Toastie

Thank you very much for the write-up!!! I am just on my own here, so I never get into such things. Alan Parsons - or better the project ... oh yes. They were here in Germany as well - and I was there. Back then, for me, it was "Eve" and "I Robot". My (much later ) wife had them as vinyls, and they made me shiver every time they were turning on the table ... later on I got my hands on the "Tales of Mystery and Imagination" - at the same time, I found out that "Philosophy" was an electable in my high school counting a lot towards the degree - even as much as German language did ... guess what happened. Decades later, I found out that the "rules" of German language are actually fascinating - mostly because they appear to be as complex as quantum mechanics is . "The Turn of a Friendly Card" is my favorite album - well it really is a tie between The Tales, Edgar Alan Poe, and the friendly card(s). When you are roaming about in science and research, you won't believe how many folks are actually waiting for that turn or seem to be within the Doctor Tarr and Professor Feather system - but should just play it out straight, no turns, no cards, just hypotheses and experiments and computational approaches combined. But well, it is what it is ... Thanks again for explaining to me the parting out mechanism! All the best, Thorsten

Phew - when I saw your initial post, I thought - this could be another fantastic "monster" - but it was hard to tell from the lighting on the renders. Now that you have the other renders attached: Phenomenal! This is another absolutely cool rendition of one of these Wonderful Machines of True Thermodynamics (I call them WMTTs in class ... don't even think about it, it is the 2nd semester, these folks are always in for a really uncool joke, so they later can brag about that totally weird guy in the front ) Is there any reason - other than not having time or not wanting to go through the pain - of not doing the tender? If not, please do the tender ... Also, I would put her on rails in the renders, at least in one picture - this is my very personal thing though: Without the rails, the blind drivers always seem t be a bit up in the air, and it doesn't really match the appearance and self-confidence of a WMTT Thank you very much for sharing your wonderful locomotive! Best, Thorsten

Oh Mann, Thomas ... this is so nice ... at first I simply did not get where this is headed ... I guess age is doing its work Fantastic - simple as that. I really like the two versions of "one" locomotive. And truly literally lives the "Loco Motive" piece from Klaus Doldinger's Passport Ataraxia album ... It really is a crazy motive - an absolutely fantastic one! All the very best, Thorsten

Yup. And - over the past decades, a few competitors have fired up their power tools as well. As said: I can comfortably live with either or both ways. Best, Thorsten

Hi there, I believe the "LEGO Technic, Mindstorms, Model Team and Scale Modeling" forum is a suitable place - as there is a lot of Technic traffic, it may be hard to find the PoweredUp thread if there is any, I don't recall ... just open up a new thread. Or search on Google for that topic and (include Eurobricks in the search). Best, Thorsten

I believe this is what they - however they are (or is) - do. This is really pure and utter Halloween - and the very best part of it: It is a train!!! This is so giving to the train heads - I am completely in love. I have never seen anything even remotely matching on this particular theme. I really can see this beautiful monster roaring through a snow covered Transylvanian mountain setting ... heading for ... who knows. What @Darkkostas25 is bringing together with this absolutely fantastic "train" is for me: Creativity, building skills (be it in a computer - once you have the major outline, it can be done in bricks), and simply touching on a multitude of "feelings", as a train head. I like the head of the locomotive (for me, big boys come to mind), the boiler - slick, the cabin, and the tender - a side view alone would be a little frightening, but just trying to get on board and realizing the clowny face ... then you try to turn away, James Bond wise - jump over to the carriages - it is 11:55 pm ... Man. What a beautiful idea and realization. All the best, Thorsten

Well, that would be their third attempt, isn't it? I do see a subtle difference to the 1997 - 2003 period: TLG seems to have arrived at the let's-do-as-much-as-possible stage (desperation before collapse), but I believe this is a more refined approach, that also works with Mercedes, Tesla, Porsche, and you name it: Sell the over-priced and/or premium products to the wealthy - or would-be wealthy. Not the masses. Folks who believe that a $700 UCS ATAT is cool to have on a living room board. Or a Hogwarts Express "train", a large wooden minifig, a large tree, an Adidas soccer shoe, stadiums, masks, and all that - with crazy price tags. And it appears as if this is a wheel in perpetual motion - as Alan Parsons once texted ... "There are unsmiling faces in fetters and chains - On a wheel in perpetual motion - Who belong to all races and answer all names - With no show of an outward emotion - And they think it will make their lives easier - But the doorway before them is barred ..." The difference though is that TLG is spinning the wheel and watches with no show of an outward emotion ... and folks having the money believe, it will make their lives ... happier. I simply don't care - let TLG do it their way and let folks buy stuff their way. It really is OK with me. Could be - the good thing is that if they go over the cliff ... so what? The bricks and much more importantly the creativity and ideas and the desperate will of other brick makers and brick assemblers to make a fortune - are all out there. Yes, it currently is the Dark Side. But we are talking small plastic bricks and not lightsabers or death stars approaching . Let's see how this plays out. I am much more relaxed as compared to 2000, when I was literally freaking out, hearing about TLG's stupid moves and the consequences. I am not anymore. I simply go to a Dark Side webpage and - totally relax. All the best, Thorsten I am sorry - stupid German here - what does that phrase mean ?

Huh? Not for me. This would the hell of a Halloween Train, just dwarfing anything I have seen before ... just making it go back and forth on straight with two tunnels at each end would soo do it for me. The tender is a blast. Man. The whole thing: Crazily cool. Best, Thorsten

Absolutely True. To be honest: I have here a VB6 n/software BLE stack (they gave that to me for free, back in 2019, and I am very, very grateful for their move!!!). Don't even think about that - yes, I still program in VB6. I am older than dirt ... not the point. The thing is, it is unbelievable (to me) how many BLE commands come in. This appears to be "interrupt driven" - events fire in all directions and raise subroutines. So I made some sort of stack (or queue) to handle this machine gun fire - just realizing that this approach was at best garbage . But it took me soo long to get to that - and it worked - but it was a pain to just press delete so-and-so often - and to come up with a better way of handling. Yes, it will make the firmware simpler, but I believe it will be a major programming effort. And then we don't even know whether this is the issue or not ... but I understand your frustration! Hope they'll respond! All the best, Thorsten

Wow! Incredible - that is one gigantic build. Fantastic!!! Just an absolutely small thing: I would build - maybe even inverting the bricked slopes - "irregularities" into the slopes. Just here and there. As if there were bushes and other green stuff trying to catch some sunlight. Maybe even gray rock protrudes here and there - this is what I did on a much, much smaller - compared to what you have accomplished - a tiny tunnel. To me, it added the nature thing. Wow. Really nice. Must be fun to touring with you! All the best, Thorsten

Sounds absolutely reasonable, but also means that there is some sort of stack in the FW, doesn't it? When you ramp the slider up and down rapidly, let's say with some acceleration/deceleration profile, does the Buwizz process all the changes one after the other? The LEGO hubs indeed override the last command (and even abort the acc/dec profile) at least this is what I seem to have noticed with my BR 89 locomotive running on a City hub and Legoino/ESP32 (latter does not matter - it is just firing out the commands): As it is a steam locomotive propelled by a PUp L motor, I use max. acc/dec settings (several seconds); when it decelerates and a "premature" or "rescue-me" :D stop command comes in (e.g. by a color sensor reading coded rails, picked up by the hub, sent to the ESP, which responds with a "stop" command), it stops with no delay, regardless of profile completion. Well, this may be a major issue, right? I mean, this could mean quite some change in the FW. Or not, no idea. Just wanted to share my observations. Best wishes, Thorsten

Wow. I am not too much into weird things (for me), but this is really cool. It is a steam engine, right? If so, I can so see her thundering about through the snow - with "matching" coaches - they are just slim in design, some lights visible inside, barely some skulls are visible through the foggy windows ... Absolutely fantastic. Thank you very much for sharing! (As well as for all your other creations you are sharing here!) All the best, Thorsten

Oh - no(!), you absolutely didn't!!! Please don't feel sorry - I simply like discussions like this - and I like to mess around . All the best, and have a very nice evening! Thorsten

Me too :D and in late 60s as a kid I played with Legos all the time, not Lego, according to people familiar with the matter. You know what? I simply don't care. So The Lego Gods said (or is there only one? TLG pretty much suggests that, as there are no TLGs), it needs to be Lego bricks or Lego sets I am playing with. I just don't care what a company in Denmark tells me to say ... furthermore, everybody in the family knows that I don't only play with Lego bricks, but also with Mould King bricks. Or who-the-hell-knows-where-BlueBrixx-get-their-bricks-from bricks. That would make it much more difficult to let folks here know, that I am going to play with ... all sorts of bricks. As I do also some bricking in the house and garden, that would cause total confusion. Just imagine, the look for me in the garden - and I am upstairs, missing the cake or something equally disastrous. Just do it the way you may have picked it up - back then. BMW actually says they have all sorts of BMWs on their website . Ding dongs :D Have fun, Thorsten

Don't want to argue here, but I found the firmware on the hubs after some initial flaws/changes back then rather stable and nicely working. However, this is not true for the other end of the BLE connection: The LEGO software for programming the hubs is (for me) still a nightmare. I am thus using Cornelius Munz' Legiono running on ESP32s for controlling the hubs. So I need to expand my statement about the LEGO hubs I have (the 2 port City hubs and the 4 port Technic hubs): They never failed on me using them in combination with Legoino/ESP32. They actually did using the PoweredUp app on my cell phone. But I suspect this is a failure in the app rather than in the hub firmware - otherwise Legoino would not work flawlessly. Best, Thorsten

Hmm. Like it or not, but the LEGO hubs never failed on me. And believe me, I am what I would call an inverse LEGO fan in some regards ... but not with their hubs. Best, Thorsten

100% This. And the rest of your post. Best, Thorsten

And then the "I created this topic, so I can necro-bump it" tune chimes in, doesn't it? Regardless of what the volume of the update is? Best, Thorsten

What is a BGP? to your fantastic progress!!! Best, Thorsten

I am using some liftage to accomplish that - the train slides onto some sloped elevation until the wheels run free. Only works on the engine of course; in case there are carriages at the end, these need to have clearance ... so maybe not that good of an option. Best, Thorsten

But that is the catch, isn't it? DPD not leaving a delivery notice is a problem of DPD - however, they can always claim they did. Also, such notices as I know them (with reference number etc.) are in their electronic system - so you can maybe ask them. Should they have that one in their system, then where did it go? Usually they are placed in the mailbox. Is there such a box? Do others have access to it? Should others have access, then you are screwed I guess, because all DPD rules applied (delivery notice delivered, 7 day storage in their facilities, return to sender). Best, Thorsten

I don't believe the positioning of the antenna (plane) relative to the radiation source matters - actually, the source emission performance is equally important. As the position of the Buwizz changes horizontally a lot upon operation (provided it is mounted that way in the MOC), the antenna should perform accordingly. From the picture you posted, it appears as if this is a very carefully designed meandered inverted F antenna. TI's application note AN043 shows some nice range/performance data. This is for a wireless 2.4 GHz USB dongle, but so what. Vertical orientation may also not be of concern - I don't think the emission source is plane polarized in some way. Best, Thorsten

Well, it is two months to the soccer world thingy in beloved Qatar - maybe they bought a bunch of them - with the conductor and - if powered by PF/PUp - 1 to 2 passengers, they're almost always crammed with people! Best, Thorsten

Well, it depends. See, literally all my 9V train motors can be readily opened - I simply cut off these little clamps at the bottom the moment I "needed" to. Some are used as power pickups, with others the motor died. So I just open one up, remove one axle, close it again: "9V Train motor, modified, for 10308". Yes, I know, purists won't like it - even when the PF and PUp motors have screws at the bottom, so you can open them up and replace the motor. Which I find environmentally more friendly than throwing the whole thing away. Even more so, it is much more financially friendly, as the motors inside cost next to nothing But - I also use bricks from the Dark Side, drill holes where TLG simply forgot to make them, and so on and so forth So my 9V compatibility assessment may not live up to standards ... but it works Have a nice weekend and best regards, Thorsten

Well, then the PF receiver may actually fit as well - as @dr_spock suggested - for seating a minifig passenger and a conductor Hee hee - those who can read/see are blessed So that means all is good for 9V Best, Thorsten