Toastie

Yes, that is what it is: Old school as in "as LEGO was when the monorail was still available"! I fully agree - and it looks beautiful. I very much like the way you used the technic beams in that wonderful old school manner elevating the roof. This surely will be a very nice monorail layout you are assembling! With best regards, Thorsten

Wow, Sven. There is nothing much to add to what others have already said - simply a most beautiful steam engine, realized unbelievably skillfull with regard to building techniques, and particularly in this model with regard to sturdiness. But most importantly to me is the love and passion you put into replicating a steam engine working in a region so remote and lovely. I happen to know how it is up there - was born in Schleswig and lived for 20 Years in Jübek. Flensburg is just 30 km away. My grandpa and two of my uncles worked for the Schleswiger Kreisbahn - I was 6 years old, when I was repeatedly watching an even smaller steamer working the way up the final "hill" from Kappeln into Schleswig - Kreisbahnhof - and the way back.. It all fits so well: Your detailing, your passion of making an mostly entirely unknown AEG engine a perfect replica - and knowing that Northern Germany was simply made for it. OK, maybe it was the other was around, but that does not change a bit. Thank you so much for sharing! All the very best, Thorsten

I completely, fully agree! And I do hope that TLG is >not< loosing interest (after PU sales may go down by 0.1%) in telling us what this system is really capable of. In the whole line of Mindstorms, let it be VLL, let it be Spybotics, or the way the NXT brick communicates … we never got a >real< handle. People needed to find out, use "leaks", retro-engineering, a complete waste of resources. It was different with the SDKs for the Scout and for the RCX, though, but as far as I am concerned, for the average people, that was an exception. I have the impression, the further we move toward complex and most powerful hard- and software, the lower is either the willingness or the time (totally different issues, totally different reasons) put into properly documenting things. In the - oh my - good ol'days - any gadget, regardless what is was, but particularly in the sciences, came with a "operators manual". That always sounded - tough. And I also know - I did it myself - called for "real scientists don't need a manual". Just turn it on. Well: No. Getting a little older may change the way we look at things. I do have "manuals" in my office. From that time. With these "explosion" type drawings. And with hundreds of pages of "how to hack the system". We do not have to do it that way, but maybe a little less one-page true color "The most powerful system, Earth has seen before" and maybe a little more on b/w "How to get the most out of it". Just my 2 cents. All the best Thorsten

Left, OK, but I would use dark grey grills, or ever yellow ones with contrast in the back. Black stands out very well but it also almost "tears" the engine into several pieces. Oh well, I am color blind, so don't bother. Best Thorsten

Well. I guess we need to study Philo's page very carefully. There are ample of differences: Low vs high current drawing, sudden vs continuous cell stress and so on. And yes, power is voltage times current. And then we need to follow the curves and measurement scenarios very carefully and use the integrals below these curves. The chemistry involved however could not be more different than between a LiPo and any kind of one-way battery. Ane lastly: There is maybe another balance we should take into consideration: Having more power for a short time for fun and then dispose a small chemical reactor - or having slightly less power for some short time - and then recharge again. The trash can may be - hopefully - a green chemistry bin; but the amount of energy and resources to make a new one-way battery even from carefully recycled material is - at best - discouraging. Another thought: You can run the LiPo's off from a power supply powering your model during testing - endlessly - use any kind of wall wart you can find, supplying decent DC in the 9 … 20 V range, and then unplug and let the dogs out All the best, Thorsten

Fully agreed … these are Lipos and no bad ones either. And should the cells degrade in a couple of decades: Open the box, get new cells (they are dead cheap, solder them on an off you go. It is the loading and safety electronics, that I find most powerful in this device. Best Thorsten

Wow, this is incredible work. Fantastic!!! Congratulations on all your achievements. Well, why would you want to replace the laptop at all? I am much more into having some sort of control center for my layout (which is e.g. a laptop equipped with a very large secondary display showing all the things I need to control, trains, switch points, lights, bridges, … rather than a cell phone. Just my point of view of course. Thanks for sharing! All the best Thorsten

Don't worry about the fumes; ABS thermolysis products won't kill you, even not harm you; given the amount of time (i.e., dose) you are exposed. Much worse is any workout run close to a car-populated street. But the amount of ABS melting material building up upon using heat is considerable and this is hard to estimate. I am using the sharp and very thin Dremel type saw blades. When you go full speed on the Dremel, it is more a thermal thing; when you use moderate blade turning speeds, it is more like cutting - with only the width of the blade eroding away material. Which is really minor. As my father used to say: It's a knife, not a pusher (oh my, translated from German, dose not work) ... All the best, Thorsten

@JopieK I guess @technic70s is asking for input on how was "PF unfolding" - to be able to compare with how is "Boost/PU unfolding" - as TLG sees it. How did PF materialize? Was it: "So, here is PF, what are you guys gonna do with it?" Or was it: "Here is PF. This is what you can do with it." For me, this is a bit of difference, because it may potentially change the way of "interacting" with TLG. Oh well, "inter"action in a more or less one way direction of course. Best, Thorsten

Oh … I "love" it after products have been released to ask potential customers about their wishes/expectations for that product. As if it would matter … From experience that means a) wow, we have created so many options with this, how do we proceed? b) Thing is out b/c headquarters told us "no product, no further funding". So get "it" the hell out. How about TLG telling us first: What is the intent of doing PU (translate "intent" to "business case" if you like): Example: Unify things - and spread the product all over themes? As others have already asked: Will there be a sound and detailed documentation on PU? As there was for e.g. PF, old PBricks, VPBrick etc. etc.? Or will this be a closed case and we need to wait for magical things to appear? As it was for VLL? Once this is clarified, the wishes, expectations, and hopes may become more focused. Best Thorsten

Dear James, very well said. And handled by you in an absolutely professional manner. Professional in a sense of "wise" and caring about many things but not just "the issue". Thank you very much for all your efforts. I really do appreciate that. With very best regards, Thorsten. P.S.: Just an idea: Maybe one of the moderators can close this topic here on TrainTech and keep it open, maybe even "tacked" to the top, in the "General LEGO Topics Forum?".

I'd take that as a "thank you". Regardless of what other honorable (this is >not< a joke!) EB fellows do think. I personally very much appreciate your approach, James. All the best, Thorsten

I did not get much sleep last night - due to this development. Too fast for me, too much energy. And in some posts too far away from adult fans of LEGO behavior (for me that is!). If there had been more "hate" and related things caused by this event, I would have quit being a member of EB. Now in contrast, we come to grips. Not endorsing what happened, but discussing in a way that is appropriate for AFOLs in this community. @Hod Carrier you have summed it up in such a nice way, there isn't anything I would like to add. And it makes me feel so much better. There is your clear statement (that I take as a community statement I fully support), there is a picture of how this community "works". Most importantly, I do want to praise the moderators of EB to not just jump on a "Hot Topic" and kick @Jimbricked out, but give him space and time to rethink. This is what makes this community so different from others that I know as well. I could not agree more with what you said. Thank you very much for that. All the best Thorsten

That is my point: >We< are the community. The community has ample of opportunities to react. The community is creative, active. I will ask it out loud again: What exactly happens to me/us, when I/we share an instruction, LXF, MPD or whatever file >openly< for all the members, lurkers, and remotely interested, just for the sake of it and somebody else picks it up, makes it look good, and asks for money? What happens? What do you guys feel then? I personally have no problems >at all< with this, because I know that I had put my stuff >on show case<. And again: To share ideas. To learn myself from responses. To be honest: There is this Google machine. It takes about a couple of minutes to figure out that the content posted somewhere for money is freely available somewhere else. Even when not using BitTorrents or .hu or .ru sites. Officially free. As on EB and elsewhere. Why don't people try that first? Why would they pay for it??? Because it is all in one place, nicely set-up, made easy, and all what I wanted? Do you guys do Starbucks? Although you can get most of the stuff for almost free at home? Don't tell me it is so much better, poured into a paper thing with a plastic lid on top. And then we pay what? $4 depending on where that joint is located? Because we can afford it? Here is another example: When you want to visit the US from a foreign country you have to do the ESTA thing. Hey, why not, I am fine with that. Type in "ESTA" into Google. Chances are, you will >not< directly land on the official Stars and Stripes website, but on a neatly set-up site that makes it much easier (and looks much better) for you to type in your data in your own language. On the bottom it says "On the next page your charges ($80) will be processed". Did it yesterday. I am traveling quite a bit to the US and I know the charge was $14 on the official site two years ago - and it still is. Now: Is it >me< or >them<? I was close to mail them "F**k you" and then realized that they said they will charge me that amount. So take the 3rd entry from Google's list an there you are, in the hands of Uncle Sam charging you only $14. First think, then click. Or buy. Or not. We >are< the Community and we should act as such. Smart. With a wider angle as just: "If someone makes money using my ideas I posted on the web, I am not going to share my ideas anymore". That is not what this "Community" should be about. Because we are hurting ourselves - and hopefully not because of personal feelings not belonging here. When you want to make money, set-up your own business. When you want to share ideas freely, do so. As a community, we should not lay the cards in a way that the others always win. That is stupid. I will never take down anything form this forum/my university cloud server/brickshelf because somebody figured out a way to make profit from that (which will probably never happen). Why not? To be honest: I would be a bit exited, once I'd figure that out. And give them a note: "Hey you suckers, that was my idea. Have fun wit it! And good luck." All the best, Thorsten

But we should maybe keep in mind that TLG is a multi-billion company (making a >awful< lot of money and >not< always in a forthcoming way - I always like to point to their < 50 cent worth Made in China wall wart power supply they sell off for 25(+) $/€, because it says "10V", which is totally unimportant for all LEGO devices, but we simply don't know about it) and we should ask ourselves what this guy represents. He had to free-up time from school to run his site (as he wrote here on EB), so I guess, we are not talking about a trans-continental Apple sized enterprise. Nor about problems with tax deductions because this guy shakes the stock exchanges around the globe. I believe we talking a lot about moral, don't we? BTW I do not indorse at all, in contrast, what he did. But I fear this here is simply going ballistic and looses ground potential EB usually provides. All the best Thorsten

Jim, please don't turn your entire channel down. I don't have the time to write an elaborate answer here, as the topic is very delicate and people have fuelled this topic to simply ballistic proportions, so I better be careful not to get into the crossfire. I did of course jump to your channel and browsed through it, once I heard about it. You know what? Of course I found many instructions, which are not yours, but I found them neatly lined up and very well prepared. How many times have I read in this forum: "Can't find this, can't find that". RailBricks down, we were all crying. Things splattered around BrickShelf (my own stuff is in there as well, don't get me wrong!) - a website with a design and functionality from the first days of the internet. And I am glad it exists, because I am too dumb to make it any better myself, nor do I have the time to do so. And then your nicely assembled a collection of unfortunately "stolen" content. Oh well. Read my opinion in the TrainTech thread. Could it be that you are not almost 60 years old, as I am? That I may have lets say 40 plus years of hanging around in this world and having had the chance to learn about IP, about free content, about what happens, when you step on (apparently big) feet? Fact is, most of the "affected" people did never realize this at all, although YT is available virtually everywhere in the world. Hmmm. And then all hell breakes loose, because it is brought to our attention. As in "presented" to us. Wrapping up (would love to talk to you in person): You royally f'ed up with regard to "IP" handling. Let us call "IP" better "my idea". Legally, IP really is a big word. How may people on EB have filed patent applications? It is madness. I have to. I believe IP is regarded here more as "my idea rights". I may be wrong. Filing a patent means not talking about it >at all< and certainly >never< on the internet. Patents are intended to protect your ideas, because >you want to make money<. And you don't talk about it at all. So all people talking about "IP rights" and "not wanting to make money" are saying "this is all about moral". Phew. Another very big word. You responded - as far as I am concerned - in the right way - given the time frame (we are talking about less than a day or two, with I don't know how many people firing at one single person: you). And they made their points very clear. Become more aware of the "art of asking people for permission". When you do that in a "polite" way, almost all of them will be glad to help out. It is in the nature of the people creating EuroBricks and others sites. This site is in the public domain - but not for poaching. Your YT channel is impressive - to me. I enjoy it very much!!! Again, please don't turn it down. And: There is no hate here. There is >bold<, but constructive criticism. If not, I'd quit EB >today<. Don't take "bold" inquiries from (old experienced people) too serious. You have answered every question in a fresh, friendly, positive way. IMHO. That may irritate "experienced" folks. They want to see - other things. "I am sorry" may not be enough. And "Have a nice day :)" is then a not so clever salutation. I am prepared to get a lot of flak for this - we then share a common thing :) All the best, Thorsten

Dear All, I fully understand the outrage - and I fully appreciate what is happening here. However, I also have pictures in my head of folks sitting with baskets full of popcorn and other stuff and watching the story to unfold - and see this guy drown. Almost live. Tenderlok couldn't post as fast as things were happening. It was stupid what this guy has done, it was unrightful. Bad. And then - this could be end of the story. BUT: Tenderlok was asking the question: And there I must say things become far less full forward - at least for me. When I post "stuff" - MODs, MOCs, programs, ideas, electronics, proposals, comments, etc. in an "open environment" - open as in the unprotected internet world - I deliberately do so. Because I have personally decided to do so. And I personally know that there are more than 7.6 Billion people out there of which about 50% in some way or the other have access to the internet. Of which a meaningless small number do have interest in LEGO for whatever reason, but meaningless low is still a very big number compared to 7.6 Billion. Knowing that, there are for sure bad guys among these. And they don't care about "giving credit". Whole companies (and don't blame just the Chinese, there are so many other examples) do exactly that. All over the world. Which does not mean that I don't get mad about that, in contrast. So this is my take on this: I put whatever piece of intellectual property on public access - and I don't >care< what happens. None what so ever. I do >hope< thought that the truly interested may learn, reply, change for the better, have new ideas, showing them for free. And I believe most folks do. I simply do not care about someone picking-up my stuff and turn that into profit. In contrast: It is really nice to see that happen because I did not want to do that - make profit - otherwise I wouldn't have posted it in the open internet. All I am saying is: It was my choice to do so. All the very best and only for the best. Sven, I fully understand your feelings to make that absolutely sure. And I am very happy that you shared this on EB. Another very good reason to simply enjoy and breathe the spirit of most of our fellow members here. I am proud to be a member of EB. All the very best, Thorsten

Makes perfect sense! Oh my. Why did I not think of this. We frequently get large "signs" (e.g., 1 x 2 m2 - there is about 3 feet in 1 m and 25 inches in one foot, just for the sake of intercontinental communication) - on the back covered with an adhesive layer. The instructions tell you to spray a mist of water based stuff, such as water, or much better sprays that evenly cover the surface (like Windex) onto the surface you want to place the sign (like a door or fume hood). Adjust, readjust, don't worry about blisters; wipe them away. The adhesive layer attaches to the even surface nicely and done. Of course that works - the water doesn't like the adhesive layer (and vice versa), so you can easily squeeze out the liquid by whatever means - in case of 1 x 2 m2 panels, they give you some sort of tool, which is essentially a squeegee. I guess with 1 x 5 mm2 LEGO stickers, other means will do. Press a little as the adhesive does like the even ABS surface very much - and done. Cool. (Well, I had hoped someone had an idea of how to support my beer approach, but - this is definitely it) Thank you very much for sharing @sed6!!! All the best Thorsten

I had the pleasure to organize a mass spec conference at our university, couple of years ago. Some 400 people showed up. I managed to convince one of the exhibition vendors to sponsor 1000 bottles of beer from a local brewery and promised that my group (including myself) would relabel them with whatever the come up with. After a couple of beers, every new label was spot on. I came to the conclusion the issue I have is size-related; I tried the beer approach with LEGO stickers as well: Not good Best Thorsten

It >is< a beautiful rendition of that beautiful engine. I am a bit disappointed though: Emanuele, someone with your qualifications would have no trouble finding ... a solution for brick-building such a motor with ample of detail (in 4-wide) fitting smack-on into the upper structure and directly driving all 4 axles. Thinking of it: Using Octane as propellant ... OK. Guess what: I am kidding. As I have read elsewhere, you like Blues Brothers a lot - maybe also Ghostbusters (the Original)? There is this scene: Janine, someone with your qualifications ... I stop it here. The very moment I see a new post of your work, I seriously rant and rave to my internet connection as it takes more than a second to load the corresponding Eurobricks page! This is another example of your dedication and building skills. Just knowing how to build is by far not all - there is so much more. For one, there is the 6-wide "scale". The larger this "scale", more and more detailing options become available (and here I would readily loose it again: I have no clue, none what so ever, how folks like Tenderlok and many others manage to do what they do, it is simply unbelievable to me). On 6-wide though, things become "picky". And then this appears. Comparing the photographs with your model: It is all there. The color scheme alone ... perfect. Wow. Oh well. Why am I not surprised ... looking forward to whatever you have in your treasure chest! All the best, Thorsten

That is not fair. We don't have that in Germany. Oh well, we happily accept the improved cost; €19.99 (but I'll never pay that). Which actually seem to feel good, as it is not bluntly €20.00 That really would have been too much of an improvement ... Yeap - same here. That is exactly what I wanted to say. (I simply do believe in BrickLink. I love that place.) Best Thorsten

98% chance here ... I am trying though to get that percentage lower and lower ...

Sorry for bringing this up again but "Cost improvement" made me laugh my - butt - off. This is really nice. I have to use that phrase next time when negotiating a research proposal with a partner from industry. @fred67 : The cost improvement is for both, TLG and for us: TLG makes more money, we don't have to think that much about where to put our money. Best Thorsten

Hey, that was my thought ... always the same with these folks (that I like so much!). Will go for it (the cheaper passenger train) just for the sake of the new controllers. Best Thorsten

This is what I like so much about your post: Putting things into perspective. It is so easy to just put the "crap" stamp onto something. I totally agree with what you are saying: It does not really look like the original, but it is really not easy to make it look better - within the constraints given. And even when you try, it becomes costly - which in turn means you are beyond the constraints. Personally, I don't like the Emerald that much. Your changes and additions to it are really spot on and make it much more appealing. But only possible at a certain extra investment plus some considerable time of thinking and trying. Which in turn means, they did a fairly good job over at TLG. Thanks for sharing! All the best Thorsten