{"id":86,"date":"2016-01-02T20:09:01","date_gmt":"2016-01-02T20:09:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/lego\/?p=86"},"modified":"2016-02-06T20:48:01","modified_gmt":"2016-02-06T20:48:01","slug":"bb8-in-lego-first-attempt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/lego\/bb8-in-lego-first-attempt\/","title":{"rendered":"BB8 in Lego &#8211; first attempt"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ever since the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=erLk59H86ww\" target=\"_blank\">first\u00a0trailer appeared for Star Wars Episode VII<\/a>,\u00a0the world fell in love with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=bnDdSSFenRk\" target=\"_blank\">BB8<\/a>.\u00a0I could just\u00a0buy a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sphero.com\/starwars\" target=\"_blank\">non-Lego version<\/a>, but I would like to\u00a0see if\u00a0it is possible to create a working BB8 in LEGO Technic. There is only one way to do this &#8211; trial and error. Rupert Cross, I dedicate this post to you.<\/p>\n<p>WARNING &#8211; LEGO purists beware that this blog-post contains non-LEGO parts. If that sort of thing offends you, look away now. Also I offer an apology to Technic guru <a href=\"http:\/\/sariel.pl\" target=\"_blank\">Sariel<\/a>: please do not show this video to your hamster.<\/p>\n<p><strong>First attempt &#8211; 2nd January 2016.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The first mechanism I tried has a pair of wheels at the bottom which can rotate and drive. The tan-coloured gears make the wheels drive. The grey gears (crown and pinion) are used to rotate\u00a0the driving plate &#8211; making it possible to steer the driving wheels in any direction.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/lego\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/BB8-11.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-92 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/lego\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/BB8-11.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"562\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/lego\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/BB8-11.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/lego\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/BB8-11-300x281.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/lego\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/BB8-11-320x300.jpg 320w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The two motors are attached to the &#8220;Power Functions&#8221; remote control and battery, and these are mounted as shown.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/lego\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/BB8-21.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-93 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/lego\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/BB8-21.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"579\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/lego\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/BB8-21.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/lego\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/BB8-21-300x290.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/lego\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/BB8-21-311x300.jpg 311w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Turning the thing over, we have a mechanism that can steer and drive independently. Watch the video to see it in action. Remember, this is the underneath &#8211; so those wheels should be on the ground.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"584\" height=\"438\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zhDDzmDY1lw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The structure is then housed inside a hamster-ball.\u00a0LEGO don&#8217;t make a sphere big enough for this project, so I had to improvise. FULL DISCLOSURE: No animals were hurt in the making of this project.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/lego\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/BB8-3.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-91\" src=\"http:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/lego\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/BB8-3.jpg\" alt=\"BB8-3\" width=\"600\" height=\"445\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/lego\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/BB8-3.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/lego\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/BB8-3-300x223.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/lego\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/BB8-3-404x300.jpg 404w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Immediately I can see a problem. The battery is so heavy that it skews the whole thing over to one side. So far in fact that the wheel is barely in contact with the inside of the ball. Let&#8217;s see it in action.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"584\" height=\"438\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/LKa_yrwHh6k?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>At the beginning of the video, at the bottom of the ball, you can see the wheel steering. Then it tries to drive &#8230; and the whole structure unbalances. With insufficient traction, the hamster ball is just able to wobble.<\/p>\n<p>Rupert, this is how one becomes an expert builder: trial and error. Don&#8217;t be scared to make\u00a0lots of mistakes. As you can see, this one was a bit of a disaster. But we learned some valuable lessons:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The LEGO Power Functions battery box is heavy,<\/li>\n<li>The mechanism must be well balanced,<\/li>\n<li>The co-axial drive mechanism works &#8211; and might be useful for something else.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Back to the drawing board I&#8217;m afraid. I have some more ideas &#8230; so watch this space. In the meantime, I found a\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.leg-technic.hu\/epites\/395\/star-wars-bb8-prototipus\" target=\"_blank\">guy in Hungary<\/a>\u00a0(in Hungarian &#8211; or <a href=\"https:\/\/translate.google.com\/translate?sl=auto&amp;tl=en&amp;js=y&amp;prev=_t&amp;hl=en&amp;ie=UTF-8&amp;u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.leg-technic.hu%2Fepites%2F395%2Fstar-wars-bb8-prototipus&amp;edit-text=&amp;act=url\" target=\"_blank\">auto-translated into English<\/a>) who came up with a\u00a0mechanism last April. I don&#8217;t know if he ever completed his version. If that&#8217;s you, please add your comments below.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ever since the first\u00a0trailer appeared for Star Wars Episode VII,\u00a0the world fell in love with BB8.\u00a0I could just\u00a0buy a non-Lego version, but I would like to\u00a0see if\u00a0it is possible to create a working BB8 in LEGO Technic. There is only &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/lego\/bb8-in-lego-first-attempt\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[28,29,26,27,5],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/lego\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/lego\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/lego\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/lego\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/lego\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/lego\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99,"href":"https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/lego\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86\/revisions\/99"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/lego\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/lego\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/lego\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}