f2k

Yeah, just saw the news. Feeling a bit sad now... Sigh,,, 2020 can't end fast enough if you ask me. I guess no one else has had a look at his code? I'll have a look at Pybrick. Thanks for the suggestion. Though I'm not sure how comparable the Spike architecture is to an Arduino...?

Sorry about the late reply. I got sidetracked by another project... I must admit that the idea of not powering peripherals before the Arduino was ready hadn't crossed my mind. I'm not too sure though... As I understand what Philo has written about the protocol, it's the hub that's supposed to initiate communications. But I might have gotten that wrong...? Your new projects sound interesting. I was looking into using an old 16 channel transmitter myself at one point. But eventually I decided I wanted to go in a direction that would facilitate autonomous operations. A remote controlled robots is pretty much the same as my remote controlled cars, so I don't find that route particularly interesting.

You make some very good points. And you may very well be right. But if so, it makes me really sad. It's not that many years ago they were en deep trouble. And a large part of the solution was returning to basics. Or... At least, that was what they said... Have they already forgotten that? Are they spreading themselves too thin again, losing sight of their core business?

Looks like it will be a definitive goodbye to Power Functions. Let's hope they'll stick with Powered Up from now on. But what really strikes me is how young many of these sets are. And I'm not sure I'm entirely happy with that. There seems to be a fair deal of FOMO creeping into the sales strategy now.

I think I'll lurk here for a while to see what you come up with... Based on Philo's work, I've been trying to figure out how to make my own hub. But the protocol LEGO is using is... Weird, to be honest. Like Philo I'm getting a lot of framing errors and there don't seem to be any standard package size.

I've got my fingers crossed, but I fear you might be right. It's really odd that they finally implement native support for propper programming but then take away the tools you need to make it work.

I was thinking about unsoldering some myself. But I figured that would get pretty expensive in the long run. Can I ask where you bought them from? The only place I have seen are selling in batches of 1000 pieces, and that's quite a lot more than I need right now.

Where did you get that female connector from?

Well said.

Nice review, though I wouldn't give it nearly as high a score. Feeling generous, I would put it at 6/10. The build is average, even a bit boring in places (but then again, so are quite a few of these cars), and the finished model is easily the weakest of the cars LEGO has released so far. There are some interesting techniques used to replicate the curves of the original car, but they don't quite succeed. The Beetle and Mini are instantly recognisable, but this one is... In all honesty, if I didn't know it was a Fiat 500 I might not have guess it.

Very impressive. Several years ago I tinkered a bit with "steam" engines, hoping to eventually put it into a train. But I never did manage to make it move properly. Just couldn't get it turn over smoothly; there was too much drag in the pneumatic switches. Could you please post more images? I'm especially intrigued by the use of internal pistons and by that big wheel turning over inside the boiler.

Sounds more like wistful thinking, to be honest. With the train theme having been on life support for years, and most of the attention given to franchises, I can't see monorail returning any time soon. I would love to be wrong though...

Pretty cool. Sadly though, I have nowhere near that amount of space in my office. I've been toying with the idea of using narrow shelfs high on the wall to hold the tracks, but that won't leave much space for landscaping and buildings.

Sadly, businesses tend to think short term, not long term. If Bricklink does get too bad, alternatives might eventually be made, yes. But building a website with the size and complexity of Bricklink is no easy task. It takes a lot of time and a lot of money. More time and more money, I would suggest, then AFOLs will be able to put into it.

So would I. But I fear that we're much more likely to see number 2 than number 1. This wouldn't be the first time we've seen a company try to get rid of the second-hand marked.