TOOLS

Gearing Ratio Calculator

Check out the Beta version my Lego Technic Gearing Ratio Calculator Tool:

This tool allows you to upload your Lego Technic project .ldr file and analyse the gearing ratios between any two connected gears or axles. Currently supports most gears, axles, worm gears, some differentials, cv joints and universal joints. See the video tutorial on how to use it. It is a work in progress and I would love to hear your feedback on it. Click here to try it out.

Note: As of 25 Septemeber 2021 the tool supports CV joints, linear speed via the radius of the component and improves on the frame rate for higher numbers of parts in a model).

Technic Elbow Art

This is a tool to create "Lego Technic Elbow Art" - a series of intertwined elbow pieces as a single sequence. Choose your dimensions and search parameters and search for new dense solutions and set a record! 

Download your Elbow Art as an .ldr file and build it yourself. Click here to try it out!

Lego 2 speed automatic car. Part 1

3 Oct 2020

This video explores the use of the lego technic "smoothly switching 2 speed automatic gearbox" inside of a test car to see how well it works to climb up a ramp.

The gearing ratio of the 2nd gear of the 2 speed automatic gearbox can be set using a manual 4 speed gearbox to choose between gearing ratios relative to the first speed of 0.865, 0.775, 0.595 or 0.325.

The 2 speed automatic gearbox car is tested to see how well it drives up a steep hill, and is also compared to a lego manual gearbox version of the car to see the performance difference.

Finally the construction of the 2nd speed implementation using a differential is compared to a basic construction for the same gearing ratio by measuring their torque output by pulling a set of rubber bands and measuring the overall force generated.

More to explore

Lego Technic 2 Speed Auto Car Ramp Challenge - Part 2

10 Dec 2020

A lego technic 2 speed automatic gearbox is put to the test by incorporating it into a lego 2 speed automatic car.  This lego 2 speed automatic gearbox implements a number of design principles aimed at improving the gearbox performance - namely of placing the torque detector on a separate pa...read more

Lego Technic torque in practice - how to work with torque in automatic gearbox design

29 Oct 2020

n this video I present a ten level Lego Technic torque creation gadget for testing lego power function motors and automatic gear switching mechanisms. The effect of torque on a large lego PF motor is tested against the theoretical power curve to compare the optimal gear switching point in practic...read more

Lego Technic Gearbox Theory Applied - how to apply theory to help design 2 speed automatic gearboxes

10 Nov 2020

This video applies lego technic gearbox, torque, and gearing ratio theory to design a prototype lego 2 speed automatic gearbox. First I describe the main components of an automatic gearbox, namely a gearing ratio selector and a torque detector. The ideal gear switch over torque point is described...read more

Lego Technic smoothly switching 2 speed automatic gearbox evolution with instructions

11 Sep 2020

This video presents my latest compact and smoothly switching 2 speed automatic gearbox made out of Lego Technic.  It is both smoothly switching and compact.

The MOC gearbox automatically switches down in gearing ratio when the load on the output is sufficiently high by using a new te...read more

Lego Technic 2 Speed Automatic Gearbox - Compact! With build Instructions.

15 Aug 2020

Here I present a design for a compact lego technic 2 speed automatic  gearbox. Instead of using a differential to react to torque on the output it uses the force on the gear teeth to push a liftarm to automatically change the gearing ratio to the 2nd speed once the torque threshold has been ...read more

LEGO Technic MOC: 1023 SPEED CAR

16 Jul 2020

A 1,023 speed gearbox has been built into a Lego Technic remote controlled car chassis. The car can be steered and driven via remote control using two channels. The gears can be manually changed using ten selectors that drive ten differentials. This allows for one of 1023 different speeds to be s...read more

Lego RC car chassis with slow reverse gearing mechanism

8 Jul 2020

This Lego technic MOC car chassis is remote controlled with forward and reverse and remote controlled steering. What is different about this design is that it implements a special gearing mechanism that allows the car to drive forward at a normal speed, and 1/5 the speed in reverse. It uses a spe...read more

Lego Technic 3 Speed Automatic Gearbox

1 Jul 2020

Here a Lego Technic 3 speed automatic gearbox is presented. The gearbox automatically switches between one of 3 gear ratios, namely a ratio of 1, 1/3rd and 1/9th depending on the load on the output.  It uses two 2 speed automatic transmissions in series to create the three speed automatic ge...read more

Lego Technic Powerful 2 Speed Auto Gearbox

3 Jun 2022

Here I present my design for a compact and powerful Lego Technic 2 speed automatic gearbox.

The gearbox uses the Lego Technic Powered Up functions to detect speed and deduce torque from that to make gear switching decisions. The gearbox switches between a high gear of 1 to 4, to a low gea...read more