I think it’s safe to say that almost all of us grew up playing with toy cars. They were cheap, and darn near indestructible. Some went by the brand name of “Hot Wheels”, and others “Matchbox”. As a kid, you most likely spent many an hour on the floor imagining your “toy” to be a real car – and of course, adding the all important sound effects. Vroom-vroommmmm!
Flash forward to 2015, and see how things have changed. There are several “micro” RC cars and trucks on the market you can buy for about $10, but this is the first micro-sized, DIY, 3D printed, 4×4 truck we’ve seen. And to add to that, it even has a working articulated front end loader.
Coming in at a minute 1/87th scale, this tiny truck and matching controller boasts 6 channels, 4-wheel drive, and a working trailer hitch. In the video after the break, you can see the amazing amount of work that [Mortimer] had to put into this build to get everything to fit in such a small space. Although the video is German, we think it’s fairly easy to see what’s going on. [Mortimer] is sharing the 3D printed files on his Shapeways page if you would like to give this build a go.
[via reddit]
Nice to know there are still people building H0 scale things.
That was an amazing demo video – went above and beyond showing how it was built which now has be pondering if I print it and if I can commit to the build!
Clever and creative
Awesome build and video, but no 4×4.
Beautiful design, integration and function. A piece of art.
The coupling mechanism I haven’t seen before. The front loader mechanism was also well thought out.
Not 4 wheel drive, but neither was that truck. Perfect period replica. Now I just need to convince my wife I need one to sort the lentils.
I’d love to see one with Ninjaflex leaf springs. This one has the springs but they’re made from the same rigid plastic as the chassis.
Unimogs are most definitely four wheel drive — I used to drive one and they are one of the most amazing off road vehicles. Portal axles, locking diffs and incredibly low gearing make for easy going over almost any obstacle. https://www.flickr.com/photos/osr/7600307374/in/photostream/lightbox/
Got through the build log below, he made the parts to make it 4wd, he had the parts printed out of metal, the CV’s, axle, gears, everything.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9W0FrJjTBQs
Freaking incredible.
great video! I didn’t see any details on the electronics or the linear type actuators.
The linear actuators are standard RC components; They’re often used for indoor aircraft. You can get something similar here; http://hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__42302__2_4Ghz_SuperMicro_Systems_Single_Linear_Servo.html
Got to admit, I’d have gone with a doubble servo (http://hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__17638__2_4Ghz_SuperMicro_Systems_Double_Linear_Servo.html) for this, though, to save on the space. Very neat job all in all, though; No 4WD as the article states, but I think that you’d be pushing the limits of the strength of the print to do that. If you like this sort of stuff, there’s a lot of it goes on under the name of Table-Top Truck Trial; generally about 1:87th. Few have this many functions, or this level of detail, though; There’s a few 4x4s, but largely 2wd due to space constraints.
Well the linear servos are a standard micro RC part. https://www.google.com/search?q=micro+linear+rc+servo&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8 I think they were first built from small motorized potentiometers from audio mixers and such.
I bet he’s using a micro RC rx-tx pair. Last I looked, there were a few 2-3 gram bare-pcb micro-recievers with ESC on the market.
he uses this in the remote: http://www.deltang.co.uk/tx2.htm
I think it uses atxmega32e5 + cypress CYRF6936
amazingly I just learned big boy brands like Spektrum (DX8) use wireless mouse/keyboard chips from cypress (CYRF6936) :o
Absolutely great work man.
Would love to see more micro sized fully functioning toys like these, spider bots, tanks, ahh man.
Awesome.
just, WOW!
This is awesome. I am imagining a micro military force with tanks and all.
here is the buildlog with many photos and details (in german) http://78514.homepagemodules.de/t3930f5-D-Druck-Frontlader-Unimog-Sender.html
Wow! This is one of the most clever builds I have ever seen. Simply brilliant.
GRMFLS!
That made me laugh big time. XD
Before Hot Wheels, I had Tonka.
those motors for the wheel drives…
where to get them, what are they called..?
People should look into the world of scale model RC construction equipment. It is BONKERS the amount of engineering people put into it. Real, fully working hydraulic systems, front end loaders bucket excavators that are completely working replicas of bigger machines. Beautifully welded frames, real suspensions, axles with gear differentials.
If anyone was interested in being a multi-millionaire, they would try and make a “new Tonka Truck”, make a nicely updates all-metal model with an RC system, hit the $250-300 price point. It could be the hottest Christmas item for 2016 …
I’ve messed about with 7mm RC vehicles, but this is extraordinary…. Brilliant! Thank you!
Amazing work!
I used to work at a company that manufactured electric forklifts and I always wanted to build a small RC forklift. And some small pallets of stuff to move around with it. Another project I never got to doing.