Toastie

But a bridge rectifier and two capacitors along with a voltage regulator ("the universal input") is very far, far away from any "mess". Of course, it won't charge or may even go rip without. As would your cell phone do. Best Thorsten

Oh man - why didn't you say that in the first place??? Or maybe you did not, and I just missed that. I mean - this is now a completely different game - depending on the following a bit: Scenario 1: Let us assume, my 9V tracks are powered with 5V rectified DC and some amperage at hand. Yes, there will be some voltage drops, which will be taken care of in scenario 2. Also, dirty power drop-outs caused by faulty power pickup/track connection may not be tolerated by your device. Have you tested that? Charging with crappy DC voltage? No over-voltage just crappy max. 5V? Scenario 2: Lets assume, my 9V tracks are powered with 15V DC, as they are now (gives some freedom of powering 4,5V to 12V LEGO stuff + voltage drop). The 15V delivered to TLGs 8878 LiPos is causing no problem whatsoever. They tolerate swift voltage outages etc etc. However, in this case, I'd run the 15 V "DC" track power via a 1A SMD bridge rectifier into a 7805 or any other smaller derivative, into a decent capacitor, lets say 100+ microF, which would take away any sudden voltage drop-outs. Would your device tolerate that? Let's assume the KB1 does tolerate crappy DC charging voltages (never exceeding 5V though): Then we have it - we have the thing we were looking for: Either with 5V track voltage (not so good) or with 12(+) V and a simple little add-on. Wow. Best Thorsten

Well - no, isn't it? Again, let us assume these devices can do 5V charging off from the USB socket; which they can, of course. Then the socket itself renders it sort of stupid not to go with 5V charging. Of course, homebrew stuff always carries the chance of damage. On the other hand - I believe all idiot proved solutions belong to TLG and the like. When applying 240V AC to an USB port - well then: Go studying. See, any external device plugged into 8878 may damage it - as TLG suggests - provided it is not a 10V DC power supply. Which is stupid in itself, we amply talked about that here on EB. Homebrew - at least to me - means some sort of educated approach. Plus: When your homebrew stuff screws up - it is up on you and no one else. I believe the @keybrickone approach has a lot in it. We'll see. I just don't share the notion that an external solution is a mess. Best Thorsten

Hmmm. That puzzles me. Looking at your device, there is only one port: the USB socket (well and the switch actuated by a magnetic field large enough). So an add-on would attach to the USB port, right. I assume you are using the USB power lines only(?). Which means that your device, when charged with 5V off the USB port can already simultaneously provide power for running the 2I/O hub? Otherwise I don't understand how an add-on can accomplish that with your V1 version. If so, the add-on would be a "5V power supply", correct? Oh, I'd beta test whatever so see fit. Already tested the LEGO LiPo 10 years ago - to the extent of that one shrugging me off (at supplying 20(+)V DC charging voltage), just to tell me: Just kidding after 2 days or so. Best wishes, Thorsten

Wow! Very nice, very clean, very impressive. Now, when V2 comes out with recharging with 9 - 18 V while operating, I will retrofit all my 2I/O hubs with this product. Keep up the very good work! Best Thorsten

No excuses here - operator pays. However, that color is tough. LEGO bricks are deeply colored through - and the ABS resin is not happy about that, when inorganic pigments or organic colors affect the ABS polymer structure. Well - guess we need to learn from your experiment: Be careful with some colors ... It is what it is - and less so a quality assurance issue, I believe. Superglue, the very thin cyanoacrylate variety may be of help here, as it seems you recovered all debris ... a lost 2x3 is a big loss - particularly in that color. The thing though is (question for the purists): Is a repaired 2x3 using superglue still acceptable? And yes, I am fully aware that we surely have other problems, but I like John Cleese very much ... Best, Thorsten

Really nicely implemented. The mechanics is all cool and really intriguing. I just wish that these minifigs aligned so nicely and shot down had the chance to just fire back with their own ideas of shooting down a motionless target. To be honest: Really nice technical solutions. I mean that. To be straight thought: Why not using all that ingenuity to come up with something less shooting things down. Oh well. It is what it is. Best Thorsten

That was what I meant. And again: Plus, people often do not >seriously< pursue "Step_1" when wanting to go on the market: What is already out there, check IP IP IP, go back, what is already out there, and who is directly competing? Oh well, what do I know: SOE. I am just guessing. Best Thorsten

Where does that come from? And why is the electronics still 20%? Due to non-mass production? Best horsten

That is true - however - >after< serious, as comprehensive as possible, market analysis. That is >one< of the things that are ultimately required, when going the business route. Call it Kickstarter (which implies a little playin' - and which it is not, not at all), call it founding a small business. Get your act together: What is out there? What is out there? What is out there? Who is competing? What are the odds? What is out there? And then - after all that - you may want to seek an investor. What I have seen: These folks are tough. And they don't mess around. They want their money+++ back. Best Thorsten

Oh, I don't "collect" minifigures at all. There are about 700 around here - but they came in for over 40 years now. No! Here is the thing: Pete Venkman, Ray Stantz, Egon, and Winston Zeddemore are the core of the matter. This is what it is about. What these folks say (think) and do - the way they do that. That's the whole movie. Not the car (nice asset!), not the buildings (wonderful), and surely not the action (cool back then). For me. Only for me. And then - just the car - doesn't work - again for me. The fire station came with them and Dana and Luis ... in addition to the coolest building, I can think of. I also believe this will sell nicely, but I'll miss out. Best Thorsten Oh yes - lets get started - missed your post!!! V: I'm studying the effect of negative reinforcement on ESP ability. S: I'll tell you the effect! It pisses me off! V: Then my theory was correct. (I mean, I am a university teacher - doing exams in presence - can you i m a g i n e, what kind of pictures are zapping through my head, when some poor student is nervous - only judged by the pencil held in unrest? OK, I never do electric shocks, rather offer candy bars or the like to let everything cool off a bit - but can you i m a g i n e how much effort it is not to burst into laughter? To keep it all clean? Man. And when some student draws a figure 8 like thing when asked to discuss the ideal Carnot cycle - I am tempted, very, very (very) tempted to say: Incredible! Five for five. You're not cheating on me here, are you? I never did though. Not yet ... ) Best Thorsten

Yes! This is how I do it - but stupidly expensive: 2I/O hub (I simply cannot remember the names, sorry), open it, solder 2 wires to the terminals of the PCB, remove some ABS, get the wires into the battery compartment, attach Dupont connectors, drill a hole into the bottom, make a PF -> Dupont connector cable, hook that up to 8878 and the connectors in the 2I/O Hub. Power 8848 from the rails. This way I can still use batteries ... Bit less labor: Take the 2I/O hub, remove the battery holder and bottom part - solder a wire from the PCB terminals to a PF terminal, hook that up to 8878 etc. (I had the chance to grab 6 8878 for less than $20 each before costs exploded and had some more from the days it was hitting the shelves) It would be so nice, to have a LiPo box, which is doing what 8878 is doing ... I also prefer the two tier approach: One box (tiny) for the intelligence/motor drivers - one for the battery. It allows to let the latter grow in size (and cost - LiPos are the most expensive parts here) with demand without affecting the size (and cost) of the former. It gives much more flexibility. IMHO that is. Best Thorsten

Absolutely! Plus the above discussed charge-as-you-work feature. I think this is key. GBC applications, trains, basically every stationary device will benefit. This was also the huge difference between the RCX 1.0 and 1.5/2.0 varieties. And then the plug. It should be sort of a 90° type thing, as you were proposing as well. I believe this is also key. Best Thorsten

@VBBN very very nice review!!! It helped me a lot. It just does not make "click". I am entirely with @jimmynick. The original IDEAS set, along with the 4 fantastic minifigs just blew me away. It is a perfect match with the fire station. To me this model is a bit made "without love and passion". But that is just me. Again, thanks for this very nice review. All the best Thorsten

Holy Moly, that is quite the list! BTW: Should anyone of you guys ever come close to 100% HF or 100% HCl, let me know. I would love to be part of the show. It is good to know though that beer is excellently tolerated by ABS. Best Thorsten

Here: Best Thorsten

I believe that is next to impossible. We can look at the photographs and - hold our breaths - freeze in awe - and simply need time to grasp the sheer depth (not as in width and height, but rather as in thoughts and planning) of your fantastic creation. It must have been such fun and inspiration, going back and forth, adding this and that, make it all one perfect ship - with so many lovely and functional details. It is breathtaking. If I had this wonderful model in my room, I would just look at it for very long time, then play with it - removing a part here, look, play, put it back ... hours and hours. What an accomplishment. Wow. And another truly warm thing is: It is a rescue ship. No zapping, bombing, chasing, killing, predating ... but rescuing. I love it. Wow. You made my day! All the best, Thorsten

Usually - they don't. They have super-smart marketing folks who figure the whole shoo-bang (what, when, where, how much, how many, what age tag, and what not) out. Best Thorsten

As well as the ladder ... what was wrong with the original set? I love that one - it has everything. No way I am going to "exchange" them. Best Thorsten

There is everything Halloween means (to me) in it. Lived for some time in the US - it is >all< there. The pumpkins, lanterns, skeleton ... the "dark" scene is perfect. It is so nice to see the three kids approaching the door - as if they were unsure what to do next, to scare the hell out of the residents - noticing the scary things behind the windows and discuss the issue . So lovey(!) and well done. Congratulations. Best Thorsten

I did, as you pointed to it. This was also part of my "game changing" comment. Either "something" is happening here or some folks have simply too much money at their hands - not knowing to do what with it - other than this. Which I doubt. Best Thorsten

Naa - meant something entirely different - mixed up all the Brics Brix Trax and Tracks combinations, chip in xx and so on. I am a 9V person - 100%, so I am simply not interested that much in Rxyz curves. And don't have the space to do them. So plain vanilla 9V straight and neck-breaking radii 9V curves it is for me. What I meant was: Injection molded pieces of track. I am very, very closely following what @coaster is doing for the community - and that is truly awesome, don't get me wrong. It must be so much work and pain ... I also believe that "getting rich" is not target #1 (nor target #100) on his route. When I saw his proposal for power pickups a couple of days ago I was really excited, but I understand that this doable (with his skills) but maybe even worse, cost-wise. The thing is: How can these folks at TrixBrix all of a sudden make injection molded straights at that price? I mean, this is done in China, right? This is what I understood from coasters posts here - but surely I don't even have a clue. The game-changing bit came from: So other folks are doing this now as well? Injection molding? 3D printing with stealing designs is one (horrible) thing, but seemingly "easy to do" (I will never know how to do that) thing - but having someone injection mold stuff is another, isn't it? Hell, I don't know. I was just very much surprised by "here they are: Straights". I thought exactly that, the injection molding process takes it to an entirely different level. Best Thorsten

It is great - and much, much more than that - to know that you are still here! I believe the "project" (it is - again - so much more than that) in my mind is out of comprehension for me. It is breathtaking. I simply cannot believe what you have accomplished. 31 forum pages, mostly composed of your progress. It has been some time I visited here - I was just now looking for your latest entry. 10/6/2020. A couple of days ago. Wonderful. I believe what you have created in cyber-space - and at the same time using your plots making it feeling real - is - well - incomprehensible. For me that is. I love this thread. It tells me: Think the unthinkable. All the very best, Thorsten

Phew - I missed out that one completely. That is (probably was - as said, I missed that) sort of a game changer, isn't it? I mean, once they do really live up to expectations - well then ... Best Thorsten

Photographs would help a lot. Now, was this disc just "lying" there? Or did you accidentally remove any press-fit "conductors"? I kinda remember such a disc as well. People here may know better. I threw it out and actually soldered the wires going from the pickups to the motor to make sure. This was only because I could not figure out what it was for. More research to be done - and I guess my memory needs to be propped up as well. This is all 10 years ago ... The thing is though: It works!!! That is very good news!!! I suspect that there are disc-type thermistors. Pressed in somewhere. Need to check. Just conspiracy theory here - but isn't that hip nowadays? Just kidding. Best Thorsten Edit 1: So here we go: Hit one on Google: Disk type thermistors: https://media.digikey.com/pdf/Data Sheets/Panasonic Resistors Thermistors PDFs/ERT-D..therm.pdf This is not what we are looking for, but I'll update here Edit 2: They seem to be all over the place: Well, I guess the next step is how this disc was sitting between the power feed and the motor being able to interrupt current. Then we know. Provided you wnat to figure out. Next step: None: Just be aware of this. Motor may burn out when operated like crazy. But then: Simply get a new one for a couple of bucks. Better: Reduce friction, use two 9V motors ... Mission accomplished. It is 5 days to election ... and I am very very nervous ...