Denton told 3DPrint.com last month, “Well no sooner had I built the Giant LEGO Go-Kart than I was thinking I’m going to have to motorize it!”
Denton promised viewers in his video last month that he would soon be releasing another video that detailed just how he built the “giant-scale LEGO motors” and the modifications he had to make in order to get it up and running. Finally, he has delivered, just in time for Christmas!
Episode 14 of Mantis Hacks, “Motorizing the Giant LEGO 3D Printed Go-Kart,” was released earlier this week.
“In this video I’m going to be taking a look at the modifications I made to the giant LEGO 3D printed go-kart, and the modifications made it radio-controlled,” Denton says in the video introduction.
He begins with an overview of the system itself, and then actually disassembles the go-kart, in order to give viewers a look at its RC functions “piece by piece.”
A round, gray battery box on the right side of the go-kart sends power through a yellow connector into a separate connector, which is located on the drive motor on the back of the go-kart; a pulley connects this motor to the back wheels, so they can actually spin and get the car moving. Power and signal cables from the back connector are connected through additional pulleys to the front servo motor.
“Also you’ve got the antenna here, which isn’t really being used at the moment, but the idea was that the antenna…there’s two signals, drive and turn signal, and they were supposed to come from this receiver inside of the antenna, buried in there,” Denton explained. “But the receiver broke…so I had to put this one on temporarily, which is a bit of a mess, but it would have looked much better had that have worked.”
Denton explained that he had to add a few modified, 3D printed blue LEGO blocks, with bearings inside, at the front, to help the servo motor sit properly; he also had to “step the wheels out a bit” on both sides of the go-kart, in order to add a T5 pulley, 3D printed a red piece in order to join the drive shafts together at the back, and re-printed the front steering arms and added bearings inside.
To take a closer look at all of the modifications, and at the RC motors themselves, take a look at Denton’s latest YouTube video:
Discuss this and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts below.
[Images: Matt Denton via YouTube]