Toastie

Hi Evan, I don't know whether this qualifies as "catalog" - I have (somewhere) a four-page Lego Dacta "catalog" from 1986/1987, where they have the non-computerized sets like 1081 etc. and some sort of announcement for the Interface A, forgot what it was. This thing is in German though. Best, Thorsten

100% my approach (not with regard to roller coasters, as I have none, but to challenges I can't solve otherwise - it always feels good to read such posts!) BTW, screws (carefully selected!) in Technic beam holes and some wooden structures ... OK, yes, I don't want to derail this thread ... but wood and LEGO do go along very well. Only as far as I am concerned, of course. Best wishes, Thorsten

I tend to agree - it adds a little something to the chubbiness ... Yes. 25 for €4,95. OK, you need the glass as well; 50 for €6,95. Hmm, that totals to €16,85 for 50 windows = 4.16 cars of this type. Very nice cars, these are!!! All the best, Thorsten

Well - real "places" is one thing - all over the internet is another. Since the age of Amazon and the like, there are so unbelievable many virtual places that actually "work". Yes, I recently did a very bad thing: Just to test waters, I ordered the architecture set "Berlin" from AliExpress, because I loved to see my Crocodile moving past London, Paris, well, and Berlin. eBay (new): Anywhere from $199 to you dream it + S&H. Used: starting at $150, and you dream it + S&H. AE: $14.46, no box, no S&H, 14 days delivery, with tracking. It arrived 4 days earlier. To be honest: This is totally crazy. But when you look at the tiny little bag (I never anticipated that this one was containing all the tiny bricks of Berlin), ... $150 used. I know, designers, collectors, value, and all that. I could have ordered >some< of the pieces at PAB, just to miss almost 1/2 of what is needed. The thing is: I now have Berlin here, in perfect condition. I thought: $15 will not hurt TLG - and more importantly: As they don't make the set anymore: It cannot hurt them at all. $200 vs $15. No LEGO imprint on the tiny, non-patent protected pieces ... I'll never do that with current TLG sets. Never. But when it comes to people selling things for insane amounts - they should just do it. And I take the other route. I know, give me shit ... Best, Thorsten

Hmmm - countless, as in maybe 20 or even 50? I believe @JaBaCaDaBra is referring to the remaining tens of thousands of sets - well - collecting dust My take: Leave space here, tease there, render it "possible" - claim it is sooo hard to do, float the super tough TLG QC limits - and off the party goes! I also believe had TLG had thrown in the PUp stuff, this set wound need to hit the $500 margin, otherwise the Technic freaks, well, would freak out, as they have to live with Control+, which is PUp, for long now, and that pushed (for some "unknown" reason) profit ... well, let's not talk about the lifetime of PUp. Aluminum hat off. Have fun with the motorization, as I clearly see this as the fun part! Best, Thorsten

Not as I am aware - however, rumors have it that Konrad Zuse entertained the idea of implementing a USB3 port on his Z3 (that's actually where the name came from), without the need of installing any drivers. Unfortunately, they could not get the proper (more importantly cheap) jacks from China without using a time machine, H.G. Wells made popular 150 years earlier. Well. Where is my Aluminum hat - here it is. Best, Thorsten

You need to install the tower driver first, then attach the USB tower to the computer. Then it shows up as, well, LEGO tower. Of course the XP machine works, man, I have an IBM XT from 1985 running as if it were a very well lubricated sawing machine! This is for the LEGO Technic Control world ... Good luck! Best, Thorsten

No, I don't - however, TLG had it all well-prepared, but never really told us ^^ ... All you need: Two "Technic pins 1/2" (http://www.peeron.com/inv/parts/4274), and the fiber (it really is a flexible plastic tube), any of the "x400" lengths (http://www.peeron.com/inv/parts/x400). The "fibers" fit tightly into the long section of the pins and these attach nicely to the tower and the MicroScout's light sensor using the short section. There is some kind of "lens" on the MicroScout's sensor window; just push the fiber all the way through the pin, then attach the pin with fiber to the MicroScout - this pushes the fiber back as far as necessary, resulting in a tight "light connection". That's all. Just a tip: I believe, the MicroScout's firmware "calibrates" the light sensor upon startup. When exposed to bright light upon startup, it is tough to get the sensors "attention". Some kind of ambient light protection helps a lot with regard to reliable visible light controlled operation of the MicroScout. BTW, this all works very nicely with >10 feet of "real optical fiber" - you need to firmly attach this type of fiber to the pin though; LEGO flextube does a good job here. I am using MicroScouts controlled by a Scout to flip train switches: Best, Thorsten

No sorry, I don't. To get "through" to the tower, you need the USB driver. I never did any such thing as programming a driver. As far as I know, you need to know a lot about the hardware layer of the tower (?) - and that is, again as far as I know, "not" documented. It will be a rather simple hardware infrastructure, I am sure of; there is a USB to serial converter, some 38 kHz IR LED driver/receiver and that is pretty much it, I guess. The USB tower has to generate/read 2400 baud IR signals when it talks/listens to the PBricks ... also, the VLL link is of course serial in nature. This is used by the Spybotics and MicroScouts. Again, sorry for that. Should you have a 32bit OS/computer at hand, the 32 bit driver for the USB tower will run smoothly, of course. Best wishes, Thorsten

Yes, exactly; works nicely with the optical LEGO "fibers" This link is also good for programming the Spybotics PBricks, if you don't have the original Spybotics "serial interface" - which is a simple but clever way of hooking up a VIS LED and VIS photo-transistor directly to the RS232 port of a PC. You can also connect a Scout via such a fiber link to the MicroScout - it will then act as a third motor for the Scout. Best, Thorsten

Which will naturally add a lot of friction in R40 curves at this fixed axle distance, as the outer wheel flanges will "grind" the tracks - but this is certainly designed for larger radii anyway. Best, Thorsten

Naa, don't think so - you need to reach 10 posts, and then the messaging feature is avialable. Best, Thorsten

Hmm. Confused I am - big are the pictures ... fast time flies ... In this topic (not open to discussion ) @Milan said that @Siegfried said in 2008, not to post images larger as 1024 x 768 (aka the good'ol 4:3 XGA standard, IBM introduced in 1990 ) and where Siegfried suggested to use 800 x 600 (aka the even older 4:3 SVGA standard, IBM introduced three years earlier ), because even in 2008, 800 x 600 shows almost all details you need to discern. I totally agree. In essence, 1024 x 768 is the max. size allowed on EB - since 2008. So nothing changed, for 15 years. 800 x 600 is recommended. Is this correct? Otherwise, I may get keelhauled sooner than later, as I frequently used 1000 x something ... Best, Thorsten @Craig Strader These wheels are >very< nice indeed! The hole close to the center of the wheel is for the connection "pin" to a driving/connecting rod, correct? As they are located on real machines, correct? If so, when wanting to drive the wheels as per this pin, there needs to be some sort of "crank" as well, right? Which would be so lovely so see spinning around - I believe most LEGO models built at this scale don't have these. Thank you very much!!! All the best, Thorsten

Hi Steve, I can't believe I missed this. You are doing this - is so wonderful. I just looked at all your cards - it is incredible. Thank you very, very much. Have a wonderful Christmas season. All the best, Thorsten

Oh my - let's put "politics" aside - as far as I am concerned, your "everyone" stops short "everywhere" with regard to mainland Chinese companies. Back on topic: What about the quality of the bricks? What about the parts count, what about the "battery box", what about the price? And foremost: About the originality of the set? Any comments on that? Best, Thorsten

Folks, I know, this will be not well received in this forum. How-ever. I just watched Thomas' (Panke) Video on MK's set 16052 "City Rail Car". Man. €90 for this set is insanely cheap. Not the point: The battery box (rechargeable, of course) has remote access - and, because it is fun ... a motor in it!!! I see this box as driving unit for sooo many trains. Yes, we need to check on torque etc., sure, but hey, what an idea (at least for me). In addition to this box (check original price for TLG's #8878), you get a remote ^^ - and just to mention it, about 1500 pieces of ABS. Larger pieces, that is. For those interested (in German): There may be other reviews in English as well, just throw them in here. Bricks are from GoBricks (which swiftly approach TLG quality). I have the feeling that the MK folks will constantly come up with other cool stuff as this "battery box" is - thus this thread. Best, Thorsten

As this thread was resurrected for a good reason: I missed this comment - which is 100% my perception. That is - and should very well be - the "purpose" of the global enterprise TLG. What "we" develop, in terms of "believing in", is something entirely different. There are the Gods, there are the believers. With regard to mixing parts: Recently, I acquired two <1990 LEGO Dacta sets - mainly triggered by @evank's hacking challenge. @MAB very well knows what this means: Very nice heavy plastic boxes, neatly organized pieces inside, each Technic axle finds its place in a nicely crafted insert ... As these sets were used in schools for educational purposes, some of the items inside show some wear - others seem to be less used ... initially, I thought, I need to keep these marvels well separated from my "newer", i.e., less than 15 years old Technic stuff. Well, initially. I tried to build two robot arms - one with parts of #1092 (Technic Control II) and one from #8094 (Control Center I), however I have only Control Center II (#8485) - and it did not work out. I also have a good number of other disassembled Technic sets - and simply gave up: Simply mixed everything. What - a - relief! Mint or bite marks, old (harder) or new (softer) pieces - just as I needed them in the "right" ^^ color. So: Done (since some years now) with believing in: keeping-something-forever-as-it-originally-was; in contrast - it feels absolutely cool to mix old and new and realize: It looks the same as before! Who cares about wear? Who cares about the age of the pieces? As I age, I even find yellowed pieces - seasoned. Somehow mature. As said: There are the Gods, there are the believers - so guess who my Gods are ;) All the best, thank you for all the fish, and don't sort by age Thorsten

Whoa - you know, light travels about 0.3 m in a nanosecond ... I believe this can be safely done at least 6 orders of magnitude longer than a nanosecond without breaking anything - in a very worst case scenario (VWCS ), which is highly simplified, as we only consider linear motion in the worst rod position: Let us assume the i) side rod is in full up position and ii) the pinhole for attaching this rod to the wheel is centered at half the radius of the LEGO train 85489a/b wheels, as per L-Gauge website; we then get the following: (All numbers rounded heavily, not of concern here, it is just for illustration of a "nanosecond") Wheel diameter = 0.03 m; radius described by rod connection point = 0.015/2 m = 0.008 m. Circumference = 2*PI*0.008 m = 0.05 m. PF-L runs at max. 390 rpm (no load), according to Philo's motor page; 390 rpm = 6.5 rps; this corresponds to a (linear) travel distance of 6.5 s-1 * 0.05 m = 0.35 m/s In a nanosecond, this becomes 0.35 * EXP(-9) m = 0.35 nm (nanometer). A human hair has an average diameter of 0.8 mm (millimeter), which is roughly 6 orders of magnitude thicker than the above calculated distance. I thus believe we are well in the tolerance range of several or even hundreds of ms, before considerable stress would build up on the pins/rods/gears. The PF electronics is way faster than this; even with the train remote, you should be fine. When both motors spin, things become much more relaxed. I have never had any issues with two motors hard coupled to one 9V/PF/PUp "driver" - when you take care of about similar settings and reasonable "starts and stops" - as said, the timescale is "much" different from nanoseconds, but well in the control range of humans. Best regards, Thorsten

I - am - speechless ... Yes. This is a locomotive, the OE coaches deserve ... wow. And runs on R40 ... beautiful. Simply beautiful. Congratulations! With best regards, Thorsten

Is this the OE blue on the left??? I am sorry for asking, as I am a little ^^ color-blind. This locomotive so deserves it to pull the OR carriages - as a beautiful locomotive. I have just learned that OE is now "owned" by Accor, just living on people with a lot of - in my world way too much - money, so "OE" - for me - has become even more so totally uninteresting. Let TLG and Accor do what they want. 2025 is apparently the new launch of the Accor OE Express. What a coincidence and: What-ever. It must be a blast to see your 8-wide beautiful locomotive pulling the beautiful LEGO OE carriages. Tipping hat, a bow - and a slide nod - to your locomotive. All the best, Thorsten

Well, Google has lots of photographs ... duh, I know. We had another interesting discussion here on EB some 4 years ago: Now, when you look at the very first photograph in that thread (which is a bit blurry, but it's all well discernible): On the diverging track, the left (curved) rail is covered with one piece of solid metal all the way through - as is the right (straight) rail on the straight track. The lever inside the body of the track does the switching, as it is partly plated with a metal piece. I believe this is discussed in the thread as well. If not, let me know, I have modified almost all of my LEGO switches, so there is less friction when throwing them with a motor. If you still need photographs, I'll take one apart again. Best, Thorsten

Holy smokes. Man, even after my 30th MOC I would not be where you are - ingenious!!! The OE carriages may look very OE'ish (I learned that this is a more of a philosophy than a train). And to top it off: I believe changing the blue you used to the OE blue - man. 8-wide, unique loco ... Thank you very much for sharing! All the best, Thorsten

There are more features provided by this web editor (in addition to all caps, bold faced and underlined text) to emphasize what you want to convey: Italics. and you can change the color and font size.

Yeah, sure: For you. So in essence, the Gods of the OE have approved this set - and they don't know anything about trains?

Which is a clear hint that ABS is far less tasty than polyethylene - despite the much better crunch factor ABS has Best, Thorsten