Motors from Amazon

 

I bought four of these motors from Amazon as a set of four for just under $30.  They are the equivalent of five plates thick and are the same as a 2 x 4 brick in footprint.   Other people in the reviews have said they are 2 x 4 bricks, but they are two plates thicker than that.

Below are the videos that I took of testing these motors.  The first test is a very light to no load test.  The only load is an axle and large gear.  In the second test, I used one of my demo platforms which is driving a a gear as a cam and a rubber band to pull back the platform.  So in this test the load is the large cam and the rubber band.

After about five minutes the motor on the upper right start to slow down.  At first this gave the appearance of an increasing load.  Then it started getting more and more inconsistent, like it was having a hard time getting over a spot on the rotation.  Eventually it quit running.  The motor was a little warm.  The other three kept running at full speed, at least it appeared to be.  I did not measure the rate of rotation, only what my eye could see.

I only tested one motor on the demo display.  Again this started out fine, but after about five minutes it started to slow down.  Then it became obvious that it was having difficulty pulling against the rubber band.  A few minutes later it stopped.  Again the motor was warm, a little warmer than the no load test.

In all test cases, after a few minutes of being off, they started working again.  My guess is that there is a PTC type resetable fuse inside.  As the motor heats up the fuse increases in resistance, thus slowing the motor down until the voltage drop across the fuse is so great that the motor cease to work.

One test I did not do was to try and control the motor speed with a PWM signal.  Since the observed performance was not that good, I decided not to try.  If I decide to keep them, this will be something I will try.

My conclusion is that these might be good for limited light duty that is not continuous. They have limited use in any thing else, especially anything that is continuous and loaded.  I have not decided if I will return these or not.  I may a use for them in some small, lightly loaded, lightly used module.

  

Landscaping Detail

This is what sets your MOC apart from others.  Being a HO train builder, building detailed scenes is part of the hobby.  The idea is to build a low level (or detail)  background.  Then add extreme detail in areas that are about one eye glance apart.  This forces the observer to move from one spot to the other.  While building a theme across the whole area is the preferred implementation, it is not really necessary.  Each vignette can stand on its own.

Here is a sequence of three pictures on one slice of the Space Outpost as the detail is added.

Here is another three picture sequence.

I use the plant material and rocks to form the low level background.  Then I use the minifigs to focus the observe on what is happening.

As has been stated before, we have a list of "Easter Eggs" to look for.  Some are hidden in plain sight in this landscape.  We have had multiple people stare at the item they are looking for and not see it.  If you watch their eyes very carefully, you can see them jumping from one scene to the other.  That is exactly the effect I am looking for.

 

 

 

Another Brick Pile Run

 

Actually it was a few runs to get more bricks for the stash.  

Basically this was some tan pieces and then alot of black and grey.  These were mostly to replenish used up pieces.  Plus a Bricks and Minifigs had a half price sale the day after Thanksgiving.

After washing them, I let them dry out on a towel in the bathroom, it is winter.  In the summer I would take the pieces out onto the patio counter and let them dry out there. When it is 90F+ and less than 15% humidity, doesn't take long.

 

   

Why I Do This

 

 At Brick Palooza this display was next to me.  Here are some more pictures, I did not have time to do this justice.

This was done by a Dad and his  7-8 year son.  They  told me they only started on it in July of 2024 and the idea and most of the work was done by his son.  The Dad said his main contribution was the underlying structure and some of the cliff work in the very back of the display.  His son was the creative drive behind it as well as building all of the detail that is in it.

So why is this important to me?  They attended Brick Palooza 2023 and unknown to me his son was so impressed with what I had built, he had to try and build something like it.  So they took over 50 pictures of the my MOC to use as inspiration for his design.  He has an Ice Planet with a mine, control rooms, bunk rooms, a small railroad for moving ore and the list goes on.  They searched for a lot Ice Planet Minifigs, plus some Star Wars Minifigs.  

We talked on and off during the show.  His son wanted to know what he can do to add to it.  As my son tells me always, in the real world, what would be there.  So he will look at adding more recreation and dining facilities as well as improving the operational aspects of the display.  They did not get a good look at the back side of mine last year since it was not accessible to the public. So again they took a lot of pictures of the back side as inspiration. 

If I can inspire one person a year to build MOCs from their imagination, then all that I do is well worth my time and effort.

Brick Palooza Recap

 This was a very interesting show.  A one day show on a Saturday in Santa Rosa, CA.  Because of the tear down timing of only 2 hours.  We decided to remove two hangers or two complete slices, which saved six boxes.  This also meant less work on setup and trying to keep things from prying apart at the table seam.

But first you have to get there.

And while it was not that bad coming across the Sierra Nevada, it did slow things down.

By the time we got to Santa Rosa things were getting deep.

The small creek behind the hotel.  While it never got any higher than this, it made transport challenging.  Out of the three roads in to the hotel, two were flooded and closed.  And the road in front of the hotel was reduced to one lane.

Such is life in Northern California during the rainy season.

Typical setup.  The drape covered tables are where the MOCs will be.  The other area on either side is for vendors.

Here is the final setup.  You will notice that it is one slice shorter on each side.  For one day shows, this will probably be the standard going forward.

We did not have time to really go around and look.  Most people setup in the morning since their displays were small.  Here are some of the more interesting ones.

I really like how this dish antenna was done.

More about this one in the next post.

I have a lot of pictures stored up for posts I want to do in the next few weeks.  We will see if life will accommodate me.