Week TechVideo, 2009 #42 - Beep, beep, beep,... another Liebherr L 580 is coming

The mood is now set for the Wheel Loaders or Front Loaders machines, whatever you prefer to call them.

Today another Liebherr L 580 - this time, one made by Fabio Sali (Fabione) and built with an all white color scheme, giving it also an unusual nice look. In the same scenario one truck made by Cristian Sala (Tristian). Both Fabione and Tristian take part into a group of friends, running the BrickinItalia website.
BTW these are the first LEGO vehicles, I prefer to see moving backwards... (or at least to hear...) - Yes, they first raised my attention specially because of the characteristic beep, produced when moving backwards.

Please notice this video is intentionally started at 4' 52'', in order to better highlight the featured models.
However you are welcome to rewind it to the beginning, as it worths to see it all!

These are 1:20 scale replicas of the real models and were last displayed in the 4th ItLUG LEGO Fest at Ballabio in July, among many other construction machines as you can see from the video above.

Fabione is the guy with the PF remote in the hand, when the video starts and this is not his first version for the Liebherr L 580. The original version was made about three years ago, it was cable driven and it had four old 9V motors inside. The remote control was built with LEGO polarity switches to drive and operate the wheel loader.
As soon as the new PF System came out, the Liebherr was redesigned to fit the new PF motors and the cable was gone, replaced by the IR PF remote/receivers. Previous custom LED lights were also replaced by the actual PF lights.

Not that it resumes to it at all, but what I most liked in these models, was the reverse gear beep indicator.
I heard about someone who really hates that buzzer, because when they do the tests at home by night, it wakes-up everyone in the block!!
It was implemented with an electric circuit built by Fabione himself, with a 12V DC Buzzer, transistors and a 555IC based circuit.
I found one way to reproduce it with LEGO genuine parts only (based on the old 4774c LEGO electric siren and a mechanism similar to that in the Sariel's Automated Trafficators), but it might be a bit bulky for this model and most likely not loud enough to be heard in a show.

The original mechanics of the shovel was operated with self built (100% LEGO) linear actuators. On the actual version one on the middle was replaced with the LEGO linear actuator.
The power originally came from a 9V battery under the hood, but now replaced by a 3 cell Li-Ion battery, as the LEGO PF battery boxes are huge to fit the model.
On the actual model, even the beep buzzer is new and much similar to the real one.

Some technical data:

• 1 PF XL-motor (driving)
• 3 PF M-motor (steering, arm and shovel)
• 2 4x4 differentials
• PF LED lights in the front and back
• Flashing light on the top
• Rear balancing axle
• A rechargeable 9,9V/1000mAh Li-Ion battery
  Similar in capacity to the 1100mAh LEGO version but smaller I guess. We already have seen, the original seems that could have been a bit smaller apart the space needed for the electronics.

So apart the battery, the choice to use non-LEGO parts, has been for electrical components not (yet) produced by LEGO.



Now, a few words about the trucker also.

Tristian (you may also see him at 1' 25'') together with Fabione made this blue truck as a 3-axle version of the Iveco Trakker 480, but you can find also their 4-axle models (the red and the white trucks) in the video. This is also a revision from an old model by Tristian, that we may see at this webpage.
At an EuroBricks discussion about these models, there was some curiosity about the electronics, which pushed me to investigate and write this week about them.
The electric parts visible in the trucker cabin, is a modified old Racers remote receiver with auxiliary power (6272c01) and without the original case (not so nice to see, but there was not so much space available to hide it).
After taking it out of its case (to reduce the size) they have also taken out the embedded steering motor and done some soldering to use the 3 channel with regular LEGO motors. One channel for traction, one for steering and one for folding the truck tipper.
So this is still a radio controlled vehicle and not a PF upgraded version.


You may find some more pictures about these and other models, here and also from YouBrick.



Thanks Tristian and Fabione, for your active cooperation providing me with all the information necessary to write this post.