36
votes
Accepted
How does the motorized lighthouse rotate continuously without tangling the wire powering the light?
This required a clever design and one novel element.
The power for the light comes from the very bottom of the model where a battery box is stowed inside the mountain:
The wire leaves the mountain ...
- 41.5k
33
votes
Accepted
How can I motorize the Hogwarts Express (76423)
There are number of ways to accomplish this. The locomotive traditionally provides the power for a train, so that is a natural place to start. Unfortunately, this locomotive is difficult to motorize ...
- 41.5k
31
votes
How can I get my motor to line up with a linear actuator?
The axle is misaligned by half a stud, so an obvious approach to this problem is offset your motor by half a stud.
The technique of offsetting bricks by half a stud is known as AZMEP (from the german &...
- 9,366
26
votes
If I were to make a LEGO fan how would I make it blow air on me?
A fan is just 1/4 of a drone, right? Check out this lego drone that actually flies, for inspiration. https://youtu.be/wUVvQk7XLd4
The blade part in question is 89509
- 6,191
24
votes
Can the Orient Express be motorized to run on standard track?
This train will run on standard track without modification. The gauge of the brick-built track is no different from the standard City track.
There are a number of ways that this set could be motorized....
- 41.5k
23
votes
Accepted
What's inside the SPIKE Essential small angular motor?
As far as I know, this is the smallest motor LEGO has produced since the micro motor in 1993:
This new angular motor is not quite that small, but it is smaller than every other motor currently in ...
- 41.5k
21
votes
Accepted
Did LEGO ever make motorised boats?
LEGO had a "Accessory Motor for Boats" included in small number of boats/sets but also released as Accessory Motor for Boats polybag (7099) add-on.
Sets that included the motor in Orange are ...
- 23.2k
17
votes
If I were to make a LEGO fan how would I make it blow air on me?
The easiest way to do this would be to use a motor with a high speed (or gear up a lower speed motor) and then attach one of the larger propeller elements to it. You can probably build a custom prop, ...
- 41.5k
12
votes
Accepted
What is inside the LEGO Powered Up M motor?
Let's take a look. The first step to disassembling the motor is removing the small Philips screw on the bottom:
Now there are a pair of gray tabs in the back white section that we need to release. I ...
- 41.5k
12
votes
Accepted
What is inside the Technic Powered Up XL motor?
I was curious about this, and TLG was willing to provide me with one of these motors, so I opened it up. I was able to get the outer shell off by cutting down the 4 tabs on the outside. This motor ...
- 41.5k
12
votes
Did LEGO ever make motorised boats?
The Lego police boat (set 4010, from 1987) had a notch for fitting a motor on the bottom of the hull and it was referenced in its instructions:
The instructions read, in several languages:
In some ...
- 121
10
votes
Accepted
Electric motors - what for beginning?
If you're interested in comparing motors regarding to torque and what they can deliver, I would recommend reading Philo's excellent motor comparison page which has a lot of detailed information, very ...
- 21.2k
10
votes
Accepted
Difference between the "Simple Medium Linear Motor" (45303) and the "Medium Linear Motor" (88008) Powered Up motors
The main difference is that the 88008 Medium Linear Motor includes a rotation encoder with 1° resolution. Otherwise it weighs a bit more (34g vs 43g), is a bit slower (380 rpm vs 255 rpm) but also ...
- 17.1k
9
votes
Is there any difference in the power, wheel, and track technology between 2018 trains and 2022 trains?
Most of essential bits are the same and used in all 4 sets:
Train motor
Straight track
Track switch
Driving wheels attached to motor
The only difference is in wheel used for cars. Instead of using ...
- 23.2k
8
votes
Is it possible to use 5 motors on an EV3 brick?
A sensor port can't directly output to a motor. The sensor drivers can't provide enough power to supply a motor.
You have a couple options:
Daisy-chain two EV3s together. The first can control the ...
- 1,392
8
votes
Accepted
Compatibility between vintage (80s/90s) Technic and current parts (motors etc)
The motor you have linked is indeed quite old and as far as I know, not compatible with anything newer. Seeing that it works with simple DC current, it wouldn't be hard to construct a converter cable, ...
- 17.1k
8
votes
Accepted
How deep can the axle go in the Powered Up L motor?
That is only 1 stud deep.
So an axle of 5L always sticks out 4 studs
- 8,083
8
votes
Accepted
Is the LEGO train motor 88011 waterproof?
LEGO's electric or electronic parts are usually not waterproof, with a small subset that was explicitly designed for such use in a few nautical-themed sets between 2004 and 2007. These motors feature ...
- 17.1k
7
votes
How can a Mindstorms robot lift something very heavy?
Pulleys and gears
With a range of pulleys and gears you can build something capable of lifting as much as 100 kilos with LEGO parts, albeit at the risk of putting enormous amounts of stress on the ...
- 17.6k
7
votes
How do I connect two models to one PF motor?
As an addition to Ambo100's very nicely detailed answer, I'd like to add one more option: If either of the two things you are powering might suffer from friction (or perhaps a child holding it still), ...
- 17k
7
votes
Accepted
How to get double the speed from 2 regulated EV3 motors?
By adding two motors together with gears, you have doubled the torque the motors provide. Power = torque x speed, so if you don't want the doubled power from the motors to go to the torque component ...
- 17k
7
votes
Accepted
Can I still motorize Universal Building Set 8034 and other from that time with modern elements?
The length of the wire is another thing to be aware of. The wire attached to the motor in 8293 is only slightly more than 20 centimeters (might be a few centimeters more, I don't remember), you can ...
7
votes
Accepted
Confused about Power Functions M-motor 8883 and 8293
Yes, both items contain the same M-Motor part.
- 13.3k
7
votes
Accepted
Which resistor value is used for which motor in Power Functions 2.0?
M Motor (Powered Up/WeDo 2.0)
The M motor has a 2.2kΩ resistor between pins 5 and 6. Pin 6 is connected directly to pin 3.
LED Lights
I don't own any lights yet, but according to this post, they ...
- 41.5k
7
votes
How to make an exact 16 degree turn?
This is actually a surprisingly difficult task. If you search for similar questions over on the Robotics stack exchange, you will find very smart people who can't even get it right with thousand-...
- 1,392
7
votes
I am building the LEGO 42131 D11 dozer and some of the parts are moving in reverse when testing
I had the same problem but turns out the app graphics are just wrong. Completed the build and it works perfectly fine.
- 171
7
votes
Accepted
What is the best way to connect SPIKE prime angular motor to a wheel
TL;DR: Unless you do something quite extreme engineering, any coupling will do just fine and the motor will stall or the tire will slip before even a single axle gets to its limit.
The pins have a ...
- 17.1k
6
votes
How do I make the Mini Cooper (model 10242) motorized?
Here is the only example I can think of.
We can see an example in the following video @0:39 by PPUNG DADDY:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvVJXhs_Q3s&t=38s
Here is the servo-motor:
And the ...
- 477
6
votes
How do I connect two models to one PF motor?
Regardless of the models, you can always connect a single motor to one or more models by splitting the axle using (for example) angular wheels or bevel gears.
I covered two ways of transmitting ...
- 17.6k
6
votes
Accepted
How to run "Power Functions" devices from an electric wall plug?
What you describe is indeed the most common way to GBC modules, but it's worth noting that one adaptor+regulator can typically power more modules (it depends on the modules), sometimes only one end of ...
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