alican

Eurobricks Vassals
  • Content Count

    33
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About alican

  • Birthday 01/17/1990

Spam Prevention

  • What is favorite LEGO theme? (we need this info to prevent spam)
    Trains

Contact Methods

  • Website URL
    https://www.legongineer.com

Profile Information

  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    Budapest
  • Interests
    Software development, Internet of Things, video games, Lego trains

Extra

  • Country
    Hungary

Recent Profile Visitors

986 profile views
  1. alican

    Kiko´s Train World

    You can use BlueBricks software for designing track layouts and take a look at here for inclines.
  2. Issue 7 seems to have the wrong link, you can find it here until it's resolved http://brickmodelrailroader.com/index.php/download-railbricks/railbricks-issue-7/
  3. Just came to say that's awesome, you beat me to the punch Thank you for the enthusiasm Cale & Brick Model Railroader team, we need more people like you
  4. alican

    Lego, Trains & Internet of Things

    Hi EvilTwin, Thank you for the heads up, I was not aware of these 2 companies, I will definitely look into how they are doing things Edit: After taking a look at the Jayway video, that is something well withing my capability as well. I actually control a lot of "dumb" appliances at home via Alexa this way Regarding Buddy, what they've done seems great. We also use similar techniques at work to demonstrate "larger than life" concepts in an easily understandable way to customers.
  5. alican

    Lego, Trains & Internet of Things

    Exactly, now it's actually cost-effective That's an excellent idea! I will definitely work on this Also regarding physical security and interference in wireless vs. infrared, a secure local wireless connection is still way better than the regular IR control as someone with "malicious" intents can just bring their own IR controller and spam random commands.
  6. alican

    MOCs: Models of trains running in Hungary

    I had the chance to see these in real life and they still blow me away whenever I see the pictures. Simply amazing
  7. alican

    Lego, Trains & Internet of Things

    Thank you Ashi for pointing out another use-case. Big layouts at crowded events can definitely benefit from something similar and as I explained in my post above, if I decide to open up to the internet actually, the security plan is there. Just not implemented yet. Also, because the IR component can be totally sealed off if desired, everyone can have virtually unlimited channels so no need to worry about IR channel conflicts. On another note, as I mentioned in the initial post, I want kids and teens to get interested in STEM fields/programming with a fun hobby. Of course, there's Mindstorms and now also Boost for younger kids. I used to own a Mindstorms NXT as well, about 10 years ago. After a while, your knowledge tends to overgrow what those sets have to offer. They are perfect for the very first entry into the field though. I plan on detailing and explaining everything that went into making this project in a simple, course-like format. I also have motorized, app/anything controllable track switches but video production has to wait until I move to the new flat unfortunately. After that, the next step will be "sensorizing" a whole track layout where it makes sense and having it fully automated and also controllable with the rest of the automated system adapting to the new circumstances introduced by an external controller.
  8. alican

    Lego, Trains & Internet of Things

    With all due respect, people didn't see a point for personal computers, the internet, and touch screen at first either but here we are Anyway, playing with Lego doesn't have a point either but people of all ages do anyway because it's fun.
  9. alican

    Lego, Trains & Internet of Things

    I guess elaboration is needed. There are 2 ways; When trains are allowed to be accessed from the internet, they will refuse any connection other than the AWS IoT Gateway. Trains won't connect directly to the internet, a local Raspberry Pi or something similar will act as the local gateway which will refuse any connection other than the AWS IoT Gateway. In both these scenarios authentication methods are provided by the gateway and authenticated requests get forwarded, others get dropped.
  10. alican

    Lego, Trains & Internet of Things

    Thanks for the feedback Currently they are networked only locally, I did not allow access to the internet. I will do that at a later stage when I can ensure security which is not a concern for the proof of concept stage. I will most probably use Amazon Web Services' IoT platform. My actual job involves APIs, API gateways, and IoT basically so I'm aware of the risks. The lights do not change color now as they are single color LEDs but I am planning to change them with RGB ones (when my order arrives) and allow changing colors based on direction, select different colors if desired, etc. The directions are based on the actual PF IR protocol constants described here: http://www.philohome.com/pf/LEGO_Power_Functions_RC.pdf which I simply named from -7 to +7. + being forward and - being backward. Not at the moment, but this is trivial. I plan to implement this pretty soon. (I'm moving to a bigger flat at the end of the month so I'll have space for more trains ) The only thing that needs to be done is to allow adding train addresses inside the app and different train controllers will send the commands to different train IP addresses.
  11. Hello fellow train builders, I would like to share my most recent project theme; Lego Trains & Internet of Things. Basically, I make connected trains and train related stuff. My aim is not to be 100% realistic or copy existing real world trains. My goal is to bring Lego into the IoT movement, learn many great things along the way, and eventually help the next generations to get interested and pick up the necessary skills for a better world through technology. Let's call this STEM through Play.(STEM=science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Sounds like a mouthful, huh? but that's what I want anyway ) Without further ado, here's what I have built so far; Automated Lego Railroad Crossing Lego Train Voice Controlled Lights via Amazon Echo Lego Train Controller App Please bear in mind that this project is new and under development. I welcome any sort of feedback and questions I will also update this thread but if you'd like to keep up, here's my website which aggregates all the social channels related to this project: Legongineer
  12. alican

    2016 Lego trains

    Well, I bought multiple copies of the current series train&train related products so they won't miss it if I don't get 1 steam loco
  13. alican

    2016 Lego trains

    Tbh, I wouldn't be happy with a steam loco anyway, I know there's a big following for those but they're not my style.