Toastie

@alexGS Hi Alex, not sure, but a very interesting idea - should we discuss this further in a dedicated topic, not derailing this VC topic? I just created this one: https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/192941-lego-interface-a-97509771-–-lego-technic-control-1-tc1-referenceideas-thread/ Best, Thorsten

This thread is about one of the first attempts of TLG wandering into the world of electronic control using actuators and sensors in connection with a computer. Whoever wants to contribute, feel free to dump it in here. Should there exist already a similar thread on EB, moderators please let me know, merge, or delete this thread! Here are absolutely wonderful references to already elaborate documentations and solutions for the operation of "TC1 world 4.5V machinery": Apple II operating 9750 and much more: http://lukazi.blogspot.com/2014/07/lego-legos-first-programmable-product.html Reengineering procedure and functionality of 9771 (in German); schematic of LEGO Interface 1 ISA bus card 9771: http://www.elektronik-kompendium.de/forum/forum_entry.php?id=212705&page=0&category=all&order=last_answer Details on the operation of 9750 with “semi-modern” computers using the parallel port along with Windows-based executables: https://lgauge.com/article.php?article=technic/articles/LEGOInterfaceA On the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/vintagelegorobotics (TC1 and ControlLab) https://archive.org/details/@magicratandbarefootgirl (TC1 and ControlLab) And finally a tutorial style written 300+ page wonderful book about the PC hardware, beginning with the architecture of an IBM PC upto the Pentium CPU level, including the ISA bus organization and its signal timing: http://vtda.org/books/Computing/Hardware/ISASystemArchitectureThirdEd_TomShanleyDonAnderson.pdf (Please add more to this list - I have already lost track here ...) Introduction In the 1991 LEGO (dacta) book “Technic Control 1 Resources Guide” (TC1RG), the introduction reads: “Welcome to the world of Technic Control 1 (TC1) Technology! With TC1, students from middle school through high school can work in a hands-on problem solving environment to understand better the role of computers in today's technology.” The LEGO hardware was released about 5 years earlier. As I am constantly confused with the names as well as set/item numbers TLG is using and as these LEGO Technic Control 1 sets were mostly designed for educational in-class activities (LEGO dacta) and identical “normal LEGO” and “LEGO dacta” items have different item numbers, I am using the names and numbers found in the TC1RG: #9750 = “Interface Box” #9771 = “MSDOS Interface Card” Operation of 9771 This first post discusses the MSDOS Interface Card, as I still don’t own the Interface Box – should be on its way though. The Interface Box, as per references above, features 6 x 2 TMP3055 (TMOS power field effect transistors, 60V, 12 A each ... TLG didn't mess around these days) equipped drivers for digital = on/off operation of 4.5V motors and lights, as well as two op amp driven amplifiers for digitalization (on/off) of sensor signals, touch and light. There is no A/D converter present, all states of the box are of binary nature. The MSDOS Interface Card is an ISA bus data exchange card, which allows to write to 6 latched outputs (on/off) and/or read from two latched inputs (on/off), connected to the Interface Box with a 20wire ribbon cable. The latched information is accessible via the ISA bus IOR/IOW request, respecting DMA priority. Address decoding is done with a simple TTL logic gate assembly; data in- and output is via two 8-bit transparent D flip-flop latches. This assembly is briefly described here. The schematic was already published in 2014 (as noted by @BrickTronic , thanks again!!!) – I just did not find that one. I guess the bizarre naming was confusing Google as well … I just finished reading the entire thread (about 70 entries) on the 2014 www.elektronik.kompendium forum page (referenced above) – and I am very happy that I can fully confirm the findings from more than 8 years ago (oh man) Yes, the card address is 925 (0x39D) with the bridge installed (default) and 926 (0x39E) without. Yes, one can use QBasic to control the card, however, at low speed. There is actually a scanned original LEGO program listing in the thread! It always feels - hmmm - weird to having successfully reinvented something. On the other hand, I discovered this way that I can still comprehend simple TTL logic – I did that more regularly 40 years ago as my hobby (yup nerd throughout my entire life) I also learned that in 2014, one individual from Holland, who earlier found many of the 9771 cards abandoned in the school he was working then, still had one card in 2014 he obviously did not want to sell. He helped a lot with tracing the board and thus for Frank’s final success of reproducing the 9771; Frank only had photographs of the card. Hidden traces were giving him headaches … Now call it a coincidence – a box with 9771 in it, arrived two weeks ago from Holland at our house – and yes, name sounds very familiar … Oh my the world is really small … Most importantly I basically just paid the postage for that package plus a >modest< amount of money. This individual is still responding to EB PMs - it is simply wonderful. So you may ask, why creating this thread at all then? For one, the elektronik.kompendium forum is in German (yes, I have heard about Google translator). Second I had a “hard time” (OK, it was fun) to find the relevant information on 9771 in the over thread 70 entries there. But most importantly: Maybe others have more information/references on "TC1 world" they may want to share here. Here is the schematic, my version that is. Frank’s 2014 version focuses (naturally) on card reproduction, mine on understanding the logic of the device, as I don’t need to make one: The schematic EDIT (2025-10-26): THERE IS A TERRIBLE ERROR IN THE ABOVE DIAGRAM: IC3a, pin 3 goes to IC1a, pin 12 and not pin 11. IC2b, pin 6 goes to IC1a, pin 11 and not pin 12. I am very sorry!!! I am aware that many of you guys know how it works (duh); this is more for documentation purposes (for me). I am using this notation: X# means X = L to be true. X[n:m] means from X=n all the way down to X=m. X[n] = single number. X = address, output, input line, or other signal line. ISA_A[ ] = ISA address bus; ISA_D[ ] = ISA data bus, LIA, LIA[ ] = LEGO Interface A bus. 74LS373 8-bit transparent latches: These are eight D-type flip-flop (FF) latches. The FF outputs are each connected internally to a non-inverting TTL driver with output Q, which can be in three states: L, H, high-impedance or tristate. The latter simply means that the driver is “not present” on the bus at all, so it does not affect anything happening there. C input: When input C = H, all 8 FF outputs mirror the logic level present at the D inputs in parallel. When C goes L (on the neg. slope), all logic levels on the D inputs are latched and then remain constant on the FF outputs until C = H again. (As a side note: 74LS374 are not transparent; they sample the D input only upon a positive slope occurring at the CLK input). OC# input: When OC# = H, then the TTL drivers connected internally to the D FF are in tristate. The D FF still do their work though. When OC# = L, the Q outputs have the logic level of the latched D FF information, either L or H. IC_5 (74LS373) OC# is hardwired to GND = L; thus the Q outputs have always a defined logic level, L or H. Q[6:1] are directly connected to the 6 input lines of the 9750 interface box. When the correct address is present on the lines ISA_A[9:0] AND ISA_AEN = L (the PC’s DMA controller is not using the A or D bus) AND IOW# = L (CPU signals an IO write request), the C input on IC_5 = H. This means that the logic level of the 8 ISA_D[7:0] data bus lines are mirrored to the corresponding Q outputs and thus the 9750 box via the LIA bus. When IOW# = H, C goes L and the 8 data bits from the ISA bus are latched and remain present on the Q outputs: 9750 turns on/off the corresponding drivers in the box and thus lamps or motors. Note: The outputs Q[5:4] are not used at all (nc), nor are the inputs D[5:4]. IC_4 (74LS373) OC# is not hardwired to GND, it is directly connected to the C input. In essence, the outputs of IC_4 are only in a logical defined state (L/H) when an IOR# request is issued by the CPU: When the address is correct, ISA_A[9:0] AND ISA_AEN = L AND IOR# = L, then OC# and C go from H to L. Which means that the two inputs D[5:4] of IC_4, which are connected to the two output lines of 9750, are both latched and become visible on the ISA data bus. Furthermore, as the remaining 6 D inputs D[8:7, 4:1] of IC_4 are connected to the corresponding outputs Q[8:7, 4:1] of IC_5, the current input settings on the 9750 box (status of the box drivers = motor, lamps) are also present on the ISA data bus. The CPU thus reads the status of all 8 active 9750 lines (2 inputs, 6 outputs). IC_1 (74LS30, 8-input NAND), IC_2 (74LS27, 3x 3-input NOR), IC_3 (74LS86, 4x 2-input exclusive OR) These three ICs are wired as a logic network to a) decode the address bus ISA_A[9:0], check for DMA access on the ISA_A/D bus, and detect the IOW#/IOR# request of the CPU. Although the I/O address range of an 8088 CPU is 64k (&0000 to &FFFF; the memory address range is 1M, &00000 to &FFFFF), only 10 address lines are decoded by the 9771 card. This should be taken into consideration when doing super fancy programming in the upper IO address range of the 8088 CPU, as the card will not only respond to its default addresses (&39D, &39E), but also to all addresses with a non-zero A[15:A10] signature, regardless what this signature is (all L for &39D/&39E). On the ZX Spectrum this really was a nightmare, as IO address decoding was restricted to only a few internally well encoded addresses. Specific address decoding The card address is mainly determined by IC_1, the 8 input NAND gate. ISA_A[9:7, 4:2] are directly connected to the inputs of IC_1. The output of this gate will only = L when all inputs = H. ISA_A[6:5] are connected to IC_2b (NOR), which means that the output of IC_2b only = H, when all inputs = L. This results in: The output of IC1 will only = L, when ISA_A[9:7] = H and [6:5] = L and [4:2] = H and the remaining third input of IC_2b is also = L. This input is “prepared” by IC_3a+b (XOR): Case 1: Bridge is installed. This pulls the inputs of IC3_a[2] and IC_3b[4] = L. XOR requires the inputs to be of opposite logical level to become H. The output of IC3_a is directly connected to one input of IC1, thus needs to be H for correct address detection; as IC3_a[1] is connected to ISA_A[0], it needs to be H. The output of IC_3b is connected to the remaining input of IC_2b (NOR). As all NOR inputs need to be L for output = H, the input IC_3b[5] = ISA_A[1] thus needs to be H for correct address detection. This all results in ISA_A[A9:A0] = H H H L L H H H L H = 1110011101 = &39D = 925 for correct address detection, i.e. the output of NAND gate IC1 = L. Case 2: Bridge is removed. This pulls the inputs of IC3_a[2] and IC_3b[4] = H. With the same logic as above, this results in 1110011110 = &39E = 926. Further handling of ISA_IOW# and ISA_IOR# is done by IC_2[a,c] (3 input NOR gates). The outputs are only = H when all inputs are L. IC_2[a]: Output of IC_1 = correct address = L and ISA_AEN = L and ISA_IOR# = L (valid CPU IO read request). IC_2[c]: Output of IC_1 = correct address = L and ISA_AEN = L and ISA_IOW# = L (CPU IO write request). The two remaining gates IC_3[c,d] are wired as inverters to match the OC# and C input logic of the 74LS373 latches. And that’s basically it. Lots of words for nothing much. There must be many errors in the text above – I’ll try to wipe them out, so frequent edits may occur. Once again this is for documentation purposes only. Once I finished such a project, I forget almost everything about it within days. By the way, on another note :D - During the annual PTChem lab cleaning frenzy this surfaced: As no one had interest in these mostly TTL chips, as well as CPUs, memory chips and other stuff – I "rescued" them from being trashed. The hardest part was to organize them in some sort of way. What helped me in doing that was this book, I purchased in 1979, one year after it was published; it organizes the more than 2200 TTL-, DTL-, ECL-, CMOS-chips (among some others) listed, into the categories: G = gates, F = flip-flops, M = multiplexers/demutiplexers, Mf = mono-flops, Z = counters (guess why ;). Among the "Gs" is even a 74LS133 – a 13 input NAND gate. I’ve never heard before of such a TTL chip – it makes perfect sense for address decoding :D Yes, I am happy Next: As I don’t want to fry the 9771 card, I am planning to hook up a TTL driver (74LS06 or so) to the outputs of 9771 and illuminate some LED’s using QBasic. Will report here. Best regards, Thorsten

Don't know - AdBlocker reports 4 (well, there is a 4 next to the ABP icon) "things"; Privacy Badger 3 when entering the EB website. Whatever that is - Google is always present, and cookies here and there - as they all do it. And have to do it. "Something" must fuel this forum; karma and good will alone has not enough octane in it, I believe. Actually, I have no clue how this forum is paying even the hosting bills. The moderators are all simply wonderful freaks - here is to you guys . But other than that: Even a fan needs electricity to keep the CPUs cool ... and that stuff does not come for free. Nor do CPUs ... Best, Thorsten

Sir you just won the Internet OK, I have to change my pants now ... Best, Thorsten

Well, I believe even the Eastern World may not see a business model in making 9771-clones I believe this is more in the Tindy (or the like) territory - where some freaks create, among a million other nice items, wonderful things to revive old computers ... With regard to 45681: Did you see this thread? Best, Thorsten

Install: #1 PrivacyBadger #2 AdblockPlus of the free version. Did never fail on me. Best, Thorsten

How cool is this? I searched for weeks ... thank you very much!!! *SNIP: Schematic updated and moved to this thread: https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/192941-lego-interface-a-97509771-–-lego-technic-control-1-tc1-referenceideas-thread/

I could not agree more. As I could nowhere find schematics for the 9771 Lego Interface 1 ISA bus card - I just finished tracing the PCB . It is plain vanilla TTL LS logic (and that is my world!!!) - using the ISA bus lines A0 - A9 for addressing (hard-wired, w/ option to select one alternative address by removing a soldered bridge), IOR/IOW for parallel read/write access (along with AEN for yielding to the DMA controller with 74LS30, 74LS86, 74LS27) to/from two 8bit D FF transparent latches (74LS373), which are connected via the LEGO 20x ribbon cable to the Interface 1 box. The schematic of the latter is already available here: https://archive.org/details/9750-schematics/page/n3/mode/2up If not found anywhere else, I'll post the 9771 schematics here. Best Thorsten

That is true. Let me phrase it differently: TLG has either never asked their subcontractors for proper documentation, or they have never released such documentation except for maybe the early Mindstorms era. Of course: They don't want their competitors to boldly copy all that beautiful hard/software (which they do anyway), but then they should not release building instructions at all . Well, I speculate that they simply did not want the proper documentation for another reason: That is the most expensive process when coming up with new electronic gadgets: Writing it up, making drawings, give some explanations. Plus, the limited lifetime of electronics (as per their "decision") makes them even less interesting. And yes, others don't do it either. However, TLG a) charges quite some money for their electronic stuff and b) I thought it would nicely fit the high standards they apparently have ... trashing a USB IR tower just because a 64bit operating system needs a 64bit driver - and not asking a subcontractor to make one (with the 32 bit driver available) - is not very high standard, as far as I am concerned. But then: PF, BL and BLE came along, and maybe they were looking forward to selling those devices rather than having a handful of people playing with that old stuff. Best, Thorsten For drivers as well? See above - the USB IR tower does not work on 64 bit machines due to the lack of a 64bit driver ... I believe many people have tried to make it work, but it does not. And should not/cannot, as per my understanding. Sure VMs etc. will work, not the point though. All the software depending on tower communication works perfectly well on a 64bit OS. Just that tower does not.

Same here: Fingers crossed! Another very good entry to put up on the Internet Archive/retro computing for sure!!! Welcome to the club Best, Thorsten P.S.: Tracing 9771 - as far as I know, there is no circuit diagram out there. And such a diagram is very important. To me. And maybe The Archive Well, there actually is one. Essentially, you need to build that driver using an "enormous" NI environment, which needs to be installed. Plus, it seems at the driver "compliant level" one walks into muddy waters. I simply gave up at that point: The serial tower is still available (dead cheap) as well as the USD2Serial converters are. Although I usually take the long run, that was too much for me. Furthermore, I really blame it on TLG: They >never ever< cared about conservation of electronics/software. Zill. Which is so contradictory to their ABS/bricks approach. Best, Thorsten

Hi @Venderwel Li'l more input required Hardware: So, you have the ESP board up and running in the Arduino IDE. And you have 4561. This one has a 9V motor, usually powered by the rails. Where is your ESP coming in? Does it power the rails? That won't work, I believe - the ESP cannot drive the current you need for 4561. Or does it sit on the train and has its outputs connected to the motor? Again, I don't know, but the ESP Wroom board may not be ready to supply the current you need. The ESP runs on 3.3V ... even if the outputs were able to drive the current, the voltage would be really insufficient to do anything ... Software: I don't get the setup (which doesn't mean anything, I don't get a lot of stuff programming-wise ) However: Pins 22 and 24 are declared as outputs. Are these connected to the motor/track? Why do you need pin 10 at all? You never use that in the loop ... As said, more input required ... Best, Thorsten

Hello 8-Bitters, another very little update, which allows me to do a lot of authentic QBasic programming on my Win11 laptop ... so I don't have to haul the IBM XT to Northern Germany (for our family Christmas vacation - tomorrow some of this family will get together in our house here in mid-Germany to watch "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" - as we do since 2001 - original NTSC videotape, of course. And yes, today I fixed our VCR, which can play PAL and NTCS encoded videos. My wife said, it would be close to blasphemy watching it on another medium than THAT videotape). So I looked into DOS emulators. With full hardware control, as I need a COM port for the LEGO IR tower - or my MuLPI. Not WinXP or Win98 virtual machines, rather more "directly", so that I have at least some "control" on the settings. I can truly recommend DOSBox-X (https://dosbox-x.com/). DOSBox may work as well, but the X version is geared towards enhanced HW "control" of the Win machine one is using. So, copying my old DOS directories with QBasic and the programs I wrote two decades ago, changing some settings in the DOSBox-X config file, most importantly concerning the serial port(s), e.g., "serial1 = directserial realport:COM8", as the USB2serial converter for the LEGO IR tower uses COM8, and running my PBCon QBasic program from 2001 resulted in this: Which means: I can use my Win11 64bit laptop for program testing, copy that to the GoTek UBS drive - and then run it on the XT. Even this works (and I have no clue what it really does, but it was on lugnet (https://news.lugnet.com/), back in the days, for a real DOS machine: zapping the UART ... sounds cool. Virtual zapping seems to also work ... Best, Thorsten

@evank (this is just to make sure that EB notification thingy is harassing you Hi Evan, oh my, oh my ... yes I followed these wonderful threads on EB ... but then, it never made "click". Of course, I visited your website soo many times, even the look made me come back, as I feel home there. However, I did not make the connection - I really blame myself. It appears as if nowadays I am more and more browsing the Wayback Machine. When I realized that even the links within the Archive do work as well - provided the machine has captured these as well, and mostly it has, I sometimes just go there and c/p an URL that points to "the equivalent of nothing", and simply enjoy what's unfolding. And now this: "Copyright: Evan Koblentz, 2018-2022". You know what got me so excited? The "2022" bit ... why I could not put together "Evan" and "K" to evank - no clue. I am very sorry for that. And you know what I find absolutely to the point? The title "Minds before the storm". I saw it, I sat there and thought: Nice. Wonderful, this is it ... Believe me: I have essentially mirrored your vintagelegorobotics page on my laptop :D. This is so unbelievable helpful and rewarding. I am sure that one other page (@magicratandbarefootgirl) on the IA is also somehow directly involved here ... Congratulations on your new assignment as faculty advisor to the NJIT LEGO club! These students are most fortunate. I do teach lame PChem at our university - which is much less of excitement, but somehow, I still get the student's attention . Vintage AND computing is apparently appealing to only one individual in my research group: Me. Yes, I do feel alone ;) BUT: As per my appointment, I do have a key that actually opens every door in the PChem department, including storage rooms of the Theoretical Chem folks ... and there are still C64's, Atari's - and guess what: We will have the annual December Clean-up Frenzy next week. I'll be there with the families' minivan: "OK guys, yes this way - the loading dock, yes load the trash into the van, I'll take care of it, don't worry ..." There will be looks ... but then: I am old. Max. 6 years more to go, and I am out. Out as in: I have other fish to fry, sorry. That always works: The younger people tend to forgive old folk's spleens - when they provide funding for their PhD studies Thank you very much for your reply. I am very glad to getting in touch with you here on EB!!! All the very best, Thorsten 

Hi @maehw - and welcome to EB! Wow, your Flipper Zero is an insanely nice piece of engineering!!! As well as your software, you published on GitHub. Congratulations! Ahh - finally ... you know, everything I learned with regard to programming originates from Fortran77 and a couple of BASIC dialects :D, mostly Sinclair BASIC ... and I just copied the "two's complement" text bit from some websites. So I looked up what a two's complement actually is, tried like 100 times for the RCX IR code generation and failed miserably 100 times. Then I looked into the RCX generated code; it sure was not the two's complement, but just the all-bits inverted byte (I now learned is the one's complement, thank you!). As you see in the protocol above, I am using "FF - byte" for the byte's complement - which is what you are saying. One year ago, I simply thought: Some call it this, others that :D. Glad that this is crystal clear now. With regard to the VLL LED: The color does not matter much. The only thing is, that the MicroScout's sensor needs to be able to discriminate between "light" and "no light" present. It also sort of "calibrates" the sensor depending on ambient light conditions. Not much to expect here: The darker the sensor is upon start-up and then during operation, the better it gets. I am using a blue LED for VLL light; white will of course work as well, so does green. I have not tried with other color LEDs, but they'll work as well, when you get close to the sensor. I like to use dead cheap optical fibers for light transport with a Technic pin 1/2 (#4274) or even better 3/4 (#32002) as terminal. They attach nicely to the MicroScouts light sensor. I don't have a CodePilot box, but the protocol is identical to that of the MicroScout - well it is LEGO's VLL protocol. With regard to Cybermaster: That is next on my agenda - maybe spring next year. 27MHz is true, I believe. Your Cybermaster units have no antennas, but can't you use a simple whip type? Just a wire cut to appropriate length? Or do you have the receiver unit only, without the RF tower? Best regards, Thorsten

Oh, you do :D All the best, Thorsten

You have shown so many fascinating things using "9V stuff" (and you know that "9V stuff" is what made me "coming back" to LEGO world) - it is incredible! And: Vintage. True 9V is pure vintage. Just because the modern electronics runs off from 9V means nothing. Just post whatever comes to your mind here. Not the all-ready-to-YouTube-solutions, no, the plans, thoughts, ideas, and maybe solutions. Whatever! The moment it comes to the "days before BLE" ... it becomes vintage. For me. OK, there was BT (NXT/EV3), but that was simply BT over serial. As far as I know. I have the feeling right there, at taking the BLE avenue, is the electronic "break": IR, Cybermaster RF, BT was dedicated serial: Countenance, everyone. Reply when asked. Don't go rogue. With BLE things change quite a bit: Everyone is talking, and super-fast electronics (available at no cost) has to sort it all out. Not my world, though. The 9V Dacta Area is definitely >pure< vintage. Of the very best nature. I just dived deeper into 4.5V world - simply because that coincides with the birth of this XT I have now. No other reason. And yes, 9771 is unobtainable. EB though, makes it happen. Some said, this forum will die anytime soon. I say: EB provides a wealth of information - and more importantly conserves, secures, maintains knowledge, that apparently is gone for long. And even more importantly, it appears as if the people truly living the "TLG idea", are here. Thank you for your nice words! All the best, Thorsten

@DrJB Sir, the 9771 card has arrived - in mint condition. I would have never (!) found this card without your help. Thank you very much again. Now 9750 needs to be ordered - Santa was asking what I may want for Christmas - and these are out there on BL! Here is the plan Make some space in a totally crammed loft for an IBM XT; no idea yet - but a wild idea :D As Santa is also visiting the family in Northern Germany, where we will be for the holidays, as we were for the past 60 years, 1080 may be in reach. 9771 + 9750 + 1080 + TC Logo for IBM (TCLogo.com) will control a static 1080 made robot sitting next to the XT - this is so mid/late 1980's. QBasic 1.1 on the IBM XT talks via its serial card bidirectionally with the LEGO IR tower (as tested), so the RCX and corresponding suspects are accessible, this is so late 1990's. QBasic 1.1 on the IBM XT will certainly talk bidirectionally with my MuLPI, as my ZX Spectrum could do that - and MuLPI is so late 1990's to so late 2022's Which translates to: Original 1986/87 setup = computer, interface card, interface box, 4.5V LEGO robot, can natively also communicate with RCX and the like PBricks, and with the help of an ESP32 + PANT can control current LEGO BLE devices. That's the plan. It snowed today here - I am looking forward to the holidays. We'll see. Best, Thorsten

I missed the original post - damned merge of forums ... no, all is good I have been building a line follower with RIS1.0 - it really was fun (particularly when kindergarten folks were visiting the lab), but then, with follow-up releases it became ... less exciting, as the principle of following the line (one light sensor, 2 light sensors, higher sampling speed) remained the same. Your bot though is so different. I love the way it moves (you don't have a dog by any chance, do you?), it really feels organic. I have followed your quadruped approaches (well, I watch every of your videos, of course - it does not get much better!) but missed this thread, merde. Really nice work, and I feel some sense of love for the animal here ... (2 cats + 1 dog in this house ) I don't think it needs to be faster (other than for a contest on the clock) - it moves smoothly and that should give you all the points you need for winning. Best regards, Thorsten

It looks absolutely minimalistic. Downsized to the bare minimum of recognition, but bolstered with the new road plates! I really agree with you - and chip my 2 cents into the same mug Best, Thorsten

This is beyond anything I have ever seen. When it comes to stations, trains, cars, buildings etc. in train world, it is about functionality, operation, size, etc. This is so close to reality - weathering was a topic here on EB - but this is aging. And time passing by. Look at the building!!! This alone is fantastic. The loco is fantastic. The person on the bike, seeing it all; the conductor in the yellow train seeing nothing of that because she or he has to focus on the operation of the train - I can literally see that happening here where I live, not far away. Oh my, I can go on and on - so much live to the detail ... Abandoned - may be. But full of life!!! Wonderful. Simply wonderful. All the best, Thorsten

You would think, wouldn't you? LEGO names; well - here we go: Technic Interface 1, Technic Interface A, Technic Control Set, Technic Control 1, Technic Control 2, Control Lab Serial Interface, Technic Interface B, Control Center 1, Control Center 2, ... ... this is just a small range of names from a certain period of time, some of the above describe more or less the same piece (the difference is w or w/o cable), some are completely different items/set. I can go on and on with more or less similar names of either the set containing the control electronics box or the set representing just a brick expansion set with maybe a lamp. When you want to figure out what is what, you are simply lost with the name of the set, well at least I am. The number is also more or less arbitrary, but you would think a specific number points exactly to a certain set or piece, wouldn't you? Maybe it does, but for one number I can find quite a range of things it does apparently represent. But again: I'll figure it out. Best, Thorsten

1: 10 6: 6 3: 4 4: 3 2: 2 5: 1

And I really thought it was TLG ... ... so wrong again: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindstorms_(book) "Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas is a book by computer scientist Seymour Papert" And: http://www.brickhacks.com/ ... "Minds before the Storm" ... Maybe you guys knew - I had no clue. Nothing wrong with taking up ideas, publications, and projects - I am missing the references in TLG's ... documents, though. I really was under the impression, they came up with all this in an MIT collaboration - but I was so wrong. They turned it into a product. Well, also nicely. And made a lot of money. And that's where I feel a crack in the picture. Whatever. Makes me feel better using ... competitor stuff Best, Thorsten

I never thought I'll post here (and don't take me serious :D) LEGO set numbering s*cks sh*t. Ha! Bloody Big Brother fooled by two *. So, replace first * with u and second with i. Will be fun to see what happens, when I press "Submit Reply" OK, here it is: We are going back in time. 1986. TLG introduced the LEGO Control Interface A, #9750. In the DACTA world, that was #1093. Fine. #9767 was the interface card for the Apple][e. #9771 for the IBM PC. So far, all is good; #9750/#1093 does not work without #9771/#9767. #9700 "LEGO Technic Control Set" had sensors and motors and bricks'n'plates - for the #9750/#1093. #9751 is the LEGO Control Interface B (released 1993), may sound good, as #9750 was LEGO Control Interface A. I would NEVER do it that way though - I'd leave SPACE for the stuff that goes with #9750/#1093. And it goes on: #8094 (LEGO Control Center 1) released in 1990 is still the same as #8485 (LEGO Control Center 2, released in 1995) but the colors of the buttons and outlets changed. And of course the bricks'n'plates ... #9701, LEGO Control Lab Building Set has 2 motors, and some sensors for #9751, and was released in 1995, two years later, as #9751 was released. Confused? I am. But: There is a big, a very big plan behind this. I am sure It is called: It's a kind of magic. Best (and don't take any of this seriously) Thorsten P.S.: I am sure, I messed up the numbers and/or years. But that is part of TLGs plan, yes I love conspiracy theories. Or wait: They - don't have a clue???

Just make sure, you charge that battery (it is the rechargeable type, right?) from time to time, as they do not like to go into deep discharge state. I take that you want to conserve the extra "battery" for a very long time, correct? In that case (several years) and without charging, they may - but don't have to - go bad. Best, Thorsten