New Year--New project

[jerry56]

Well my fledgling construction company is coming along, I have a dump Truck, a small loader, and a small semi ( that needs a lowboy trailer soon) so I figure it's time for a dozer.... Yep a Bruder D5...
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I plan on using the Tamiya gear box again for the drives and a low profile servo for the blade lift.
The first thing is this comes apart way easier then the Delta and looks like it has way more room..... but I figure I'll crowd that up pretty quick. Just diving into this, but it looks pretty straight forward....

[frizzen]

Nice, i'm going to steal some ideas off this one. i've got my dads D5 sitting around the work bench with servo drives, modified drive hubs, modified blade, and many lights installed. I hadn't tracked down blade servo or decided much else for it yet.

I know there are some drive hubs on Thingiverse if you're setup to print a strong enough plastic

Don't forget some room will also get taken up by your ballast.

[jerry56]

Funny you should mention 3D hubs :rolleyes:
Creality had the Ender Pro on sale for $209 +$10 shipping so I bit....
The printer showed up but still waiting on filament once that's here I'll get it set up and see what I can do.... there are a lot of things on Thingiverse and else where I want to print and some things I want to try and design.

[jerry56]

Like I said I'm going with the Tamiya gear box, again I have been planing and gathering parts for a while and when I started CR servos weren't available unless you converted them... and I didn't want to try that with these early builds. Now that you can buy them converted I would probably use them if I did another one.
Anyway I use this gear box at 114.5:1

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And again I replaced the Tamiya motors with JK racing Hawk 7 motors, they will have no problem with 7.4v
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I hacked the bottom out of the dozer so I could slip the gear box in... I filed off some of the gear box to get a smooth fit.
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There is plenty of room under the drivers seat,
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I angled it back just a little to miss some plastic the protrudes down, on the topside it's the space between then drivers seat and the side consoles. You could cut it out and just put some sheet plastic in there and gains another 1/4 to 1/2 an inch if you wanted.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50808767756_d9bf9607a0_z.jpg

No real issues so far pretty straight forward, I cleaned out most of the inside of the body cause I know I'll need all the room I can get, my wiring is still a hot mess... now I have to get to work on the drive gears and get them mounted.

[frizzen]

I wasn't sure if that gearbox would work. Didn't see how you'd get the output axle through everything.

Where were you planning to hide the charge port?
On my dads i was thinking it would go behind the rear attachment plate so it's hidden by a drawbar / winch / ripper

[jerry56]

The gear box just slides right in, where the axles come out for a different gearing I filed down that "nub" so it slides in snug. in the gap under the axle I'll probably just use black silicone to fill it in, that should seal it and if I need to take it out I can just cut it away. I went this route because if I ever need to go to servos I can since I didn't cut this up to bad.
I was planning to bring the charge port up thru the floor in the drivers compartment right next to the master on/off...
Winch you say....mmmmmmmm

[frizzen]

Oh cool. For some reason i was thinking top loaded instead of through bottom

Yeah in an accessory kit, bruder makes a winch plate that's more like a locking retractable tow rope, but a guy could probably adapt a working wpl winch or maybe something 1/10...

[jerry56]

Ok .... I started on the drive wheels, I used the same method that I used on the Delta loader. I drilled and tapped a3mm hole in a 3/16 nut then screwed them onto the shaft of the drive wheels. this seems to work pretty well. This time instead of grinding and filing down the axle shafts I put a wrap of aluminum tape on it to take up some of the slack in the aluminum tubing. Grinding them down worked but left them pretty thin so I'm trying this method this time.
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I tightened the set screw up on the opposite side from the tape the axle was pretty firm when I put it on so I think this might work....

[ddmckee54]

Since you've got it going through the bottom of the dozer, are you going to seal up the great gaping holes that Tamiya leaves in the gearboxes?

I'm going to try to make a working winch for my Bruder Manitou 2150. I'm planning on using the gearmotor from the extruder drive for a 3D printing pen as a starting point. They are a worm gear drive and the ones that I got off Ebay were listed at 11 RPM. I think that should work. As an FYI, an M3 bolt threads right into the Tamiya gearbox.

I've got a Bruder CAT Delta skid-steer partially converted to RC, it's mobile, but I'm still trying to figure out a way use something a little more realistic than servos for the lift and bucket curl. I made 3D printed drive sprockets for it and I got a nice press fit onto the 3mm hex gearbox output shafts.

Don

[jerry56]

For the holes I used some plastic diamond plate and used simple silicon caulk to glue it on, did the same thing with my Delta loader. I'll make some kind of cover for the outside too, just not sure how I'm going to do it yet.
I used the dual micro servos for my bucket tilt and the HItec D954SW servo for the lift. I think if I did another one I'd lift from the front of the servo instead of the back ( if that makes sense) then the lift arm would be less visible and you wouldn't have to cut the rear cover so much. I could probably change mine but it works pretty good so I'll go with it.

[jerry56]

SO anyway... I went this route for the drives, I don't have my 3D printer up and running yet so I went with the screws in the drive sprockets.
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So the drive system is all there just need to hook it all up but first I wanted to get the lights and master on/off switch wired up.
I put it where the drivers feet would go, ...this thing is way to big I need to find a smaller switch, and I added a green "on" light to the dash. one side of the switch goes to the ESC's the other side goes to the charging jack that is run up thru the floor and the center set goes to the battery...it seems to work like I want it to but it's huge..
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I put 5mm white lights in for head lights, I thought the space was big enough but it's right at 4mm high so I sanded the sides of the lights down a little and took a dremel ground out a little space inside the light housings, they fit now and you can see the surgery... the beacon is centered, the roof is two pieces and the interior slides in so it's pretty easy to run the wires down the front corners.
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I started on the blade lift, I made a servo holder out of a block of wood,

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This is an SPT servo I got off Amazon it's a short servo so I have a little more room up front... we'll see how it works...

I ran the lift arm like this it was the obly way I could think of right now.

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It's getting close, just need to hot check everything clean things up a little... until Frizzen suggested the winch....so I have on on the way....

[frizzen]

That's really coming together!

Wow the battery switch is pretty huge, unless something really bad happens the most power flow it should see is your battery changer output.

Nice job on cramming, I didn't think it would take 5mm lights very well. You might want to look into smaller wire for lights, it hides much easier

Sorry about the winch idea (not really... i think it'll be very cool)

[jerry56]

I'm using 22g silicon wire, it's pretty small.
The lights fit, just needed to massage them and the the inside of the roof a little.
I'm going to get a smaller switch looking for it now... so do you think a 1amp or even a .5 amp switch would be safe to use
I like the winch idea, I found one I like just need to make it work...

[ddmckee54]

I don't remember what the stall current for that size of a motor actually is, but I'm guessing that it'll probably be around an amp for each motor. A 1 amp or a .5 amp switch might last for a while, but it will eventually roll over and die on you.

Check in Allied Electronics or one of the other electronics suppliers, you should be able to find what you need/want in a smaller form factor. Look for a mini or sub-mini style switch.

Don

[jerry56]

I've found mini's but only .5amp, half the time when I do find one that looks like it might work the description doesn't have enough information to pull the trigger, so the search continues

[jerry56]

Getting close to wrapping this one up.
I had been trying to decide what to do about the ripper on the back, it's plastic so it probably wouldn't actually "rip" anything so after looking at pictures of d5s I decided on a winch... then Frizzen kind of sealed the deal with his suggestion so I looked around and found this one the size was about right and I liked the look, the "cable" is silver string so I'll probably get some cable fishing leader or something... at least that's the plan
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08Q4N3WN4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50920581921_6a48d0b9dc_z.jpg

I mounted it directly to the lower body, I guess I could have used the slide in mount from the ripper but I wanted it to mount close to the body.

I put a aluminum backer plate on it so it's not pulling right on the bolts in the plastic..
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It's not like I'll be trying to pull trees over or anything
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And I couldn't have the hook just flopping around back there..
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Now to get everything all stuffed in....I know it still looks like a hot mess but it's getting better at least I kind of know where things will go...
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Now I just need to get some ballast, I want to use lead shot in the drive wheels then seal it in with epoxy, and fill the fake boogy wheels with shot too. Then it I still need more weight I'll add it to the inside of the body, I just need to get the lead shot and I can finish this one up..still have to seal up the bottom too...

[frizzen]

That's looking really good!

Nice, i was hoping that type of winch looked about right for this. How's the pull seem?

[jerry56]

Haven't tested it yet but it seems pretty strong, the "string " looks like it will be the weak link but I think that will be an easy fix.
It looks pretty good hanging on the back of the dozer...

[jerry56]

Well I ran into a weird problem.. I hooked everything up for a hot check before I closed it all up and I was cycling my blade up and down and my beacon came on... I shut it off and cycled my blade 3 or 4 times and it came back on... So I figured it was a bad beacon so I replaced it with a different one...same thing....so I changed the respective channels the blade and the beacon were on same thing so I changed the recvr. ...same thing.. I even changed transmitters....same thing cycle the blade 3 or 4 times and the beacon pops on.... So I changed the servo to a Hitec I had and the beacon stays off....I cycled the blade a dozen times and the beacon stayed off....So now I need to make a different mount since the servos were slightly different sizes... but now the Hitec servo horn is to short to get all the way out thru the grill with out rubbing..... So I guess I'll try another of the SPT servos and hope it's just this one that's causing the problem and not all of them...

[frizzen]

The beacon resetting like that might just be a brownout, pointing to needing a bigger BEC.

[jerry56]

It doesn't quit.... it would just come on when you cycled the blade up and down. It didn't shut off or cycle thru it's various modes.... it would just come on... When I swapped out the servo with a Hitec it was fine.... I would have just used the Hitec but the horn is to short so I'm hoping the SPT servos themselves aren't the problem I guess they could be drawing enough juice to cause it but the Hitecs don't....if they are I'll just leave the beacon on or unhook it....or go the BEC route.... or connect the battery straight to the receiver... we'll see...

[Tgrzes]

How are you currently controlling/switching the beacon on/off? Can you post a sketch of the wiring?

[jerry56]

it's pretty simple I have the beacon on channel 4 so it acts like a 3 position switch,it's just a straight 3 wire plug in to the receiver

[Tgrzes]

Gotcha. I've only worked with setups that require a separate switch, like a Pico, but now I see how the beacons work. Unfortunately, I don't have any suggestions that you haven't tried already. Sorry.

[jerry56]

It's all good.... we'll see what happens when the new servo gets here from China.

[skeeter]

I like the rear winch feature!

[jerry56]

Finally....
I've been waiting on a new servo, and some #7.5 lead shot for weight.
I replaced the servo that was causing my beacon to randomly come on and the new servo does it too... I'm thinking either I get a BEC or just leave the beacon on. it doesn't change modes or shut off.... so for now I'll leave it if it really bugs me I'll tear it apart and put a BEC in it...
I wanted to get some weight in it so I got 4lbs of #7.5 lead shot for in the drive wheels and "fake" idlers on each side
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Just need to mix up some of this and pour it in...

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It went easier and neater than I thought added 13oz...
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That was the last thing I really wanted to do before I button this up everything works like I wanted so this one is ready for the construction site as soon as it warms up a little.

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Here is a shot of the winch, I think it scales pretty good on the back of this little D5
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I even got my brass blade edge on
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I added weight inside too, all together it weights just under 3lbs, I hope that's enough I guess I could stick some weight on the bottom if I have to but I wanted to leave that clean for now...
So that's it for this one now I need a way to get my dozer and Deltea loader to the job site.. :D

[frizzen]

Sharp looking setup with the yellow tracks and rear winch!

Have you thrown a volt meter on one of the rx ports yet while moving the servos? I still think that sounds more like a brown-out than bad servo. (Add 5a or 10a BEC)

[egronvold]

Nice little machine! The extra weight will definately help on the performance.

[jerry56]

Thanks egronvold, Hope to get it out in the dirt soon...
Frizzen I think your right, I was thinking about building a simple glitch buster to see if that helps. Space is tight so I thought I might try that... still trying different things out.