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Thanks for the review. Gave me a better understanding of what to expect. I get that Lego may want to consolidate their motor/control systems but it just seems like PF never reached its true potential. They could have found ways to shrink the receiver, improve battery life and so on. A whole new system now just seems like its too soon and now we need even more AAA batteries. The space saving abilities of the PU system could be nice for things like 10020 Santa Fe and 10133 BNSF but I'm definitely not sold yet. Guess I'll have to see more in-depth information on the smart phone/tablet control set up and hope there is an option to control more than 2 locomotives from a single remote device. Then again, this could end up being a very short lived system.

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Noting that the video doesn't work on my device, the current catalog https://catalogs.lego.com/BrandCatalog/2hy2018/aus-nz/?page=86 shows the trains as having PoweredUp with App and bluetooth connectivity, but the technic units show Power Function, also with "Download the App". Does this mean technic uses this WeDo 2.0 thing? Are they still calling it power functions or not? 

 

Given that they've also swapped descriptions on the pump and valve on page 88 i'm not sure i can trust what they've put on the site. Crikey, "Articulated Stering"! Who on earth spell checks and proof reads their advertising?

Edited by bonox

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"Download free App" is on every right-hand page of that catalogue, so it probably relates to the catalogue itself and not to power up or power functions.

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thanks. I guess i'm drawing links with the description in the trains section that says "drive with the 10 channel bluetooth remote or control them with the free app".

Reading too much into it again.

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On 10/06/2018 at 1:41 PM, 22kane said:

Then again, this could end up being a very short lived system.

Well we did see the RC train system between 9V and PF 1.0, I cant work out why they spent so much money building moulds and R&D on a system that lasted so short a time.

Was it a case that they released the RC train system and them realised they made a big mistake? The configuration of the battery/controller box was very limited.

We need to see the entire PU range and specs to make an informed assessment of the new system.

If they had just simply updated the IR receiver and controller to BT, we would all have no issue updating. They could of added a speaker to the receiver as well, so children could make sounds come from the train.

The new PU Hub is welcome in that it is a smaller footprint then a PF 1.0 battery box and receiver, so that's a good point.

But critical is an adaptor cable or hub/switch, if we had that confirmed, I think we would all come on board and get excited about the new system.

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6 hours ago, technic70s said:

But critical is an adaptor cable or hub/switch

+1.  What I've seen so far is potato/potato compared to PF 1.0 :classic:

I'd be happy to see:

  • the adapter to PF 1.0
  • support for more than one device per output (already often mentioned here and in train PU thread)
Edited by andythenorth

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Well this new PF system seems very underwhelming, at least for me. 3-5 meter range outdoors is not much of an improvement over the old PF IR system. Also not impressed with that it only has two control ports. Unless I am overlooking something, it looks like I'll be sticking with my Sbricks and Buwizz. I'd really thought TLG would have come up with something a little bit more competitive.

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Haha, no that is something different. I'm not familiair enough with the STM stuff. Donated my programmer and some development boards to a student who is (but alas he is doing his graduation project and then finished), partially I was a little angry with them since they denied me some samples without telling me why. Shouldn't of course, but well, maybe some day. But the commands are the most important and that works very well. I could PWM the motor yesterday and am now between the other stuff working on a more solid (uh SOLID), version. I used a nRF52 (Nordic) sniffer and the code of the Boost-guys to get the protocol working.

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The LEGO Powered Up control app is out on Google Play now and I've put it to a test:

 

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I know not everyone will agree with me and it's purely my opinion, but I do not like this system. First of all, from what I see the battery box can only connect two motors. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this would be a serious disadvantage for people wanting to make bigger models with more motors. Also it looks like the system is completely geared towards trains - all the parts are the studs type and it doesn't look as easy to incorporate into models as PF. I'd much rather they expand the PF system like they did back in 2012 with the L and Servo motors. I'd really hope for something like a PF-revived RC Buggy motor.

Overall, I really hope this system expands to include more elements in the future - I hope they at least makes their own version of every type of PF element currently available (and more compatible with Technic, of course) and that they come up with a way to make it usable with PF. Maybe they'll make their way into the Technic line someday - but I think such a change would definitely need to happen before this.

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3 hours ago, knotian said:

Perish the thought, but does power up work with s-brick? They are both Bluetppth.

Why would an app made by LEGO work with a third-party non-LEGO product? The software is different. The hardware is, for all we know, different. The manufacturers are different.

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48 minutes ago, Sariel said:

Why would an app made by LEGO work with a third-party non-LEGO product? The software is different. The hardware is, for all we know, different. The manufacturers are different.

Lego did at some point publish the infrared coding they used. They may do so for the bluetooth as well, and I know the sbrick bluetooth interface is published. Even then, I don't see either lego or sbrick do any more than that to support a combined app.

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I'm no expert but I strongly suspect that infrared and Bluetooth are two very different levels of complexity. PlayStation and Xbox both use Bluetooth controllers, but you don't see people hacking PS controller to work with Xbox or vice versa.

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@Sariel The Bluetooth protocol for WeDo2.0/PoweredUp/Boost has already been figured out, people (including me) have written apps and libraries that can replace the controller and allow custom apps on laptops and phones to control the trains. :)

I suppose someone could make and release a single app that supports both Powered Up and SBrick, just requires someone to have the inclination.

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I have submitted my app to the Apple store this afternoon, I'll share the source on GitHub, thanks @Mr Hobbles, analyzing your code really helped!

B.t.w. check also this topic by CopMike:

 

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