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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: ...

There are a number of pull-back motors for system wheels. Look through the Motor, non-electric section of bricklink. There is even one rechargeable electric motor. There was also an all-rubber tire with an axle hole in some of the old space sets, though that may have a rounder shape than you're looking for.

If i remember right, the tires of the small LEGO City wheels fit perfectly on a Technic 1/2 bush which then gives you an axle hole, but note that this is very flat on the ground. I don't know if its high enough to add a very small gear and build up the connection to your motor.

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. (Yet.) Here is a modular truck ...

Unless you do extreme things it should be fine. All the gears insides the Train motors, Power Function motors and the NXT motors are made of Nylon while the pinion attached to the motor is made of metal. Image Source Since Nylon is much stronger than ABS plastic (normal LEGO plastic), the ABS would twist, tear or brake before damaging the nylon gears. ...

5300 and 10153 are from the former 9V train system and drew power from the metal tracks. They were controlled using a transformer attached to the tracks. 88002 runs on battery power from an onboard battery box. Trains with this kind of motor can run at a set speed, or can be controlled by adding IR remote controllers. Regarding compatibility, the 5300 and ...

Funny that you are asking because I just rebuilt my old 4x4 OffRoader (8466) with my son. it's a 4 wheels drive, V8 with a functional 5 speed gearbox (including reverse). and in the truck (with the gearbox cover): Looking at it in action is really good to understand the basics of a car's transmission.

It's difficult, but not impossible. A rigid axle turning at the centre would be mechanically simpler. As my crude drawing illustrates; I would place a 24-tooth gear over the 2x4 wheel axle. A 8-tooth gear is optional but will provide finer control over the steering. The two teeth gears can also be replaced with a pulley gear. This technique however will ...

LEGO have produced an IR Speed Remote Control unit as part of their current "Power Functions" range. This offers: 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.

Yes, you can use another transformer, even if it's not recommended by LEGO and you do so at your own risk (which should be minimal if you pay attention to what you do). The plug polarity is + in the center and - on the outside; it should be mentioned on the battery and the real transformer (I wish I could find the one I have to check), and the size is a ...

According to the product description on the LEGO® webn site, the LEGO® Power Functions Train Motor 88002, can be used to motorise the Western Train Chase. The train wheels normally fit directly to this motor, so I'm sure that this train can be used on normal LEGO® tracks. Looking at the instructions for both the Red Cargo Train and the Western Train Chase, ...

Ever since this question was asked I wanted to build something that would fit that scale. Here's the result: I know this is not using only LEGO pieces but, I thought that there was no way to make the LEGO motors fit 'inside' a normal looking LEGO City vehicle. So, this is basically a homemade motorized brick made of a 2x2 brick glued to the 2x2 ...

Most vehicles in modern city sets use wheels with ∅20×12 mm tires. Such tire can be put on 12 tooth double bevel gear or combination of narrower ∅11×8 mm wheel and 12 tooth bevel gear to connect with axle. The only problem I see with this solution is that tires are swollen a bit by gear so they are not freely turned when covered with mudguard with arch.

There is a pure way of changing the points at a track. It requires as few pieces as you like: a motor and two technic beam/bricks. This video demonstrates the principles of point changing with a NXT motor and will work with PF and RCX. You can use Mindstorms to program the events that trigger the points to change, it will cost you extra but there are ...

The strict minimum you need for PF motorization is: Tracks. Sounds obvious, but don't forget these. Nope, there are none with the Maersk train. A PF train motor A PF battery box (plus 6 AAA batteries) Now, as oezi says, it's a bit senseless to have a train which you can't control. Well, you can control it, but it's limited to switching it on and off (if ...

there are some lego-models that have a working gearbox built-in like the super street sensation (8448). just take a loot at the building instruction* to see how it works. *page 18, 26, 72-81

I got inspired by the idea of a vertical Slewing Bearing. I made this “horrible” prototype to demonstrate the principles. One side of the assembly has a fixed wheel attached to it using multiple pins. The other side has multiple bearings. The idea is that the vertical weight is shared between the bearings (on one side) and between the pins supporting ...

The transformer can be omitted, if you find a suitable, cheaper one. Take a look at this question for more information about the exact requirements. I don't think the other parts can be omitted, as... A motor clearly is required to motorize something (#88002) A motor won't work without a battery (#8878) Something motorized that can't be controlled is ...

The two sticks on that remote are pure on/off switches (well, forward/off/backward) and come back in their central position if not maintained pushed, and don't move laterally either. There are two classic ways to control a car with them: Use each switch to control a motor and wheel (or set of wheels) - so you have to push both levers to advance, and only ...

The best options to improve IR reception is to actually modify both the receiver and the remote (though the remote is more important to upgrade than the receiver). Common modifications include replacing the transmitter/receiver element with higher range/power components (this may be at the cost of space), or adding reflectors behind the elements to better ...

In short, yes it's perfectly safe to run your old 9v motors from your Power Functions battery box. This excellent online reference has a lot of information on various LEGO motors. Both the old 9v train motor and the Power Functions train motor are listed. The information on the site shows that the characteristics of the two motors are very similar with the ...

Here is another video from Sariel which shows that it returns to center: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_Gvuzsngg8 With the 58122c01 Remote Control Unit it returns to center if the remote is not actuated. With the 64227 IR Speed Remote Control Unit it returns to central position when the stop button is pressed.

If the motors are far apart, you could simply connect them both to the same receiver using some extension cables. To the best of my knowledge, there is no problem connecting two motors on the same input of one IR receiver. If you're using Technic motors instead of train motors, as Zhaph said, you'll probably want to have them coupled through a differential ...

One elegant solution is to use pneumatic elements, as a small pneumatic pump is enough to move the lever. If you're lazy to figure out how, you can buy a kit from a fan which will allow you to control 2 points (you'll need one more pump to generate the pressure). With the included instructions, you can build more controls if you have the parts, or simply buy ...

The 9398-1: 4x4 Crawler is an interesting candidate with the new servo motor. It comes in 2H2012. There are more pictures on TechnicBricks.

This may sound like a naive approach, but isn't the turntable overkill in this case? Did you try a simple Technic pin peg to connect both parts if the robot, or do you actually need some transmission to go from one half to the other? If a Technic peg isn't robust enough, maybe an axle would do the trick. I'd suggest using one Technic Axle 8 with Stop (), ...

We tried motorizing our Western Train Chase with the Power Function box as suggested on the LEGO site. It doesn't work. Their isn't even enough power for it to pull the engine by itself. The battery box itself is really heavy. I wrote my complaint to Lego. On top of this problem, we also don't have enough curved track (despite the purchase of 3 boxes of ...

You don't need the rechargeable battery box and that's the most expensive part. Get the AAA battery box and use your own rechargeable batteries. $13 88000 AAA Battery box $14 88002 Train Motor $13 8879 IR Speed Remote $15 8884 IR Receiver That's about $55. Not cheap but not over the top. You'll also need tracks but even on a set you're going to need to ...

As with most things related to Power Function,s you can find this information on Philo's page on Power Functions. If you scroll down a little, you'll find a link to "LEGO Power Functions RC" which is a document straight from LEGO outlining the PF RC protocol. The protocol does include commands to set an absolute speed. Now, whether you can make sense of it ...

I have done an extensive review of both receivers, see it here. This other page shows the performance of various motors connected to both receivers. Note that because of a problem in Power Functions M-motor, the new receiver is not suitable for driving several of them on the same output. See this LEGO official notice.