CAT Grader in 1:14 with M-Series controls

[JensR]

Thanks folks!

Has it really been over a year again?!
Looking at the photos, it seems hardly anything has changed!

http://flickr.com/gp/22070130@N07/13BERN

But behind the scenes, I did a lot of time-consuming improvements on the floating mechanism, serviceability and reliability of the mouldboard sideshift and have converted the saddle-drive with a saddle-clamp, similar to what the 1:1 graders have. The torque generated from the forces on the mouldboard to the variety of gear motors I had used before was just too high. I still think a motorised saddle would be neat, but it would require quite a bit of re-engineering, fitting a larger gear motor and most importantly a sturdy worm drive...

Recent (and ongoing) improvements include converting the front motors to brushless motors with considerably more power. That's done now, but I need to hide the dual ESCs and extra wires inside the frame.

For the next year or so I have a few improvements planned for the main drive as well, plus a whole list of electronic features. All of these will be tested on a wooden mock-up - if they work, I'll transfer them to the real machine.

This will allow me to use the grader while I work on those gadgets. I've been out driving a few times over the last weeks and have done a few youtube videos, which you can see on my youtube channel

https://www.youtube.com/user/YensR/videos

Hope you enjoy these!

Best wishes
Jens