

Lego Automatic Infinitely Variable Transmission

Feel free to use this in your Lego creations, I know I will. I'd appreciate it if you'd mention me in the credits though. =P

DroidFreak Enterprises HQ - July 2012

This video is rather self-explanatory. I'll tell you one thing: This one has a much higher Lego to Nerf ratio than my last HQ video (Though I did slip in a sneak peek of my next Nerf video).

DroidFreak Enterprises HQ - July 2012

Sneak Peek: My next project

This photo is all you're going to get:

Let the speculation begin!

Lego Battle Tank with working turret

The video for my new tank is finally completed. For those of you who don't know, it is a tank that has a turret that can rotate and shoot. Sorry for some of the footage being poor quality, I already spent a lot of time on this movie without trying to re-shoot the footage more times.

Lego Battle Tank with working turret

More info after the jump.

Stop-Motion Title Animation

For fun and to add an extra flair to my videos I created an animation where the words "DroidFreak Enterprises" build themselves out of Lego Technic pieces. I plan to incorporate this into the introduction of my subsequent videos.

DroidFreak Enterprises Lego Stop Motion Animation

For those of you who wonder how I did it, I built the words first and then took them apart in reverse, taking pictures periodically as I went. When I reverse the order of the pictures it looks like the words are building themselves.

I do something similar for all my instruction videos: I take apart the set step by step and take pictures that I reverse to make instructions.

Proof of Concept: Tank with rotating + firing turret

After YouTube user MoshiB9865 commented on one of my videos mentioning his "Lego Airsoft Gun", we had a brief conversation about the mechanism (which used custom sector gears) and I became convinced that there must be a way to do the same thing with only Lego parts. He also mentioned integrating it into a tank.

One thing you might notice about me (especially in Lego weapons) is that whenever I learn that someone tried to do something but failed I try to do it. It's not that I mean to prove that I'm better than them, it's just that I get struck with inspiration and I want to make something that I know will be cool. In this case, my plan is to build a Lego tank with a turret that rotates and fires using a pull back and release mechanism like MoshiB9865's "Airsoft" gun.

I managed to construct a simple proof of concept for the tank, including a working version of the gun. The tank's drivetrain has roughly 0 ground clearance and the gun has much less power than I want from the final version, but it still illustrates that the design is sound.

Proof of Concept Tank

Mechanism:

DroidFreak Enterprises HQ - June 2012

This is a test of a new video style (a freehand update video) as well as a chance to show off two of my new projects. One is a shotgun attachment for my Tech Target Eliminator (Nerf pistol) that allows it to fire 5 darts at once. The other is a full-fledged Lego Nerf gun, a Lego contraption that shoots Nerf streamline darts out of Nerf clips. It is a semi-automatic flywheel blaster like many recent Nerf guns, but it's made out of Lego and I'd like to think it's better in some ways. If you like/dislike this video style or you want to see more about one (or both) of the projects, feel free to leave a comment on this post.

DroidFreak Enterprises HQ - June 2012

Powershot DG25: An epic Lego dart gun

Sneak peek

Recently I was working the sound at the Vacation Bible School (VBS) at my church when I noticed that two of the Mylar balloon sea creatures that were decorating the sanctuary escaped and floated up to the ceiling. Being an expert at Lego weaponry, this was a great opportunity for me to put my skills to good use. To take down the balloons I built a simple Lego gun that launches darts primarily made of mechanical pencils. With its simple but strong structure and large rubber bands stretched to the limit it can launch those darts hard enough to punch right through a Mylar balloon after flying 20 feet straight up. Presenting the Powershot DG25:

Main video

And here's the best part: I made instructions for my blog viewers!

Here they are:

Backlog: Droideka Pistols

It's been a while since I posted any backlog posts (due to the aforementioned busyness), so I decided to start finishing the job. I mentioned this project in my Hurricane Launcher mark V post, this was the project where I developed the innovative structure of the mark V.

The idea came because I like the Droidekas (aka Destroyer Droids) in Star Wars and I thought it would be cool to make a pair of pistols that mimic the Droideka's two dual blasters. Each pistol would have to have one motor, two Zamor launchers and a grip that allows you to fire.

From my recent work with compact single Zamor launchers I knew that only two beams are required to securely hold a Zamor launcher, and in this project I had the brilliant idea to put those beams on the outside of the launchers rather than in the middle. That opened up a lot of space for the firing mechanism and I was able to make them quite efficient. The Hurricane mark V was built with virtually the same structure extended to hold 3 motors and 4 launchers.

NXT Droideka Pistols

NXT Nerf Barricade Turret

To be precise, "Remote Controlled Fully-Automatic Lego Mindstorms NXT Nerf Barricade Turret" This thing really needs a nickname... (Comment if you have good ideas)

RCFALMNNBT?

 

Description after the jump:

Semi-Automatic Shell-Ejecting Lego Shotgun

In other words: Epically awesome Lego gun. The only problem it has is that it has fairly low range and power, but it is great for close range use. It fires 6 shots of 3 bullets (3-unit Lego beams) each. It shoots every time you pull the trigger and it ejects a "shell" with each shot as well.

Epic Lego Shotgun Sneak Peek

I recently had an idea for an awesome Lego gun, so I constructed a magazine for it. The magazine has 6 barrels that you load with 3 3-unit beams each, and each is held in the cocked position by a pin that stick trough the side of the magazine. The gun will be semi-automatic, each time you pull the trigger you pull out one of the pins, releasing one of the barrels and ejecting the pin from the side of the gun. This makes it shoot (because the barrel shoots the 3 bullets) and eject a "shell" at the same time, which will be pretty cool.

Semi-Automatic Lego Shotgun Sneak Peek

Update: I now have it in full operation, semi-auto. It's pretty sweet.

Longdraw BC16 Mechanism

In order to explain the mechanism of the Longdraw BC16 better, I made a video explaining and showing how it works. To see more about the gun, see my original post.

Longdraw BC16 Mechanism

Ultimate Lego Gun: Longdraw BC16

The Longdraw BC16 is the Ultimate Lego Gun. It has great power, accuracy, rate of fire and range. It also has a pretty sweet video. Check it out:

Ultimate Lego Gun: Longdraw BC16

Some background info after the jump...

Ultimate Lego Gun Sneak Peek

Here's a sneak peek of my new Lego gun, a rifle with enough power to destroy a 4 layer Lego wall at 10 feet (3 meters). Most of my other guns consider themselves powerful when they can destroy a 4 layer wall at point blank range!

Ultimate Lego Gun Sneak Peek

Robotics Competiton Hint

In case you were wondering how to make your robot grab cubes and lift them to score with only one motor, here's a simple mechanism that is able to to both. It isn't robust enough to wok well in the competition yet, but with a bit of modification it could work quite nicely.

Hint:

DroidFreak Lego Robotics Competition 2012 - rules

Welcome to the first DroidFreak Lego Robotics Competition. This competition will be conducted over the internet, so anyone can enter by building a Lego robot and posting it online. Spread the word to anyone who might be interested so they can enter too.

See my playing field post for some of the basics.

There will be three categories in the competition:

NXT only:
This category allows only the electronics from one Lego Mindstorms NXT set to be used, the sole exception being an IR receiver sensor if you wish to control your robot via IR. This places all contestants on a reasonably level playing field, though it will be difficult to make a 3-motor robot perform all the functions (That's why I allow going around the obstacle).

NXT + PF:
This category allows the electronics from one NXT set, IR receiver and/or IR link sensors, and Power Functions electronics consisting of 1 battery box, one receiver, and the number of motors Lego recommends to be used with a battery box (2 XL, 1 XL + 2M, 4M). By giving robots a few extra motors this category makes it much more feasible to perform all the game's functions.

All Lego:
This category allows any and all Lego electronics. Have fun building a complicated machine that can use any number of NXT, RCX and PF motors, not to mention all the other Lego electronics. If you have enough Lego electronics you could build a robot for this category that performs extremely well in the game.

Mini Lego Shotgun

This is a small Lego gun that fires up to 9 Lego beams in a spread pattern like a shotgun. It's similar to the design used by rosewarrior21 in his Lego Shotgun video. It doesn't fire as many bullets as rosewarrior21's, but mine is much smaller (thus "Mini").

Mini Lego Shotgun (working)

More info and pictures...

5:1 NXT Zamor Sphere Launcher

This single Zamor launcher is geared for extreme speed. Thanks to a few advanced techniques, it consistently operates at a 5:1 gear ratio.

5:1 NXT Zamor Sphere Launcher

As promised in the video description, there are more details and pictures available...