Stronger and heavier version of wheel 1.0 with the same number of spokes but much stronger ones. Can survive a few crashes and generally rolls quite stable except at low speeds when it wobbles a bit due to the uneven spoke distribution. It's currently driven by a single 'm' motor but this seems to be holding it back in terms of top speed so I'm thinking of adding another. The gear housing needs to be extremely sturdy else the gears start to slip at high resistance.
Sunday update
I redesigned the entire motor and gearing section a few times today because it was being torn apart by the forces exerted on the axles which in turn caused gear slipping. I ended up using the two 5x7 rectangular brackets that came with the 8043 motorized excavator because while studless and ugly they do not deform easily. I also returned to the 4-spoke design without offset because this is what caused the wobbling and the current version is strong enough as it is. Current top speed is about 8km/hr and I think that's about as much as possible with two 'm' motors and the current wheel size.
Some pics of the final version:
Center axle, this construction is repeated four times, twice on the left and right side each, and holds the central axle.
This is the rotational body consisting of two 5x7 rectangular brackets linked together to provide the strongest possible gearing without deformation under stress. The two small gears on the left are connected to the motors.
Motors and battery box, both serve as counterweight.
Larger version of above pic.
Detail of wheel and spoke connection. The entire wheel consists of 64 'number 3' angle connectors with 64 '12 length' axles between them, using 16-length technic beams to connect the four circles. The end result is quite strong, especially compared to wheel 1.0.
It's quite easy to work out the speed from the youtube vid. It spins at about 1.2 RPS near the end, which at a circumference of 1m80 works out to just under 8km/hr.
I'm sorry, but I don't really like filming nor putting pics of myself online. Detailed pictures about the construction are above, the movie is just to illustrate how fast it actually goes :)
I haven't found any contests for land speed achieved by Lego models. Some of the pneumatic engines are very strong and thus potentially fast but they require a constant air flow from an external source and therefor don't count IMO.
The video isn't too exhaustive, but it defnately looks darn fast for what you can do with Lego PF... to think you could actually win a MOC race with this is just great ^^
Again: Amazing, keep up the great work!
I was interested in your first version, and this one even looks pretty sleek. I'm definately interested in how it looks in motion - any chances we'll get a video?
Other than that, good luck with this project. It sure is a keeper, so keep tinkering with it :D
