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

Cheetank: FAST Lego Tank

Today I was playing around with my Lego's (like I do every day), and I came up with an idea. Why not make a tank and gear it as fast as I can? I made a tank that's just a simple chassis, and I geared it 3:1 for speed so it flies across the ground. I named it Cheetank because it is fast like a Cheetah. When I tested it on obstacles, I was surprised to find that this tank performs almost as well as my greatest obstacle climbing tanks even though it has little torque. The sheer momentum of Cheetank bearing down on an obstacle enables it to drive right over it without stalling. The speed of the treads also helps it to achieve plenty acceleration even on rough or slippery terrains.

Cheetank: FAST Lego Tank

Backlog: Maelstrom (Part 2: NXTlog and Instructions)

I posted 4 different projects on NXTlog for Maelstrom because of all the stuff I wanted to add. The following is 3 of the 4 posts, the other one is basically a repost of the Maelstrom YouTube video.

Maelstrom: The Ultimate Lego Tank

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Maelstrom is my ultimate project: A giant Lego tank armed with a Hurricane launcher. It has a powerful drivetrain with suspension to let it climb over some really tough terrain and its Hurricane launcher can fire 23 Zamor spheres per second! That's 1380 spheres per minute. It has a 40 sphere magazine so it can only fire for 1.7 seconds straight, but with short bursts its ammo could last a while.

 Drivetrain

Maelstrom can be split into two main parts, the drivetrain and the Hurricane launcher. The drivetrain was developed over a period of about 1 month specifically for Maelstrom. It has a type of suspension I originally tried on Tempest (a Tornado Launcher tank) with mixed success. The suspension allows gravity to bend the tank's structure without breaking it so the tank conforms to the terrain. It also has sprung treads so they don't fall off when the tank bends. It is powered by PF XL motors geared for power and it has rubber treads at the front to aid in climbing.

Hurricane Launcher mark IV

Maelstrom is armed with the Hurricane Launcher mark IV, the fourth in a line of multi-motor Zamor launchers. Like the Hurricane mark II it uses 3 motors and like the mark III it uses an efficient firing mechanism. As I mentioned above, it is capable of firing 23 spheres per second, which is faster than many real machine guns. Needless to say this thing can devastate Lego structures (stacked Lego bricks, not pushed down) and armies.

 Hurricane Launcher mark IV Instructions

This project is the instructions on how to build the Hurricane Launcher mark IV, the weapon of Maelstrom. Here's an overview of how it works: The 3 motors spin 24 tooth gears which link to 8 tooth gears (which rotate 3 times as fast) on a long crankshaft. In 4 places along the crankshaft it is displaced from the center to make that section spin around the crankshaft's center. Attached to those sections of the crankshaft are 4 firing mechanisms that push/pull the firing rods in and out of the Zamor launchers as the crankshaft spins.

 Maelstrom Drivetrain Instructions

This project is the instructions on how to build the drivetrain of Maelstrom. Here's an overview of how the suspension works: Along a few points in each side of the drivetrain there are joints that allow it to bend. Each joint connects 2 main beams with other beams and only a few pegs. To keep the joint from falling apart an axle runs through it. Also, to keep the treads from falling off they are sprung by arms pulled up by rubber bands.

If you have any questions about the instructions, feel free to comment on this post. I'd be happy to explain.

Backlog: Maelstrom (Part 1: History and Videos)

Maelstrom was my Ultimate Lego Tank, and to this day it is unmatched in firepower. Maelstrom was, in many ways, an improved version of Tempest. The idea for Maelstrom was that I would get some Power Functions (PF) motors to use in the drivetrain so I could build a full Hurricane Launcher for the weapon. Soon after I got my PF motors, I began work on the drivetrain. It was fitted with the same suspension as Tempest, but it was necessarily larger because I wanted to fit a huge Hurricane Launcher on it. The original drivetrain was great at climbing over all sorts of terrain, and it was fast too.

Maelstrom drivetrain prototype

Soon after the first prototype, I added some rubber treads to the front to improve its climbing ability. This allowed it to conquer some really tough terrain. Unfortunately, Maelstrom was too heavy to climb over most of the terrain the prototype could.

Improved Maelstrom Prototype

At this point, progress came to a standstill for a while. I had used most of my beams on Maelstrom's drivetrain, so I didn't have enough parts left to make a Hurricane Launcher. I ordered a pack of parts from Lego Education, but it was nearly a month before I could resume work. In the meantime, I made a video explaining Maelstrom's suspension.
 

Maelstrom Suspension Explained

At long last, I constructed the Hurricane mark IV and put some finishing touches on Maelstrom. This project had taken nearly a month of my summer, more time than I even spent on another Lego project.

Maelstrom: The Ultimate Lego Tank

It's also worth mentioning that this was the first appearance of DroidFreak BattleTech and its logo.

Before I took Maelstrom apart and as I took it apart, I took enough pictures for an NXTlog project and for full instructions. I plan to post those here, but this post has already gone long enough, so I'll post those separately soon.

Panthera: A Climbing Lego Tank

Panthera is the name I have given to my new terrain-climbing tank. You may have already seen it in the Flash Flood video. Here's the full video of Panthera:

Panthera: A Climbing Lego Tank

Panthera came about because of a flash of inspiration I had while bored at school. I had been experimenting with a combination drive and suspension consisting of several small treads that can pivot around a point. Suddenly, I though of a way to put such treads on a tank. If I placed them at the front and back of the tank's treads, they would aid greatly in climbing. I drew up a detailed blueprint of this tank, as well as a frame-by-frame sequence showing it climb over stuff. This is a picture of my drawings:

The picture quality is quite good, so feel free to zoom in and read my notes.

When I got home, I hastily made a video of Flash Flood, which was my current tank, and then I built a prototype of Panthera. Soon after that, I tested Panthera on stairs and added some clips of it to Flash Flood's video. At that point I hadn't named it, though I was thinking of naming it after some big cat because of its four paw-like rubber treads. When I discovered that all four of the commonly known big cats (Lions, Tigers, Jaguars and Leopards) belong to genus Panthera, I decided that should be the name of this tank.

Flash Flood: Sniping lego tank

This is a new Lego tank I made just a little while ago (thus no "Backlog"). It's a bit like Maelstrom in that it's a big tank armed with a Hurricane Launcher, but it's also quite different. It has independent suspension and it features the new Hurricane Launcher mark VI that uses a staggered arrangement like the Hailstorm Launcher to concentrate it's damage into a smaller area. The YouTube video also includes a few clips of my next tank (the one I'm working on now), which isn't very practical but is really cool. It's a nice proof of concept.

Flash Flood

Backlog: Tempest (a "lost" project)

This is one of my "lost" projects, because I made it a while ago but never posted it anywhere online. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's start from the beginning:

When I discovered Brian Davis's projects, not only did I find his Zamor launchers, but also his Zamor launching tank. Ogre, his tank, is armed with a Hurricane launcher and has sprung plastic treads. Needless to say, that thing is awesome.

Ogre

After I invented the Tornado Launcher, I finally had a good one-motor weapon to put on my own Lego tank. Because this was during the Robotics season where I was building BogieBot, I wasn't content to give my tank a simple tread base. I wanted to give it awesome suspension. Naturally, my first design used rocker bogie suspension. That turned out terribly, because my tread base was too small and my center of gravity too high. That is, it tipped over really easily. Here's a picture of my original design without its treads:

Original design:

After that design failed, I had a stroke of inspiration. Suspension should allow the treads to bend around the terrain without breaking the frame, so why not just make a bendable frame? You may know this suspension style from Maelstrom, but this came first, and this was where I invented it. Tempest turned out awesome, and although I didn't show the Tornado Launcher firing in the movie Tempest had it and could use it.

Tempest movie:

It's kind of incredible (as in unbelievable) that I left this thing unposted, because it was awesome, but I think I know why. Shortly after I built this, my robotics team realized that BogieBot needed to be revamped, and I spent nearly all my time for a few weeks on rebuilding or reprogramming it. During that time I posted 4 YouTube videos of BogieBot. No wonder Tempest got lost in the rush!