If you've got a young engineer who wants a better understanding of how engines work, have them build one with Lego parts! * The Mechanics – Pneumatics! This book has all of Lego's pneumatics covered! There are a few I've never seen before! Not only are the explanations clear and easy to follow, but there are some great mechanisms for you to build yourself, including a 2-cylinder pneumatic engine. Know what an Oldham Coupling or a Scotch Yoke are? Me neither, but I do now. The book is an excellent introduction to basic engineering and mechanics for any young engineer. * The Mechanics – Gears, chains, pulleys, levers, differentials, clutches. Combine this with some great discussions on the benefits of combining stud with studless components, and the book really gets off to a great start. * The Basics – One of my favorite chapters has a simple image provided for each of the key components used in Technic building – bushings, axles, universal joints, and more. * The Basics – The book opens with some easy to understand definitions of key terms in engineering – friction, traction, backlash, efficiency, etc – plus vehicle terminology such as driveshaft, drivetrain, 4wD, center of gravity, and many more. That said, when you're done building a Technic model, you typically end up with an exhibition-quality model that is best suited for display rather than actual play. And Technic kits are often a little more expensive – you'll find that most Technic models start well over $60 for a basic kit, and the $125 to $175 kits often contain 1,000 or more parts and can take hours to assemble. Building a Technic model definitely takes more time than most stud-based Lego models, and often you'll be assembling a complex moving assembly such as a gearing system. While sites such as allow you to purchase individual pieces you need, the best way to start with Technic is with a pre-packaged kit of parts that allow you to assemble a race car or a heavy-duty construction vehicle. The specialty pieces such as motors, frames, and other complex parts are provided in a limited quantity in most kits, and collectors will often search out multiples of a kit in order to get two or more of a particularly rare component. There are axles, beams, gears, wheels, pins, and connectors that make up the core components of Technic, with hundreds or more of these pieces coming in most Technic kits. Technic pieces come in thousands of shapes. Technic not only let pieces be connected in a more sturdy, durable manner, but the pieces that Lego provided to Technic builders allowed for more complex assemblies and devices. The NXT robot kit improved on the robot building by switching to a mix of stud and studless form of building offered by the Technic brand of bricks. Building stud-based robots posed a real issue when it came to building structurally sound robots – one drop from even a foot or two and an entire RIS robot could easily shatter into pieces. The earlier version of Mindstorms, the Robotics Invention System (RIS), used the typical stud-based brick building. My first introduction to the Technic brand of Lego bricks was with the Lego Mindstorms NXT robot kit back in 2006.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |