WOW!! This set is amazing! It looks great, has lot's of gears and a quite amazing flex system to hoist the "garbage" from the front claw to the container on the back.
All models in the set has some clever feature but none of the alternatives get close to the main truck!
The Barcode unit is quite a disappointment though, especially if you already own the RCX.
It's a great addition to the Mindstorms kits since it uses the same type of touch sensors and has another engine.
The barcode unit can make quite stunning sound effects. Here is a MP3-file of the sound (I recorded it with my video camera and converted it to a wave file in mono, then compressed it with the MP3 standard [64kb/s]. If you need a player for MP3 files try Winamp, and if you don't have a player, have you been living in a cave lately?).
Oh, the noise is sampled during a real towing of a tire.
Truck.mp3 [220 kB and approx.. 28 seconds]
Year 1997, 1263 pieces.
The bent liftarms in the back can swing open and let the load out.
Bottom.
Cab, notice instrumentation and gear shift.
Who want some!? When the touch sensor is pressed the engine starts working and closes the claws...
...when fully closed the forces makes the whole arm design move upwards and when the weight shifts over it falls down behind the cab and opens the claw thus dropping it's load into the back of the truck. Really nice actually!
Note the flexi.
The rear axle is floating.
The back can tilt open to let the load out.
Note geartrain.
Right in front of the motor is a mode switch that changes between arm and back action. The motor can easily be moved to the other side of the chassis and there it drives the truck back and forth instead.
While tearing this model apart I shot some pics of the geartrains. This is when I took everything "design" and not function away.
Close up.
Another view.
Steering.
Top.
This is the first alternative model, it's some sort of six wheeled radar vehicle. The two front pairs of wheels got steering and in the back there is a hook that holds the radar trailer. The hook can be lowered and raised.
The wheel on top steers and the steering wheel joins in. When the touch sensor is pressed the hook lowers/raises.
Radar trailer, the radar rotates with the wheels.
Notice the gears on the middle axle and the black thing against them. It's a pretty clever brake that stops the trailer from rolling backwards when it's not connected to the six wheeler (hook lifted).
There is a linkage system that operates the brake.
The steering on this one is actually really good!
Alternative model #2. The noise produced by the computer in this model is awkward!
Note the differential, it controls the steering. When this car hit's an obstacle it backs up a bit and steers while doing so. While going forward the steering is lined up straight. The dif. makes this possible.
The cab can be opened.
This one did not use a lot of the pieces that comes with the 8479.
Stripped down to it's bare functions. Continues on page three.
The dif. drives the z40 gear for drive and the front of the dif. controls steering.
When the car hit's an obstacle the sudden stop makes the back rise a tiny bit enough to depress the touch sensor, this tells the computer when to back up.
The gearrack can only steer the car in one way, when gong forward the black 1x2 plate (look under the gearrack) stops the rack from steering left and when backing up the green 1x1 allows the car tosteer right. Simple solution, nice done!
This is the control unit for alternative model #3. When the wheel is spun on top it tells the computer to power up the engine, if the touch sensor is pressed the motor reverses.
The computer can't tell in which direction the wheel is spun but can determine in what speed and regulates the motor speed accordingly. Nice feature.
The walker.
The drivetrain is similar to the one I made for my walker
Stampe, however I was not aware of this when I built Stampe, similar minds think alike? Stampe is faster though :)
Walking...
Nice sag!
Great pieces
Two touch sensors that are compatible with the Mindstorms kit
Extra geared down 9V motor (Mindstorms style)
Lots of gears and beams
Great wheels, six larger and two smaller
Green parts, but I'm not so sure that's a plus ,)
Quite a number of flex-system pieces.
White z24 limited slip gears.
Links
Building instruction on Brickshelf (N/A)
Inventory on Peeron
Set reference on Lugnet
Jim Hughes Technica
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