JopieK

My father used to have a lot of pre-ABS bricks, they were very much sensitive to heat, storing them in the attic that was also very hot ruined them. But that was years ago. With ABS that should not happen indeed. Maybe best to contact LEGO about it?!

You can find the weight on Bricklink (look up the brick and see it's properties). I think you ask an impossible question to calculate though.

You can do that with custom apps, as soon as I get my hands on a second train I'll try that.

I really like it as well! I'll probably try to get some from Bricklink.

Good ideas already! If I obtain a second train I'll also try to implement more options for control, you mean like a slider that allows you to set it between 0..127 (forward) or 255..128 (reverse). B.t.w. I also tested it on an iPod Touch they are very affordable compared to iPhones. Of course it would be doable to implement it for Android as well, but apart from one Google Glass App I'm not very affluent with Android (although their Kotlin language resembles Swift somewhat). Here is the link to the GitHub: https://github.com/jakorten/UpControl

So TLG what about back to the future options for Train enthusiasts? Are you going to allow for a way of implementing barriers / signals point controllers with a 'PUre' LEGO solution? Are you planning to make over the air updates possible? If the answer is yes, how about making the controller software Open Source under some conditions?

I have submitted my app to the Apple store this afternoon, I'll share the source on GitHub, thanks @Mr Hobbles, analyzing your code really helped! B.t.w. check also this topic by CopMike:

If I would have two trains... So I will add that option of controlling more hubs of course. There are few advantages now already including the fact that you can control it much more smoothly.

Here is an update: I created an app for it: I will also upload the source to GitHub, the app is now in the review process of Apple, so fingers crossed. This is how the app works: (There is something weird going on with how the forum scales the video image). What I learned from it: it is a very stable communication between the train and a control device. You have quite some freedom to give things your own twist. Now hope someone will also create an Android version for those that have Android devices instead of iOS of course.

Very nice set this year. Great details etc. But the farmer is missing that is a pity of course.

I didn't but there are topics on it and a nice GitHub page: https://github.com/JorgePe/BOOSTreveng https://bricks.stackexchange.com/questions/9148/what-internal-electronics-does-lego-boost-use I don't have Boost at the moment.

Looks nice. I'll test it in the weekend. I did test my own app this morning, the reach of the bluetooth connection with my iPhone X is about 10 - 15 m. The train will only stop when it gets out of reach. It seems to be that the normal controller cuts it off at about 5 meters.

Yups, just use the name. I don't think the system sees it as a different motor because it can't, ID2 is connected to GND and ID1 to VCC :s (no resistor whatsoever), then connected it measures 3.9 MΩ.

@Mr Hobbles: It uses the same characteristic for both RX and TX. Indeed the same UUID, for the 'Handset' and the 'HUB NO.4', both for their service and characteristics b.t.w.. The train motor is reported as a WeDo motor (0x01) (makes sense since it does not have any mean to give feedback as you could see in the image of the open motor). Apart from that I'm quite pleased, it is a neat feature that the system reports back and shows what motor is connected to what port. I haven't done a range test yet with my iPhone X, maybe it will react differently than with the 'Handset'. The handset has still some tricks on it's sleeves, you can connect to it and read the green button without a problem but the +/-/stop seems to be more tricky, I think you need to complete some handshake first, I did an initial attempt but did not succeed after all, but I think we'll figure it out in the end ? @supertruper1988 I'm not sure it is directly supported, there is a command for combining the two motors in the Boost setting but I don't have two motors so could not test it (it accepts the command with an acknowledge message), apart from that you could do that programmatically and in fact use different engines and HUB's for that (not with the LEGO Handset, but with your own app / Pi / whatever I don't see any reason why that would not work).

Haha, no that is something different. I'm not familiair enough with the STM stuff. Donated my programmer and some development boards to a student who is (but alas he is doing his graduation project and then finished), partially I was a little angry with them since they denied me some samples without telling me why. Shouldn't of course, but well, maybe some day. But the commands are the most important and that works very well. I could PWM the motor yesterday and am now between the other stuff working on a more solid (uh SOLID), version. I used a nRF52 (Nordic) sniffer and the code of the Boost-guys to get the protocol working.

See my latest post:

Well guys and gals... I have cracked the HUB (Train part). Thanks to Jorge and other contributors from: https://github.com/JorgePe It seems to be that the HUB is a simplified version of the Boost controller. The train motor acts like a WeDo motor. It is pretty cool, you can detect if a motor exists, if it is pulled out or plugged in. I can also control the LED (11 different settings, one of which is off). Hope in the weekend I'll be able to manufacture an app for it that I'll upload to the Apple store for the people that already have a train available ;) I'll also post the source somewhere on GitHub later on. I'm thinking of making a Playgrounds for it. Only disadvantage is that you need iOS for all of that. But... you could easily modify the stuff by Jorge for python to run at e.g. your Raspberry Pi or maybe even androsomething (no pun intended for @Andromeda of course ;)). I think this will make our train controlling lives a lot more easy especially since we can now also create an app to run a lot of trains using an iPad or something. We could even program options to run motors / controllers in sync. LEGO did nothing to work against us so I really appreciate that!!! I'll upload a video tomorrow.

Very nice job, I also like the fact that you allow your public to control them.

I have used Duracell AAA batteries (Alkalines so 1.5V), but I haven't put it to a duration test yet. I assume it will be more or less the same as IR but we will need to test it indeed.

Well they haven't been released yet, so there are only a few people that already have access to them. Bluetooth 5 allows for Meshing, but I haven't seen very solid implementations of BLE 4.x with that yet. I don't think there will be great interactions between the controllers / receivers for now, probably that will change when LEGO releases the app(s). @Vilhem22: Indeed 60169 is great for combining with this train, I just saw it yesterday :)

Hi Hans, welcome here! Hope you will have a fun time at EB!

In case you thought train 60198 was not really appealing there is always a solution around that as you can see in form of the 40 CP1408 MOC by andrepinto. I find it very hard to see that this train and the entire rest of the MOC is even made out of LEGO. Check out the topic by andrepinto in LEGO Scale Modeling.

Thanks for the tip! I'll FP it Tenderlok.

@Phoxtane, the name of a trace and even the silk don't affect the functionality of course, can also have to do with internal (company) considerations I would say.

Hi guys, please be a little more friendly to each other, you both made some useful observations, just from a different vantage point. :)