system

Back then I got few modules, and kids have enough fun playing them. It is a cheap way to get some remote RC motors for cars(or duplo trains) or stationary objects (cranes, etc). Unit+RC cost about 10-15 euro on bricklink. First some answers to my original questions, if someone hit this page: 1. Does color matter? No, they are exactly same inside. 2. Do rc have any channel setting? e.g. if i have 4 RC, will they conflict? There are 4 channels and each unit/RC could be linked individually. Also it is possible to link multiple units to same RC. 3. Do i need only one data cable? As i understood it suite to all colors. Didn't managed to get one. 4,5,6,7 It was too hard to find working cable/software, so i gave up here. -------- Now more interesting things that I recently discovered :) You could fit NodeMCU (arduino like with wifi) to the box. It will need microusb hole, for uploading programs, and could run motors (on 3v) without shield. Making new board and moving components to it, could ad new live to the units. I attached image of internals. Button. Completely coupled with case and board. Could be used to detect touch with adding technics parts. ? ? ? ? Optical interface for data transfer. Button play. Button On/Off 2x motors. Speaker attached bottom of the board. ? 7 leds (3r, 3g, 1y) What i learned from internet (http://www.bricksinmypocket.org/2009/06/spybotics-internals.html), there are next components: light sensor 2x IR receivers laser LED (VLL) 4 IR transmitters Any ideas what is what?

System error... Need more free time... Please transfer all of my credits to SpacerSteve.

Location: B09 Tags: Land vehicle Exploration vehicle, that could detect awesonium at 200m deep.

Thank you. My operators probably forgot to input that data. :)

Currently M.A.N.T.I.S. cloud computing calculating all possible time and space dimensions. Here are few cases to validate: Question 1. Octan player rebuild MANTIS build as CatA (resulting in Octan build). Can I rebuild his challenge build as my CatA? Question 2. Octan player rebuild his build as CatB (resulting in MANTIS build). Can I rebuild his challenge build as my CatA? Should it be Octan or MANTIS? Question 3. Can I use for CatB build that i made for CatA? Octan player build his prev build as MANTIS for CatB. For CatA I select that player. So if he is from another corp (MANTIS) he should make Octan build for CatA. So I made Octan build as my CatA. I rebuild my CatA build (Octan). So resulting is another corporation: Mantis. As a result I will have Octan build for CatA, and MANTIS build for CatB. PS: Kawashita is obviously out of question :p

Planet: B09 Tags: spaceship, science Huge science space ship with was sent behind enemy frontline to perform important experiment of combining multiple remote energy sources. Crew size: 51. Military personnel: 6. Total weight: 10.000 tons Emitter max output 30MW/s. Advance positioning system accuracy: 6mm/100km Defense: not installed. Spaceship bridge log entry: 30151215 Long Range Energy Transfer (LRET) experiment. Time 14:35 Story and more pics below:

Location: H03 (could it be relocated to H03 please, as I mixed up planets?) Tags: Vehicle, Land Vehicle Repairs needed after a runaway from Octan patrol. This place look excellent for hiding. Speeder: Sigfig: More pics:

Please transfer all my credits to Vedauwoo.

I added few more close photos at the end of spoiler.

Location: H03 - Kaalin Tags: Land Vehicle Truck mounted anti-aircraft gun coupled with radar. Man operated. Could detect, track and shot down small to medium aircraft targets, or spaceships on reentry.

Location: B06 - Sorn Tags: Vehicle s-056, s-057 and s-058 were relocated to Sorn to help with communication. s-058 landed to fix ship sentry/AA gun. More pics:

Looks like you having fun and could relax before long week :) I got orders to relocate to Sorn, to establish stable communication channel so none of you got bored.

Location: F02 Lesser Drigo Tags: Spying, On Lesser Drigo orbit. - Intercepting Octan secure channel 765894... Moving to better angle... Decrypting stream... Done. - ... as nice. Sad that you lost plan of 2nd floor. I'll ask them to send you a copy, and then fly back to Livgorn. Hope to see outpost ready when come back. - Roger. See you next week. - Searching for landing site... Found. Detecting construction activity. Getting Image... Done. - Intercepting long-range communication to Livgorn... Channel 151114. Sending noise to break communication... Failed... Trying again... Failed... Decrypting stream... Done. - ...neers again lost plans, could you stream them now, so i could re-transmit before I leave planet? - AGAIN? ARGGGHHHH!! This outpost is very important to hold these mantis-monkeys. Okay... I'll send it right now. Have a nice fligt. Over. - Over. - Proxying data stream.... Decrypting... Modifying content... Encrypting... Sending to planet... Done. Monitoring further activity... ----------------- On the planet:

Is there some good description where spying could be done? E.g. 1) on Mantis planet that is next to Kawashita against Kawashita? 2) on uncontrolled planet 3) on Mantis planet that have Octan domination points (but far away from Octan control zone) 4) on Mantis planet with Kawashita fleet

Character picture (100x100) Name: SYSTEM (aka Counter Intelligence Distributed AI) Corporation: M.A.N.T.I.S. Job: Special force Kernel version: 1.21.306 Build version: 8.11.12.20 HW version: varies Power source: fusion reactor mk IV Operational environment: indoor and in space. +10 < T < +200 C Based on stolen technologies from Kawashita. Secretly build prototype by M.A.N.T.I.S. Corporation with mission to detect other spies and perform other sabotage activity. Completely autonomous and self replicating distributed artificial intelligence based on network grid of small drones. 1.5m 360/120 degree antenna allow stable planetary communication and signal suppression. Small wheels are perfect for maneuvering inside stations and buildings. Three ion thrusters allow free movement in space. Pluggable arms (by Octan blueprints) could be used for construction, repair and other day-to-day operations.

This is great! Few weeks ago was thinking that there should be more ways to promote space exploration to kids. Something that is fun, easy, and inspire them to become engineers and scientists. And when thought about lego, found this gem here :) Spent already many hours browsing various builds with my kids.

Here are couple videos shows how to make velocity that varies, but remains constant over longer time. Very simple setup. Rotation with intervals. There is small chance that gears stuck. A-axle connected to motor and rotated with constant speed. B-axle connected through chain. Part time of cycle rotates faster, part time - slower. Both axles do full cycle in same amount of time. In both cases i attached axle to a gear in non-standard way. Attaching axle by different angle (but same place) will move center of rotation closer to gear side by 1 mm. You could place axle-pin to that place to fixate another axle in one of 4 holes of that gear. This gives another alternative for speed and position The only problem - I haw no idea where to use this approach :D So let me know if you used it anywhere.

I noticed that last year there were 0 board games released by Lego. Do they abandon them completely? I prototyped few board games that uses mostly basic Lego pieces. They are not clones from other board games, but copy some mechanics from other non-brick games. Still fun to play for kids and adults. Now I start thinking what I want to do with them next... Ideally would be nice if they published and appear in stores (and I get small share, yes, i'm greedy :D ). But if it is impossible with Lego, what are the options? Going with some other company like Enlighten or BanBao? Is it even real? Trying to make Kickstarter project and get parts from bricklink/sets? How Lego will treat that?

I was watching various GBC video with kids and decided to create something simple but new. Something that I haven't seen in any video before. Here is prototype of vertical tower. Pros: - small width: only 3 stud radius, where one is used for wall - fast - vertical - could work with a single or multiple balls Cons: - height limited by length of axle TL;DR; Before start I thought it would take one hour to make something workable... I was so wrong! :D First it was hard to make it small. I tried various rotations, steppers and other technics, but radius always was 4 or more studs wide. After few hours of tinkering I start just going through all my technic parts and try to brainstorm how the could be used together. When I made a first version, it was very simple: I have to rotate shaft and feed balls myself. Now with working model, it should take no more than half hour to attach motor and make full loop. Wrong again! Building proper feeder took even more time. Ball stuck all the time. Balls was another problem. I have only one lego ball, and I was looking for more. I tried various beads and other balls. But none of them were suitable. After several hours new version was ready: automated and working. Time to add more balls and show to kids? Wrong! In 30% of time 2 balls stuck with eachother. Again some time take to rebuild feeder for smooth operations. Overall it was very fun and interesting experience :)

My project with RC trains failed (I'll try few years later maybe again). But i managed to make another one :) My youngest kid is 3 years now and just love to play with duplo trains. There were 2 problems however. One is that trains are expensive. Second is that there is no rc trains... Here is recipe: 1. duplo train base 2. Spybotics module and RC 3. roborobo wheels 4. some technics parts 5. some more technics parts to connect motor to wheels: a) 3736, 3482, rubber band b) 3648, 4019, 24x3711 6. some bricks for weight 7. ?????? 8. PROFIT!!! I didn't found any suitable lego wheels in my inventory that have good friction with duplo wheels. Ones from RoboRobo set fit very well. If anyone come up with some better idea, lt me know, as now kids want to connect cargo cars. I recommend to use 5a as it simpler and provide softer start. 5b is faster. Trains have 2 speeds: slow when only one motor is working, and about 30% faster when both motors are working. It also works well with only one side powered. Trains could backward, and that is really helpful to avoid jams. Some bricks are used just to add weight to front, so train don't fall back at start. Problems: * they don't go uphill well, as train wheels are plastic, so not enough friction with track * with current setup it is not possible to connect cars at back as they hit wheels on turns * often got stuck on 2 sequential switches (placing curved or strait track bin between eliminate problem) There are many games that is fun to play. E.g. Place one train that go automatically forward, and everyone goals is to avoid it. For kids it is a bit challenging as they need to control train and change switches simultaneously. Here is short video:

Hi Going to play some racing with kids. What tires would work well on laminate and carpets? I have some old rubber ones, but there is no friction on laminate when it rotating too fast.

Hi Few questions about spybotics 1. As i understood all spybotics are using same channels non-regarding of color. But on controll you could select only 3 channels. Does it mean that if there are more than 3 of them, they will interfre somehow? I see that there are 4 different colors, and i expect that they all could work at the same time. 2. Is there any other lego sets that could be controlled by spybotics RC. Or other RC that could control spybotics? 3. What i could use instead of battery cover? :)

I want to play some racing with my kids. What would be best modules and controlls to get from bricklink (not expensive)? I 'd like to have 5 cars (4 minimum) that could be controlled by separate RCs and don't affect each others. Nothing special besids that (forward backward and turn left/tight in >1m radius).

This is perferctly suite my needs. Thank you.

Hi Any suggestion how to make connector(trainbuffer/coupling) that could transfer electricity? Preferably 4 wires, but 2 would be also good. it should be simple to attach cars to each other by hand (e.g. 7y old child should be able to do that). It doesn't have to look like "human" train parts, and connection should be flexible enough for curves and switches. The only solution that i come so far, is to use half of ethernet wire with 2 6p6c connectors on ends, and embed 6p socket somehow in to car. The only problem is that it require quite long cable (5cm) so disconecting can be done without taking cars from rails. Here is image of classic connector: http://www.mangiobricks.it/cms2/graphics/articoli_big/PA9/1/PA91968C01-N-N_1.jpg