New trains: a missed trick

[jof]

The kids & I had the trains out a couple of weeks ago (mixed 9v traditional & 9V new battery powered)

I was looking at the new train & thought that TLC have missed a trick.

The thing is IR remote control so it has some sort of micro controller chip in it.

It also has a downward looking red LED light (to indicate power on) on the battery block.

Now how hard would it have been to put in a photodiode next to the LED and produce barcode tiles that you could stick to the track to program simple operations such as:

Beep

Stop

Reverse

Pause

speed up

slow down.

That would at least have given some additional fun & something the old 9v system could not do.

Its not as if its new technology to them, as there was a technic set that did this years ago. Several years before the first mindstorms sets if I remember correctly

Jof

(Don't get me started on them using rechargable battery packs as playmobile do)

[DJ Force]

It MIGHT just be a financial issue...

[Holodoc]

Its not as if its new technology to them, as there was a technic set that did this years ago. Several years before the first mindstorms sets if I remember correctly

You

[Siegfried]

While I want the same thing, I can't say that I agree. To accurately read a bar code at speed from 2 cm with just a LED and photodiode (or LDR) would be an impressive trick and probably would have added cost to the unit. (Can any train set do this?) Although I think you might have a point. Perhaps Lego tried and failed? Perhaps they will come out with those trains soon and make people like me who own both sets grumpy.... 8-|

Its not as if its new technology to them, as there was a technic set that did this years ago. Several years before the first mindstorms sets if I remember correctly

From what I have heard the barcode truck was un-reliable.

[AzMean]

well.. actually you can do these kind of things.. if you have a RCX or NXT controlling your train. with different sensors along the track (and even your own DIY IR trainsmitter along these tracks). Very advance and expensive. yeah.. but its easy to "copy" an IR Signal.

[iamded]

Wasn't that feature in some Duplo train sets?

[Siegfried]

Wasn't that feature in some Duplo train sets?

Yes, but it was done via buttons on the bottom, and it works well. (My kids have one.) I wish Lego did that with the RC trains. A way to stop or reverse trains automatically at the end of a track would be cool.