Toastie

Wait: You mean the LEGO Marvel "program" and the greedy bastards from LEGO control, right? Or do you mean the Mickey Mouse folks? Well, if these were greedy, the family owned company located in backside Denmark, only thinking about of how to make this world a better place, could have said: "No: Too greedy". But they haven't ... Best, Thorsten

Emanuele! #8bitisbetter OK, I clearly see the advantage of having a higher resolution image - to see even brighter the beauty of this wonderful locomotive! All the best, Thorsten

What about BrickSafe? Doesn't that give you another 10GB of free lunches? Best, Thorsten

Are these #10027? And do you consider modding them? Best, Thorsten

Or maybe they could not? That was the case in my family. I did not even begin to cry, because everything in the +10 DM range was totally not possible for them. I believe in really "knowing" (or better "feeling") how you feel: When an unbelievable wonderful jewel, that was never ever even thinkable of being in your hands suddenly is just there, or right in front of you, it is your own, and you are looking at it ... it can be simply overwhelming. Not only that, but I love your post ... enjoy this set you so like and love, keep these feelings deep in your heart ... and as this happened, you know ... there may be more, there always is! All the best and have fun, Thorsten

Is what they did "changes" or "additions" to the existing LWP3.0 protocol? Best, Thorsten

Got it - I am a bit underexposed when it comes to Marvel world. Thank you + all the best Thorsten

Did the same - but to no avail. Well, the 24 ADW is one of the things, but the outer insuation diameter of one wire is the other. I am experimenting with 24 ADW, 1.5 mm diameter wires - not >that< good - it works from time to time though. Just ordered 22 ADW (= thicker copper wires, as the blades seem not to make reliable contact with the 24 AW wire, at least on some of my older 9V terminals) AND 1.7 mm OD insulation; we'll see. Best, Thorsten

Wow! That is a very nice one. And even if there were any new stuff: It still would be a really cool design. I love the combination of the ground based (mobile) module and the module that can fly around ... reminds a bit of Apollo eagles - though they could not roll over the rough terrain. Really fantastic! All the best, Thorsten

I agree - and like to add: The most densely populated parts of the world will have to migrate ... after all, humans like the shores What a coincidence: Water will push humans (and all other non-fishy inhabitants of this world) to migrate because they'll need water. More importantly: What is an "X-Jet/Hoopty" type price? (Bloody German here ...) - sounds too good to me to not using it in conversations Best, Thorsten

Well, the same disaster happened (and still happens) to 9V wires from whatever decade, time, manufacturer ... this is really a >total< and utter failure. There are 9V cables doing fine until today with no sign of decay - and - mostly - others just literally rot away (so much for quality control at TLC). To be honest, in the electronics world, this process is never seen at all. I don't know any wires in any vintage piece of electronics dating back to the 1970s failing, because of rotting wire insulation. None. So what is going on here? 9V wires rot, PF wires rot ... man. I will have to replace so many wires in my LEGO world - as of now, there are shortcuts, failing sensors all over the place. On one hand, this is a nightmare. On the other - LEGO does not last forever, as nothing does . Plus: Replacing all these rotted wires keeps me busy. Old people need to be busy, should they want to live forever. Well, sort of 5 years more to go - and then: Heating up the soldering iron! All the best, Thorsten

It looks beautiful! I don't think Nature has only one sand red color at hand as well I also like to see the aging process - the result must be beautiful as well! That is the same with white (and some other colors) taking on some patina and looking ... mature. Very nice method! Best, Thorsten

Including some LEGO bricks, but for sure electronics! But honestly, how many companies in the "western world" ^^ don't do mass production in China? Even at moderate unit numbers; people "think it out" in WW countries - and then - off to China. They have a) the technology and b) the price tag, we like. And yeah, believe it or not, in this game called capitalism, the Chinese actually look at what the WW world figures out. Another surprise: They can do that as well and make it better. Oh: Yes, using them is fine. Just have it adonll done in the WW countries and see what the price tag becomes. And then proceed to @DonQuixote concern about not so well "funded" families. Best. Thorsten

That may be true. But I guess they meant: TLG is a luxury brand, which is extremely profitable. And, as it is with all profitable luxury brands: Their customers have enough money to buy what they offer because ... it is luxury stuff. Wait, where the heck is my Rolex watch? I mean, these are atomic clocks, so I have heard. Atomic is per definition expensive. Well, I just call it a successful strategy, in a rich women's and men's and everybody else's world Best, Thorsten

Dear All, I really love these "power" pickups, be it the recently discussed one here, or @michaelgale's solution. Now, with regard to feeding the voltage/power picked up from the powered track into a motor: I believe you need to have this spring-loaded solution of TLG's 9V motors, which forces the >flanges< of the metal wheels of the motor towards the track metal, for more or less "flawless" operation, in addition to the spatially quite separated pickup wheels in that 9V motor (negotiating "power gaps" in switches etc.). Just using the weight of the train to force the wheels onto the track may not be good enough. When you want to go the "power to controller route" (controller = PF, BLE, custom), you definitely need a means of buffering the voltage/power that comes via the pickup to the controller. Some suggested capacitors, that may very well work. But to get away from changing polarity and such issues on wyes etc. I suggest to a) use a bridge rectifier fed from the pickup that goes into a rechargeable battery and then into the controller. Back in the days, which is now 14 years ago, I experimented with the LEGO LiPo (#8878), not available anymore (well not from TLG, but certainly from ALI): The LiPo is securing permanent power to the controller and is recharged every time it is connected to the track via the pickup, reagrdless how crappy that connection is. This also means, that you need to have permanent DC "power" on some stretches of the track, like 15V DC from a laptop power supply; the LiPo easily takes that as charging voltage. It also means, that you need a controller on every train, and no original LEGO 9V motors present, as they would freak out. This also means that you can mix 9V and all-plastic track; the latter are really handy to handle polarity changes caused by wyes etc. Just my 2 cents, I have no clue how that would work on shows. Best, Thorsten

@Fluwoeb Thank you very much! I am repeatedly surprised, and much more so honored, that you guys even take the time to write! It really is nerdy stuff - and much more so, soo old school ... Yes, this is directly showing how the machine handles e.g. decimal numbers, which I do "for/next loop" in the BASIC code on an 8-bit wide data bus, which is exposed on the I/O port of the TI99. It counts to only 63 (and not 255) because the Interface A has only 6 outputs, directly responding to the CPU data bus (bits 0 to 5). The bits 6 and 7 of the data bus are used for the two sensor inputs of the Interface A. On the screen, left column, the variable N of the FOR N=0 TO 3 loop (with speech and text output), 0 TO 10 (with text output only), and finally 0 TO 63 with no visible output at all (where you can see how fast the TI Extended BASIC is!!!) is shown. In each loop, the status of the interface is read back, and then either "spoken" and printed on the screen on the right column (0 TO 3), printed on the screen only (0 TO 10), or not printed at all (0 TO 63). BASIC "prints" the decimal value of N; on the 8-bit wide I/O data bus the binary status of N is present: 0 = 0000 0000 1 = 0000 0001 2 = 0000 0010 3 = 0000 0011 ... 63 = 0011 1111. You are absolutely right! All the best, Thorsten

Thank you very much for your comment! It is always this, isn't it? The moment, a more than 40 years old computer produces its welcome screen ... it happened to me a number of times over the past year; but only the 99er shows this friendly colorful screen, as if it wants to motivate you. As said, I saw that for the first time in my 62 years old life in June 2024 and thought: WOW, now this is a friendly computer ... all others I have, show boring stuff like a one letter prompt, a copyright line, count memory up and ask for date and time, or just jump into a graphical user interface ... but the TI tells you: Hey, it's a nice and colorful day. Press any key! I love it! Best, Thorsten

Dear All, video "proving" that the 99er can control #9750 is on YouTube, edited main topic, sorry for the bump: Best, Thorsten

Well, they are: 100 pieces for €5. (Warning: Link to BB) Yes, this is really a difficult one! But I must say, you did a very good job! Best, Thorsten

Of course, you can! This is your work. This is not a publication to be turned into a patent, that would be tough, of course. But as a book? Hey, this is >your< very own work! Just get in touch with the publisher, @Lipko was suggesting. Figure out what the odds are and then do it. It really is worth it, as far as I am concerned. Best, Thorsten

This! ... ... is exactly what I meant with "planning on taking it further". I believe David was interpreting my phrase as "more additions to this section", but I was just thinking about publishing in print, as a real book, at some time. I know this is totally old school, but when I look at my library of such "real LEGO related books", and the way I "work" with these - yeah, it does "work" (for me, at least) as a true, never-fading reference library. Because these books exist in my real universe. Reverting to online or copied PDFs, I stored ... somewhere ... on my computer ... they are ... mostly fading away, are sort of gone. Oh, digging them out again, when attempting to clean up my computer, is always, well, nice - and not so nice, as I feel bad about forgetting them ... Simply looking at my physical book library, they are >there<. And I may just grab one for fun. And learn ... Well, I am old. And I bet others have a totally different take on this. Which is totally fine with me! All the best, Thorsten

Hi Evan, yeah - the speech synthesizer has this 74LS138, which decodes only 2 out of 8 outputs (6 are ... not used, what a crime!) and has one freely available output selection input (C), when you free it from ground (that is another crime, actually; I believe with good lawyers, you have a case here ) - and then you don't need any further address decoding hardware. This simply means you don't need to tap into the (almost full range 16-bit) address bus, which would add a painful soldering frenzy, just look at #9771 ... And the speech synthesizer still synthesizes CALL SAY("TEXAS INSTRUMENTS") without glitch Best, Thorsten

I find this extremely useful Congratulations David! What a nice book and read - chapter 2 is my absolute favorite!!! And of course the reference section in chapter 7 - and of course everything else. But 2.15 is a blast. Do you mind, if I take some of your text and illustrations for my Introduction to Thermodynamics class(es)? And for discussion sections? With full reference to your name, book address (will that be sort of permanent or are you planning on taking it further?), and affiliation as found in the Afterword section? (I'm at the University of Wuppertal, where I am playing the head of the Physical and Theoretical Chemistry group) Wow, this is a true masterpiece: Very (!) nicely organized, helpful examples and illustrations ... And then the wonderful theoretical discussion culminates in an LEGO instruction ... so nice. Thank you very much for this truly marvelous publication! With very best regards, Thorsten

This is really cool, congratulations! Could it be, that this version is balanced in the exact right way? The circuit cube isn't really heavy, but may add a little more weight on the back - but no so much that is tips backwards when climbing, and has enough traction for the downgrades ... or is the train well-balanced? As @Hod Carrier said: This is a lot of fun to watch! Best wishes, Thorsten

"There are unsmiling faces in fetters and chains On a wheel in perpetual motion" Don't know - maybe Alan Parsons also plays with LEGO - although - at the days of that album, LEGO was still LEGO. By the way, 20000 parts of 1000 different types - exactly the same happened to me. I do have quite a number of Technic parts from the good old days, particularly of the type with studs ... but when my storage box count for Technic parts exceeded a critical number, I called it quits. I am now playing with LEGO Technic Control stuff from the mid/late 1980s, assemble vintage computers I dreamt of or had back then, and like Danish beer (a lot) - weirdo, I know. But yes, these are the two sides of the same coin; new parts = new nifty mechanisms, particularly for purists - at the expense of needing to buy new sets - just for these parts. Which is ... a wheel in perpetual motion. And maybe a perpetual motion machine of the fourth kind .... I, too, like drilling and gluing ABS ... Best, Thorsten