CoNSpiracy

Yes, but I want to make it so that if the "direction" on the battery box (or control switch 8869) is set to forward then the lights are turned on when the power is turned on, and when the direction is set to backwards then the lights are not turned on when the power is turned on.

Per default, if I connect PF lights to a Lego PF battery box, the lights will shine no matter which "direction" is selected on the battery box (forward or backwards). The same applies if I insert a PF control switch (8869) in between the PF ligths and the battery box and change the "direction" using the control switch. Is there a way to make the PF lights work only with one of the directions? Forgive my ignorance and lack of electric knowledge, but would it work to cut one of the two middle wires (C1 or C2) in the PF lights cable (between the PF connector and the black brick)? Or would it just result in the PF lights not working at all?

Yes, but it would be quite some work for me to add all the houses I need to the package. I am creating a Winter Village layout with all the official VW sets plus some mocs. The area layer paint function could perhaps do the trick for me, if you could make it possible to go down to 1 stud? Otherwise the rectangular outline function I described would be extremely helpful, I think.

Ah, thanks I didn't know that. Size 2 seems to work better for me. I had actually tested the area layer mode before posting the feature request, but I gave up on it since 8 studs seems to be the minimum grid size. Otherwise it could do. How do I go below 8 studs in area layer grid size?

I ended up with the following easy-to-do solution which does not involve soldering (only wire-stripping): For 10½ Euros I bought a universal wall wart power adapter which outputs 3-12V (3 / 4.5 / 5 / 6 / 7.5 / 9 / 12 V), stabilised, 1.0A. It came with a bunch of different interchangeable DC male plugs, including 5.5 x 2.1 mm: https://www.av-connection.com/?PNo=NNA-1165 For 1½ Euros I also bought a DC 5.50 x 2.10 female to 2-pin terminal block: https://www.av-connection.com/?PGr=10964, which connects with the above-mentioned DC male plug. I then cut a LEGO Power Functions 8886 Extension Wire in two halfs and carefully separated the four cables at the cut end so that I could strip the wire of the two middle cables (C1 and C2) and connect them in the female terminal block. The two outer cables (GND and 9V), which has no use in this setup, I left untouched except that I protected with two pieces of isolation tape. This works like a charm. I plan on adding a control switch (8869) right after this modified extension wire to allow for easy turning on and off. I noticed that without such control switch, if I turn off the power by just unplugging the wall wart power adapter, there is some residual / leftover power in the circuit which keeps the motor going / LED shining a few more moments. So now I just need to decide going forward if I want to keep the voltage output setting on the adapter at 9V or 12V. The PF motors run faster and the LED lights shine brighter at 12V, instead of 9V which, however, is closer to the output of the original Lego PF battery boxes.

About the font size in text layers, is it just me or does the text appear very big even with the lowest font size setting (8) in Arial? Much larger than for example the standard text saying "xx studs" when adding a ruler in a ruler layer. I'm trying to add some discreet text to my layout but it looks quite dominant even with font size 8 in Arial. Also, a feature request: In my train layout I would like to mark where my buildings are located. I know that this could be done by adding each house as a part in the parts library, but this would be quite some work. What I am after is a function (in a new layer type?) where I can create a box/rectangular with an outline (could be a black outline and transparent inside, or, the sophisticated solution could be to let the user define the two colours, including transparent). The size of the box (No. of studs of the 2x two sides of the rectangular) could be defined by clicking the mouse and dragging the cursor, and/or by an input box where the dimensions can be typed in. I appreciate that this would only make it possible to show the outline of rectangular structures, but it would be a very good starting point as most houses and other buildings consists of just one or a very few rectangular ground area(s). It would also allow me to mark my custom made roads (i.e. not using road base plates), side walk etc.

So 8887 is not the same product as 45517, then?

Thank you! This is exactly what I was missing.

I can see that the official Lego adapter (8887) is 700mA. Wouldn't it be a problem to go lower than that?

Ok, thanks for the heads up. Is the "built-in current limiting resistor" sitting in the PF light (the black brick, I assume then) or in the battery box? If it is in the PF light, then your setup with the 3D printed AA battery holders would also be vulnerable to a too high voltage, right? I can see that the original Lego power adapter (8887) is 10V DC 700mA 3W. I am thinking about using a 9V DC 1000mA 12W power adapter, as I am not able to find one that exactly matches the original Lego one. Would this work?

Thanks for the reply. I see at the BuWizz homepage that the ludicrous mode runs at 11.2V. I am currently doing a large city layout where I want to add PF lights to light up the interior of houses. I know that there are many third party lighting products that I could use, but I prefer the easy "brick-style" click system with the PF lights and PF extension cables instead of the often very small and somewhat fragile connectors used by for the third party products, as I will be making the layout as modules which will be separated and stored away from time to time. Since I the lighting in houses is stationary, I do not need a battery function and would actually just prefer a steady power source plugged in the wall. So this is why I was considering the 8878 rechargeable battery box with the 10VDC transformer (8887) always plugged in, but if this only generates 7.4V and makes the PF lights shine less bright than with 9V, I need to do something else. Which could be modding the PF power supply to connect a PF connector directly to any 9V (or even up to 11V?) DC transformer, using a bit of wire cutting and soldering. I reckon I could do this as for example described in this article: https://www.instructables.com/id/Power-Functions-power-pack/. And since I would like a main switch (in Lego) to turn on/off the PF lights in the houses, I could even cut the wire and use the switch part from 8869 as suggested at the end of the article. Any thoughts on this (other than, yes, I know, this would mean modifying official Lego products which many of us don't like in the first place!)? I wonder if the number of PF lights "daisy-chained" in the setup (with PF extension cables in between) will impact how bright the lights will shine? I reckon I will be adding around 20-30 pairs of PF lights altogether to the same circuit.

Ah, yes, "panning" was the term I was missing! And thanks for the tip, it works. One new feature request (unless it is already there somewhere and I am just missing it again!): It would be great to be able to add a measuring line ("ruler") showing centimeters (or inches) instead of (or in addition to) the number of studs. This will make it easier to fit a layout onto a table with fixed dimensions.

Hi All, hoping that this is the right forum section, I have a question about PF lights (8870) and how they work with the different PF battery boxes. It seems that the PF battery boxes deliver different outputs/voltages. The 88000 and 8881 battery boxes (each with 6x normal 1.5V AA batteries) deliver 9V, and with 6x rechargeable AA batteries they seem to deliver around 7.2V. The 8878 rechargeable battery box delivers 7.4V (I assume both with and without the 10VDC transformer (8887) plugged in?). I assume the various PF motors would function differently depending on the voltage, but what about the PF lights? Would they be more dimmed / shine less with 7.2V/7.4V vs. 9V? I don't own all of the various battery boxes, so I am not able to test it (and I am not very savvy in this area of physics!), so I hope some of you can answer this! Thanks in advance.

That sounds very good! I have now started using v1.8.2 and one thing I have noted is that the zoom function is a bit tricky. I can zoom in and out with the wheel on my mouse, but once I have zoomed in I cannot move the "canvas" to see the parts of my layout which are not on the screen. To see these parts at the same detail (zoom) level, I have to zoom out again and focus the zoom-in place to the exact right spot on the canvas. It would be great if there were a button somewhere (e.g. an icon with arrows in all four directions), and when clicked you could move the canvas with the mouse directions, until "released" (by a mouse click)

Ok thanks

Hi, I am new to designing lego train layouts and am in doubt about which software to use for my digital layouts. BlueBrick is mentioned many places, but the latest version I can find online (official homepage? http://bluebrick.lswproject.com/) is v1.8.2 from 2010. It seems to work fine under Windows 10, but I was wondering if this is still the software to use, or if any newer/better tools have come up since then?

What does the front of the building look like?

I like both the original 4954 set and the version posted by pantelis here. Perhaps "MOD" and not "MOC" would be the better description?

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Very nice build! What part is the hat/hair worn by the person living in the house?

How cool is that?! Awesome build

@lightningtiger: Great humor! Please find room in your AFOL Lego heart to forgive notaromantic for his furious outbursts - we can all have a bad day (or two... well, sometimes even three)! For example I remember once I was in the middle of building a new set I had just purchased, when I suddenly couldn't find the stickers that came with the set. I finally realized that when I had thrown away the box a few days earlier the stickers must have had been in the box... Boy, was I upset?! I tell you, if I had come across a forum topic similar to this at that time, I would also have flamed the first poor guy to stick his head out @LegoSjaak: Great layout! However, I think your modular houses look way too big, when you have merged two sets of each. So can you please change them back to the original design and send me all the spare sets?! Brick on!

Thanks, Andy. I guess the same technique could quite easily be applied for the WV post office, but I think it would be harder with the bakery because of the way the roof is made. In any case, I won't be modding the houses the same way as you, as I did not think ahead like you did and bought two copies of each WV set...

Yeah, I was hoping that someone out there had already been trying to mod the WV houses for this purpose, and perhaps were willing to share a few photos Any ideas and thoughts on the subject are welcome! The most problematic of the houses seems to be the bakery, because of the way the roof is made in the original set. I would really appreciate any input there.

So with the Christmas days of 2014 fading away all too soon and the missus forcing me to store away my beloved Lego Winter Village display, I have already started dreaming of next December! My wife doesn't know yet but I am secretly planning to expand the display and make it cover an area twice as large as it was last year! This, however, would require moving it to a different place in the house, where the display would be visible from all angles, i.e. no wall at the back. Since I have added LifeLites lighting to all the WV houses, this would be problematic as the wires and the print boards with the LEDs are visible from the back. Does any of you have experience with modding the houses from the official WV sets to add walls and roof at the backsides?