Toastie

Hi Emanuele, very nice indeed! Very accurate and with much attention to detail. As always, that is ... and congratulations to decorating the front page, this is well deserved! All the best, Thorsten

When I need a piece/part TLG will never make (tailored electrical feedthroughs, LEGO enclosures for custom PCBs, and so on and so forth) I do cut, glue to make it fit. It is solely for my very own purpose - TLG's sold parts count on these is exactly >one<, and I believe a mold for producing that piece a a little over the top. Other than that: I go with the flow, as they say. Regards, Thorsten

Same here. Hmmm - is this what a large company does, when it runs out of good ideas for new products based on (way more than) half a century old principles? Do they make a new typeface based on their product? Or actions symbols. Or motion symbols ... in the end, the world will be rebuilt - using LEGO bricks. I am missing brick built symbols for feelings ... for starters, TLG could use #3176 or #39613 for true love ... would be a one-piece, no building necessary, hit-home symbol. No idea what's going on ... just guessing. Best, Thorsten

Thank you very much, Thomas! As said, you and Steffen made this happen. No joke or whatever. 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

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/&amp;do=findComment&amp;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: 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 For charging the Circuit Cube, I need to make a custom USB cable (space … need a flat top USB-B plug). 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

Well, inside the EU similar "things" (not exactly, as there are competing companies) apply. For sure, they will be totally complex and there are gazillions of rules and regulations. EU ^^, what do you expect. However, shipping is generally >much< cheaper within the EU than to GB. Brexit is Brexit, I guess. Best, Thorsten

Sure, that will work! BUT: Why not installing the full TLG EV3 software suite and have fun??? Just because some newbies or whatever that generation is called, call it old, outdated, whatever? These folks have certainly missed out I am a true boomer - and for me, an EV3 is a performance monster, hardly being challenged by many to the extent that it chokes or fails. There are some here on EB and maybe elsewhere (I am not elsewhere, so correct me if I am wrong) who came to that barrier, but mostly it is: "There is more. There is always more." as in PUp, Spike and Prime. Who cares? Do your EV3 experience. Enjoy it. Just get out the original software - it installs on modern computer hardware. Then play around. Once you feel that what TLG has provided is not enough - dive into alternatives, like pybricks. Make sure you have ideas for what you want to do with the EV3 power brick first. Then go nuts. Have fun and all the best, Thorsten

Hmmm - the question is: What is going on in the old tower? Memories come to life: Back in the days I spent some 8 weeks in Christchurch College in Oxford/GB to do some research in the physical chemistry lab. And my goodness, this college had some nice grass tennis courts!!! OK, back on track: Next to the entry doors to the old college was/is Tom Tower - and you simply don't want to know what a nice (party) place that was/is - back then in 1990 that is ;) Heehee - OK: You go down the road, into the beer store, stock up on beer and such, then just move on, stock up on - no, wait. Not smart: You gown the road, stock up on Tylenol, Aspirin, and this and that, and have still both hands free for getting some beer next door. Perfect! Now: What is going on in the tower??? Lovely building, very nice building techniques and: Thank you very, very much for sharing the instructions!!! Regards, Thorsten

The joke is not the text nor the picture, this is so 50's, it is the title. Finally, truth has come: It is "Legos" (ssss). Y'all were wrong. Happy Easter. Here is to feeling good

Yes: To get to the metal, the greasy stuff needs to go first. IPA is for that job; otherwise, the much more polar metal oxide removing ingredients can't do their job, as grease would not let them penetrate to the "problem". When you have cleaned the rails with good soap, a wash/rub with IPA is surely helping in removing remains of grease and such. I generally use this stuff for work on vintage plastic material as a first step; there is not a bit of non-polar stuff remaining on the surfaces. Also, your fingers/hands will be totally degreased , so it is better to wear some (cheap) gloves. Best, Thorsten

Very nice that this worked out. Now, I have said that here and there on EB - and I don't want to be regarded as wise-***. However, this may actually do a better job conduction-wise, than ethanol or IPA can do: They both remove greasy stuff, as does soap in any incarnation. There are differences; when you apply "plastic cleaner detergent" they will perform more powerful. In removing anything greasy. Conduction-wise, you want to get rid of oxides, sitting on the metal rail, that don't care about any kind of soap at all. Sure, removing greasy stuff will help. And if that is the sole layer affecting any conduction issues: Job done. Now, if there is more (there is always more ), then try metal oxide removal agents. WD40 is such a formulation, but it bites into the plastic as well, plus it adds residue, you simply don't want to have. There are many formulations used in electronics for doing just that: Remove oxide layers from metal, be it copper, or in case of 9V rails, nickel (alloys). One product that I use quite successfully, not only on 9V rails, but many vintage electronics projects is "Kontakt-60" spray. I am sure, there are many other products doing the exact same. Just to give you a hint (and yes, I am not affiliated with this company, not at all): https://www.reichelt.de/de/en/contact-60-100-ml-oxide-removing-contact-cleaner-kontakt-2010-p9462.html?PROVID=2788&amp;gad_source=1&amp;gclid=Cj0KCQjwzZmwBhD8ARIsAH4v1gU4Xb17IYrV9eIIqsGUDuvtqJf5gShwveDUt3liQWwnMU7YFokCOEMaAi8BEALw_wcB&amp;&amp;r=1 It simply works. All the best, Thorsten

Hehe ... the "th" - simply forget it: Try "Torsten". The "h" apparently comes from "Thor" - the vikings loved to give their names an edge ;) and the "sten" apparently comes from "stein" which translates to "rock". So my name refers to Thor's hammer's head, made from rock. Yeah. I run around in this world with a name referring to Thor's hammer. Thank you, my parents . In Northern Europe, "th" translates to "t" in the English language. In other words: >NO< reason to apologize!!! In contrast: I love your smile and laughter in the video - this is how it should be - always. All the best, T_orsten

Welcome to EB! That "whole" refers to the "plastic" of these parts, correct? Best, Thorsten

Evan, so cool! Thank you very much for putting this together! I am sure this will be helpful for people wandering back into the good ol' LEGO days. Need to put a pin in this; a video is, when well-made as yours, better than "where on earth did I put the schematics" All the best, and looking very much forward to other videos you will hopefully make! Thorsten

Well. And you have been resurrecting/fixing a beauty of a vintage motorbike you own for weeks and months - totally successfully! That is what economists do all the time, isn't it? "Chemists" live in perpetual chaos, as in chemistry, it never, never ever gets to the apparently clean and mathematical pathways your wife certainly appreciates - on the other hand, I am convinced, that she very well knows chaos, i.e., reality, as well in her professional activities! This is why I weaseled out into physical chemistry: We pretend that PChem has come up with rules and regulations (heavily borrowed from physics) to tame chemistry, to turn it into a natural science. And yes, in an "ideal world", it works very well. In "reality", it remains mostly trial and error. OK, first we do calculations and build on experience going back to medieval ages (or the other way around) - and then reality hits hard, again, and again. If it works out, PChemists claim that the power of math, physics, and chemistry models are making the world a better place. If not, we just tell people that the models were too tight, and coarse, but eventually, they will work out. Yeah. Maybe. Chemistry, in my opinion, is some sort of an "educated guessing frenzy". This is how I came up with the above recipe; it may or may not work. It did for me ... Please say hello to your wife and family! All the best, Thorsten

Hi Emanuele, in other words: Copper (Cu) was just getting old - as in "corroded". Better; Iron corrodes, i.e., it constantly deteriorates, as iron oxides need more space than iron metal and thus iron surfaces "grow" and become more susceptible to further oxygen/water "attack" - without end. Cu, in contrast, "ages" (it builds a stable, hard layer of oxides that closely attach to the metal surface; this is why some folks like to use Cu for gutters, water pipes and the like. They also like the color changes due to oxidation). Now, what I would do is thoroughly remove [mechanically, then "Waschbenzin" (mineral spirits), then 96% ethanol] the "protective grease", hell knows what it does after years. Then treat the Cu-surfaces with something like "Kontakt-60" spray (https://www.reichelt.de/de/en/contact-60-100-ml-oxide-removing-contact-cleaner-kontakt-2010-p9462.html?PROVID=2788&amp;gad_source=1&amp;gclid=Cj0KCQjwwYSwBhDcARIsAOyL0fiMZ5UaDUog29NeEJtjffjIxihCVE6mzL1x9NrTPCqUs-dDSP1C8J4aAp-3EALw_wcB&amp;&amp;r=1), but certainly >not< WD40, thoroughly wipe off any excess after a minute or so and do it over again, this time less thorough removal, maybe use a brush to create some sort of very thin "layer". Did this on many, many vintage resurrections (IBM XT and the like), always worked. The Cu-insulating layer is tough. Lastly, mechanical force may or may not work; in most cases, one ruins the original "spring"-loaded contact force. I'd do that as last resort attempt. Well, just my two cents! All the best and good luck, Thorsten P.S.: For the push buttons: Just use repeatedly Kontakt-60 spray.

Dave - EB does not appreciate cross posting!!! So, it took about less than an hour, to get this pinned in the TrainTech forum. Over at the Technic forum, they still discuss what to do ... man. What is this? PoweredUp is so "Technic" - "they" have the servos, the tacho M, L motors, the Spike and the boom bang what not - and here we have the totally dumb train motor, using about 5% of the brain of PUp hubs ... yes I know, trains can be powered with smart motors as well. Not the point. What I find sort of funny: This fantastic document you compiled, this beautiful "how-to" do PUp post - just goes down the drain in the Technic forum - drowned by supercars, backhoes, cranes ... and still there is so much whining about how bad PUp is over there. And here on TrainTech ... folks, read that document @idlemarvel has composed! @JopieK thank you so much for pinning that topic (OK, my guess ...)! All the best, Thorsten

Did you get that from Ms. dr_spock? To be honest: I got mine from my wife for the exact same purpose. BTW: Swiffers also work nicely - you got to be a little careful though not to rip off stuff. @dr_spock: I just realized - man, I'll PM you. Best, Thorsten

Hi Lars, in a German microcontroller forum they said this one does it: https://freeserialanalyzer.com/ For my needs, HTerm was sufficient, so I do not know how this software performs. Best, Thorsten

And time again to pipe it down, isn't it? I mean, your >arguments< are telling the story. In my opinion, there is no reason at all, to water it down using - well - phrases. Best, Thorsten

As I like building across all themes: It's all LEGO. Best, Thorsten

Which remote are you using? The PF "bang-bang" = full forward, stop, full reverse type (#8885)? There is another PF remote with dials (#8879); you can set the power that goes to the motor via the PF receiver in several steps. The receiver actually does not change the voltage that goes to the motor, but quickly switches the output on/off (which creates a squeaky sound). This is favorable to set the rpm of the drive axle of the motor (called pulse width modulation, PWM, but I am sure you know that). Best, Thorsten Forgot: Yes, that will work, but you need the PF/9V conversion cable. This controller actually changes the output voltage going to the motor

Town, as in EB EDIT: Respectfully (end edit) Yours, Thorsten

Ah. OK no, that won't work. Does bricklab.exe run under Win 3.11? The latter can be installed in DOSBox-X as well. OK, Win 3.11 was a DOS application anyway Best, Thorsten

Hmmm. True: The gear reduction on this one could be almost infinite, maybe Emanuele has invented a very small almost frictionless gear box, which is mounted under the "hood". And then flux compression (invented in 1955) and voilà: What takes ages in the purely mechanical world takes only seconds outside of Einstein's laws limiting everything to the speed of light ... Things really get cheap and small nowadays. Best, Thorsten