Toastie

"Asterix & Obelix" ... nothing else ... ... the parole? No idea, btw, you think and I am ... which is a very nice translation of "cogito ergo sum" when you are a team of two. Cheers! Thorsten

Hi Emanuele, I truly love this. The smaller the MOCs the harder it gets (as far as I am concerned). I really like your attention to detail - not only when you build super trains (as in super cars ...) and you built many(!!!), no also when it comes to hardworking individuals on the track. And that is a lovely crane! All the best, Thorsten (P.S.: Still studying the code, your son wrote - I am slow - but please congratulate him on his work!!!)

I'll do it Best, Thorsten

That sounds very exciting! Thank you for all your efforts! Once again: The "frontpage" disappears in no time - pinned topics remain accessible for a long time - well as long as they are pinned. Yes, I do see the honor when folks/themes/topics are frontpaged!!! On another thought: Who really cares about a striking promo image when it comes to using PoweredUp? Just put a bold THE ULTIMATE POWERED UP GUIDE YOU HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR SINCE IT WAS INTRODUCED For bloody beginners to total programming nerds. - advanced pairing - the meaning of the hub's LED colors - - THE guide to all programming blocks - - and how to meaningful connect them to power your MOCs at another level of control - YOU WILL BE AMAZED text only frontpage - it certainly will catch attentions, I am sure. After all, people here on EB can read. Maybe choose a nifty font or cool colors, but I believe b/w using Arial is much better ... But that is my opinion only of course! Best, Thorsten

Hi Dave, @Milan, @JopieK, that is a very good idea! Way better than frontpaging (which would be of course also "nice" but by far not as sustainable ;) All the best, Thorsten

Wow!!! I am simply stunned. Just turned every page of your document ... Absolutely true! I bet that the level of acceptance of PoweredUp as operating and/or programming environment would have gone through the roof instead of being regarded as too complicated, wishy-washy, unreliable, garbage (just browse this forum) ... as far as I am concerned any such rather complex (and at that time new) environment is just as good as documentation is. Yes, one can "find out" this and that and finally everything - you have more than proven that it works - but generally, people don't have as much passion and skills as you have! I truly believe that TLG massively screwed-up on this one: Proper documentation. To be clear: Your absolutely fantastic work is not outdated at all. It appears to me as if TLG simply cranked out a (really nice!) programmable hardware product line that was in some sort of decent state, hardware- and firmware-wise, that is. The LWP3.0 document they threw onto GitHub (lego-ble-wireless-protocol-docs), is still "almost" up-to date ... after >6< years of not being touched at all! But application-wise (the most time-consuming thing in every hard/software development project released to the public or a broader audience) they simply utterly screwed-up. Yes, have read it here and there, small number of people involved, and so on and so forth - same thing as so often seen in other companies as well. And in addition, new software items were added, updated and so on - but still no documentation. As it stands now, PoweredUp is a fully blown programming language with visual IDE and all bells and whistles, as your source code listings clearly show. And still no TLG documentation. Now, after 6 years, we finally have an up-to date, complete, very nicely composed and structured documentation of how programming within the PoweredUp world works. With all the essential - or better, crucial - information in one place. How to pair, advanced pairing, meaning of the colors - even this must be so frustrating for many people not wanting to take a long time to figure it out by trial and error. Your programming examples are excellent choices. Your listing of the (now) almost countless instructions is a marvel. The further information you provide finally explains why this and that was/is behaving in that and this way ... I am really very excited about this document. In conclusion: TLG should compensate you with a LOT of money - as the time you spent on this plus your excellent work is what they essentially just saved in expenses. Plus, I bet their version of documentation would not even come close to what you have accomplished. Thank you very, very much for sharing this document! With very best regards, Thorsten Oh no - did I miss something here? PoweredUp is still an active program, isn't it? Or did they already suggest some "retiring soon" dates??? Hopefully not - I love PUp. Programming it with 3rd party software, that is. Best, Thorsten

Welcome, @Stevel Kennevil! almost the same here: I am playing with LEGO for 59 years ... All the best, Thorsten

Hmm - define 8-bit ;) The Hitachi/Renesas H8/300 microcontroller built into the RCX has eight 16-bit GP registers it uses for various things ... https://lisha.ufsc.br/teaching/shi/processors/h8/overview.pdf But yes, as the Zilog Z80 CPU, the H8/300 used in the RCX is considered an 8-bit microcontroller (8-bit data handling). I don't think there was any true 16-bit microcontroller used in LEGO PBricks - the time between release of the RCX and the NXT was so long, that it did nor make sense to use a 16 -bit variety but do it right away with a 32-bit (RISC) controller. Best, Thorsten

Thank you very much! Well, there is nothing to understand - it does nothing productive other than: "decorate" the otherwise boringly designed main post/support of the monorail track generates quite some noise when the wheels are turning (I like action and noise on my layout) - the 4.5V motor is more than 30 years old and that is to be heard as well ... when you live close to that post or service something up there, the direction the wheels turn, tell you from which side the train approaches ;) in Steam Punk world, gears, pistons, motion, and so on - usually hard to "understand" what they really do - seem to be a major thing. The Pantasy railway station itself has such an assembly on the right side, where the ticket counter is - I am tempted to using another Cubic motor to turn the wheels there as well ;) in Steam Punk world, one may claim that this device is required for the time travel feature of using this train; you certainly noticed that the clock runs ccw when the passengers enter the station through the spinning door ... All the best, Thorsten

You are too kind, Emanuele! It is just a fun layout - nothing compared to what you accomplish. Thank you very much Yes, same here; I bet the Pantasy designers did watch that video as well. But they did not put in a Tenka Cubic Motor ... And OK, I work in Wuppertal ... the industrialization began here around 1850; 1872 Bayer began their production, and in 1875 there were more than 400 steam engines at work. The Steam Punk era apparently plays between 1840 and 1900 ... and the Wuppertal suspended rail system was planned as early as 1887; the initial test drive was in 1898 ... I'd call that a perfect match. Thank you again and all the best, Thorsten

Yeah, that is what she said (slightly differently phrased). Here is to insanity. You are playing in the same league - looking for another 9776 card. What to say? Totally cool!!! Did you contact Apple and presented your setup? Bet they like it! On another thought: Are there A/D cards for the Apple ][ from that time? You could attach a microphone to the input (maybe pre-amplified) and then control the 6x5 lamps on the 5 9750 outputs; the louder, the more lights are on and so on and so forth. As Dr. Ray Stantz said: "The possibilities are unlimited ..." (and then Dean Jaeger showed up ...) Best wishes, Thorsten

Oh yes, that maybe be very well true. Well, I finished my suspended monorail project - using the "12V rail + slightly modified Masao Hidaka" design. I must say, this turns out to be really sturdy! Also, the Cubic motors and the Circuit Cube (BLE version) are a miracle! As I used a third party suspended train, I report on my project in the Community Forum. The changes and additions are all LEGO though (+Tenka). There is really low friction even in the R40 curves. Now that I can operate the train with the LEGO remote (either running autonomously or manually controlled) using an ESP32 board, all the fun begins. Just in case: Here's the link to that post (it also has a link to 6 min YouTube video): https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/197590-mod-85007-pantasy-suspended-steam-punk-train-motorized-with-tenka’s-circuit-cubes-elements/&amp;do=findComment&amp;comment=3687247 Best, Thorsten

Nice one! Glad to read that you guys don't have any problems in making what TLG did not make (yet) to fit your needs . I did get quite some flak elsewhere when mentioning that my approach needed cutting, drilling and optionally sanding, oh my. Very nice approach with the 9V/RC/12V hybrid tracks! Regards, Thorsten

It is even worse: I am a baby boomer, not even on any border, just that ... Well, I fluently speak a couple of BASIC dialects. There must be a time, when this comes back. I mean, white tennis socks came back, after two decades of mocking me; I always did, do and will wear them . BTW, I finally did get my C++ code up and running to operate the Circuit Cube sitting on my suspended Steam Punk monorail train using an ESP32 board. The good thing is: C++ is so flexible, that you can almost boldly code in BASIC style. The hard work (BLE discovery and pairing etc.) was done by Steffen and boy, these files >are< true C++ code! I have posted the link in the Community Forum (main_V5.cpp on my BrickSafe). So cool, that there are so many ways to operate the CC critters! Best, Thorsten

Dear All, I “finished” my work on the Steam Punk suspended monorail train, train station, and layout. After installing Microsoft’s Visual Studio Code framework, the PlatformIO plugin, Arduino Command Line Interface (CLI), and running @Aper’s C++ code for controlling the BLE Circuit Cube [as strongly suggested by @Asper (Steffen) and @Ts__ (Thomas)] on a good old ESP32 Devkit V1 board, I had “free” programming access to the 3 output channels of the CC using a LEGO PoweredUp remote – and all the thousand and one things an ESP32 Devkit board can do! This needed no(!) tweaking of Steffen’s code. Now I also had all the more than 20 input/output ports (GPIOs) of the ESP32 board at my disposal. More than 8 of these ports can be configured as PWM outputs with a large range of PWM pulse width resolution and PWM frequency. As I love to mix as many decades old and new as well as alternative LEGO pieces as possible in one layout, I chose two 4.5V Technic motors to do additional work (this also leaves me with potentially using 9750 – LEGO Interface A, @evank loves so much – for control): Spin the revolving door of the main train station and its clock cw and ccw, depending on departure or arrival of the suspended train. This required some changes to the “tower” of the main station. This mechanism is made with LEGO pieces and had go into the roof of the tower. One golden element needed to go, but is now spinning on the gear rack mouted to the main monorail track post/mount: Turn the gear rack (installed for no other purpose than “show”) on the elevated track post/support connecting the two 90° curves leading into the main and remote station. The 4.5V LEGO motors run nicely on 5V from a 1A USB power supply, which in turn 1) also feeds the ESP32 board (via its “Vin” pin, which goes diode protected to the onboard 3.3V voltage regulator), and 2) may be used for recharging the Circuit Cube mounted in the back of the carriage; thus only one power supply is sufficient for all power needs on the display. A tiny Polulu DRV8835 dual H-bridge motor driver board (https://botland.de/dc-motortreiber/851-drv8835-zweikanal-motortreiber-11-v-12-a-pololu-2135-5904422367220.html) running in mode 1 (phase/enable) handles the two 4.5 LEGO motors. For each motor output, one digital input is “fwd/rev” selection and the other is “PWM in”, so this tiny board connects to only 4 correspondingly configured GPIOs of the ESP32. 3 LEDs and one push button is all that is needed to “see” the status of the program running on the ESP and to reset the board for BLE device scanning (Pictures below: Station closed; station’s right section open, revealing the ESP control box; ESP control box with button, 3 LEDs, and – hiding the little dual H-bridge driver mounted to the back of the ESP board): ESP32 Box “functions”: Push button w/ built-in LED #1 = ESP board reset (button connects GND to EN pin), this restarts the BLE device discovery and connect procedure and then signals the status. LED on: “BLE discovery and connect time-out”; in case the CC and/or the LEGO remote did not connect with the ESP, simply press reset, which reruns this procedure. One discrete LED #2 signaling “all motors (door, gears, V10, train motor) on the layout will be operated” in “auto mode”; if off, “auto mode” will just operate the motor on the locomotive. One discrete LED #3 signaling “auto mode on”; if “on” the train runs forever from the main station to the remote station and back automatically. When auto mode is off, manual control of the train using the three left buttons on the remote is enabled. The buttons on the two left and right control pads of the LEGO remote have different functions. Steffen used them in his code to control two Circuit Cube operated trains with one remote. On my layout, the left remote buttons are for manual train control. The CC power scale is –255 … 0 … +255 with a resolution of +/-1, however, Steffen already programmed a power offset of 50, i.e., 0 = off, 50 = 1 etc. into his BLE code, so the logical scale goes from 0 to +/-200 with (logical) power 10 = real power 60. This makes absolute sense for even lightweight trains/vehicles, as real power settings between 1 and 50 hardly build-up enough Cubic Motor torque to move them. As my Steam Punk train is rather heavy, the manual buttons in/decrease power by 20 per click. This yields 10 power steps in each direction, way enough for decent train speed control. The right LEGO remote buttons are used for manual control of the other motors (V10 locomotive motor, revolving door motor in the main station, and gear motor on the center elevated track post. When repeatedly pressing the “+” button, first LED #2 turns on and indicates “synced operation of all motors in auto mode”. Pressing it again, turns synced mode off and then iterates (in a freely programmable manner) through the auxiliary motor behavior on the layout; see figure below. The idea is that one can turn motors on in a somewhat “logical” manner, operate the train manually, e.g., drive to the remote station, turn corresponding aux motors off and restart them in reverse for traveling back to the main station, move the train back, and turn off the aux motors. All motors slowly wind up and down - I individually adjusted the max power/power step width/winding time for each motor. A manually operated return trip from the main station to the remote station is done in this sequence (and can be reprogrammed any time to different behavior of course): First click on the right “+” button: “Synced control of all motors” is activated, LED #2 is on. Just ignore that, press the “+” button again. LED #2 is turned off, and manual control begins: The revolving door of the main station starts to rotate (cw), as do the clock hands (ccw, just for fun, time travel ;) – travelers enter the station, not “losing” any time, in contrast! Both are propelled by a 4.5V LEGO motor via one of the H-bridge drivers using PWM output from the ESP. Next click on (right) “+” button stops the door, as travelers have entered the carriage. Next click fires up the V10 motor in the engine (cw), which is operated by channel B of the CC. Next click fires up the gear rack motor, indicating full forward power (cw) available, again driven by a 4.5V LEGO motor, PWM controlled. At this point, the train may be manually moved to the remote station, using the left remote buttons; “+” (increment power in steps of 20), “red” = stop (power = 0) , and “–“ (decrement power by 20). Once arrived at the remote station and stopped, the next click on the right “+” button turns off the gear motor, next the V10 motor. Travelers exit the train and others enter. Next right click fires up the V10 motor again, but rotating ccw (yes, this Steam Punk train reverses the motor rotation direction :D), on the next click the gear motors come up (ccw), then the left remote buttons are used again for navigating the train back to the main station. A click on the right “+” button turns off the gear motor, next click the V10 motor. Next click: Door begins to rotate (cw, time flies back to present), and the final right “+” button click stops the door motor. And then all begins from start. As said, following the above created scenario is not required at all; it is just for making good noise and motion on the layout. For no additional noise and manual operation, just leave the system in manual control (both LEDs #2 and #3 are off) and play with the train using the left remote buttons. Another feature are the two photoelectric barrier sensors installed at the entry to the main station and the far end of the remote station. On the overhead motor mount of the engine is a little 1x2 panel mounted sideways, which blocks the light beam when the train is in the respective end position. At that point going further reverse in the main station is software-disabled; the same is the case in the remote station, but for going forward. I was a little nervous when designing this layout; it sits close to a 7 feet deep hole in the floor providing access for the stairs to my attic. There are also (hardware) safety blocks installed on the elevated track, but even derailing the train is “not nice”. A full power hardware stop resulted in a lot of debris flying into the depths … Pictures below: Remote station's sensor; main station sensor also showing how the train blocks the light in the sensor (which then goes high on its output) These sensors also allow for full automatic operation. When the train is in the initial (main station) position, pressing the right “+” button enables “the all motors synced mode” (see above), pressing the right “–“ button will light-up LED #3 and start the sequence as described above for manual mode but under full program control. The train accelerates, decelerates and stops automatically, and then returns to the main station. When the “auto mode” LED is still on, it will repeat the sequence, until the right “–“ button is pressed again; LED #3 turns of, and the program will complete the current run = stop at main station and then return to manual mode. As convenient recharging of the Circuit Cube installed in the carriage (with easy access to the little on/off switch and providing easy access to the micro USB charging port) is a bit of a challenge, when the cube is also tightly secured in its position, I dismantled a micro USB plug, soldered two 2 mm red/black sockets to the +5V/GND terminals of the USB plug and mounted them in a 1x2 brick with studs on one side. Yes, you need to drill two matching holes into the brick, see picture below. BUT: As TLG does not make these, I made them ;) The power feed for recharging was originally planned to come from the USB power supply I use for the ESP board, H-bridge motor driver, and light barrier detectors; however it turned out that it was much more convenient to tap into the 15V DC permanent power lines of my train layout: All 9V tracks carry 15V DC voltage sourced by a rather potent laptop power supply. And since there is a 9V track line directly located next to the back of the Steam Punk train when in the main station (where the CC sits in the carriage, see picture below), I tapped into that line using a 7805 regulator and two capacitors, not really necessary, but I am old … These are stuffed into the little black “transformer box” in the picture below. Lastly, since I needed only one reset button (for invoking BLE rescanning) and all other functions are controlled with the LEGO PUp remote (6+1 buttons), the ESP32 Devkit board and the dual H-bridge motor driver along with two LED’s easily find space inside the main train station: The enclosure is located above the ticket counter, hardly seen when the station is “closed”. I tried to give the (all LEGO) enclosure it a little steamy and punky look, although I am really not good at matching it with the other beautiful train station elements, see pictures above. There were some additions here and there (mounts for the light barrier sensors, other cosmetic additions) but this is not worth showing them explicitly. OK, here is a video (about 6 min) attempting to capture the "action" – and as usual, I simply suck at taking videos. Once again, a million thanks to Steffen and Thomas! Without you guys, I’d never tried VSC and PIO, and thus no CC control for me! All the best, Thorsten P.S.: C++ program "code" is here: https://bricksafe.com/files/Toastie/pantasy-steam-punk-railway-/main_V5.cpp

We have activity! OK, I know nobody is (really) following this forum, but: I am using an evil set (Pantasy #85007) for my monorail expedition, so I have to post here. In summary, I used all LEGO parts to change the train and carriage brackets used to "hang" the train on LEGO 12V rails, used LEGO elements to make the monorail, and LEGO elements to power the clock/door in the main station and some whoohoo gear rack for ... show. Will post on the details (Circuit Cube charging, ESP32 programming, LEGO PUp remote control and this and that here. Here is just a link to a "I suck at making videos" YouTube upload: Link removed and copied to the next post. All the best, Thorsten

Huh? The toughest part is the whole display! Everything on it. Man, I recognize every detail right away ... this is unbelievably nice. Wow. Thank you very much for sharing! All the best, Thorsten

Heehee - how cool is that - how totally cool. asperka ... @Asper ... aluminum hat off ... you know, this is the utter power of open source. @Cornelius openly provided his LEGOINO source code. Steffen studied that and used it for his wonderful (I phrased it before and will do it again:) CIRCUINO source code - and both guys put it on GitHub for everyone to inspect and learn from it. Now your son made his software for another platform, studying Steffen's code. It is simply THE best. And of course please any time via direct message; you have my email address as well ;) Say hello to your son and the family! All the best, Thorsten

Oh, this is soo nice!!! Congratulation on that super nice and nifty shunter! All the best, Thorsten

@evank Well, then here we go ... Born '62, my first LEGO set was #323 - the push along train (I still have). No Technic sets for me until entering my dark ages in the late 1970's - resurfaced from that period in 1996 and "found" #8485 (Control Center II) dead cheap on sale. But for me, the best Technic set of all time is #9719 (LEGO Mindstorms Robotics Invention System 1.0). It changed everything in my LEGO world. Best, Thorsten

@evank: Do you want to break out the real Technic, or should I? Best, Thorsten

Hehe - OK. Now: First party is TLG, right? And third party is ... whoever exists in non-first party land other than ... me/everyone? Is that right as well? So second party is - personal party, correct? If so, this is definitely the way to go! All the best, Thorsten

And that is a blast! I recently "returned" to my beloved Sinclair ZX81 and Spectrum, the latter having a RS232 port - they all live here in my attic - along with a PCW8512 (Joyce), an IBM XT and an Atari 1040 - all from around or before 1985 - almost 40 years old (next year is going to be THE big celebration data party up here - OK me, a bottle of Captain Morgan, and the other oldtimers) - and all going strong, as you said. And talking happily to my Win11 laptop. 9600 baud - the >real< light speed and true benchmark in serial data transfer world ... You should dive into LEGO Interface A world - some here on EB know much more about than I do! That is so cool; 1986 LEGO Technic ... controlled by either of one of the above oldtimers - or a Win11 laptop. Sooo cool. Have fun! All the best, Thorsten

Woo-hoo!!! OK, getting sentimental - but: One of the things that drive me, is getting "good old" and "apparently new" stuff together. And the serial port (now in the incarnation of USB) is the way to literally talk to - ancient teletypes, in a decent way. Or the very first computers. I love the original handshake approach, the original serial interface implementation (25 wires ...). You know that 2 + GND wire (+ XON/XOFF in software) is just a matter of hardware speed, but essentially same old thing: When you are busy, I won't talk. And vice versa. And now you have the LEGO Interface B at your fingertips! Simply wonderful. Have all the fun with it! Or: Ready Player One! All the best, Thorsten

Congratulations! That is very good news! I actually believe that you can use a Win11 computer with such a dongle and a terminal program for starters! Also, the VS C# program, Tom is providing on his website (https://lgauge.com/article.php?article=technic/articles/LEGOInterfaceB) should work! Very cool - I love it. All the best, Thorsten