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!

Powered Up 3 Speed Automatic Gearbox

10 Jun 2021

The lego technic Powered Up motors and functions have been used to create a lego technic 3 speed automatic gearbox. With the lego Powered Up functions you can accurately control motor speed and motor position, as well as being able to measure the angular position of a motor. These new possibilities have been used to create a three speed automatic gearbox. One motor is used to measure the torque at the output of the gearbox by detecting the rotation of an output differential; another motor is used to accurately set the position of an orange rotary catch controlling the switching between three forward gears, and finally one large powered up motor is used to drive the gearbox. The gearbox implements 3 forward speeds at gearing ratios of 1 to 1, 1 to 0.6 and 1 to 0.2 as well as one manual reverse gear. The Lego Powered Up app has been used to program the gearbox controller on an iphone. Thanks to @racingbrick (racingbrick.com) for providing a great guide to all of the available programming blocks.

More to explore

Lego Technic Powered Up 3 Speed Automatic gearbox 2

24 Jul 2021

This video presents a revised version of an earlier Lego Technic Powered Up 3 speed automatic gearbox. The previous gearbox used a differential for torque measurement and used a powered up large motor to convert the differential rotation into a torque measurement.

However as it turns out ...read more

Lego Technic 3 Speed Automatic Gearbox - FAIL!

18 Sep 2020

This video presents a lego technic 3 speed automatic gearbox design that failed to work as expected. This design is based on an earlier design of a 2 speed automatic gearbox with smooth transmission that worked very well.  That technic gearbox was extended by adding another speed to the oran...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

Spirograph Machine

19 Dec 2023

Here I present a Lego Technic Spirograph machine programmed using Powered Up. The powered up controller is used to maintain the desired gearing ratio between the turn table and the inner gear to draw a spirograph that replicates the real original spirograph drawing toy.

...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

Lego Technic Powered Up 3 Speed Automatic Car

14 Aug 2021

 

This video presents a new lego technic 3 speed automatic RC car. The gearbox uses the lego technic powered up hub and 3 motors to drive, steer and switch gears. The car's 3 speed automatic gearbox has 3 forward speeds with gear ratios 1:1, 3:5 and 1:5 and has been programmed us...read more

Lego Technic Servo Driven 3 Speed Automatic Gearbox

13 Feb 2021

A lego technic 3 speed automatic gearbox is presented using a lego technic power function servo motor to drive the gear change mechanism. The servo motor is driven by a lego electric switch which in turn is driven by a torque detector using a differential at the output.

The technic automa...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 PU 2 Speed Automatic Gearbox

8 Jul 2022

This video presents a lego technic two speed automatic gearbox using two motors and the Powered Up (PU) lego technic control system. Each motor uses a pivoting gear to either connect to it's gear to the left when rotating in the forward direction or to the gear to the right when reversing. Th...read more