SBrick for PF trains- a first impression review

[zephyr1934]

I just unboxed by first SBrick this weekend and this note provides a review of my experience thus far.

First let me start with the background. I was fascinated by the development and release of the SBrick last year. It looked REALLY great, but I thought to myself, "while I'd love bluetooth controller, it looks great, but I don't think I could justify $60+ to replace IR if I only need one output." Of course there are a lot of people on this forum building their own homebrew bluetooth receivers, while they look incredible, these self-build receivers are way beyond the reach of my time resources right now.

Yet, from long before the SBrick came out, I have been struggling with power issues in my two long passenger trains. The first train is my Superliner train with 7x 52 stud long cars, a dummy F40 and a powered F40 with a pair of PF train motors. The second train is my North Cost Limited with 8x 42 stud long cars, and an A-B-A set of locomotives (one powered with 2 PF train motors, the other two dummies). Examples of both trains taking standard lego curves can be found in this thread about a now aborted project to build wide radius curves. I made a 90° R88 right before ME announced their Kickstarter (man, that would have saved me a lot of time if I had known it was coming, but I'm still a happy man for the ME curves).

Both trains predate the ME curves and I now have R88 and R105 curves (which both trains love and can take at full speed), both my permanent layout and my club's layout are both 9v, so I also want to be able to operate with the legacy R44 curves. I have had no power problems with the IR receiver powering a pair of XL motors and pulling VERY HEAVY trains (50+ cars in some cases), however, the combination of the train motors and these too heavy passenger trains taking multiple curves is just too much for the IR receiver. The original IR receiver can handle one 90° R44 curve without complaints for either train. Sometimes my club layout is large enough that I can use the full consist, but other times I have to set cars out if the straightaways are not long enough. As soon as the train is long enough to be in two curves the drag overpowers the IR receiver and it trips out for a few seconds... only to come back abruptly at full power and pull the magnets apart (in spite of the additional rare earth magnets). [Of course at this point in the review it is premature of me to say that it was the IR receiver that was tripping out, it could have also been the battery or the motors... but based on what I've found with the SBrick, it was the IR receiver. Anyways, back to the original timeline...]

So for an upcoming show one of the other club members was talking about bringing 8 pf trains and letting the kids run them with IR controls. That is way cool and I think will be a huge hit with the crowd and the venue... but not so good for my running pf myself. For this show I don't want to do 9v (we are doing this one "just trains" and it will be our first show "on the floor"). So what's a man to do? Then I got to wondering about alternatives for IR in general, and higher power in particular. That was when I discovered that the SBrick can deliver up to 3A while the standard IR provides about 1A and I think the v2 provides up to 1.5A. I needed no further convincing and got one to give a try.

I unboxed it two days ago. The first think that is clear, you need an account on the sbrick servers to configure your receiver. The SBrick folks have videos on line showing how to configure the software, but you first have to sign up for an account. This part was one of the things I did not like. Rather than simply offering a receiver, they are offering a social networking site that you have to pass through before you can get to your receiver. Not a huge deal, I just found the social networking a minor annoyance. It only took 5 min to turn off 20+ "share this" options, an equal number of "notify me when" options, and switch my profile to private. I'm sure many will find it a nice bonus, but for me I don't plan on spending much time on the SBrick site. I just want a plain vanilla train controller. This point could also be an issue in 5-10 years if they stop supporting the SBrick, but if it works it is worth the small risk for me.

Once you have your account and the SBrick app you can go to the profile market... but none of the controls looked like the met my needs and what little documentation there was did not clarify things for me. So sooner than I had expected, I was off to design my own graphical user interface (GUI) on the Beta version of the designer site. First drawback is that it appears the site only works with Chrome or Safari browsers (not a problem if you already use one of those, but another minor nuisance if you don't... and here too, once I get my GUI working, I don't plan to spend much time on this site either). I was not able to find much documentation on the GUI design, so here's what I discovered: (1) I think you need an "exit" button to quit your control, at least the default GUI has one, it is a special object class and since it seems like a generally desirable feature I did not feel like exploring whether you can do away with it. (2) As I recall, there were three other types of objects- a 2D slider control, a 3D joystick control, and a push-botton. (3) While it was not apparent to this newbe, you do not define which specific output each control is set to (the SBrick has 4 outputs). Instead, you come up with a name for the particular output. I wound up using a single 2D slider and named it "throttle". (4) There are a lot of control settings you specify (or accept the defaults): min power, max power, default start position and power, "snap back to default start position when control released (like the non-train PF controller)" or "hold the last setting when released (like the PF train controller)". It takes some trial and error to get all of these settings to your liking. Each time you want to make a change you need to tweak the GUI layout in your browser, then download them to your device, then tweak the settings on your phone/tablet (more on that in a moment). It is nice that you can scale and position the various control elements where you like on the GUI layout. I think you can include multiple SBricks in the layout too, so a single controller could easily have room for 4+ trains on a tablet and 2+ on a phone. (5) It looks like the GUI is infinitely customizable, they offer 6-12 options for button styles, slider styles, background styles, etc. or you can upload your own artwork. (6) Unfortunately it looks like each GUI design is aspect ratio dependent, presumably to preserve custom artwork. So the GUI I designed for my phone was not available on my tablet and I had to redo it for the tablet at its aspect ratio. Here too, not a big deal given the simplicity of my controller. It's a bit like programming your microwave for the first time. It would be nice if they also had a "universal layout" option that could be used on many different platforms, by shrinking it to the most constrained dimension... maybe in the future. In the mean time, it would have been REALLY nice if they had an option to copy an existing GUI so that you could adjust it (if that option is there I couldn't find it). None of this is a deal breaker for me, just be prepared for a small learning curve as you get up to speed with their system. It took me an hour or two to get to a point that I was satisfied with.

With your GUI designed or redesigned in your browser, you then go to an option on the SBrick app to go to the profile market to download a profile. Once downloaded the profiles are stored locally, so you could design a single throttle control in the GUI and then in the SBrick app make variants for several different locomotives, each with their own SBrick. Or as noted above, you probably could also make a single controller that controls multiple SBricks. One minor annoyance to me was that every time you went to the profile market it first insisted on loading all of the standard GUI options (none that I wanted) before it allowed you to get to your own GUI designs. Once the profile you want has been downloaded to your device, you then go to "my creations" to actually associate a GUI with an SBrick. I think you have to have the given SBrick(s) on initially so that your device can sync with the SBrick. Then you go to the configure page for the creation and this is where you tell it to associate the "throttle" in the GUI design controls with one or more specific output(s).

I decided to use the Superliners as my test case since this train has more drag (heavier and longer cars). Since I have two motors I decided to put each on a different output from the SBrick. They were previously on a single output from the IR receiver. Not sure if this makes a difference on the SBrick, but it was easy enough to set the throttle to control two or more outputs. There are also virtual pole reverser switches similar to the little switch on the IR controller. Then you are ready to run your model... well... as they recommend, try it first to make sure you have the pole reversers set to the direction that you want.

In my initial design I wanted a "kill switch" like the IR train controller in addition to the throttle. I could not see a way to associate two control elements to a single SBrick output, so away went the kill switch. Usually hitting the exit button will kill all motors, but not always (here too, more on emergency stop in a moment). I started with letting the throttle range from full reverse to full forward, but I found that getting it to stop at no power was very difficult. There was no "snapping" to zero. Since the Superliner and North Cost Limited are effectively one way trains, I made a second controller that is limited between zero and full power (no reverse beyond "hand of god"). So I can easily flick it to zero without worry. There might be away to fix this, but I haven't found it yet (remember, I'm a newbe at the SBrick).

So I first had the model running with all of the PF innards exposed and it ran great. No problems pulling the entire train through two 90° curves and a small S-jog all at once. It ran for at least an hour with now power drops. So that's how I knew it was the IR receiver that was limiting me before, the IR receiver would not survive when the train was in the two 90° curves (R44). So at this point I stuffed all the PF wires inside the model and put the roof back on. Of course now it started misbehaving. !@#$% did I drain my battery so quickly with the heavy load? The IR would run for a few hours. Nope, that wasn't it. After some trouble shooting I realized that I had inadvertently knocked one of the connectors off when reinstalling the unit after testing. So only one motor was getting powered. As a result, the locomotive would stall once the train was in two curves. Apparenlt without intending to do so I discovered that the SBrick has a much nicer overload response than the IR receiver. The train sat there and the engine did not jet off at full speed, it did not move at all until I rezeroed the controller. In fact the single powered motor was strong enough to pull the train in a single curve with wheels spinning while pushing against the dead motor. Once fixed, I didn't even have problems starting in the most twisted part of my layout. That was when I decided to see how far I could push it. At the moment I have two single crossovers in my layout (I've been playing with the PF trains). So the train effectively went across two switches, through a 90° curve, then through two more switches back to the original track. It was as the locomotive was returning to the main track when it overpowered the rare earth magnets. So more than enough pull and something else failed before the SBrick was pushed to its limits.

Now here's where I learned another important feature of the SBrick. Once I set the train running, I could go to blank screen on my device and the train would still run. Nice, you don't have to run down the batteries on your device to keep the trains running. My trains are in the basement and I went to get something upstairs. At one point in this trip there were two concrete walls between me and the train. When I returned the train was stopped. Did that stinking battery finally run out? Nope, it started right back up when I hit the SBrick controller. Okay, what happens when I turn off bluetooth on my device? Train stops. Cool. Lose contact with the controller and the SBrick stops. Turn bluetooth back on and the SBrick responds immediately to the next command. So there is a potential emergency stop if the exit button does not do it for you.

So needless to say, I will be buying a second SBrick here in the near future for the North Coast Limited (hum... maybe I can build some of those other cars that I was forced to leave out for the IR receiver). For now I'm going to stop at two SBricks. It is nice to be able to completely hide the receiver, but probably not worth the extra $45 for me given the number of PF trains that I have. The extra power, however, is definitely worth it if you need it.

[greenmtvince]

Thanks for the review. This is certainly an impressive piece of kit that can overcome a lot of the limitations of the IR recievers, including the form factor. The extra few millimeters of height will make this easier to stash in small switchers.

You tested the top-end of the performance envelope, testing speed and pulling power for continuous running. I'm curious about the bottom end and getting really slow deliberate throttle movements for switching trains.

[zephyr1934]

Oh, a couple of more observations about the GUI design and App. When I decided to make the no-reverse throttle it initially caused some problems because I defined "throttle" differently in the two GUIs. It seemed as if in the background some of the definition from one GUI lingered when I ran the second GUI on the same SBrick (in this case min power). So I renamed one "Throttle 2" and the problem went away. I doubt this would be a problem when controlling different SBricks with differrent GUIs. I suspect the App downloads the configuration to the SBrick. So now to switch between GUIs on my device I need to redefine which control goes to the inputs ("Throttle" or "Throttle 2"), so the App+SBrick retains the SBrick configuration as you switch between GUIs.

Thanks for the review. This is certainly an impressive piece of kit that can overcome a lot of the limitations of the IR recievers, including the form factor. The extra few millimeters of height will make this easier to stash in small switchers.

You tested the top-end of the performance envelope, testing speed and pulling power for continuous running. I'm curious about the bottom end and getting really slow deliberate throttle movements for switching trains.

You are welcome and oh yes, the form factor was readily apparent in the prototype SBricks last year. Yes, I was testing the power delivery rather than precision. The SBrick seems to be more responsive than the IR receiver. I don't know if that is because the message transmit time is shorter or just wishful thinking on my part.

Wandering into pure speculation, I personally think that the continuous slider offers a much greater choice of speeds (looks like it is at least 20 steps between stop and full power, maybe more). I THINK you can touch the slider and it will instantly jump to that speed. However, getting the exact speed you want (most importantly "stop") seems difficult with the slider. Hopefully there is some way of having multiple control items in the GUI control a given output so that you can replicate the function of the orange button on a train controller. Or even better, specify multiple buttons that you can assign different speed settings to and each will give you its exact speed setting when pressed. But as I've said, so far I have not seen or figured out how to do that... perhaps using the same function name for different control objects... I'll try that and let you know what I find.

[dr_spock]

Thanks for the review. It is nice to know Sbrick included a heartbeat monitor (dead man switch) in its implementation. Kind of bummer not being able to add the stop panic button. Does Sbrick publish the commands sent over bluetooth like LEGO does with their IR specs? For my DIY bluetooth hack, I used Roboremo to create the buttons and sliders on my phone. It allowed me to specify what commands to send behind each buttons and sliders. If you know the Sbrick commands, it might be a way to get some features not offered on their profile tool.

Edited September 28, 2015 by dr_spock

[legoman666]

Codefox's bt controller has a throttle slider as well, and it has the same difficulty in selecting the zero point in the middle. Sometimes I switch interfaces to the replica PF controller and press stop because it's easier. It also has 27 speed steps in each direction, nice smooth acceleration :)

Sbrick sounds nice. The north american dealer was at Brickfair this year, I talked to him for about half an hour. I assume you ordered yours from him and not from the UK? His price was good too, especially taking in to account the exchange rate.

[CrispyBassist]

As Vinnie said, thanks for the great review! Based on what was said here I'll be getting one soon for my RDC since I haven't figured a way to let the IR receiver peek out the washboard roof. Keep us posted of any other revelations you come across while using it!

[kieran]

Thanks for the review, I like the idea but think a 2 output version for most trains is enough

[Daedalus304]

Thanks for the review. I've wondered for a while now how well this all turned out, and how well it would work for trains. It sounds sounds about how I was expecting, aside from the much higher power cap which is incredibly interesting to me.

Unfortunately, as much as I'd love a good solid bluetooth controller like this for my trains this just isn't what I'm looking for. $60 is just way too much of an increase over the IR receivers. I can see how the extra outputs would be a great boon for technic builders who load up on 4+ receivers with all sorts of functions going everywhere, but for trains it's a bit overkill. Add all the hoops you have to leap through just to set it up, and then even more hoops to set up the controller profile just to use it, and it kind of loses it's palatability for me.

If they made a cheaper version closer to the $30 mark with only 2 outputs, and let you do everything you need software-wise through the app, I would be sold. For now, my dreams of bluetooth engines are going to have to wait a bit longer.

[codefox421]

If they made a cheaper version closer to the $30 mark with only 2 outputs, and let you do everything you need software-wise through the app, I would be sold. For now, my dreams of bluetooth engines are going to have to wait a bit longer.

I think their pricing is bounded by the price of the Bluetooth module that they use rather than the hardware needed to add an extra two outputs.

If you're looking for a Bluetooth receiver that costs less, you could check out my open source Bluetooth project (link in my signature).

Legoman666 has put together a few for people in the past, so you could ask how much he usually charges.

[pinioncorp]

The dead man's switch sounds like a real pain to me. It's great for technic models that you have to drive but for trains, set and forget would be far more convenient. The physical size of the brick is still an issue (even if it doesn't need line of sight) and the GUI programming sounds unnecessary for such a simple application.

That's a definite no buy for me, but hopefully they'll continue to develop and bring out something new for train builders.

[marook]

Hi All,

I just ran an event with 3 SBricks the last weekend, and it's a wonderful product.

1: Linking Multiple bricks.

YES, you can easily do that, and that is where output names come in handy!

You simply add more SBricks to your controller (I think the limit is 16..!) and assign the 'channels' to the various outputs on each brick. They can ALL be different, and all have different pole-reversing set!

I have a Horizon Express with two engines and 3 wagonsets. No problem! And the cool thing is, you can then make a profile for each end and one for both at the same time. Think seperate profiles for manuvering the trains on the track, and dual for one big train running.

2: Kill Switch.

You simply add a normal button with the same 'channel' name and make it output=0 on activation. The slider will not reset (in current version) but the output will.

3: Price...

Yeah, a bit high, but they deliver, and with every version comes new firmware and features. Latest version can tell you the power level of the battery in your model(!)

The price is equal to the IR modul compared to outputs (at least here in € land..)

Edited September 29, 2015 by marook

[zephyr1934]

Okay, more testing and more insight,

1) My PC hates the chrome browser (!@#$%)

2a) One of the big features of the SBrick that I forgot to mention in my first post is that YOU specify the speed you want the motors to run at. None of this spinning the PF controller dial and hope the IR receiver can see you (or worse if you are attempting to control two IR receivers in sync and only one sees you). At the moment the SBrick GUI tools to not allow for easy "go exactly this speed", but I think that will come in the future.

2b) Another feature of the SBrick is that it could be of particular value for the larger locomotive builds that currently have two IR receivers (and even a cost savings if it allows you to eliminate a LiPo battery). Since there are four outputs and possibly 3x the current capacity, you might be able to replace two battery boxes and two IR receivers with a single battery box and a single SBrick. Then you get the bonus that all of your motor outputs are set to exactly the same speed by default. Just be warned that I have not tried this and I do not know if it will drain the single battery faster. However, as noted above, with my pair of PF train motors I was able to break the magnetic coupling between cars even with a rare earth magnet between them.

3a) Indeed, I was able to get more than one control element to control a given output. As marook mentioned, the control elements need the same name. So I now have a slider that gives full forward and reverse speed selection with a "stop" button next to it. Set the speed on the slider, put your phone to sleep, the train keeps running. Wake the phone, hit the stop button and it stops. But the slider does not update to the new speed, it is ignorant that it's last output command has been superseded by another control element.

3b) you can also use buttons to set specific speeds, but right now the buttons are toggle buttons. Hit it once and it will set the exact speed, hit it again and it stops the output. Unfortunately if you have multiple buttons on the same output, as soon as you hit any of them a second time it will stop the train. So the SBrick folks just need to figure out how to set one control element to be aware of any other control elements on the same output name. Conceptually simple, but who knows how easy to implement. In any event I've posted this wish on the SBrick forums.

Thanks for the review. It is nice to know Sbrick included a heartbeat monitor (dead man switch) in its implementation. Kind of bummer not being able to add the stop panic button. Does Sbrick publish the commands sent over bluetooth like LEGO does with their IR specs? For my DIY bluetooth hack, I used Roboremo to create the buttons and sliders on my phone. It allowed me to specify what commands to send behind each buttons and sliders. If you know the Sbrick commands, it might be a way to get some features not offered on their profile tool.

Well, the "end this session" button did not always cut power, just most of the time. Turning off bluetooth seemed to do it all the time (and my tablet would not see the SBrick when my phone had control, I had to end the session before the SBrick would talk to another device). However, as noted above, I was able to insert a stop button that replicates the functionality of the red button on the PF train controller.

If they made a cheaper version closer to the $30 mark with only 2 outputs, and let you do everything you need software-wise through the app, I would be sold. For now, my dreams of bluetooth engines are going to have to wait a bit longer.

Cheaper would be great, and who knows, they might read this thread for feedback. For me, for now, I am assuming the price point will not be changing soon. So I have two trains where I NEED the functionality of the SBrick and it is worth the cost to me. The rest of my PF trains will stay IR for now.

The dead man's switch sounds like a real pain to me. It's great for technic models that you have to drive but for trains, set and forget would be far more convenient. The physical size of the brick is still an issue (even if it doesn't need line of sight) and the GUI programming sounds unnecessary for such a simple application.

That's a definite no buy for me, but hopefully they'll continue to develop and bring out something new for train builders.

To be clear, when you release a control (either the slider or a button) the SBrick lets you do either "set and forget" or "reset to zero". That is a user selectable choice at the GUI design stage. I think my SBrick controller is superior to the PF train controller since the slider is "exact speed" rather than "increment/decrement" speed. Also, you can have more than two SBricks on a GUI controller, so you could easily have 4+ trains under the control of a single tablet GUI.

The GUI design looks like it is still a work in progress (hence "Beta"). It is clear that they intend to let users share GUI designs in the market place. Presumably they will tax the sales and let the creator get a cut of the sales, but those options are not yet available. It also looks like they will allow free GUIs too, with no charge. The layout is simple enough for a basic train controller that I could probably be talked into making a illustrated tutorial for the GUI design at some point (set this to __, that to __ and the other thing to __).

[dr_spock]

Well, the "end this session" button did not always cut power, just most of the time. Turning off bluetooth seemed to do it all the time (and my tablet would not see the SBrick when my phone had control, I had to end the session before the SBrick would talk to another device). However, as noted above, I was able to insert a stop button that replicates the functionality of the red button on the PF train controller.

Glad you got your stop button working. I can't live without mine with the way I drive a train.

I assume Sbrick is the slave device and your phone or tablet is master. In the Bluetooth piconet, only one device can be a master of up to 7 slaves and a slave device can only have one master at a time. Thus you have to unpair your phone before you can pair your tablet to the Sbrick.

[marook]

Glad you got your stop button working. I can't live without mine with the way I drive a train.

I assume Sbrick is the slave device and your phone or tablet is master. In the Bluetooth piconet, only one device can be a master of up to 7 slaves and a slave device can only have one master at a time. Thus you have to unpair your phone before you can pair your tablet to the Sbrick.

It's using BT LE, so no 'pairing' - at least, only happening dynamically when the profile connects to the SBrick(s) linked.

Advantage: No other device can 'highjack' you control while running.

Disadvantage: You need to close the profile(or app) in order to swap to another device.

But my experience is it happens in msec. so very fast.

Regarding device time, I was running many hours last weekend with out running my iOS device down to more than 40% battery. That was running the trains a lot from around 10am to 5pm..

Why is 4 outputs great?

On my HE, the setup is like this in both engines:

Ch1: Motor one

Ch2: motor two (reversed in settings)

Ch3: Head/tail lights

Ch4: cabin lights.

If you look at some of the large Technic sets, they replace 2-4 IR receivers with 1-2 SBricks, and doing all the GUI in one nice interface. The joystick is nice for driving etc..

Edited September 29, 2015 by marook

[HoMa]

Thanks for your review, Benn!

I got mine SBrick around XMas last year from the kickstarter campaign and after some first troubles I was able to run some trains with it. See my little review at: http://www.holgermatthes.de/bricks/en/sbrick.php

Also check out this little video:

Unfortunatelly the predefined GUI for the Horizon Express was gone after an update of the firmware. And the profile market just offers Technic related GUIs, none Train related GUIs at the moment. Haven't played much with the current options, maybe I should?!

Holger

[HoMa]

On request at social.sbrick.com there is a public Profile "Horizon Express" back in the public list of profiles for screen ratio 16:9. All controls should work except the "coast" button. SBrick staff anounced new controls for custom profiles for November 2015 ... will see

[zephyr1934]

Here's a little more discoveries.

First, after adding my second SBrick controlled train, It is easy to add multiple SBricks to a single GUI controller (well, as easy as adding one SBrick), however,

1) You need to define a different variable name for each SBrick control, e.g., "throttle 1", "throttle 2", with 1 and 2 being assigned to different SBricks.

2) The controller will only work if both SBricks are powered up and within range. Either one off and the GUI controller will not start. Power down one of the SBricks and the GUI controller locks up.

3) The simple work around to having a variable number of trains is to make GUI controllers for 1, 2, 3, ... N SBrick controlled trains and then reassign a given controller to a given SBrick as you swap them in and out. You will also have to touch the configuration to rename the outputs each time you swap an SBrick in and out. A little cumbersome but it works.

As for the added functionality that I mentioned in my last post, they said that those features will be available in the future, they don't know when, but "hopefully soon."

[Hod Carrier]

3a) Indeed, I was able to get more than one control element to control a given output. As marook mentioned, the control elements need the same name. So I now have a slider that gives full forward and reverse speed selection with a "stop" button next to it. Set the speed on the slider, put your phone to sleep, the train keeps running. Wake the phone, hit the stop button and it stops. But the slider does not update to the new speed, it is ignorant that it's last output command has been superseded by another control element.

Sorry to bring this thread back to life.

I've had an Sbrick for the last few days and have been having a bit of a play. In spite of the time elapsed since Zephyr last updated this thread, the issue of finding "Stop" in the centre of a slider has not yet been addressed.

While the solution he outlines above does stop the train I wanted to see if there was some way to bring it to a stand gradually. Unfortunately it isn't possible to do so with a single slider so I've added a second, one for forward and the other for reverse with both on the same channel. Stopping the train is simply a matter of bringing the slider back to the zero position.

Sorry if this has been outlined elsewhere already.

[CrispyBassist]

...one for forward and the other for reverse with both on the same channel. Stopping the train is simply a matter of bringing the slider back to the zero position.

So youre saying Sbrick has added the ability to assign multiple sliders/buttons to the same channel?? That's a huge improvement that I'm real glad to hear about! Thanks for posting this!

[Hod Carrier]

I was under the impression from Zephyr's information that this was already the case, which is what lead me to this solution. They can be configured in the settings menu and will take any user definition you like, including multiple controls on a single channel.

In my case, the sliders are forward and reverse and the channel name is "throttle", and their behaviours are configured accordingly. I suppose a stop button could be added also using the same channel name, but I don't see this as necessary.

There is still the problem mentioned above that the SBrick takes the last command received but does not update the position of the controls on the GUI to reflect this. So having a "stop" button will not reset the slider. Resetting this manually after the train has stopped is interpreted as a control input and results in a brief burst of power as you bring the slider back to it's zero position. However, I don't envisage this to be a problem unless I get the sliders themselves muddled up.

[CrispyBassist]

Maybe it's just been a while since I played with it, but there wasn't the option last time I did.

As for a stop button, my phone has a back key so when I need to stop the train I back out of the control interface and then reopen it. This stops the train every time, and resets the controls too. Not sure if that would work for you as well.

[Hod Carrier]

Fair enough.

I get the same effect if I press the home key on my phone also, which is good as an emergency "all stop" button. I was just looking for something that works in the app as a reliable and smooth way of stopping an individual train under normal operating conditions. This works well for me although I understand and appreciate that it might not work so well for others.

[M_slug357]

Just curious, but is there any way to place/draw a number line onto the control sliders? Since the Lego speed controller notches up&down from 0 to 7, would it be possible to mimic those steps in the GUI?

Something like this?

|<------------------------------------------------------>|

| 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |

[Hod Carrier]

It's not even possible to assign labels to each slider or show the slider name in the GUI. The only way I can see that this would be possible would be to include these on a custom background which you can upload to the web interface and then line up the control with them.

[Younge]

Apologies for resurrecting an old thread, but, I was wondering if there are any updates to SBrick that haven't been reported here?

Has the slider/stop issue been resolved?

How is the performance with multiple bricks/trains running in one profile?

Are many folks (apart from @zephyr1934 and the others mentioned in this thread) using an SBrick for controlling their trains (or any other part of their train layout)?

I was thinking about purchasing a couple of them, but, considering their price, I wanted to get the "lay of the land" before committing.