dr_spock

Is there a golden rule like "Don't bite the hand that sponsors your prizes."

LEGO had released some tilt rotor type aircraft sets in their Creator and CITY themes long before they did the Technic Osprey.

Do you have an ammeter to measure the current draw by the motors?

Congrats to the winners. https://www.bricktrainawards.com/winners/brick-train-awards-2021/

In 40 years, 3D printing could be as simple as printing with a laser or inkjet printer today for the average consumer. It won't take black magic skills and ample foul language to get it working like today.

No holes were drilled in the IR receiver. The wires were soldered to the 9V and ground pins in the receiver and fed out through the existing pin holes. The LED goes on when power is applied to receiver.

Wire your own 5mm LEDs. They will be much brighter than the LEGO PF LEDs.

Perhaps Pybricks can be an option to rewrite the firmware in the hub to have PU remote function as a speed control instead of full on/off with the large motor. https://pybricks.com/

I use DuPont style connectors. That way I can flip polarity around if needed or mix and match adapters for experimentation.

I've seen that steam locomotive somewhere before in an unusual locomotives video. Scheduled maintenance would probably be critical in keeping it going, kind of like with any German designed automobile. I think connecting a driver of that size to a LEGO train motor would make for a crazy fast MOC.

You can use the Powered UP App to create your own program that reads the PU Remote as input and outputs 0-100 to the Technic Large Motor. I don't know if connecting pin 3 to pin 6 and pin 4 to pin 5 will fool the PU hub into thinking the Technic large motor is a PU train motor. I got it working with the simple medium motor.

I would wait for the official contest rules first.

Stumbled across an interesting video on the innard of the Znter 9V battery:

I used inexpensive 14mm Chinese eBay beads for balls before. (Not sure what the LEGO® content for the contest will be.) It is not a bad way to get started in GBC on a budget outside of the contest. Ball size matters if you plan to bring your modules to shows and have to work with other people's modules. Usually there is a GBC coordinator with a big bag of real LEGO® balls at events so you don't have to bring yours. https://www.greatballcontraption.com/wiki/standard

It depends on what you plan to do with them. For me, I prefer the 2 port train hub since my main use for them is running trains at our club's train show events. I use rechargeable NiMH batteries. They last an hour or two depending on the size and weight of the train. It is not hard to swap in a set of recharged batteries and recharge the depleted ones if you designed your MOCs for easy battery box access. Also the PU remote works with it so I don't have to use the Powered UP app on my tablet.