Toastie

Be what? Merciful??? I was a kid in the 70's and 80's depending on how you define "kid" - according to my wife I still am today - and I completely agree with you: It was easier to come up with a MOC. But you know what? The feeling of "ease" and "being satisfied" with what you created comes from your imagination. And that is the very difference for me: Imagination is what renders a studded LEGO MOC comprised of X by X bricks and plates and a couple of totally beyond belief round bricks, a never seen before tap ... in about eight colors - the most wonderful thing the world has ever seen! That is was LEGO is (was?) all about. And as Holger said: You really captured that look and feel. And: It is the most beautiful Shell terminal. I can literally feel the liquid pouring out of these taps into canisters. Wonderful decision, hope to see more of your future MOCs! Regards, Thorsten

They do cm in Bricksburg? All is good!

And even more information - presented in a brilliant way - at Philo's superb pages on every PF aspect you can think of. When you go one page up you'll get a wealth of additional valuable information on many other things. I have learned so many things from Philo's pages that I would need to repeatedly say "thank you" so many times, I wouldn't stop for hours. Good luck with your projects! Thorsten

Oh my, not again. Posting pictures rather than design files, regardless of format - in a public forum - is a very different thing. Whatever Xon is planning, whatever he has in mind, is not public business. Just because he or she shows pictures does not mean anything other than: "Look, what do you think?" As you know, some people sell their instructions or construction files. Others make them available for free. Many don't even bother, they just build an enjoy. A public post is simply is no obligation. It is a demonstration of what can be done. I completely agree with your statement about discussions! The thing though is, this is all entirely public. Or "exposed". With none of the speakers visible for the public. And that is the big difference: A discussion has usually a focus; and usually with an audience that is literal regarding the discussion topic. This is not the case here, I believe. And this is why Jim told you to continue this conversation in private. I believe you can settle much better on the issues you have raised with a personal message than rather than in public posts. One more thing: Publicly using the word "lying" is very, very strong. Maybe "Hiding something" is more appropriate, maybe not. But then: Xon can hide whatever he or she would like to hide. As far as I am concerned. Just my thoughts - and all for good! Regards, Thorsten

I completely agree with HiFish. Get some 9V track, power that up and use "power pickup means" (custom devices, as mentioned by HiFish, modified 9V train motors, entirely sacrificed 9V train motors) to recharge your "batteries". You may want to check here, but this is only one way to do it in a rather straight forward manner. Regards, Thorsten

Added "Hybrid" as well. I am into trains (phew) and using some mechanical technic elements to get remote control going (throwing a switch here, lowering a bridge there). As well as some custom electronics, nothing noticeable, it is indeed mostly LEGO stuff (PBricks, all of them, some RF add ons) Best Thorsten

@Hobbes You know, learning a foreign language is one thing. Living with and in it is another. Your reply is so warm and welcoming. That phrase is maybe well known to so many people out there - it was not to me. I like to use it when things like this happen. Thank you very much! This forum is so much more than presenting LEGO ideas! All the best, Thorsten.

I just read your post again. And I like to write what @Hobbes wrote when he welcomed our moderator TB alias WO: *tipping hat*; *slight nod* to Lars. It says all. Thank you again! Best Thorsten

Henrik, thank you very much for the instructions. This is the ultimate idea of LEGO: Create creations. Whether they resemble trains, buildings, cars, creatures, ideas, mechanisms, whatever the unlimited space of LEGO inspires you. I am always very happy when instructions are made available for all. For me it means: "I" created this - and I like to share this with "all" who are interested. So many people have showed me how to do it, since I could not - it is simply giving. The 103 is - as far as I am concerned - one of the most beautiful electric trains the world has seen. Not because I am German - no way. Because of the "lines", the windows the air intakes, the color scheme. And you captured that in 6-wide(!) perfectly well. Thank you very much for sharing. I will assemble this loco according to your scheme for sure. All the best Thorsten

I heartily would like to thank you for your edit, Stash2ixx, as I feel it renders may perspective even stronger. I am utterly disappointed to what (ever it is) happened to Lowa. It is so against the idea of this forum and any place of publicly advertised activities, regardless of whether they are purely ideas or small business related. And the latter being in favor of so many dedicated and supporting users/buyers. With very best regards, Thorsten

I have no clue, what is going on here, I am simply out of the loop. I do though have some experience with (serious) competition, with IP issues, with open access, with being non-responsive, with having to make money. With effort transformed into ideas, With others stealing it. One way is to simply shut-up. An alternative route is being better than others, being ahead. You are ahead. You either need to proceed as fast as possible or you need to face other means of competition. Better service, more reliable products, all this - I am sorry - shit. The moment you make ideas public without protection, chances are - (I am sorry again - and I am sure they'll moderate it and understand that!) a**holes will simply copy it. 3D Printers are all over the place - at a development pace that is unbelievable. (True) appreciation is not - anymore - or has never been. I had hoped that LEGO related ideas, efforts, small businesses are sort of - above this. Well, apparently they are not. Reality is hitting hard again, I guess. I do fully understand and heartily support your reasoning! All the very best for your team, Thorsten

I don't have the faintest idea of how you guys and particularly Xon is doing all this. None whatsoever. I come here regularly and every time I am simply left speechless. It is, if I had accidentally hacked into a radio control communication and just listen to what is happening - being in awe - and not knowing what to do. All this is unbelievable - but true. LDD files, real models, everything in between - and all that "just" because TLC initiated that wonderful movie. I can't express how much I am impressed - and love so much following these updates. As it must be "love for LEGO" to do all this. I wish I could contribute but you guys are simply playing in another league. Sure hope that this is going on forever. Thank you all very much for posting - and more importantly - doing this! All the best Thorsten

A very warm welcome back - I missed your comments, forum moderation, organizing skills, ideas, so many things! That makes my day. No - no one minds what so ever. In contrast. Warmly, Thorsten

Good evening Sal, I believe you mean a modified 9V train motor for power pickup, right? That one feeds your remote control gadget which in turn operates the motor, correct? Very nice find! $80 is not that cheap, but you have one remote for each train. And it appears to be RF not IR. Sounds all good to me. I am doing the same thing with all LEGO elements but the RF bit. When you modify the 9V motor, you can go almost "all LEGO". But as said before: That is really up to everyone! Thanks a lot for sharing! Best Thorsten

Same here ... double track around walls of 6 x 4 m2 - through book shelves, tunnels along supports, with elevations where required. All mounted to the walls. PF and 9V mixed track, mostly 9V There is a second level, but that is not relevant. And: This is all about 50 cm above ground, elevated track about 70 cm above ground. I like to see things happening. Nevertheless, there are many areas without line of sight ... Regards, Thorsten. P.S. Hope that picture is not too large - it says below 1000 pixel wide - but ...

This is so cool!!! I will use this model in my Thermodynamics classes! First law and that. Thank you very much. I guess I have even a pull back motor somewhere in the shelves. Best Thorsten

Oh, absolutely! But as said: I am nowhere near that knowledge. I sort of know how to drill holes in plastic, solder wires from here to there and that's it. RF makes me always a little nervous, as I never managed to understand what "impedance" really means and so on and so forth. This approach allows me to just solder three socket pins to the receiver PCB and then cover it up again. I don't even need to use any RF plug-in; it still works fine without. But if I want to do RF, then I can ... But you are right: Even Playmobil (come on!) does 2.4 GHz remote control of their cars nowadays. I never got why TLC did not jump on that. It may be the price: The IR receiver part cost as much as a couple of screws in bulk; RF stuff at least 10 times that. I would pay for it but that does not mean anything. And then: LEGO is for kids who want to see what is happening and not for adults who don't happen to have the space to run their trains always in line-of-sight. This RF stuff is just for me working very well, that is all there is. Best regards, Thorsten

LT - I know - forgive me - I am always confused ... Now in that case: See post currently below your post, Mads824a. Best, Thorsten

Hi there, welcome to TrainTech! It is hard to tell what you mean: 9V trains = 9V metal rails + 9V train motor? Or is it 9V train motor on RC/PF plastic rails? Or is it 9V trains controlled wirelessly on 9V metal rails? Or ... other things you have in mind? Once that becomes clear there will be a much clear reply. Best Thorsten

Tell them, your kids made your post a lovely post! Best Thorsten

Hi LT12V, very nice interpretation. The changes and additions you made to your inspiring model are nicely standing out! And the light is - as always - just beautiful. Now: What type is the bot (is it a bot? One from the coal age?) assembling the German flag? All the best! Thorsten

Dear All, here is another thing that was for long on my mind: Extend the range of the IR light based one-way communication for controlling the PF receiver without line-of-sight. There are many ways to do this; one would be to install IR repeaters all over the place; this has been realized by others in many different ways. An alternative is to access the PF receiver via radio frequency (RF). This again was done over and over again – my solution is a little minimalistic and simple but works very well. Executive summary (for those not interested in the details of this post) Motivation: Access to PF receivers without line-of-sight, particularly for PF trains. How to add a power/data 3 pin socket to the PF receiver (#8884). How to reversibly plug in a single LINX RXM 433 (or 315 or 418) MHz RF receiver chip into the modified PF receiver and use RF for communication. Result: With RF receiver plugged in, the PF receiver is accessed via RF, with RF receiver removed it works as before with IR control. Benefits: PF operation without line-of-sight Using all three available RF frequencies (315, 418, 433 MHz), 3 x 8 = 28 PF devices are independently controllable. When running newer PF receivers using the 1.2 PF protocol and knowing how operate the address bit in the 1.2 PF bit protocol, 3 x 16 = 48 PF devices are independently controllable. You may want to skip the remaining part of this post ... On to the details Upfront: It works perfectly well, I am very happy. However, I believe Philo’s superb knowledge is needed to explain why. Maybe you can help out, Philo … see further below. My approach builds on stone-old RF receivers from LINX. I bet there are tons of other devices out there, which outperform the LINX chips by far. I simply had these in bulk from China and I knew they behave well, when non-electronics people like me play with RF … The principle is as simple as it gets: The LINX RXM 433 chip constantly listens for a 433 MHz signal, once it finds one in that RF space it pulls its output from ground (= no such signal present) to VCC. A LINX TXM 433 chip does the opposite: It constantly monitors it’s logical input pin to go to VCC and then sends out a 433 MHz signal. This way a simple on-off-keyed (OOK) communication becomes possible. No encoding - no nothing, just OOK. These chips are just that: 433 MHz receivers and transmitters. I have already used them in this LEGO project.. Hacking the PF receiver Here is the part purists will hate though: We need to tap into the LEGO PF receiver electronics to get straight access to the PF receiver’s micro-controller data input line. This line should be directly connected to the IR receiver’s chip data out pin. Steps 1 to 3 Disassembly of the PF receiver as shown on Philo’s pages here. Details in 3), right, suggest to push the PF pins with a small screwdriver out of the socket – this way all 4 stay connected to the wire. It is then easier to get them back in place: Step 4 and 5 4) White arrow indicates the three pins we want to get access to. 5) Bending back the TL/VS/OS-type(?) IR receiver – there are so many of them. The one built into the PF receiver could be an OS 1638 (Philo – help!) – this one has a metal shield and voltage range of 2.7 – 5.5 V which fits nicely. The detail shows the 3 pin socket to be soldered with cut pins and solder applied. Step 6: Soldering a 3 pin socket terminal strip (2,54 mm) as shown here to the soldering side of the printed circuit board. Right: 4.15 V between VCC and GND with fully charged batteries, see volt meter reading. Step 7 and 8 7) Bending the IR receiver back into position. 8) A little drilling is necessary to widen the opening in the translucent plastic part – you may well use more sophisticated tools though. Steps 9 to 11 9) This is how it looks like after drilling (3 mm drill). 10) After cutting/filing the modified PCP goes back into the housing. Before we do that, we need to ply off one side of the yellow cover of the sliding switch, otherwise it will cover the 3 pin socket when in the channel 1 or 2 position. 11) Put the receiver back together. It now still works fine with IR control, nothing has changed so far. But we do have access to the micro controller’s data input as well as a nice power supply of about 4 V. Again, the power scheme on the receiver is shown. IN = logical data in. What makes life rather easy is that all the IR receivers (I know) have an open collector output, pulled up internally to VCC with 10 … 50 kOhm. Which means that you can simply put them “in parallel”. TLC did that in their RC trains #7897 and #7898, which has such detectors mounted on both sides. I looked into the RC electronics built into the casing permanently attached to the base plate, and indeed both IR receivers are hooked up in parallel to the micro controller. So in principle, one can now hook up further IR detectors to the PF receiver. A little test setup confirms that: But that’s is not what I wanted – radio control was the goal. The LINX RXM RF receiver assembled further above works with up to 4.2 V VCC which is a perfect match. And now it comes. As far as I am concerned, we need to invert the output of the RXM chip, which is VCC for a 433 MHz signal present – the IR receiver pulls its output to ground when 38 kHz IR light is present. I tried that: DATA out from the RXM via 1 kOhm resistor into a standard NPN transistor which should result in an inverted open collector output. The pull-up resistor to VCC is not required as there is one in the IR receiver. It works – but not robustly enough. I don’t know why – IR always works, RF “sometimes” not. Which means: Out with it. What works though is: Directly connecting the RXM output to the PF receiver input. IR is then not working anymore, but RF works flawlessly! This is what I wanted to ask Philo: Why on earth is that??? Here is the data sheet: https://www.linxtechnologies.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/rxm-fff-lr.pdf - and here is a sketch of the circuit I tried to use: http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/ThorstenB/9VTrain/PFgoesRF/inverter_for_rxm.jpg This is how the PF receiver looks like, when the RF module is plugged in. In this configuration, IR does not work anymore, as mentioned above. Which is (accidentally, to be honest) very nice, as the receiver is not caring about any IR commands - and does not get confused. Upon unplugging the RF module, IR is operational again. Making the "RF receiver" Here is how I got it to work ... This is the "circuit diagram" (it is not, it is just how to solder the wires to the LINX RXM device. There are two chip versions shown: The one on the left (LINX RFM 433 LC-S) reached it's end of life longer ago, the one on the right (LINX RFM 433 LR-S) is the one currently sold. Pin-out is identical, the LR-S type has one additional output (RSSI), which I do not use at all. The LC-S chip is available from China dead-cheap, the newer for example from Mouser and many more suppliers of RF stuff. Step 1 to 3: 1) Tie both ground pads to ground and get the ground wire out. 2) Get VCC, DATA, and Antenna out. The Antenna should be 16.5 cm long. 3) Apply some heat shrink tubing around VCC, GND, and DATA wire. Step 4 and 5: 4) Solder the three wires to the 2,54 mm 3 pin connector in the right order (VCC right marked in white, GND center, DATA left. 5) Covering up with wider heat shrink tube – and done. A little white dot on both the receiver and the RF “module” helps to get the right connection. Both devices suffer from no damage at all though when hooked up in the wrong way (extensively tested). On the RF transmitting side the PF IR remote control (#8885 or #8879), an IR receiver chip and a RF transmitter is needed. For simplicity I used a LINX 433 TX LC/LR transmitter in combination with a TSOP 34838 IR receiver. Any 1738 or the like would do as well. In fact the IR RF transceiver referenced already above works fine. So what do we do with all this? First, communication without line-of-sight works very well – a video should be available soon demonstrating that (a train behind a bookshelf or in a tunnel). Second, the LINX chips are rather small and more importantly very robust in operation. The power consumption is reasonable and is readily available from the modified PF receiver. Third: The LINX chips also come as 315 MHz and 418 MHz versions. Which means that 3 x 8 = 24 PF channels are readily available. As the PF receivers don’t “see” the IR light anymore when the RF chip is plugged in, there is no IR trouble at the receiver side. On the transmitting side one has to make sure that the PF remotes do only shine their IR light onto the corresponding RF transmitter. Fourth - and most importantly for me: I got hold of an NXT IRLink sensor from HiTechnic. The IRLink natively “speaks” the RCX message protocol, the PF protocol, and the RC train protocol. It is some kind of C3PO – uniting the LEGO IR world. With the exception of Manas, I believe. I wrote a little NXT-G program that listens for RCX messages (in RF space that is), captures the ones that are of interest, interprets the data content of these messages and sends out PF or RC train commands into RF space. Any RC or PF controlled train equipped with the RF receiver will do what it was told. I am running 8 PF trains and 1 RC train using this scheme. And this is up next: Controlling PF trains with NXT + HiTechnic IRLink via RF communication. Requires certainly a little time though ... Thanks for reading. Regards, Thorsten

Hi Boney_M (when I was decades younger I did not like their music that much, but today ... totally cool!) No you won't loose any noticeable power on the motors. 4 XL generating some torque won't work either. But the current going to PF lights (LEDs) is next to nothing compared to the current an XL motor draws. In fact, you can use the brightness of the PF lights to gauge the current that the motors draw. Best Thorsten

All this is entirely true for the train motors (all varieties), but if you intend to use technic motors for powering sour model (M, L, XL), I'd recommend to first read through this topic in the technic forum. They had issues with the V2 version and the L motor of some productions years. Best Thorsten

Wonderful discussion, even more so with regard to the various different versions presented. Make your own! This is what LEGO is about! I bet the version you'll create will be at least as appealing as the original one. Best Thorsten