Toastie

I am very sorry! (I am more into the dev type boards - so many GPIO pins ... it fits my purposes better, I guess. The Atom Matrix looks very slick and cool though!) Best, Thorsten

I used a € 8,50 ESP32 nodeMCU dev board from JoyIt - works like a charm with the Arduino IDE + and the required additional things installed + legoino. This thing is unbelievable powerful - when comparing to e.g. an Arduino Uno. Which is no surprise of course. As well is legoino. All the best, Thorsten P.S.: The legoino header files define WHITE as a color for the built-in hub LED. This may interfere with other include files, e.g. Adafruit OLED display handlers, which used WHITE as alias for "drawing" color as well. I just renamed it to HubWHITE. (Etc.)

Hi guys, isn't this something for the Mindstorms Forum as well? Sounds to me ... they have an awful lot of info over there ... Just an idea. Best and have fun! Thorsten

I know this has been an issue - in the past, presently, and I am sure, in the future. Groundhog Day. Or The Return of the Killer Tomatoes: Is it just me, or do some others see Easter Bunnies on the main forum page? Rendering the mail, login, and alert icons useless, because they are white on nearly white? Yes, there was a menu all the way down, I learned that, you clicked "generic" and the bunnies were gone. With relief. My question is: Where is this button now? Thank you and all the best Thorsten

Exactly that! Best Thorsten

To be honest, that FLeFluFli BlawBli ... sounds rather reasonable and sound to me, whereas the nomenclature TLG uses for their Powered Up system devices, apps, and protocols is very close to bananas - to me. I did get used to it, but in the beginning I thought: Who on Earth came up with that naming. See above for examples. As it stands now, I have no clue how TLG wants to steer that into the clear. Which is - as far as I am concerned, a major issue for the general audience appreciation of the PUP >system<. The individual sets are fine. For one individual purpose. Batmobile with the Batapp. Crocodile with the Crocodile app. The moment you want to leave that ground, it rapidly becomes worse than FLeFluFli BlawBli. In my opinion, PUP is conceptionally extremely powerful - both hard and software wise. The way TLG introduces and promotes this system though is, well, funny. It was that when they were giving us the first Mindstorms sets, back in 1998. Enthusiasts had to find out all the details. Back then, it was maybe part of the learning curve and all the fun. With PUP I am not sure anymore about this approach. TLG cranks out more and more sophisticated hardware devices (BLE servers, smart sensors and actuators, built-in and external), software clients (their apps) - which in turn are almost exclusively specific to sets. In contrast, the whole PUP concept is exactly the contrary. On the other hand, this concept is supported by the Powered Up app. Hmmm. I believe TLG has to find a way better way to "communicate PUP" (I believe that I understand the concept of the individual sets, including Boost and Boom, for 5 year old and so forth) But then - it is what it is. Best regards, Thorsten

It really is. Got myself an ESP32 (nodeMCU, with not knowing at all what that thing can do - for 8 Euros - and yes, I know, I got the overpriced version, but it came in the mail within 2 days) and installed the required stuff for the Arduino IDE - and it simply >works<. It is amazing, what Cornelius and @GianCann and many others are creating on GitHub. I asked Cornelius (Legoino) about the implementation of the LWP code for the L motor on the 2 I/O hub - and he responded positively! That means train speed control (not power) with an ESP32 will be possible rather soon. And that makes the difference for me, as power regulated speed results in very smooth train operation, even when not using 2 XLs to simply kill friction forces. Thanks a lot to all the developers! Best Thorsten

Nope, I'm from back to the future.

I believe what @hawkwind was referring to is the system rather than the wear and tear, right? When you put a 9V to rest for 30 years it will most probably work after that. A remote with push buttons and some "hard-wired" or better dedicated IR stuff also. But: WiFi, BL, BLE, Android, Apple's stuff and Whatnot will not. Nothing of that stuff has ever survived 30 years. It looks good now ... but then 30 years ago there was no Android or I cell phone. 30 years in the future there will be no Android or i cell phone and BLE will be regarded as stone aged, short range, unbelievably slow and clumsy communication means. It is what it is, as somebody said recently. If you want to preserve Pup for 30 years, better put an Anrdoid or iphone aside with the Pup stuff. And a charger. Best Thorsten

Same here, for sure.

Actually, to me it sounded absolutely odd when the open source route was announced by TLG (regarding the LWP). Open source is so far away from TLG as the planning charts and demolition orders are at our local planning department in Alpha Centauri for the new hyperspace express route. So we better stick to the Pup "Teardown" thread - it also nicely resonates with the Vogon approach ... All the best, Thorsten

$1000? Never for me. Ever. But that is OK! There are people out there willing and capable to spend this amount of money and that is perfectly fine with me. I'd just suggest going PoweredUp (Pup) - and not PF. Pup is making its way. It would be really unfortunate to limit the things you can do with a >$1000 set by PF. The Pup L motor along with the 2I/O hub would not affect the price tag at all. In contrast: PF will phase out, I am pretty sure. Even including a Pup remote would not rattle on the price tag. But: You can do so many more things (given you have a smart device with BLE) - it would fit the set much more. Take speed control alone ... in case the train has to go through original LEGO track. With Pup it will do that at >constant< speed, provided you tell it to do so via the Pup app. Just my 2 cents. Best Thorsten P.S.: An ESP32 nodeMCU costs $10 max. It can readily control a Pup train in every regard; particularly an XMas set, where the train may go back and forth, or does this and that ...

Hee hee ... Thank you very much for that very nice summary. I really enjoyed reading it - well I do enjoy everything you write ("post" is not appropriate). Also, I notice that you have become a moldy tax expert - this forum is just so far ahead and educated - I am proud to be here. Thanks again. All the very best, Thorsten

Do the conversion to PoweredUp (i.e., 2I/O Hub + Pup L motor). Here's my reasoning: I changed my custom PuP control program (VB6 + nsoftware BLE stack) today to use "speed" instead of "power" for LEGO motors providing that feature (L and maybe XL PuP motors - for sure I know the L PuP motors advertised for this model can do). Set the speed (not power) to "5%" and the maximum power to be applied to maintaining that speed to 100%, your crocodile will negotiate whatever track geometry is present at constant speed - 5%is really slow. It just continues to plow through whatever track geometry. The PID algorithm in the Hub's firmware is really powerful. It may be worthwhile to investigate what the "max power" parameter does with regard to maintaining the speed (I believe it goes into the PID algorithm) but nevertheless: This is one >major< advantage of PuP vs PF for controlling trains, as far as I am concerned. And you can do that with the Pup app right away. Best Thorsten

The olden days were better. Very nice. Hope you will find time and space to rebuild and expand! All the best Thorsten

@Gimmick sorry, no idea; to me it looks the same. But that may be wrong. But I have a remotely related question and no idea where to post it: The LEGO Wireless Protocol 3.0.00 (r17) Document on github has never seen any updates, is that right? Best Thorsten

Hi Sérgio, you should be 150% with this solution - it is incredible!!! Your building skills are unbelievable. This is a fantastic model - your creativity alone is beyond anything I can imagine. Congratulations - I would use paint too. Right away! All the best Thorsten

Absolutely yes - but this is no system or the like - I just made it from scratch. The idea was to have something as light as possible but sturdy enough to securely support the crocodile on its journey. All material is from a local hardware store: The horizontal supports attaching to the sloped wall are cut from 2x2 cm2 2,4 m long pine tree strips, same for the vertical wall mounts. The wall angle was a bit tricky but it worked. The vertical bars are cut from 5 mm diameter 2 m long anodized aluminum rods. The short vertical wood mounts have 5 mm, 25 mm deep blind holes receiving the Al rod; the horizontal supports have 5 mm holes where the Al rods can go all the way through. Both ends of the Al tube are secured 16 mm long 2 mm diameter wood screws; After alignment, I drilled a 2 mm hole accepting the screw in the wooden part all the way through the mounted Al tubing, but not further into the wood at the other end - this then allows to secure the screw well enough in the wood. The Al rods were initially longer than required; the entire was support mounted, adjusted and then the rods were cut to length. The board stripes are cut from 10 mm laminated poplar boards (1,2 m x 60 cm) - each 15 cm wide and are attached together with 2,6 m long 10 mm U-shaped Aluminum profile - these were available in the store in white. All wooden parts (supports and boards) were painted with white acrylic paint. The whole thing is surprisingly sturdy, I was absolutely not sure about that. When you need more info feel free to ask, I can also make detailed photos of course. Best Thorsten

Just picked one up at Smyth's - and made in time to the next teleconference. Cool. Thanks again! Best and have a nice weekend! Thorsten

Thank you very much! If I am correct the McLaren Senna set (75892) has both 5 of the left and 5 of right parts in dark bley, which would fit me perfectly well. LEGO's site is down at the moment, will check tomorrow morning and then off to Smyth's. Best Thorsten

That is true. And then doing decent talks (over months!) would have - as far as I am reading it - easily resolved the issue. In any other way than cancellation. This Society is aware of environmental impact (wasting resources), seems to know what it means, when boxes have been shipped out already etc. My feelings are there is something else going on. At TLG. Best Thorsten

It depends on what is regarded as being "in touch". No reply at all is the most ineffective reaction I can think of.

I also do think, it looks great! For me it is much less coming close to the actual proportions. It is much more capturing the "soul". And this is what your model does! It simply captures it. Very nicely done. Best regards, Thorsten

Dear All, after so many modding activities regarding the Crocodile it is hard to believe to be able to add something new to it. Don’t know whether this is any “new” – if not, moderators please remove this thread. (Also, please excuse my crappy photography - I am not good at this nor I believe is that tiny camera I have. Also, the LDView screenshots were made without much passion ...) Here it is though: I don’t like blind drivers. (I know that in many cases they are simply mandatory – steamers with more than four driving wheels attached via connecting rods and there we are, particularly on TLG's original curved track. I know only one exception from that: Ben Beneke’s BR23 LEGO replica: This one features 6 driving wheels; they are all flanged and each pair of three wheels is connected using LEGO Flex system parts. In addition, a split center axis is used so that the corresponding center driver is moving inward when going through curves – it is a brilliant solution) With the Crocodile though, the “noses” feature only two drivers connecting via one rod that in addition allows some articulation at the wheel - rod joint. So all-flanged drivers could have worked – unfortunately though, the pivot point of the bogie is not in the center but far out between cab and nose. Blind drivers are thus used accordingly for the pair of drivers closer to the pivot point. And I don’t like them. Particularly because my LEGO layout is rather crowded. So I decided to put some track up the sloped wall – with some curves to see the crocodile meander about – I mean this is what crocodiles do when preying … and then you just see it all the time: The blind drivers are “leaving” the track. Solution: Moving axles, as has been demonstrated in countless contributions here on EB and elsewhere. I decided to articulate the axle close to the cab, which requires narrowing the 4 wide frame – I used a two wide base (three would work as well, but I simply could not figure it out). (Note the red drivers on the side facing away from my chair - will try to get the black ones some other time - do they exist as separate part at all? Need to check) Here are some LDraw screenshots: Also, as friction leading to upward pointing forces goes up quite a bit, I made some room for some "weights", which are required to counter these additional forces. So there are 10 x 1 Euro cent and 4 x 50 cent Euro pieces in each nose, considerably increasing the value of my croc. Without the extra money, each nose weighs about 145 g (not including the pony truck) – with modifications plus the money 210 g. The values of my crocodile is thus retails price + 4 Euros and 20 cents. (Well, I had only 7 50 cent coins that day - the one in the photo is a Swiss coin of almost the same size ...) Further modifications: I simply did not like the coupling offset between noses and cab, tilting the nose downward to the front. This maybe intentionally. But when you look directly at the Crocodile's noses in front of your own nose all day – I had serious sleeping problems. Solution: Not using the 4x4 Technic brick + pin (popping off all the time drove me crazy as well …), but 1x2 plates with tow ball, which conveniently came with the extra 40411 set. That required some modding of the cab frame as well – in addition to the flanges of the new drives close to the cab needing more space for pivoting. So the slopes had to be changed. The color of the axle pins (whatever that color is - sand something) of the pony truck wheels also got me mad. They are partly hidden by the bley 1x2 plates with ladder, but again my eyes are level with the Crocodile … plus I also noticed that on most pictures I found on the web of the II version the “ladder” is missing at all. So I redesigned the truck as well, now featuring a 6L black axle and no ladder. And in addition many of the implementation of previously reported mods: @Sérgio's greebling (soo nice!!!) very slightly modified, and @Sérgio's solution for closing the gap between cab and nose (plus some very minor additions, see pictures above and LDraw files, link below). Want to add the wheel guards as well, as @Sérgio and @Duq have demonstrated. What is that "plate"/slope called, you are using? What else? Ahh – changed the frames to black, as suggested by others. Not entirely because the contrast between the black wheels and greebling is then gone. So I left a few parts in dark bley – simply to show (and: because I did not have them in black). And: I removed all but 2 rubber bands on the cab. None on the wheel of the noses. So here she is: That was it. As usual, I really learned a lot from you guys. Thank you all very much for letting me again dive into the LEGO world of bricks! Forgot: Yes, it negotiates curves (S type) very well. No idea about switches, but my crocodile will only drive back and forth "on the wall", disappearing behind books and magically reappearing … that needs some BLE programming – we will see. In that regard, a lot is going on in the Mindstorms Forum! (Here are the links to the LDraw files (really very rudimentary, just for my documentation. Deep linked - as the folder is not moderated yet http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/ThorstenB/9VTrain/Crocodile/LDraw/nose_bogie.ldr http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/ThorstenB/9VTrain/Crocodile/LDraw/ponytruck.ldr) All the best Thorsten

Get as many copies as you can and sell them on ebay for 500 bucks each.