Arlo

This thing is BEAUTIFUL. Great work!

yay, lots more icons. Dear Lego: a little help on hover wouldn't kill you. So, I'm trying to make a simple controller here. The top button works, but getting the speed output thing to display isn't. I'm guessing that the train motors can't report their speed?

I’m just getting started migrating from PowerFunctions to Powered Up for my trains. First thing that I think I need to decide on is which control software to use. My initial foray into Powered Up 4.0.3 suggests that the Lego software is pretty useless. I was trying to follow this guide to build a train controller: and it seems that the 4.0.3 update lacks a lot of the features that the 3.x versions did. Is it even worth trying to play with 4.0.3? It seems that my time is better spent with PyBricks?

Are there any 3rd party hubs that pybricks can work with? Mainly, I want to find a hub that is rechargeable. In stock would be cool too! PUP hubs have been unavailable from Lego for awhile now. Looks like we have Buwizz, PfBrick, and Sbrick Plus, but it seems that each one of those companies decided to come up with their own proprietary software for their hubs?

This system looks very interesting. My trains run in an area where I need to get on a stepladder to change their batteries. So, i'm very interested in using FxTrack to create a hybrid system, where my trains still run on batteries, but use a power pickup to recharge them from sections of the track that are FxTrack. The holdup, of course, is that it looks like I have to either wait for FxBricks to make a power pickup or else build them myself. Was looking at this guide for DIY Custom Power Pickups, but you need to find these particular size O-guage wheels which I've been unable to find, along with some other hard to find parts, and then you need a lathe to make a custom bushing! So, not terribly likely. I guess FxTrack is currently only useful for people who currently have lego 9v trains with old metal rails. I'll be waiting anxiously for a power pickup!

Still making these? I’m trying to figure out a good solution to power my train setup. My kitchen has 2 big skylights above, and that area of the ceiling has a ledge above the counters that is 6-36 inches deep. Think of one of those ledges/shelves above cabinets where old ladies display a bunch of old plates and stupid stuff like that. OK? Yeah, so i’ve put train tracks up there. It’s a big circle like 40 feet in diameter. Looks cool. The issue is power. Now, there is power up there, a couple of outlets. But train power. Battery packs for PoweredUp / Power Functions sucks because I have to get out a stepladder to get up to the trains to change out batteries. That’s kind of awful. So, what i’m interested in doing coming up with a system that uses rechargeable batteries. 1. Get some https://shop.fxbricks.com/pages/fx-track Powered Rail. Not for the whole track mind, you, I’d like to create a little rail yard for locomotives to go and recharge their batteries. This area would have the much more expensive Fx-Track, BUT only needs a short length of it for each locomotive 2. Use https://shop.fxbricks.com/products/pfx-brick PFX-Bricks to control the trains. This would give me some great programming options. 3. Use rechargeable lithium batteries for power. 4. Possibly build this system to deal with the different voltages of the FX-track vs the battery. https://brickmodelrailroader.com/index.php/2017/03/10/hybrid-pf9v-systems/. However, I might not actually need it since the locomotives won’t actually run on the FX-tracks for very long, only when they are getting out of the rail yard. OR, I ought to be able to make the FX-tracks capable of ONLY charging the batteries and never directly powering the wheels. That would make things a little simpler. 5. Can the PFX-brick tell when the battery is getting low? I need to find this out. Detecting that will be critical. Basically, the idea is I could have a rail yard where 3, 4, 6, whatever locomotives could go to park and recharge their batteries. I could be running 1 or 2 or maybe more locomotives on my track (40+ freaking feet of it!). Then, when the PFX-Brick senses low charge on the locomotive, it would have to operate track switches to the send the locomotive to the correct parking area to recharge. Lots of moving parts to this system to figure out. The switch controls, the batteries, etc. But, power pickup is also critical! So, i’m wondering if your system is still available?