Made a quick mod to my 8043 this evening. It now has a pair of XL motors in the base, an additional IR receiver and battery pack! And goes like the clappers as a result! Very simple mod to do, though it does have a limitation in terms of the IR receiver has to be under the arm end of the body, otherwise the battery case and motors cover the IR receiver. I’m considering scrapping my smaller excavator and rebuilding the base on the 8043 to be a bit bigger, as the motors, while fitting nicely, are a bit exposed and therefore potentially reducing the approach angle. I’d also like to work on the CoG of the model, adding weight in the base has helped, but the battery case & motors need to slide forwards I think to properly balance the unit.
Lego 8043XL Upgrade (Base View)
Lego 8043XL Upgrade (Front View)
And for the curious, here’s a video of it in action!
My new Drobo arrived on today! Loaded up with 2 1 TB drives, I now have 1TB of disk available, with the ability to pop another couple of terrabytes in as and when I need it.
Hooked up to the Drobo Share, it allows access across the network which is cool. And it’s now about half full, after I dumped a lot of the stuff off the 1TB RAID1 on my main PC as well! Some stuff I shall now keep two copies of, the rest can reside in just the one location as it’s better located than before.
The new 2010 Summer models were made available on the Lego@Home store a little while ago, I got the flyer in the mail last week and placed my order! £143ish plus shipping makes this one of the most expensive models I’ve bought to date, but it has a lot to offer.
8043 Excavator
Here it is in all it’s glory. You get a lot for your money, two remotes, 4 motors, and two IR blocks. 4 Linear Actuators are supplied, and the excavator is capable of doing a full 360, round and round and round! This is achieved by a single centered shaft, and using the gear changing cogs to stack up round a central shaft, allowing the central shaft to move independantly of the gear changing cogs. One runs the left track, the other the right. The downside to this however, is that there is a degree of takeup, and the excavator does “creep” when spinning round & round. The remote controls need you to flick round the motor polarity on one channel when using the boom, and annoyingly the driving control needs a different motor polarity when you’re playing with your bulldozer!
I did a time lapse set of pictures when building it this time, 102 images taken at 2.5minute intervals which is about 4 and a half hours for the build, all done in one hit this evening. Has to be the fastest I’ve built a model of this complexity. Watch it on YouTube by clicking below:
Comments on Useability after the initial build:
Whilst this is the best RC unit since the bulldozer, I have had some thoughts on it’s limitations since building it.
1) The main dual actuator boom has the ability to lift a bit over 400G in weight, but much more than that causes issues.
2) The speed at which the unit moves is very slow.
3) Takeup in the right hand track is delayed by about 1-2 secs due to the drive arrangements through the turntable.
4) When slewing, the excavator creeps (as the gears lock up on the motors, and thus when you spin, you drive the tracks).
I’ve played with it a bit since building, and my thoughts on a possible rebuild are thus:
1) Buy 2x XL Motors and rebuild the base to house it’s own battery case and IR brick. The XL motors can then directly drive the tracks as they do on the bulldozer.
2) Rebuild the 4-motor drive to remove the switching mechanism, as you can then use the 2 IR bricks and 4 M Motors to perform all the upper body tasks, including the 360 Slew.
In my opinion, this should be a fairly minimal build, as you can drop a lot of the gearing that goes into driving through the turntable out, and instead concentrate on the arm and turntable slew.
No, not the Lego Excavator I mentioned earlier in my Blog (that one’s on order, should be here next week!) – today I got my new phone!
I’ve been using the Palm Treo 750v for a while now, it’s a Windows Mobile based phone so was perfect as it would syncronise with Exchange and keep my contacts backed up there.
Palm Treo 750v
However after nearly 2 years, it was time for a change, and my Orange Contract was up for renewal (the 750v was a Vodafone supplied phone via a client’s contract which was subsequently upgraded to a BlackBerry, the second phone I normally carry) so after a bit of looking online the HTC Desire was what I wanted. Online, I was quoted £49.99 for the upgrade, but the website wanted me to change my plan, so I rang up only to be told my upgrade was free! Yay! Ok, another 18 month contract, but that appears to be par for the course these days, and I don’t vandalise my phones unlike some! Ordered on Thursday and Delivered today, so can’t get much better than that! I also took the precaution of ordering a Hard Shell Case for it from eBay, with a Screen Protector, which came in at the grand sum of £3.50!
So anyway, here it is, my latest toy:
HTC Desire
The OS is brilliant, but Android 2.2 is supposed to be even better. As it stands, I have wifi, exchange sync, and lots of fun apps FartDroid here I come!
Finally fitted the matching Steering Guard this afternoon – and it looks really good! Right swivelpin to fit, (had some stuff in the way on one side) but all pulled into place in the end. Don’t think anything is going to dent it!
Cut 8mm off the left hand mount on the main bumper also and beat that back into place now, so it’s all anchored properly!
The steering guard mounts to the inside of the chassis rail at the bumper, and the ouside of the rail in line with the steering pump (you use the bolts to hold it in).
It has been a long time coming, but finally my new bumper has arrived and been fitted!
Fabricated by Paul Short at Torque Performance 4×4 (http://www.tp4x4.co.uk), this bumper is a custom revision of their stunning looking Rock Bumper, but with a unique and very useful twist.
Like many off-road vehicle owners we all worry about some of the toys we have bolted to our trucks, as if it bolts on, it can also be un-bolted! And like many other Discovery owners I’m not happy about cutting large chunks out of the grille of my vehicle to allow a winch to sit back there, and I am only too aware of how much approach/departure angle you give up when extending your bumper forward to accommodate a winch.
I was also looking into putting a front push tow-bar point on the vehicle, the cost of which would potentially be around £150, which seemed a bit on the high side, and would have to be custom made in order for me to be able to use it with the 2″ Class III Receiver I have on the rear. The perfect solution therefore, would be a bumper that allowed the best of both worlds, the approach/departure angle at it’s maximum, with a 2″ Class III Receiver built into it.
It took me a while to find a Heavy Duty Bumper for the Discovery 2 that I liked the look of, most were very angular and often left your washer bottle exposed hanging under the bumper. Eventually on a thread on the LRO Forums, someone posted a picture of the Torque Performance 4×4 Rock Bumper, and I was instantly sold. I got on the phone to Paul Short at TP4x4, and laid out what I had in mind over the phone and asked if it was possible to have this bumper made up for me. He agreed to do so, and charged me for a Winch Bumper version instead of a Rock Bumper version (as they do both for those of you who are happy to bolt 300+ quids worth of winch to your truck *and* cut your grille a bit!). The following picture is what I’ve ended up with, and cost £340+£40 for delivery, and included a pair of 55w spots built into the bumper, giving it a facelift bumper look also.
I recently purchased a number of old Record Vices from a chap on the Stationary Engine Forum. Two No 5 Vices and One No 6. I started with the No 5 (as the other one was for a friend, and the No 6 is for my future use), and un-seized it using plenty of WD40. Here’s a picture of it before I started:
Record No 5 (Before)
I’m a big fan of “Proper” old tools, the like of which I doubt we’ll see again with the large quantity of Chinese Made, microprocessor controlled equipment on the market these days. Even the current Record vices are only Record vices in name only, they’re made in China now and even though they claim the QA is better than on the older ones, thankfully lots of the older ones are still around! And at a fraction of the price too! (£40 got me 3 of them, versus £150+ each new).
I’ve been a LEGO fan since I was a kid, and my LEGO paid for my first PC when I was 14/15 (and by my first PC, I mean the first one I had exclusive access to in my bedroom, I’ve had PC’s since I was 7 in the family). So recently I’ve taken to playing with LEGO again, more for the challenge of it. And when I say LEGO, I’m actually referring to LEGO Technic which in the last 5 years or more has developed into more of an independent product with studless beams and such.
My first purchase was the 8241 Mobile Crane (featured here) which was modified slightly as the pneumatic cylinders weren’t up to much and now features dual double cylinders. I’ve also experimented with various concepts with the motors but have never gotten round to turning it into a true RC crane. Construction time was around two days for this.
Next up came the 8275 RC Bulldozer (featured here) and took me about 2 days to build also. Value for money wise, this is the best set purchased to date, and has in fact gone up in value now due to it’s rarity! This set is stock, as frankly LEGO got it right!
Yesterday I made a Banoffee Pie for myself & Mum, and it was very successful. So much so in fact, that I only just managed all of mine after a large dinner, and Mum had to leave 2 mouthfuls at the end too!
This was a very successful recipe for me to make, and was grabbed from BBC Good Food with some minor changes.
So you will need:
300g oaty biscuits (Hob Nobs are good, a pack is normally 300g)
60g butter , melted
397g tin Nestlé Carnation Caramel
3 large bananas, sliced
350ml double cream
1 tbsp icing sugar
Run the biscuits through a food processor until crumbed, and then melt and add the butter and give them another whiz until it’s well mixed in. Pour this into a 24cm pan with removable base, and then press down firmly. Bake at about 180-200 degrees C for 10-12mins until lightly toasted, then leave to cool. When cool, pour the caramel over the base, and chill for an hour or more. When ready to serve, whip your cream with the icing sugar until fluffy peaks form easily. Chop the bananas up and lay on the caramel base. Spread the whipped cream over the top and garnish however you wish. Should look like this:
Banoffee Pie
I used about 1/2 to 3/4 a bananna a slice, with a good bit spread on top too. The BBC Good Food recipe suggested drizzling melted dark chocolate over it, but I chose not to do this as it’s messy, a pain to wash up, and time consuming. And I don’t like dark chocolate too…
2 Tips here:
1) When the caramel comes out the tin it’s hard to manage, pop in a jug, zap in the microwave for 1m-2m until runny then it’ll pour easily.
2) Your dish should make 6-8 portions depending on your appetite/portion size, but if you only plan on having a couple of portions at a time, only whip up enough cream and chop enough bananas to do the portion you’re serving. This makes preparing easier, presentation neater and saves things going too soggy in the fridge.
Had a bit of a whoopsy at the weekend when I snapped a stud on the Spare Wheel Carrier, so went down to the breakers yard this afternoon with Richard and picked up a new (second-hand) one for £20, and a handful of new Alloy Nuts and some Centre Caps for the Alloys (as some toe rag has nicked all the ones I had). Swapping the carriers over took a few mins once I took the door card off, interestingly one of the six bolts is slightly longer than the others. Why LR decided to use nuts on the inside of the door I do wonder! A couple of rivet nuts in the door would be a much better option!
FartDroid here I come!
