JopieK

Well, that was a long weekend (sorry about that). LEGOWorld 2010 preparations took too much time. But I managed to even entertain the crowd with the PF functions as we speak (since I'm currently at LEGOWorld while typing and uploading). First of all the finished signal post. It has 3 small (Robbe) servo's that can pull up to 10 grams. They work very well!!! I'm especially pleased with the points. The arm signals do work as well, but they need a little bit more tweaking. The lines to pull the switches and the arm signals are also realistic for the era that we have (about 1935-1950). B.t.w. I have experienced one problem with the servo's. They need a large capacitor otherwise the LEGuanO keeps resetting itself because of power brownouts. The train also works very nice using the LEGuanO base. Kids like the blinking blue LED and the front and end signals. I thought of creating an extra remote to activate / deactivate certain sections. That works well but it turns out that we don't need it (at least not at a large event) since we can just point to the LEGuanO that we really want to have. I used a nylon thread and hot glue to connect to the points. This should not demonish the LEGO and could be peeled off again. Here another overview of the signal post and the two trains that I currently use: B.t.w. connecting to a PF motor is quite easy I have just cut the cables :) they are quite cheap and easy to get (at this moment at least).

RobotC is the best way for programmers. For non-programmers, I would definately choose NXT-G, I'm a high school and college teacher in Informatics (so should know what I talk about in case of programming).

The new PF train motors are also very good, but this one seems to work well :)

That is a good idea, there are a lot of RFID applications for Arduino and I did some successful tests. The NXT has i2c at its sensor ports so that way it can be hooked up to an Arduino / LEGuanO. But an Arduino costs about 20€ and an NXT costs a lot more and has more or less the same possibilities (actually less).

I instructed the system operators to install LDD 3.x then at my highschool. I want to work with LDD in education and it seems LDD 4.0 seems to be delayed too long at this point. Well, 3.x also works fine :) Hope the kids will enjoy LDD as much as we do at EB.com!

I'll post images this weekend of the working point and arm signals. Currently working on my PF remote. Hope to finish that before tuesday, (start of LW 2010 in Zwolle, Netherlands), but we'll see. Servos work very well and it was a very good decision to move from memory wire to servos. They are cheap and accurate.

Well, that at least is good news! We're looking forward to it.

LDD is becoming vaporware :(

Initial tests were done. Servos seem to be very neat for powering signals and points. The only problem I had was a software problem: the IR messages are not being read together with the Servo motors. Problem is that they both want to use timer1 of the AVR. I should really make sure IR works using interrupts then that problem is solved.

Very nice Stephan, do you think this is the right forum however?!

Well, memory wire tests have failed so I have bought me some servos for 8€ per piece. I'll post more if I have two arm signals and a point working with those servo motors.

Right click and save as :) (ctrl+click gives secondary click on a mac).

Well, I know that the analog and the digital scene in electronics are two worlds in the same universe :) Maybe this is also a good form factor idea: http://jeelabs.com/ I agree that it is best to have a very good interface. Maybe we could work out a standard LEGuanO interface in the community. Greetings Johan

Well Tedler, I'm a little bit confused about what you mean exactly. I choose to not include a voltage converter / PSU on the board for practical reasons. Adding a shield will allow that (that is what I do). In every train one needs e.g. a 9V to 5V power supply (PSU) of course to feed the logic. In a city however one only needs maybe one or two 5V supplies to power all arduino's / LEGuanO's so including it on the PCB would be not desired. Connecting Bluetooth, RC, etc. on the board is already very available. Look at sparkfun.com for more idea's and the arduino.cc site of course. I got my memory wire working yesterday, so now connecting points and arm signals to the memory wires :) I'll keep you guys posted. @andythenorth: of course this is not limited to trains. Using i2c and an H-bridge together with the arduino / LEGuanO, one can also add e.g. motors to NXT since the sensor ports have i2c possibilities (in fact the NXT also uses AVR µControllers).

At school we use Atmel, I normally develop my lectures using my LEGuanO. That gives to opportunities: a. I get my LEGO stuff working b. I know what bumps there are and what the students will face Arduino is very nice to start with. I am also developing some highschool materials and in November I will give a masterclass at a teachers conference. The Arduino libraries are very easy to use, but one can also program AVR-GCC (GNU C with AVR extensions) using the same platform. Normal signals are very easy, I actually created a working one as basic test for my LEGuanO. That one has an IR receiver, a red and a green signal and an IR LED. The IR led could give a burst to all approaching trains (e.g. STOP!). Two wire interface (i2c) is also native on the LEGuanO board so that more boards can be connected to eachother. Of course one can also mix LEGuanO's with other Arduinos since they are basically the same. My LEGuanO has a different footprint and that is more or less the only difference with an other Arduino, basic functions include: a. reverse polarity protection b. power LED (tiny SMD one) c. if needed two extra SMD leds (for feedback and debugging) d. an FTDI programming interface e. reset function d. two TWI / i2c headers with possibility for SMD pull up resistors f. an IR receiver header It has no power supply, but normally one would just hook one Arduino up to a 5 to 6V supply and then power the others with the i2c interface, so for this application it is more practical to do without an i2c interface.

Well, I'm a teacher in Techn. Informatics and Robotics so familiarity with chips like the AVR come naturally :) I used Eagle for the design actually. Arduino is quite easy (at least if you have suffcient knowledge in electonics and so on like you do). It would be nice to create a LEGO Arduino community, there are more interested people for this.

Well, indeed most of the wires are just interface wires. I designed it myself and I had it professionally made. I'll try to embed it into my LEGOWorld 2010 layout. My autumn holidays fall in the second week (I'm located in Zwolle region). The heart is an Atmega168 or Atmega328 just with the normal Arduinos (see www.arduino.cc) but then adapted to LEGO. It is a mov so quicktime should play it alright (copy paste the url to quicktime). It could indeed be squeezed into a much smaller board but this was my first PCB and I still have a bunch left. Alternative would be to just use an Arduino nano or something like that. Next step is creating working arm signals and points (using memory wire), should work with LEGuanO, I already did some tests.

I have struggled a lot with what LEGO train system to choose. We have them (almost) all, from 12V (even some blue and 4.5V sets), to the newest PF trains. First I wanted to use DCC and I have managed to make some bad 9V motors DCC ready. That was a hard job and I was not totally convinced. Until I came across the Arduino AVR applications. This train uses a special adept of Arduino called the LEGuanO. The board is 8 by 5 studs and has LEGO compatible holes for easy LEGO compatibility. My first train that totally works with this system is a Dutch classic called the "Sik" locomotor best translated as "Goatty" because it made a Goat like noise. I have put an AVR 2313 in the front. That one is programmed using AVR-GCC and is in fact an i2c slave. The chip makes sure the head and backlights of the locomotor work and also enables the option of a top flashlight. The original "Sik" locomotors had a blue flashlight. I use NEM II era for somewhat realistic scenery etc. Anyway. The LEGuanO in the train receives PF messages. The last car of the train has a bunch of batteries, the LEGuanO and the driver for the motor. On top of the roof there is a small IR receiver. The LEGuanO board is designed to have a native IR receiver fit. Below some pictures (the light wasn't very friendly and I didn't have time to get my normal camera, but anyway I might change that later). The "Sik" locomotor: Here with the white headlights and a red backlight (in fact that one should not be lit, on the last car a red lamp should be lit). While backing up: lights are in reverse mode: Then the front of the locomotor looks like this: Pressing (left) STOP on the PF controller twice, will disable the lights including the blinking light. Pressing it twice again will make the flasher blink. This is the LEGuanO used both for the train and the level crossing: It can be programmed using a USB adapter with Arduino and/or AVR-GCC (amongst others). The level crossing also uses a LEGuanO (could be simpler but just used for showing some possibilities). The train has some extra strong magnets that activate a read sensor. When the train is past the level crossing, the white "safe" lamp will blink again. short clip I have tried to harm as little LEGO as possible, in fact only the to taps were drilled to put the lamps in it. I now and then use hot glue but that could be peeled off without damaging the LEGO.

A meet would be great indeed! Greetings Johan

I'll be there most of the time I guess, at least in the 2nd week. Our town will be there. I hope to be able to show some nice PF extensions. I am currently finishing of a new PF train (with working headlights, blinking flashlight on the lok etc.), working railway crossings (just blinking, not with bars at this moment), and hopefully even working arm signals.

I still think automation is very doable. Maybe using a tube system with small latches that release parts, it even doesn't be mechanically very challenging. I'm an Applied University teacher in Robotics and Factory Automation so I have at least some background in it :) B.t.w. like a real software project they just missed the deadline of september ;)

well, I'm working on a concept that uses arduino together with PF IR. I have my working train almost ready (PF part works well, only the motor driver needs testing). A proximity sensor wouldn't be too bad to implement for such a device.

Each one vote: 29) Witch Entry (Build by Almirante Don Rodrigo) 9) Skier Entry (Build by Rufus) 11) Jungle Explorer Entry (Build by Diidy) Nice job, all of you!

I give a point to: 2) Robot & Weightlifter Entry (Build by Dan Church) and one to: 12) Diver & Surfer Entry (Build by squiz) the last but not least one goes to: 10) Robot & Jungle Explorer Entry (Build by Darkblane) But I like a lot of the others too! Good job. Too bad I was to busy teaching students :'(

I think we Dutch are too lazy for doing that by hand, why not create a nice robot for doing this, I mean, it is just a matter of creating an automated storage facility and pickup units that van retrieve a certain ammount of items from a certain container. That might be even doable with a bunch of NXT's ;) @M'Kyuun: there a a lot of such a systems and they have been around already for quite a while. I lecture Computer Science (Technical Informatics and Robotics) and one of our semesters is totally set up around factory automation. Take a look at this e.g. (pharmacy automation system):