Motorized Excavator with Independently Power Undercarriage & SBrick

The original tracks were powered by two motors in the upper parts of the excavator, through a series of gears.  With power losses through transmission, the tracks moved very slow and didn't want to move when the batteries were half drained.  

As I am using two SBricks, I place one SBrick in the carriage with two motors and battery case.  The tracks are now independently powered regardless, moving smoothly and a little bit faster than I expected.  By separating the upper part and undercarriage, I don't need to replace the batteries so often.

I also modified the SBrick control panel designed by Jurgen.  The original design was to use two sliders to control the forward and backward movement of the tracks.  Due to sensitivity of the control, it was difficult to synchronize the movement.   I replaced the sliders with a joystick in the middle, turning it by 45 degree.  By moving the spot up, both tracks are moving forward.  By moving the spot to left, the left track is moving backward while the right track moving forward making a left turn.  It is easier to control the travel of the excavator now and can have several movements at the same time.

Motorized Excavator with Infrared Remote Control & SBrick

An excavator has six actions: left and right tracks, slewing, boom, stick and bucket.   The original model has only two sets of IR remote control, controlling four motors.  Out of cost control or other reasons, the designer cleverly used the fourth motor as a switch.  The other three motors controlled the left, right track and slewing, by switching the fourth motor, the other three motors were then controlling the boom, stick and bucket.

Of course, some of the enthusiasts would definite not happy about this arrangement and started their own modifications.   Jurgens' modification, using three set of IR remote control and six motors were widely adopted by many people.   You would require to purchase an extra of 180 pirces of parts and power function components to complete the modifications.

Motorized Excavator 8043

This motorized excavator was originally modified by Jurgens. 

Three IR receivers, six motors and one battery case were tightly squeezed into the back of the excavator.

Left controller to control the slewing and stick, right controller to control the boom and bucket.

Middle controller, upside down to control the left and right tracks

Ultimate 8043s

Two SBricks replaced three IR receivers.

SBrick control panel designed by Jurgens.

Motorized Track Loader with Infrared Remote Control and & SBrick

The motorized track loader was originally designed to be controlled by two sets of infrared remote control for four motors, two motors for the track, one for the lift arm and one for the bucket.

The tow receivers were installed at the back o the loader.

The left controller was modified to a joystick type to control the lift arm and bucket.  The two levers of the right control were to control the travel.

SBrick is a blue-tooth device that control the motors via your smart phone.  It can be ordered online at around HK$500 including shipping.  For one set of original Lego IR remote control at around HK$270 per set, it seems the SBrick  is not quite expensive.

First impression was that it looked quite simple and did not worth the money.  The added value using SBRick is by registration, you can design your own control panel, download to your smartphone or simply select some of the public control panels.

By using several SBricks, you can now control very complicated motorized models form your phone.

Motorized Wall-E by Infrared Remote Control & SBrick

The Wall-E is a static model with more than 600 pieces.  In order to be motorized it, you would require one set of infrared remote control and two motors to drive the two tracks.   There are a lot of  instruction and videos online, below is one of them:

http://www.miniplayhouse.com/moc/moc-lego-wall-e-rc-motorized/

The motors were installed at the bottom of the model, the IR receiver was installed at the back and a compact battery case was put inside the model.  For one set of set Lego IR control, two motor sand the battery case, it would cost more than HK$700 including shipping,

SBrick is a blue-tooth device that can control four motors via your smart phone.  It can be used to replace the IR remote control.  You could purchase at around HK$500 including shipping online.   With one set of Lego IR remote control costing more than HK$270,  a SBrick of which can replace two sets of IR remote control,  was not that expensive.  By registration, you can access the SBrick website and design the control panel by yourself or download other public panels.   By using several SBricks, you can use your smart phone to control very complicated models.