[MOD] #85007 Pantasy suspended Steam Punk train motorized with Tenka’s Circuit Cubes elements

[Toastie]

 

 

Dear All,

one of my favorite themes (in many regards) is Steam Punk. Steam-propelled futuristic technology, in shiny brass, gold and silver, leaning towards Jules Verne's "fiction". Not the dirty dark, maybe original punk. I am not sure whether the shiny stuff is Steam Punk at all; this genre has taken on so many forms and interpretations … Whatever, it may well be that my affection for Steam Punk comes from my admiration for Thermodynamics – in chemistry of course

So guess what happened, when in late 2023 I became aware of the #85007 set “Steam Punk Railway Station” from Pantasy/China? Yes, I got sort of positively nervous. It quickly turned out that the title of the set is misleading: They use the railway station shown on the front of the box and the two instruction booklets simply to hide the Steam Punk locomotive along with one carriage. I almost freaked out, when I saw the train. And finally I passed out when I saw that the train is of the suspended monorail type … for more than two decades I was dreaming of a suspended LEGO monorail train – read more about that here: https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/150261-wip-lego-monorails-custom-rail-systems-crs/&do=findComment&comment=3680627.

With respect to the Dark Side: Pantasy is using GoBricks pieces (as per advertisement on the box) – and these have reached the 100%(+) LEGO quality level, no doubts. OK, as expected, has been discussed on EB. Very small injections points (barely visible), perfect colors, perfect clutch, same “softness” as the latest LEGO bricks and plates have, metal gold and silver pieces all over the place. On their website (https://pantasy.com/blogs/news), they talk about their approach, which is a quite nice read.

 

Building that set was pure and utter fun. It was as if the Pantasy management said to the designers: “Folks, go Steam Punk nuts – no restrictions, just freak out and have fun. When you need more pieces to make it even more glitzy and punky – just do it”. 2723 pieces, BlueBrixx asks for €140, you can get it much cheaper – it is currently almost everywhere sold out, though. No surprise. This set is a blast in every regard.

Motorization of the engine

From day one, I wanted to motorize this model – it appears to be designed for display only. There are a couple of challenges to do so, though:

For one, any propulsion system needs to turn the wheels on any of the four roller brackets the locomotive and the carriage are attached to.

Second, available space is rather restricted, as the locomotive is essentially one “solid” piece of snotted ABS – except for the magic glass boiler:

(At first, I thought: OK, TLG's well known color vomit coding here as well – but then was told that I was totally wrong: It is right here, where the Steam Punk magic generates the power to propel the locomotive: Inside the glass boiler. Attached is a 10 cylinder V-motor connected to the 8 blade pearl gold propeller on its back side – which actually propels the train. Well, there is no color coding at all in the entire set, except for the boiler brackets. So yes, these colors very well may represent the Steam Punk magic).

Third, the elevated track Pantasy used is of the roller coaster type, JK Brickworks also employed for their suspended train (https://jkbrickworks.com/suspended-train/) and thus may be no good choice for motorizing a 700+ g heavy Steam Punk train; this will certainly will fail in roller coaster curves. The original (four individual) roller brackets look like this (Stud.io render)

In conclusion, there wasn’t any space other than within the boiler for motorization, but I had no clue how to get any gears, axles, rubber bands to the wheels of the roller brackets. A medium PUp motor may fit in there, but the next challenge would have been PUp cabling and powering. The carriage also provides some space, but no LEGO hub fits in there, even after hefty modding, at least in the lower league I do my builds.

But then I remembered a post not mentioning the elephant in the room, a thread @zephyr1934 created back in early 2021 on EB (https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/184036-a-review-of-circuit-cubes-without-mentioning-the-elephant-in-the-room/), which deals – in addition to the Elephant in the room – also with the Circuit Cube BLE hub and Cubic motors from Tenka (https://circuitcubes.com/). Furthermore, @Asper reported on using these (@HoMa called “critters” ) for train automation of his four wide trains, whereas @Ts__ showed a prototype truck for train displays. I looked at the dimensions of the motors (the Cubic motor is 2x 2x4) and the hub (2x 4x4) – and … BOOM – brain currents got ballistic. Furthermore, the wiring between the motors and hub is done with Dupont connectors. Tenka uses 2-wire sockets receiving the corresponding two pins of the hub outputs and motor inputs; however, these sockets are too large to fit through a Technic hole. One can easily make single socket wire ends, which then do fit very well. After some tinkering, MLCad suggested: It may work.

My plan was to a) motorize the 10 cylinder V-engine from “within” the boiler section, b) propel the entire train with a motor mounted on a 2-axle monorail bracket assembly, c) route the cables somehow to the hub, which is to be mounted in the carriage in a way that one can easily turn it on and off – and d) easily recharge the hub … so far, a) to c) have been accomplished; d) is on the to-do list, see below.

Here we go:

New roller brackets for the locomotive and the carriage, and the entire driving motor assembly (render and photographs below). I used two stacked 9V train wheels arranged in the same direction – this way, the (custom) rubber band on the driving wheel has good grip. The rubber O-ring on the powered axle for enhanced traction is one I found in the lab – the white LEGO O-rings do not provide sufficient grip, even on the 12V rails “with teeth”. Here is what I use as my monorail track (no Dark Side elements to be seen, all pure LEGO): https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/150261-wip-lego-monorails-custom-rail-systems-crs/&do=findComment&comment=3680627.

Photograph below: One Tenka Cubic motor “inside” the boiler, with an attached axle extending all the way to the front, rubber band connecting to the 10-cylinder motor driving axle. (Custom) cables attaching to the motor are routed through Technic holes in the boiler bracket and locomotive frame. They extend to the Circuit Cube hub mounted in the carriage.

Pantasy designed the boiler essentially as an all-four-side-studded central structural element. All other parts attach to this element and, at the same time, the “side panels” secure the whole model from falling apart when lifted through snotted connections. You can remove the two large “side panels” - and are left with this when they are put together (and yes, good clutch power really shows):

This is the entire engine …

... and the lightly modded carriage:

 

The photographs below are showing the Pantasy railway station, designed as a terminal station. Some folks were complaining that the four platforms (labeled 2 to 5, prints of course - there are no stickers in this set) don’t make any sense, as the monorail runs perpendicularly to the apparent platforms. Of course this makes sense : Below are four tracks terminating at the station: (track 2) 4.5V track – coal delivery for steam locomotives on track 4 and maintenance; (track 3) 9V track – passenger and freight trains; (track 4) 9V track – real steam passenger trains; (track 5) 9V track – freight trains. The monorail is of course floating above all that; when the suspended train is leaving, all these tracks can be serviced ... duh. I thought this is the whole point …

The Pantasy Railway Station …

Station “unfolded”: Have a look inside: Ticket counter (right) and barista coffee stand (left) … when you push the 3-elements revolving door, the golden (Technic break) disc and the clock hands are spinning as well – this calls for additional motorization …

Train 85-007 ready to depart … no surprise, should James Bond be on board …

After arrival at the other terminal station:

This is the Circuit Cube doing all the work; charging is from the top (see below, though), the on/off switch is easily accessible from the back of the car.

To-Do list:

1. I need to find a way of controlling the Circuit Cube hub with an ESP32. This has been demonstrated by @Asper; he has provided his code on GitHub (https://github.com/asperka/LEGORemoteCircuitCube). Steffen used a tiny M5Stack Atom and used the Visual Studio Code IDE with the Platform.IO extension described by him here: https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/184878-controlling-two-circuit-cubes-with-one-lego-remote/. I’d like to use the same program I wrote for my Crocodile; this was done using the Arduino IDE and Cornelius Munz’ Legoino code (https://github.com/corneliusmunz/legoino). The reason is simple: It works with 4 optical sensors I want to use again for stopping at both terminals and acceleration/deceleration phases. We will see how that shakes out
2. For charging the Circuit Cube, I need to make a custom USB cable (space … need a flat top USB-B plug).
3. Make a longer video showing how powerful the Circuit Cube stuff really is. It is simply amazing.

Video wise, I only have this less than 30 sec clip: First, the 10-cylinder engine fires up, then the train departs, totally loses focus, stops somewhere , V10 stops as well as it needs to kick into reverse (yes, the motor goes into reverse, this is a Steam Punk motor, no gear box here – you can see that by carefully looking at the pistons, they go down and up upon return, not up and down when it started), train reappears, totally out of focus, stops and gains focus, motor shuts down.

I suck at taking videos, I know.

https://bricksafe.com/files/Toastie/pantasy-steam-punk-railway-/Pantasy Steam Punk Train.mp4

(Updates will go into this thread)

All the best,

Thorsten

Edited February 5 by Toastie

[gratefulnat]

Hi Thorsten,

Your endeavor is fascinating, and yes the video could be better but I still enjoyed it

An absolutely stunning set which I built a few weeks ago, so impressed with the bricks. I did modify a few design issues I was not happy with (in particular the supporting pillars for the canopy over the station), but that's a not different than any other set I build from whichever company. And the beautiful metallic gold elements, not to mention the prints

I am not into electronics at all, so your work was great fun to read. I look forward to more updates.

Thanks for sharing

Cheers

Nat

[Toastie]

Hi Nat,

thank you very much!

Did not expect anyone to find this post here on the forbidden territory! I am using these posts mostly for documentation purposes - should EB go down the drain, my documentation goes as well ^^ but hey, it is a hobby. 

I promise: Should I ever I get the programming of the Circuit Cube going (aka use the LEGO PUp remote buttons to click speed up and down) I shall take another video. Lighting will remain crappy - I have no real video equipment, only this, wait, what does is say: Sony alpha 6000 photo camera. It constantly outsmarts me regarding its gazillion settings. So I just go to autopilot. Let this thing focus, what it wants to focus on .

Oh, I really do fully agree with your quality and building experience judgement! Did also some (very small) changes here and there, mostly because this station is in operation. These metal gold pieces ... man, not one or ten, but sooo many.

Thanks again, all the best,
Thorsten

 

[Asper]

Great project - Thank you for sharing!

[Toastie]

Thank you very much @Asper!

Well, it would be a good project as is, when the monorail would be a full circle or whatever shape but closed - then the Tenka app would suffice for running the train in a controlled fashion. But I simply don't have the space for that closed loop.

However, with the help of your code for controlling the CicuitCubes via an ESP32 based microcontroller, it eventually may become a good project. My plan is to have it (forward) accelerate out of the main station just to decelerate into the "remote" station and then go in reverse to the main station. I did something similar with my PUp/ESP32 controlled Crocodile using IR proximity sensors. In this new setup, I like to try these small forked light barrier type sensors - for fun.

So far I am programming the ESP using your BLE includes in totally BASIC-style C/C++ - global variables all over the place, just to mention one no-go ... so far I can control the CC connected motors individually using the LEGO PUp remote; the ESP is waiting for two H-bridge motor drivers to spin the gears on the center support post and the door of the station. We'll see.

All the best,
Thorsten

[Toastie]

We have activity!

 

OK, I know nobody is (really) following this forum, but: I am using an evil set (Pantasy #85007) for my monorail expedition, so I have to post here.

In summary, I used all LEGO parts to change the train and carriage brackets used to "hang" the train on LEGO 12V rails, used LEGO elements to make the monorail, and LEGO elements to power the clock/door in the main station and some whoohoo gear rack for ... show. Will post on the details (Circuit Cube charging, ESP32 programming, LEGO PUp remote control and this and that here.

Here is just a link to a "I suck at making videos" YouTube upload:

Link removed and copied to the next post.

All the best,
Thorsten

Edited March 6 by Toastie

[Toastie]

Dear All,

I “finished” my work on the Steam Punk suspended monorail train, train station, and layout.

After installing Microsoft’s Visual Studio Code framework, the PlatformIO plugin, Arduino Command Line Interface (CLI), and running @Aper’s C++ code for controlling the BLE Circuit Cube [as strongly suggested by @Asper (Steffen) and @Ts__ (Thomas)] on a good old ESP32 Devkit V1 board, I had “free” programming access to the 3 output channels of the CC using a LEGO PoweredUp remote – and all the thousand and one things an ESP32 Devkit board can do! This needed no(!) tweaking of Steffen’s code.

Now I also had all the more than 20 input/output ports (GPIOs) of the ESP32 board at my disposal. More than 8 of these ports can be configured as PWM outputs with a large range of PWM pulse width resolution and PWM frequency. As I love to mix as many decades old and new as well as alternative LEGO pieces as possible in one layout, I chose two 4.5V Technic motors to do additional work (this also leaves me with potentially using 9750 – LEGO Interface A, @evank loves so much – for control):

• Spin the revolving door of the main train station and its clock cw and ccw, depending on departure or arrival of the suspended train. This required some changes to the “tower” of the main station. This mechanism is made with LEGO pieces and had go into the roof of the tower. One golden element needed to go, but is now spinning on the gear rack mouted to the main monorail track post/mount:

     

• Turn the gear rack (installed for no other purpose than “show”) on the elevated track post/support connecting the two 90° curves leading into the main and remote station.

The 4.5V LEGO motors run nicely on 5V from a 1A USB power supply, which in turn 1) also feeds the ESP32 board (via its “Vin” pin, which goes diode protected to the onboard 3.3V voltage regulator), and 2) may be used for recharging the Circuit Cube mounted in the back of the carriage; thus only one power supply is sufficient for all power needs on the display. A tiny Polulu DRV8835 dual H-bridge motor driver board (https://botland.de/dc-motortreiber/851-drv8835-zweikanal-motortreiber-11-v-12-a-pololu-2135-5904422367220.html) running in mode 1 (phase/enable) handles the two 4.5 LEGO motors. For each motor output, one digital input is “fwd/rev” selection and the other is “PWM in”, so this tiny board connects to only 4 correspondingly configured GPIOs of the ESP32. 3 LEDs and one push button is all that is needed to “see” the status of the program running on the ESP and to reset the board for BLE device scanning (Pictures below: Station closed; station’s right section open, revealing the ESP control box; ESP control box with button, 3 LEDs, and – hiding the little dual H-bridge driver mounted to the back of the ESP board):

 

ESP32 Box “functions”:

1. Push button w/ built-in LED #1 = ESP board reset (button connects GND to EN pin), this restarts the BLE device discovery and connect procedure and then signals the status. LED on: “BLE discovery and connect time-out”; in case the CC and/or the LEGO remote did not connect with the ESP, simply press reset, which reruns this procedure.
2. One discrete LED #2 signaling “all motors (door, gears, V10, train motor) on the layout will be operated” in “auto mode”; if off, “auto mode” will just operate the motor on the locomotive.
3. One discrete LED #3 signaling “auto mode on”; if “on” the train runs forever from the main station to the remote station and back automatically.

When auto mode is off, manual control of the train using the three left buttons on the remote is enabled.

The buttons on the two left and right control pads of the LEGO remote have different functions. Steffen used them in his code to control two Circuit Cube operated trains with one remote. On my layout, the left remote buttons are for manual train control. The CC power scale is –255 … 0 … +255 with a resolution of +/-1, however, Steffen already programmed a power offset of 50, i.e., 0 = off, 50 = 1 etc. into his BLE code, so the logical scale goes from 0 to +/-200 with (logical) power 10 = real power 60. This makes absolute sense for even lightweight trains/vehicles, as real power settings between 1 and 50 hardly build-up enough Cubic Motor torque to move them. As my Steam Punk train is rather heavy, the manual buttons in/decrease power by 20 per click. This yields 10 power steps in each direction, way enough for decent train speed control.

The right LEGO remote buttons are used for manual control of the other motors (V10 locomotive motor, revolving door motor in the main station, and gear motor on the center elevated track post. When repeatedly pressing the “+” button, first LED #2 turns on and indicates “synced operation of all motors in auto mode”. Pressing it again, turns synced mode off and then iterates (in a freely programmable manner) through the auxiliary motor behavior on the layout; see figure below. The idea is that one can turn motors on in a somewhat “logical” manner, operate the train manually, e.g., drive to the remote station, turn corresponding aux motors off and restart them in reverse for traveling back to the main station, move the train back, and turn off the aux motors.

All motors slowly wind up and down - I individually adjusted the max power/power step width/winding time for each motor.

A manually operated return trip from the main station to the remote station is done in this sequence (and can be reprogrammed any time to different behavior of course): First click on the right “+” button: “Synced control of all motors” is activated, LED #2 is on. Just ignore that, press the “+” button again. LED #2 is turned off, and manual control begins: The revolving door of the main station starts to rotate (cw), as do the clock hands (ccw, just for fun, time travel ;) – travelers enter the station, not “losing” any time, in contrast! Both are propelled by a 4.5V LEGO motor via one of the H-bridge drivers using PWM output from the ESP. Next click on (right) “+” button stops the door, as travelers have entered the carriage. Next click fires up the V10 motor in the engine (cw), which is operated by channel B of the CC. Next click fires up the gear rack motor, indicating full forward power (cw) available, again driven by a 4.5V LEGO motor, PWM controlled. At this point, the train may be manually moved to the remote station, using the left remote buttons; “+” (increment power in steps of 20), “red” = stop (power = 0) , and “–“ (decrement power by 20). Once arrived at the remote station and stopped, the next click on the right “+” button turns off the gear motor, next the V10 motor. Travelers exit the train and others enter. Next right click fires up the V10 motor again, but rotating ccw (yes, this Steam Punk train reverses the motor rotation direction :D), on the next click the gear motors come up (ccw), then the left remote buttons are used again for navigating the train back to the main station. A click on the right “+” button turns off the gear motor, next click the V10 motor. Next click: Door begins to rotate (cw, time flies back to present), and the final right “+” button click stops the door motor. And then all begins from start.

As said, following the above created scenario is not required at all; it is just for making good noise and motion on the layout. For no additional noise and manual operation, just leave the system in manual control (both LEDs #2 and #3 are off) and play with the train using the left remote buttons.

Another feature are the two photoelectric barrier sensors installed at the entry to the main station and the far end of the remote station. On the overhead motor mount of the engine is a little 1x2 panel mounted sideways, which blocks the light beam when the train is in the respective end position. At that point going further reverse in the main station is software-disabled; the same is the case in the remote station, but for going forward. I was a little nervous when designing this layout; it sits close to a 7 feet deep hole in the floor providing access for the stairs to my attic. There are also (hardware) safety blocks installed on the elevated track, but even derailing the train is “not nice”. A full power hardware stop resulted in a lot of debris flying into the depths … Pictures below: Remote station's sensor; main station sensor also showing how the train blocks the light in the sensor (which then goes high on its output)

 

These sensors also allow for full automatic operation. When the train is in the initial (main station) position, pressing the right “+” button enables “the all motors synced mode” (see above), pressing the right “–“ button will light-up LED #3 and start the sequence as described above for manual mode but under full program control. The train accelerates, decelerates and stops automatically, and then returns to the main station. When the “auto mode” LED is still on, it will repeat the sequence, until the right “–“ button is pressed again; LED #3 turns of, and the program will complete the current run = stop at main station and then return to manual mode.

As convenient recharging of the Circuit Cube installed in the carriage (with easy access to the little on/off switch and providing easy access to the micro USB charging port) is a bit of a challenge, when the cube is also tightly secured in its position, I dismantled a micro USB plug, soldered two 2 mm red/black sockets to the +5V/GND terminals of the USB plug and mounted them in a 1x2 brick with studs on one side. Yes, you need to drill two matching holes into the brick, see picture below. BUT: As TLG does not make these, I made them ;)

The power feed for recharging was originally planned to come from the USB power supply I use for the ESP board, H-bridge motor driver, and light barrier detectors; however it turned out that it was much more convenient to tap into the 15V DC permanent power lines of my train layout: All 9V tracks carry 15V DC voltage sourced by a rather potent laptop power supply. And since there is a 9V track line directly located next to the back of the Steam Punk train when in the main station (where the CC sits in the carriage, see picture below), I tapped into that line using a 7805 regulator and two capacitors, not really necessary, but I am old … These are stuffed into the little black “transformer box” in the picture below.

Lastly, since I needed only one reset button (for invoking BLE rescanning) and all other functions are controlled with the LEGO PUp remote (6+1 buttons), the ESP32 Devkit board and the dual H-bridge motor driver along with two LED’s easily find space inside the main train station: The enclosure is located above the ticket counter, hardly seen when the station is “closed”. I tried to give the (all LEGO) enclosure it a little steamy and punky look, although I am really not good at matching it with the other beautiful train station elements, see pictures above.

There were some additions here and there (mounts for the light barrier sensors, other cosmetic additions) but this is not worth showing them explicitly.

OK, here is a video (about 6 min) attempting to capture the "action" – and as usual, I simply suck at taking videos.

Once again, a million thanks to Steffen and Thomas! Without you guys, I’d never tried VSC and PIO, and thus no CC control for me!

All the best,
Thorsten

P.S.: C++ program "code" is here: https://bricksafe.com/files/Toastie/pantasy-steam-punk-railway-/main_V5.cpp

Edited March 6 by Toastie

[evank]

You're insane. :)

Then again, I currently have four Interface A running on a single Apple II, and I'm hoping to get a fifth going soon -- I need another card.

[Toastie]

10 hours ago, evank said:

You're insane

Yeah, that is what she said (slightly differently phrased).

Here is to insanity.

You are playing in the same league - looking for another 9776 card. What to say? Totally cool!!! Did you contact Apple and presented your setup? Bet they like it! On another thought: Are there A/D cards for the Apple ][ from that time? You could attach a microphone to the input (maybe pre-amplified) and then control the 6x5 lamps on the 5 9750 outputs; the louder, the more lights are on and so on and so forth. As Dr. Ray Stantz said: "The possibilities are unlimited ..." (and then Dean Jaeger showed up ...)

Best wishes,
Thorsten 

 

[Asper]

Wonderful! What a great project!

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

Now everything is clear and makes sense!

The style of this project reminds me of the train designed by Dr Emmet Brown in Back to the Future (3rd episode); maybe because there's involved a steam train with futuristic propellant, maybe because you're both brilliant professors... in two words, this is Totally Cool!

The sound when the mechanisms start is wonderful, reminiscent of the noise of moving mechanical watches
The electronic hardware and programming part can be perceived by looking with critical attention.

Nice wok!

All the best

Emanuele

[Toastie]

You are too kind, Emanuele! It is just a fun layout - nothing compared to what you accomplish. Thank you very much

21 hours ago, LEGO Train 12 Volts said:

because there's involved a steam train with futuristic propellant

Yes, same here; I bet the Pantasy designers did watch that video as well. But they did not put in a Tenka Cubic Motor ...

And OK, I work in Wuppertal ... the industrialization began here around 1850; 1872 Bayer began their production, and in 1875 there were more than 400 steam engines at work. The Steam Punk era apparently plays between 1840 and 1900 ... and the Wuppertal suspended rail system was planned as early as 1887; the initial test drive was in 1898 ... I'd call that a perfect match. 

Thank you again and all the best,
Thorsten

[Artanis I]

On 3/7/2024 at 1:13 AM, Toastie said:

 

I don't understand what this bit is for/doing. Everything else looks great, and is very cool.

[Toastie]

Thank you very much!

12 hours ago, Artanis I said:

I don't understand what this bit is for/doing.

Well, there is nothing to understand - it does nothing productive other than:

• "decorate" the otherwise boringly designed main post/support of the monorail track
• generates quite some noise when the wheels are turning (I like action and noise on my layout) - the 4.5V motor is more than 30 years old and that is to be heard as well ...
• when you live close to that post or service something up there, the direction the wheels turn, tell you from which side the train approaches ;)
• in Steam Punk world, gears, pistons, motion, and so on - usually hard to "understand" what they really do - seem to be a major thing. The Pantasy railway station itself has such an assembly on the right side, where the ticket counter is - I am tempted to using another Cubic motor to turn the wheels there as well ;)
• in Steam Punk world, one may claim that this device is required for the time travel feature of using this train; you certainly noticed that the clock runs ccw when the passengers enter the station through the spinning door ...  

All the best,
Thorsten

 

[Ts__]

Ahhhh, very cool!

I only saw today that you are now showing your work here. Awesome, I love it. Great realization. Steam Punk makes beautiful decoration possible and you have made full use of it!

Thomas

[Toastie]

Thank you very much, Thomas!

As said, you and Steffen made this happen. No joke or whatever.

1 hour ago, Ts__ said:

you are now showing your work here

Well, I felt I have to. This is more than 90% of non-tolerated alternative brick usage - some call unilaterally "knock-offs" here on EB, regardless of actual source and source ethics - so I decided to show it here and then brag about it. The "12V monorail" is presented in the TrainTech forum, because that is made of 100% LEGO pieces. The wonderful train though - that TLG will never ever be capable of making nor wanting to make at any reasonable price - is inappropriate to show there. And so - I am here.

And I am very glad you found this post and commented, as I admire your work very, very much!

Thanks again and all the best,
Thorsten