Toastie

@MAB Did not even think about that - but: Very good points. I'd like to challenge again though: What is the thing here (because I like very much what you accomplished, but that is not it: You want to sell something. And that changes everything): Time saving (against common sense + magnifying glass + google or BL): I have a 1x2 tile; printed on it is "E&L", two hearts, and "4EVA" - Google finds that in 0.00000001 s Not wanting to do that Being of help for let's call them rookies? I for sure can tell a thick from another type of clip. Plus: The number tells me that. So when it comes to sell things (as opposed to making it work), why would I? Just tell me - and I will. All the best Thorsten

And here we go again: It is so unbelievable cool and so much fun enjoying your ideas, your LEGO realizations, and your presentations. Every time I read one of your posts, "fun", "brilliant", "enjoyment" and most prominently "creativity" comes to my mind. It is simply great. For me, you found the core of the idea of building with LEGOs: Having a great time and enjoying making something work. Thank you for sharing another brilliant idea! All the best, Thorsten

I believe we should slow down a bit here. Nobody is ganging up on anybody - it may feel like but there is really no reason to think so. And when former members of this forum told you, some here are really stoney, what's wrong with it? Stone old as well, this happens from time to time. To me as well. I am stone old and maybe even stoney. Not the point though. They voice their view and that was what I did as well. I think we should put the "I believe", "in my opinion", "as far as I am concerned", "If you'd ask me" more often when beginning a paragraph. I believe nobody here finds any truth and has any wisdom or insight to the extent to make a statement like: "MOCers need stickers". Or: "Stickers suck". Or "without stickers, the world will come to a grinding halt". Or "with stickers, the sun will always shine on TV". Or whatever. I (solely for myself) don't like stickers that much. For a reason. My room gets blistering hot in the summer, my models are sometimes exposed to sun, in winter it becomes rather cold here, and stickers simply do not survive up here. But it is my fault, to do it up here in the attic, it is my fault that I don't protect the stickered bricks, it is my feeling that I don't like them that much. I cannot and I will not tell anybody what I believe the rest of the world is thinking about them. Because I surely don't know that. I have not searched the "Comprehensive Stickered LEGO Model Database of 2019" as I simply don't care. I am happy what makes people happy. You like stickers? That is perfect. Really. It is your right to do so. Maybe others don't. So what. It is always good to know that they also know not that much about The Truth - they don't. Some believe, some more, some less. They don't, that's all. With that: Lets enjoy building MOCs - with or without stickers is entirely up to each of us. Best wishes and have a nice evening (its 8 pm here), Thorsten

When you google-search for "change batteries in 54930" you get links to YouTube videos, e.g. this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rhcr5wX0-SE Wikipedia tells you everything about the batteries used for that brick: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Button_cell When you take it apart, use a paper towel to "protect" your working area and don't be too much concerned about the leakage material - it is really not dangerous, particularly with the amounts present. If you feel like you need to be concerned, use rubber gloves. Clear out stuff that is liquid like or solid residue - with another paper towel. There won't be much. I'd then rinse everything with plenty of water. Let dry. And then the inspection need to tell more about the status of the metal pieces. There are two on each side. Try to get them out (carefully) and then clean the surface with e.g. the finest steel wool you can find (mine is labelled "0000"). This stuff is always good for removing the surface layers of metal pieces very carefully. Note that the LED will probably just fall into your hands. Preventing this? Remove the batteries. But then the light brick turns into a weird 2x3 type brick. However, I believe this is the only way. On the other hand, batteries begin to leak usually after years only, provided you use "decent" types and not the 20 for $1/€1 ... Good luck! (BTW tried all that, works fine. I removed the batteries, soldered wires to the LED, hooked that up to some power source and now it serves in my light house) Best regards, Thorsten

Oh they are! Where is the blasting fuze though? Enjoy the package! Thorsten

+1!!! and +1 and ... so on. Reason: Sunlight, temperature, coldness, moisture, dryness ... one each and all together ... it degrades them to the extent to become useless - over years. Best Thorsten

Well, to get going, define "This light-up brick" and "another light-up brick" and then folks will begin to think about it. Best Thorsten

Scroll down on any forum page all the way down, click on "Theme", select TEST and it is gone for good - replaced by a clean/clear background of a color I cat't really tell. Or choose any seasonal theme from the years back ... Best Thorsten

Why go with LEGO based electronic stuff anymore? I mean going that far, I'd skip the whole cumbersome LEGO electronics. Make it smart, so that it recognizes (among others) PF/PuP signals, but go nuts. But then: Are we leaving ground? I believe so. It touches some - if not essential - rules. Or even "moral". Do you feel like that? To be honest: I don't. (And to be honest again: I feel like one of the worst individual in the world, because I ordered the Black Pearl - for €39 ... guess from where ... but then: You - and I break into LEGO products as if it were - fun. At the same time, I feel like being shafted when ordering a model many of the LEGO gurus out there making nice videos depict the original Pearl rated at $300+ as: Way too expensive) Man. I know, it is a luxury issue in real life. But within EB it is core of the matter. All the best Thorsten

Hey hey ... we need the dials contacts as well to kick-off exact trigonometry ... BTW what is that black thing doing, apparently torturing the IR LED? Nice photograph! Best Thorsten

Emanuele ... that link is so old school ... BUT: You really do that, right? I am sure. And: It is dead cheap and works, as you know. Not the point here though. Your engines @LEGO Train 12 Volts and @Phil B are simply stunning. So much tech, so little space. Incredible. I totally agree with LTV12V on the use of the train base. All the best to all of you! Thorsten

This is the PF 8879 remote, right? Before diving into calculations/measurements, what exactly do you want to accomplish? When you turn that dial to the "next" position (or swiftly to a couple more), the remote sends out (4 times) an "increase power by one" to the receiver. So even when you know the exact angle for firing this message, you will not know whether the remote sent it out correctly nor the receiver got it correctly - the step up/down command that is. So even when you know precisely the dial position on the remote, the receiving unit may be off, when missing such a message - or the remote not being able to track your swift changes, as it was busy with repeating 4 times the detected change on the dial. You need to use other means to absolutely submit "set power to x units" commands, such as HiTechnic sensors along with an NXT or other custom (e.g. Arduino based) approaches. Well as far as I know that is. However, when you are sure about flawless one-way communication (slow enough) to a PF receiver, then the calculations may begin. Is that so? Best Thorsten

@NathanR thank you for your supporting words! I'll be back (in the office) tomorrow and then I am going to tell my grad students that Windows isn't that bad after all and that I knew it all the time. And that I have very strong support they don't want to mess with. It will be fun. Particularly as tomorrow we will kick-off the Physical & Theoretical Chemistry Winterbock season (sorry I simply don't know how that translates into English; the breweries in Germany have rather strong seasonal beers they call Bock - for every season that is - spring, summer, autumn and winter - a year around fun. OK not true: In summer you have to revert to the always available strong beers - the Steel 211 analogs ...) that is going to be fun. There is one thing that I always have really fun with: When they write a report, paper or thesis or the like, I tell them to use MS Word. Because I know how to use it as I am using it since way more than 20 years. The DOS versions were cool ... 2013 is where I got stuck - can't adjust to the 365 thing (yet). The reason is that when the use the praised TeX stuff they have to give me a PDF for corrections. I'll annotate that file with comments - and they have to type in all the changes. When they give me a Word file, they just have to press "accept all changes" and boom, they're done. OK, joking again, as I want them to select either change or discard for every bit I typed in. Whatever, that was entirely off-topic, sorry. Phew - that is a big project you have going! In that case I would not change >anything<. I do notice big leaps forward though from LPub3D release to LPub3D release. Even when the version numbers increment only a little - for me these usually represent big improvements. I am very grateful for that. Is that so? I recently did a small-to-mid-sized instruction of about 120 pages with ample of callouts and what not. I just checked: When I load the mpd.file into LPub3D, jumping directly to lets say the 3rd page is as fast as jumping to page 100 (each page containing about 8 callout-type multi-steps). So the file scanning time may not be that bad, right? I am using a DELL 7530 laptop; intel core i/7 8th gen,16 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD, operating with Win10/64bit. Is that the reason? Or is it the new releases? Writing each piece of graphic, part, step, sub-model, model ... used to the disk is time-consuming (which an SSD is rather tolerant to, as @1963maniac already noticed), but then they are all directly available for other things to illustrate in the instructions. Well partly at least. But you know I am anywhere close to what you guys are doing here on EB! All the best, Thorsten

Ultimately effective little ship! Like to get on board, leave the pod, explore a world, get back, close doors and get back! Very, very nice! Best Thorsten

What? It is really that bad? Not updating your >OS<? Coding an editor? Phew. Well, good luck with that one. Cool if you can accomplish that! I always feel "weird" when Apple users in my research group tell me that Windows sucks sh*t - and that the MacOS world is simply beautiful. Sometimes it is kind of comforting though to wander through the Windows Under World And then: Things change fast in cyber world. 8 inch floppies: Gone. 5 1/4 inch floppies: gone. C64 gone. Fortran ... well a Dinosaur still living because so many lines of code. 1TB HDDs - a joke. LDD may just be the same: Almost - if not - gone. I am using MLCad on Win10. You know what? They told me in this forum that it appears as if I am getting too old. And that I have to adapt. No. But then: I can't code. Maybe I have to. But you need to push me - very hard. All the best Thorsten

Errr - so "I" (as in me) do see a 2x2 tile with "LEGO" pattern on it - for me - a 100% match. When not knowing the part, I take my magnifying glass, look at the number type that into Google with "LEGO" and "part" as additional search items - and - almost 100% match. I am just saying that when hard/software can do it, homo sapiens can do it, right? I simply don't get the idea. Are there too many bricks out there that "we" can't recognize? On the other hand, how does the software do that? I am lost ... it may also be time - maybe time is an issue here. Is that it? Best Thorsten

Oh, that is true. However - you know, many things in the real world surrounding us can be turned into somethings nasty upon bad usage. Fire places in wooden homes operated with natural gas - using DIY sets from HomeDepot are one example (Well, I had great fun in setting it up! No explosions ...) For the battery explosion, you need to use LiPo's or LiIon's or the like. Plain vanilla 9V Alkalines will get hot - that's it. Leaking wise I don't know ... maybe when they overheat and build up pressure but again you'll need some nifty battery types to generate internal gas - as far as I know. Electrical shorts are always bad. Put a wire into any of the 110 V AC outlets on your home and it makes boom as well, depending on your safety measures. >Just don't do it<. In other words I would not be so concerned - pay attention, look twice, measure the resistance and - when nothing happens when you turn on the power: TURN it off. And have a good look. That way there will be no explosions. For sure. Just play around and learn how to wire-up correctly. It really is great fun. All the best, Thorsten

Yes. As always, I like to add. This is fantastic. With very best regards, Thorsten

This. That is the best way to enjoy your sets - every day, whenever you want. If I were you I'd just let them age, as time and conditions go by. I do the same thing. There is ample of sunlight during summer in "my" attic, there is a sh*tload of dust accumulating during summer as I open the roof windows when it goes above 22 deg C - and since global warming is kicking butt, it does so at ever-increasing rate. As far as I am concerned, it gives a touch to the bricks. Nothing in this world other than overpriced cars in corresponding joints look like brand new, shiny, never touched LEGO bricks. All the best, Thorsten

Same here, as @Grover said. I am using BrickSet as source and online repository - they make nice statistics as well. Then c/p their specific info into an Excel sheet with my personal additions (#instructions, date purchased etc., etc.). Bet this will work even better on other platforms, but so far nothing is better than my Excel spread sheet. For me that is Best Thorsten

Oh that is true ... but with the mental possibilities of an average person like me, paper stored in an average humidified, average room atmosphere, e.g., an average living room, easily survives > 100 years, particularly the high quality type paper TLG uses. There are a good number of books twice as old dumped in the campus university archives. With > 100 years and taking into consideration that the oldest instruction I have as a whole is from 1980, the probability that I will rot away before the paper instructions I have do, is 1. The last SSD in my laptop made it through 7 years. I was told that was foreseeable - and that I was lucky. I also own a CD from 1998 with photos (degrading visibly on the surface though, this is a long term test). Well before 1998 it is getting ... interesting. I have a floppy drive with a cool cable on the back that fits nowhere anymore, I also have an 8 inch floppy but no drive (which would not fit anywhere anymore either - I simply drove a nail through it - it looks good on the wall). DELL decided to remove the cool socket for the docking stations on my 7530 laptop - whatever that socket is called (you should have seen me trying to let the laptop pop onto the dock because I didn't even look - it "always" worked ... one of my students saw that and asked: What - are - you - doing? And you could clearly see in his face "... old man") "Always" - that is a very interesting adverb. As the phrase "for ever" is. But I believe that "paper lasts for ever" is closer to the truth as "8 inch floppies provide nearly unlimited storage space". Have a nice weekend, folks! Best Thorsten

On another thought: When you need the 4 XL's to really kick in, what are your power delivery plans? Whatever brick is doing the speed control is fine, but these need to be fed. For how long do you want to operate your train? And will it be all LEGO? In that case you'll need to stack up some battery boxes somewhere, I believe. Regards, Thorsten

I believe @Cosmik42 is rather busy at the moment or maybe for long. You know, I also believe @Bartosz has voiced it very nicely, about 2 and 1/2 months ago - which is a long time span in the software developing "market": Gone MIA - it really happens, often. Plus, when I look at my truly dirty VB6 code I wrote for my own PuP device operation - just thinking about making it public or handing it over ... makes me blush. Best wishes, Thorsten

Really cool. But you know what? I find it much more appealing when just one single line of text (or text fragment) is somehow pointing to what you are going to show with "a link". But then - that is just me. All the best! Thorsten

Oh - my - goodness. A PDP 11-24. This refrigerator sized wonder of computing power ...my knees are getting soft ... All I personally owned was an Amstrad PCW (with an Z80 on board) running CP/M - and I managed to run MP/M on that thing. Man, Z80 machine code - I could literally talk to that thing ... NOW BACK ON TOPIC: I just browsed through the books/collections in the shelves in my home office under the roof, where all that LEGO stuff is as well. It is there, all on paper: Z80 machine code by Rodnay Zaks for example. None of the floppies, tape drives, hard drives work anymore. All gone. But the documentation on paper, the books, instructions, manuals are all there. Telling me what to do in what case. This is about 35 years ago. Paper is very, very happy surviving that time span, when you are treating it nicely. It was voiced here before that PDF will last for some time. True. But the data media are virtually all gone - today DVDs are regarded as >so< old school ... yes, we can backup, convert, make compatible etc. etc. Do you do that on a regular schedule? I - don't. I am freaking out every time I need a backup because something bad happened. True, my fault. But I am an average person. Not an incremental backup guru scheduling sophisticated plans ... not when I can print it out ... Yes @ShaydDeGrai, I am also voting for paper, being in that box. What @MAB wrote is to 100% representing what I think as well. All the best Thorsten