A YouTube user going by Sariel has built quite an impressive collection of LEGO vehicle projects that include motors to really get them moving. This tiny replica of a King Tiger Tank is a pretty awesome demonstration of his skills, zooming around by remote control and pivoting its barrel. All that's missing is torpedo power.The World War II replica is just 8 inches by 4 inches—not large enough to knock down any walls, but certainly enough to annoy a cat or small dog. In the video, Sariel says he tried to make it as small as possible, using just four small motors inside the tank. Everything Is Awesome About This Working Lego Chainsaw How Many Legos Does It Take to Build a Real Starship? This Porsche 911 Is Half-Lego, Half-Real This Man Owns 250,000 Super-Organized LEGO Pieces 50 LEGO State Dioramas Take You on the Ultimate Road Trip Watch This Awesome Lego Remake of The Matrix Lobby Scene How LEGO Built the Coolest Company in the World 8 Awesome Lego Builds by the Kids of PM Readers
Watch the 'Back to the Future' Clock-Tower scene in LEGO Let This Lego Loom Do Your Knitting For You Sign up or log in to customize your list. Here's how it works: Anybody can ask a question The best answers are voted up and rise to the top I would like to build a remote controlled car. And if someone already has a good solution for that I would be glad to try it. It's been a while since I had the time and material to build some LEGO creations. And now I am willing to start anew. Last time I toyed with LEGO there were electric engines and such, but all I had was remote controlled with a cable and the functions were very basic. I am looking for a more advanced and wireless solution. I am aware of the Power Functions. But I have no experience with these. Would these be a good start? What are the other options? Edit: Mindstorms as suggested in a few answers could be the solution, but I am not sure it will be practical yet... It seems there was an official line of LEGO RC cars at some point.
I was thinking about something more like it. Although I'd like to avoid cutting and gluing 3rd party components I don't mind hacking a few parts together to get something really cool. As suggested by @pcantin there are adapters I could buy to interface LEGO with 3rd party engines etc... I will look into it. But I would appreciate some better pointers in this regard. Edit I am already aware of the Power Functions IR remote control It's a good solution to start with (now), but I was looking for something more advanced. I have never heard of Arduino before, but as a developper I am absolutely thrilled by this solution. I won't have the time to test it now. But it could become the answer I was looking for. technic remote-control power-functions mindstorms 3rd-party I use a Mindstorms NXT brick and an Android smartphone for my remote controlled tank. The downside is that the NXT motors are slower than the regular Power Functions motors, and connecting PF motors to the NXT brick requires additional components.
Personally, I am satisfied with NXT motors and don't bother kludging PF motors. Personally I would go with Arduino (on the car) and an Android phone as the controller (via bluetooth). There's plenty of reference on the web about mixing the two. The main problem is interfacing with non Lego parts (motors, PCB, ...). Luckily, you can find Lego adapter parts in many Robot/Electronic sites. For example at Pololu: Android bluetooth communication: There's the main page and the sample (I started from that one and modified it). You can also use the 'Sena Bterm' app to send and receive characters (no programming necessary but very basic). Arduino bluetooth communication: This is the most simple part. All you need is a bluetooth breakout board and connect it to the Arduino like so. Using the board is as simple as any normal Serial communication ex: int inByte = 0; if (Serial.available() > 0) This code reads the incoming bytes and write 'test1' or 'test2' in return.
Hardware: this is the coolest part because you get to do what ever you want. I personal use a lot of Lego Technics and sometime modified them to interface with foreign parts. Search the web and you'll find cool Lego-compatible stuff like this servo joint, this servo bracket or this wheel. LEGO have produced an IR Speed Remote Control unit as part of their current "Power Functions" range. Features 4 RC channels, 2 stop button and 2 direction control switches! Use the jog wheels to control your motor speed! You will also need the receivers as well. The MindStorms NXT controller can work over bluetooth: The 9398-1: 4x4 Crawler is an interesting candidate with the new servo motor. It comes in 2H2012. There are more pictures on TechnicBricks. I saw an official Lego remote control car at the Lego Store once and I should have gotten it that day because I haven't seen it again. That said, with Mindstorms and a bluetooth enabled phone it should be possible to build one one your own.
Sign up or log in Sign up using Google Sign up using Email and Password Post as a guest By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service. Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged technic remote-control power-functions mindstorms 3rd-party or ask your own question.Small-scale model of the King Tiger tank. Features 4 remote-controlled functions and custom stickers. Power: electric (Power Functions) Dimensions: length 28 studs (not including the barrel) / width 16 studs / height 14 studs (not including the antenna) Propulsion: 2 x PF M motor geared 3:1 Motors: 2 x PF M motor, 2 x Micromotor After I’ve built my Tiger XL model, I got plenty of requests to build Tiger II. I was reluctant at first, because it seemed that at the same scale, large part of the chassis would be almost identical to that of my Tiger XL, but then I did some math and it occurred to me that I could try building a fully motorized Tiger II at small scale, with tracks of older type.
The original King Tiger isn’t as iconic as Tiger I tank, even though it was much more deadly. It’s fair to say that Tiger I’s fearsome reputation was partially product of Nazi propaganda, while Tiger II deserved every bit of horror it evoked. It was pretty much the most terrifying thing you could see on WW2’s battlefield, it was terrorizing Allies throughout the Ardennes campaign and up to the very last day of war, and some sources claim that Soviet crews would sometimes abandon their tanks at the very sight of King Tiger. Many consider Tiger I to be the first true heavy tank but also a somewhat premature one. In this regard, King Tiger represented a mature concept of the heavy tank: it was improved and perfected, but also suffered from typical disadvantages of the heavy tank: monstrous fuel consumption and poor mobility, as many bridges and roads were simply unfit for a vehicle weighing nearly 70 tonnes. At the same time, it was tank that sported what is commonly considered the best tank cannon in entire World War 2, and a front armor that according to some records has never been penetrated in combat.
It was a tank that could easily kill Allied tanks from 2 km away or more, and it only grew deadlier at closer range. It benefited from many improvements over Tiger I, such as sloped interlocking armor plates and a powerful multi-speed turret traverse system capable of doing a full rotation in just 10 seconds. We should be thankful that less than 500 of these tanks were ever produced because every single one was nothing short of a nightmare to WW2 tank crews. My primary goal with the model was to make it fully remote-controlled at such small scale (effectively 1:34 scale) without compromising it too much. There are many static King Tiger models at this particular scale and I wanted to create a working one that could compete with them aesthetically. On the technical side, the model was fairly simple. There was no suspension due to the lack of space, and propulsion system consisted of two PF M motors driving the front sprockets at 3:1 ratio that was forced simply because there was no room for a gear larger than 8-teeth one.
Two PF IR receivers were located above the propulsion system, with their tops exposed on the front deck in places where hatches would be. The 8878 rechargeable battery was located longitudinally at the back of the hull because hull’s sloped sides made it impossible to install it crosswise, and it was turned on/off by pressing a 2×2 round dish on the rear deck. There was no turntable – instead the entire turret was simply sitting on top of an ungeared Micromotor. Another Micromotor was located at the back of the turret, controlling cannon’s elevation at 3:1 gear ratio. This necessitated use of the 24-teeht gear, making the turret slightly taller than it should have been. The looks of the model were far from perfect. Firstly, I prefer to build my tanks in dark gray and this model only confirms this preference to me, but seeing as a number of necessary pieces was not available in dark gray, I decided to give light gray a try. It seemed straightforward to me at first, since light gray is a popular and common color, but I’ve run into some surprises along the way – most notably, I was shocked to find that slotless pin joiners I wanted to use to make the barrel perfectly round sell for about $4 apiece.
I needed 6 of those, and with shipping from multiple shops included I would need to blow some $40 just to get part of the barrel a little rounder – an extravagance I simply couldn’t afford. Secondly, while static models can be very fragile, a motorized and driving tracked model needs to be considerably stronger, especially when there is no suspension to absorb vibrations from the tracks. For this reason the mudguards and side skirts of my model were not accurate – I kept them simple and strong when they should be slightly sloped and lowering towards the rear. The turret was not only somewhat too tall, but also too wide in the front, and not sloped enough in the back – a result of it being almost completely filled by the cannon elevation mechanism. Finally, the model’s ground clearance was notably smaller than with original vehicle, because the hull had to be deep enough to house the PF IR receivers and the battery. All in all, it was imperfect model but a good exercise at building very small.