Automotive – Lannix Design

Lannix Shop Is Now Open!

Nick — Tue, 23 Jan 2024 21:30:25 +0000

I’ve been working on our store website in the background for a long while now. It was to be a place to sell my 3D printed goods and any other items I came up with in the meantime.

Since moving house over a year ago, the 3D printers haven’t been set up for mass producing and they won’t be until the workshop under the house is finally finished.

You’ll know if you follow my blog that I’ve moved to creating content for YouTube as an outlet for my creative energy.

Consequently, the shop will offer fabrication drawings produced in the process of creating the video content for YouTube. You’ll find the drawings are of a high standard and the price is very low in the hopes of getting people interested in my products. I produced fabrication drawings for a living in my previous career as a mechanical engineer and I hope that the quality reflects that.

The site is powered by WooCommerce and has the proven security and reliability that they have built on for many years. So please, if you want to support me and my family, take a look at the online store and check back in the future as the shop is continually updated!

Thanks so much!

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Check out our first video of 2024! I’m working on continual improvement in my video production and I hope it shows. I’m particularly proud of this one.

Also, plans are available in our online store if you’d like to build a treasure chest like this for yourself or a loved one!

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Welding The Racks For The Ute! – Part 2

Nick — Tue, 05 Dec 2023 21:30:46 +0000

The racks are all done! In this video, I finish off the rear bar frame, the longitudinal bars and give it all a coat of paint, colour matched to the Colorado. There’s plenty to keep you entertained and informed so sit back and relax, grab a cold beverage and enjoy watching a fat guy do some work.

Measuring up for the height of the rear bar frame.

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Check out part one if you haven’t already. I go over the design, build the front bar and the brackets for the rear bar frame to sit inside when it’s installed.

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Welding The Racks For The Ute! – Part 1

Nick — Tue, 07 Nov 2023 21:30:37 +0000

We’ve been gearing up for further renovations on the house since the shed has become fully erect. I’d started making some racks for the Colorado just before the first round of renos but I wasn’t able to get them finished before we had to get stuck in to the work. Now that I have an appropriate space to weld things where I’m confident I won’t set everything on fire, I’ve carved out some time to get them finished.

Also, I made a video showing how I designed and built the racks. Well I’m at least half way through the project as this first video in the two part series shows. The second video is due to be released on the 1st of December, so come back and check it out if this is your bag baby.

Eagle eyed superfans may have noticed that there’s a driveway in front of the shed now. I’m currently neck deep in creating a video of the lead up and process of the pour, along with the other work we did to get the yard safe for our son to wander around. Stay tuned for that at the end of next week.

Auf wiedersehen.

Check out the link from our YouTube channel

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For more shed related shenanigans, check out the video of the shed build itself.

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Make Your Own Triple 4K Wallpaper In Blender!

Nick — Tue, 19 Sep 2023 21:30:09 +0000

I’ve really been enjoying creating content for YouTube using Blender lately. A few weeks ago I uploaded some wallpapers I made for my triple screen displays so that anyone could enjoy them. Making them inspired the idea to create a tutorial on how to make them yourself so that the viewer could easily play around with the scene and produce whatever they wanted with the free assets provided.

So at last, on Friday the tutorial video was uploaded to YouTube for all to watch and hopefully enjoy. If you watched the video, please let me know what you thought of it. I’m keen to create the best content I can and have limited feedback on what I’ve made so far.

I’m trying to move into more of the DIY style content at this stage but there will still be some CAD and Blender elements to the videos.

Check out the link from our YouTube channel

If you want to follow along with the tutorial, you’ll need to download the free asset pack I made for it. Click the button to go to the download page!

If you ain’t got time for that, click the image above to download a free triple 4K wallpaper I prepared earlier!

Subscribe to our channel to keep up with the shenanigans at Lannix Design!

If you haven’t yet, check out our previous videos where we make the logo in Fusion 360 and then animate the logo in Blender. They’re both great tutorials for beginners in 3D modelling and animation.

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Sim Racing – Couldn’t Resist!

Nick — Tue, 07 Mar 2023 21:30:32 +0000

Now that things have settled down somewhat from the renovations and moving house, the urge to get back into sim racing has strengthened. The previous blog post showing the arcade machine design I’ve been working on had me thinking. ‘Can I put together a temporary setup to tide me over until I have the space to actually work on that arcade machine?’ I got to work rearranging boxes and furniture downstairs where my temporary office and 3d printing workshop is and it seems that it was possible to free up the necessary space to reassemble my old home-made cockpit frame and add a new triple monitor setup to it.

To be fair, this post doesn’t have a lot to do with design or 3D printing but bear with me! I’m planning to design a new steel frame cockpit and build it myself once the back shed has been built. It will be nice to get back to some round tube design like in my job making engineering drawings for telecommunications infrastructure. The sim world also brings the opportunity to design and build 3D printed parts for custom dashboards and cable routing,

The temporary sim racing setup in its now usable state.

The Setup

Anyone not interested in sim racing feel free to tune out now since I’ll be getting into the specifics of the hardware!

Chassis

Self designed and built using 70mm pine stud and 19mm MDF. Dimensions based on a VZ Holden Commodore which has the original Logitech G27 sim wheel, seat and pedals in the same positions as the vehicle.

Seat

Found at a swap meet for $20. Believed to be from a VC Commodore.

Sim Wheel & Pedals

Logitech G Pro wheel and pedals. Newly upgraded from the old Logitech G27 wheel, pedals and shifter set. The wheel can produce up to 11 Nm of torque during force feedback which is plenty (up from 2 Nm on the G27). The force feedback also features TrueForce which emulates vibrations from the sound but I haven’t experienced this yet since the simulator titles I’ve used don’t support it.

Pedals feature a 100kg load cell on the brake pedal and interchangeable foam inserts to adjust the resistance and feel of the pedal. This emulates the feel of an actual brake pedal very effectively and the load cell allows you to use muscle memory to modulate your brake which results in a far more consistent lap time. Accelerator and clutch pedals use a more reliable hall-effect sensor instead of the potentiometers found in the G27 which can be affected by dust ingress.

Shifter

The Logitech wheel doesn’t come with a H-pattern shifter and the old G27 shifter isn’t compatible at this stage. The Fanatec Club Sport shifter is a nice step up from the Logitech item and features both seven speed manual plus reverse and is switchable to sequential up and down if desired.

Monitors & Stand

Three Samsung UJ59 32 inch 4K units are arranged at 120 degrees from each other which adds significantly to immersion. They are propped up by a Trak Racer triple monitor stand which is specifically designed for the task.

PC

After ten years of service the old Lannix Design PC has finally been replaced by a newer and more up to the task version. The old girl was really struggling with any 3D modelling task that involved medium to large assemblies so I finally bit the bullet and splurged on a new model. Conveniently, the new design PC is also capable of running any of the racing sims!

The new PC features an Intel core i7 12700KF CPU, 32GB of memory, GeForce RTX 3080 graphics card and a liquid cooling setup to keep running temps under control. It’s a significant upgrade from the previous PC and I’m very happy with it’s performance so far.

The old PC will still be used for blog creation and other admin tasks for the time being.

Sound

A set of Logitech G607 5.1 speakers have been used. They work great for being able to hear where the cars around you are when sim racing.

Racing Games

I’d bought Assetto Corsa for PC about ten years ago but the old PC could never run it that well. Since I’ve had the sim setup I’ve put in a few hours with it and installed mods to get it looking nice. The game is well made and the cars seem to handle very nicely. The triple monitors are great for immersion and being able to see the cars beside you when you’re making a pass. The sound of turbos spooling and wastegates opening are well represented especially with cars like the McLaren P1 and Nissan R34 GTR.

I’ve had a go with BeamNG which offers the state of the art in crash physics and realistic vehicle simulation. The threat of permanent car damage really adds to the intensity when racing or completing vehicle missions. The steering ratio feels a little off at the moment in some vehicles but luckily this can be tweaked in the settings. I just haven’t had the time since I’ve spent what little available time I have with Assetto Corsa and MS Flight Simulator.

Other Toys

I’d seen a few reviews of Microsoft’s Flight Simulator 2020 so I thought I’d check it out. Their algorithm to recreate the entire world from satellite images looks mighty impressive. I thought it would be fun to try out a HOTAS sim peripheral for flying a virtual plane so I acquired a Logitech X52 Pro joystick and throttle setup. I was surprised how much I enjoyed flying a virtual plane around and using VFR navigation to make my way around the place. Of course, the first flight was over my own house and around the city of Brisbane. I was impressed to be able to fly a Cessna under the Gateway bridge! (I splurged on the Brisbane detail pack)

What Now?

The plan is to enjoy it as is until the back shed is built which will free up a lot of space downstairs. This sim rig will live in the Lannix Design office since it will share the PC with the design desk. I’ll need to design and build a solution for manoeuvring the monitor stand around so they can be used for CAD when needed. The PC will need a cradle on the monitor stand too so it can be moved as a unit.

I’ll build a new chassis for the rig in time as the old one wasn’t built with aesthetics in mind. Most likely out of steel tubing so that I can also practice some welding. I’ll either get brackets laser cut or maybe acquire a plasma cutting CNC table to produce my own in house. The design needs to incorporate facilities for mounting the keyboard and using the mouse and be easily switchable from race driving mode to flight sim mode.

Of course, there is so much work that needs to be done before I can get too carried away with upgrading the rig. The design office and workshop will need a lot of work to get it working and most of my time is spent either looking after my son, finishing off house renovations or taking time to relax with my partner. Special thanks to Jade for allowing me time to work on my projects occasionally and to have a bit of fun with the sim rig!

Gallery - Sim Racing Setup

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Arcade Racing Machine – Part 1

Nick — Tue, 24 Jan 2023 21:30:54 +0000

Sim racing is a hobby of mine but I haven’t had the time or the space to get involved with it for a few years. The recent house move has me thinking I should get back into it so I’ve been working on a design for a frame to house all the components necessary.

Considerations

I have a frame that I built over ten years ago that is ergonomically perfect but it just doesn’t look that pretty. I’ll use the chassis and seat setup for the new rig with some major modifications to the appearance.

Render of the CAD model work in progress

Cut-away version of the CAD model work in progress

The house has an area downstairs that will become a home bar/rumpus room and so the sim rig should look like an arcade machine. The bar room will have a dive bar theme to it so the machine should look like an older style arcade game. My partner and I both agree that it needs to look cool if it’s going to live in the bar.

The machine will run a Sony PS4, 32 inch TV and Logitech G923 racing wheel, pedals and gearstick to start with. Ideally the cabinet/frame should be designed in a way that allows upgrading of any of the tech components later should the need arise, e.g. PS5/gaming PC, 4K monitor and a direct drive racing wheel. The cabinet needs to house a 5.1 channel speaker setup with the subwoofer preferably under the seat.

The frame should be rigid enough to withstand the torque of the force feedback racing wheel.

The machine needs to have a cooling fan setup for both the tech hardware and the the driver. There needs to be a ducting system like that found in a real car to direct air to the driver’s face and feet. 3D printed parts will used where possible for custom ducting.

The seat and steering wheel must be adjustable so that kids and adults can both use the machine comfortably. The original rig was built to the dimensions of a real car which worked well so this one will be too.

The cabinet should be built in modular sections to allow it to be moved easily if need be. Castors will be used on the heavier modules to assist movement.

Custom designed manifold to direct air from the cooling fan to where it’s needed (WIP).

The dashboard featuring speakers, ventilation and controls.

Design

The design process has been going on whenever I have a spare hour or so although progress has slowed during the house renovation and moving process.

The cabinet itself will be made from 18mm MDF board which is perfect for this sort of application. The edges will be covered with old fashioned plastic T strip to protect it and give it the old arcade machine look.

Most of the parts such as fans and speakers have been acquired so that they can be measured up and incorporated into the design. Ducting has been modelled for directing air and sound within the cabinet and will be 3D printed. I’ll go into all the finer details in a future post as it is still a work in progress.

I’m not happy with the design as it is now and I think I’ll try to integrate the side pods more into the rear pod as I think it looks a little broken up or something. It seems I have some time to get this finalized anyway since I don’t have a workshop at the moment.

As far as the paint job goes, let’s say anyone who’s a fan of historic JDM racing cars will recognise the paint scheme I have in mind for it. I’m not going to reveal it just yet but I think it will look great as long as I have the cabinet looking right first.

What Now?

The plan was to build a shed in the backyard soon after moving in which will have a workshop and plenty of storage. It seems that everyone wants a shed at the moment so we’re told this will be a six month wait. Therefore, unfortunately all projects such as this are limited to the design phase only as the area under the house where I plan to operate the design and 3D printing business is full of furniture and moving boxes.

It’s a bit of a sad note to end the blog on but on the plus side, it gives me plenty of time to plan out the workshop layouts and acquire some of the harder to get parts for these projects. I’m back to blogging every week now so stay tuned for more articles you may be interested in. Check out our socials and subscribe to our newsletter if you want to. No pressure!

The current state of the workshop under the house…

Gallery - Arcade Racing Machine - Design

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Toyota MR2 Turbo Manifold Adapter

Nick — Tue, 25 Oct 2022 21:30:36 +0000

This was an interesting job I did a few years ago that I thought I’d share. I met a guy who had just acquired an AW11 Toyota MR2 that already had a turbo conversion. He planned to use it for rally racing and wanted to upgrade the existing turbo to a larger unit. The problem he faced was that the existing turbo had a T3 inlet flange and the larger turbo he already had used a T4 inlet profile.

No problem I thought so I got to work measuring both parts and creating an adapter plate to fit them together. It was a relatively straight-forward job and to evaluate the fit I offered to 3D print a test part before commiting to a more expensive stainless steel item. I’m happy to report that it fit perfectly first time.

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get any pictures of the finished stainless part or the car itself… I have heard on the grapevine that he has the car up and racing now. I’m sure he’s a talented driver but I’m not sure it’s what I’d want to be driving as a rally car with the MR2’s reputation for snap oversteer… Good luck though mate!

A custom exhaust manifold for the 4AGE engine with a T3 turbo flange.
(Not the customer’s car!)

Picture courtesy of Manon Racing Products. https://www.mrpltd.co.nz/product/4age-turbo-aw11-manifold/

Gallery - Toyota MR2 Turbo Adapter

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Flashback To 2013 – Learning CAD

Nick — Tue, 04 Oct 2022 21:30:32 +0000

Before I started my engineering degree, 3D modelling and Computer Aided Design (CAD) seemed like a daunting skill to learn. Despite that, I was determined to get hold of some software and learn how to apply the mathematical knowledge I was acquiring in class.

It was during the first semester that I joined up with the QUT motorsports club, where I met a young guy whose name I can’t recall right now who was just as enthusiastic about CAD as myself. He directed me to a student version of the industry standard SolidWorks software and I was away. Incidentally, we had a seminar with Ludo Lacroix, engineer from the Red Bull Racing Australia V8 supercar team who confirmed that they use SolidWorks to design parts for their race cars. If it’s good enough for those guys, I’d say it’s good enough for me.

The first major CAD project I took on, the GM LSX engine.

The real GM LSX engine. Available as a crate motor to fit in whatever car you have (with varying degrees of modification required!)

I spent my evenings learning the program by scouring internet forums and watching YouTube clips on how to create what I wanted. At first it was recreating lego parts, which have a great geometric shape that lends itself to learning CAD very nicely.

I then found myself wanting more complex pieces to model so I started formulating a plan to recreate my favourite engine, the GM LSX V8 that is found in cars all over the world such as Holden Commodores, Chevrolet Corvettes and Camaros and the SSC Ultimate supercar that puts out close to 1200 horsepower. I could write a whole blog article on why I like this engine but I’ll stick to the main topic for now!

I knew the project was a bit ambitious for a beginner but the subject matter was something that would keep me enthusiastic about it. The mid-year break was coming up so I decided to take advantage of the free time and lack of uni projects to get stuck into it.

The eye of the tiger set in and I was living and breathing SolidWorks while pretty much living on coffee and vegemite on toast. I spent my time Googling part dimensions and finding reference photos to recreate this thing as faithfully as I could. The ultimate goal was to have a fully working engine before I had to go back to uni.

In the end it was my computer that let me down, well that and what I see as some questionable design decisions. During the implementation of the mechanical mates that instruct the software on how the parts interact with each other, I was getting errors that would cause the program to crash. In the video to the left you can see that the rocker arms (yellow parts) aren’t moving at the rear of the engine. Trying to create a cam mate with them resulted in software crashes. Years later I learned that this was a bug in the software that was fixed in later editions.

The real GM LSX engine. Available as a crate motor to fit in whatever car you have (with varying degrees of modification required!)

I’ve come to learn that most CAD software is full of bugs which I didn’t expect given the huge cost associated with them e.g. the bare bones edition of SolidWorks is around $8000 plus a $1500/year subscription fee.

Now I use the much less expensive but no less buggy Fusion 360 software. It is free to use for hobby level CAD but if you make money from it like me they charge a yearly subscription. The hobby level version has a lot of features turned off but is fine for basic modelling.

If CAD modelling is something you’re interested in learning, I’ve heard good things about the free software Onshape. I’ve never used it myself but one of my favourite YouTubers has recently released a series of video showing the basics of how to use the browser based software.

Thanks for reading and good luck if you’re starting out with CAD. I’ll have another interesting article next week.

Gallery - Learning CAD

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Audi R8 Air Filter Adapters – Part 1

Nick — Tue, 27 Sep 2022 21:30:38 +0000

If you’ve read our previous blog entry on making parts for this car, you’ll know how I feel about the price of its replacement parts. Our customer isn’t a fan either so he’s commissioned us to create more parts for him.

The air filters are past their use by date so the idea was to replace them with the high flowing K&N units. A K&N filter for just about any car will set you back between $100 – $150 which is reasonable but to buy a setup for the Audi costs over $700.

With a small amount of research we found that the filters have a bracket built into them that enables them to fit into the Audi air box.

The 3D printed part on the right compared to the Audi part on the left

Considerations

With a small amount of research we found that the filters have a bracket built into them that enables them to fit into the Audi air box.

Design

Using the tool mentioned above, the outlet part of the filter assembly was recreated so that it would take the place of the OEM part. The inside half of the bracket was then adapted to fit the dimensions of the K&N air filter. The bracket was designed to be 3D printed in two parts and epoxied together with high temperature adhesive. Two parts were needed to account for the fact that parts need a flat surface when they are to be 3D printed.

The Audi part has a support bracket on the non-intake end that has a tab that needed to be replicated. A cradle type arrangement was designed as a two piece part to be epoxied together with high-temp adhesive. Again, two pieces were required so that a flat plane could be used for 3D printing, only with this part the print orientation was leveraged to increase part strength as well.

Testing

Fortunately the quoted dimensions for the K&N filter matched the part when we finally received it so no modification to the design was needed. Unfortunately at this stage, we’ve only received one filter from the supplier so we have to wait for the second to arrive before we can fit the parts to the car.

In the meantime, my man has created an Instagram for the car to document his shenanigans. You may have noticed the UK plates on the car in the picture to the right. This is because it turned out cheaper to import one of these from England than it was to buy second hand in Australia.

I was planning to make this a single blog post but waiting for parts has us behind schedule with this project. Check back here on our projects page to see more in future posts or follow our social media accounts for regular updates from Lannix Design. If you’re on Instagram click the image below to see what’s happening with the car.

To be continued…

The Audi needs a little TLC before being registered in Australia

Gallery - Audi R8 Air Filter Adapter

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Dashcam Bracket For Rear Window

Nick — Tue, 30 Aug 2022 21:30:10 +0000

After upgrading the front dashcam to a 4K unit, the old dashcam sat collecting dust. Since the bracket it had was designed for a sloping windscreen it wasn’t able to be used in the vertical rear window of the Lannix Design Holden Colorado. This became a great opportunity to come up with a custom bracket in CAD and test the heat resistance capabilities of our PETG 3D printing filament.

The standard PLA type filament always gives a great looking result but is notorious for deforming when exposed to the higher temperatures seen inside a car. PETG filament on the other hand is able to withstand these temperatures easily with the trade-off being that it can be more difficult to get a decent looking part. Fortunately our custom 3D printing enclosure allows us to get good results with PETG.

The design is relatively simple and incorporates the use of suction cups that enable it to stick to the vertical glass.

After more than 18 months inside the vehicle, the part has shown no signs of warping or deformation of any kind. Some say that ABS or ASA is necessary for high heat environments but for this type of application it is not necessary. The significantly higher level of difficulty of 3D printing ABS/ASA makes PETG a wise choice for vehicle interiors.

The dashcam bracket social media post

Check out the gallery for more pictures of the bracket and if you’d like to download the 3D model for yourself or have a closer look at it, click the image below to see it on Printables.com.

Automotive – Lannix Design

Lannix Shop Is Now Open!

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Welding The Racks For The Ute! – Part 2

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Welding The Racks For The Ute! – Part 1

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Make Your Own Triple 4K Wallpaper In Blender!

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Sim Racing – Couldn’t Resist!

The Setup

Chassis

Seat

Sim Wheel & Pedals

Shifter

Monitors & Stand

PC

Sound

Racing Games

Other Toys

What Now?

Gallery - Sim Racing Setup

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Arcade Racing Machine – Part 1

Considerations

Design

What Now?

Gallery - Arcade Racing Machine - Design

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Toyota MR2 Turbo Manifold Adapter

Gallery - Toyota MR2 Turbo Adapter

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Flashback To 2013 – Learning CAD

Gallery - Learning CAD

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Audi R8 Air Filter Adapters – Part 1

Considerations

Design

Testing

Gallery - Audi R8 Air Filter Adapter

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Dashcam Bracket For Rear Window

Gallery - Dashcam Bracket Assembly & Heat Test

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