Toastie

Yeah, as always. For compatible PUp device>s<; how many are there? How would I plug that thing into any of the PUp "devices" I own? Nuts it is. But who knows. Best Thorsten

Very nice to know - thank you very much for pointing that out! I never had any such issues with BB yet, but it may of course happen in the future. On the other hand, I had such issues with other brand's sets. Over the decades, there have materialized a lot of LEGO pieces in my universe. And they perfectly click onto BB and other bricks ;) Again: Thank you @Black Knight for your advice! All the best Thorsten

Oh man, I am so sorry for not responding earlier! This was in October ... Did you get that Pocket386? Does it actually expose the ISA bus? If so, I am so "in" ... and your train layout, that would be a nice view!!! Meanwhile, @evank got me in touch with Paul from Sweden, who got hold of a copy of LEGO Lines for the Swedish Compis school computer. This is a fantastic machine, but got grounded up in the 1980s "development frenzy". This beauty operates on CP/M-86, features a 80186 CPU, two quad-density floppy drives ... the story behind that machine is - at least - crazy. It lived for about 2 to 3 years in the teaching programs and then faded away, but TLG made a Lines version for it. So far Paul has secured = copied to DOS a good number of files, but he (we ;) are still struggling to the extent that Paul is going to contact a Swedish museum having a Compis machine up and running. We'll see ... I am really curious about your plans. It sounds really, really exciting! Multiple 9750's, no need of 9771's ... totally cool!!! BTW: Do you speak French? This is all so exciting! All the best Thorsten Same here ... I love your enthusiasm ... and do so share it. Will try it out on DOSBox-X as well as on my XT. As said above, there is another totally "special" version of LEGO Lines for the Swedish Telenova Compis computer - a marvel! The story behind the Compis machine is worth a book. Who, when, why ... CP/M-86 tailored to a very "special" machine. Best Thorsten

That's me Best Thorsten

Hi Ian, depends on which set/series. Yes, BB does it that way in the "BB Special" series. It has been discussed here and there - people developed different strategies to cope with that challenge. Best and welcome to EB! Thorsten

Hi Thomas, your LEGO replica, this wonderful creation of yours, so deserved piloting the original. That is what she is doing, showing BR E18 047 where to roll, right? BTW, where is she going? This is such a nice series of photographs - so nicely illustrating the >perfection< of your work in LEGO world. Thank you very much for sharing. And I love the "5 years later heading" (I always "hear" that with a French accent ... weird ;) What are 5 years anyway, when it comes to pure LEGO art. All the best Thorsten

Of course not, just zoomed in on the BL picture. That foam, as you said, can very well be treated with soap. Sorry for the confusion - my tires are all rubbishy Best Thorsten

No way, however, these types of tires deteriorate over the decades by developing a sort of “liquified” rubber on the outer layers. Do you observe such a film as well? They can be removed temporarily, but that won't stop the process. I have a good amount of such tires. Best Thorsten

Well, TLG has this 18+ tag on so many of their black box sets aimed at the elderly and impaired like me. I agree on "bulkier and more resistant", but then this will be a fail from the beginning for buildings and other non-moving models. Wiring has always been a pain in the butt; on moving equipment (trains, cars ...) resistance is relevant. On buildings, it is not. Particularly when buildings feature a nice, tiled, and detailed interior, which TLG is not making anymore. So yes, it will be interesting to see what happens. Best Thorsten

So do I - that is why I made my own software for interfaces A + B. In BASIC of course

No, not you, he meant me and indeed I was confusing Control Lab's UI with the software itself (as if TC LOGO was written in LOGO ). Edited my post above. Sorry for the confusion Best Thorsten

Don't be - it is just ... time. Hey, the Electric Light Orchestra made an entire album about that :D Heehee, good to know that I am not the only one, struggling with languages ;) Again, good luck with finding the things you need!!! All the best Thorsten

I doubt TLG cares about anything happening in the world, other than patenting their own breathtaking inventions and suing whatever they could possibly sue otherwise. Would be nice if they also decide focusing on coming up with creative >new< ideas. Tough, if you deal with a ++50 years old principle. Particularly in patent world. And at the same time not focusing on maximizing profit by minimizing ... wait, no, that is nonsense, as that is what a for-profit-company has to do. Hmm. OK, there is a crazy idea: All that profit could be partly - only partly! - used to making a better product. Particularly in a world where there is competition, some call knock-offs, others copy cats ... Oh well, it is what it is. Best Thorsten

Well, I did OK, it was in France, 1977, quite the nice theater; I was simply blown away. It happened during a high-school student exchange trip (I was barely 15 years old, hated French, history, English, politics, biology; loved chemistry, physics, philosophy - yeah NERD, I know), but the dad of the family I was living with for two weeks served in the French Foreign Legion, so he had a lot of cool stories to tell! I simply loved these nights, when he was drifting away I had such a hard time to follow, as my French was terrible. The only thing I never got accustomed to was "Que la force soit avec toi" ... it even sounds better in bloody German (to me) ... we were all whispering that phrase in French when we left the theater ... I will never forget that. With regard to time travel subscription: Star Trek. It doesn't get funnier. Second up: Of course, Back to the Future! And Holy Crap - I checked out the link you provided: WOW . This is so cool! And I can clearly see why you guys are looking for details!!! Thank you very much for enlighten me, Sir! Best wishes and I sure hope you eventually find what you are looking for! Thorsten

Phew - are these instructions for parts of some sort of time-machine or teleportation system? Man, I have a FD55-F here in my 5160 and can't figure out to run it under CPM-86 1.1 at 80TPD/96TPI - damned. It only does the 48TPI DSDD stepping.

Hi Thomas (@Ts__) (vielen lieben Dank Thomas, dass Du den Weg hierher gefunden hast! Und für Deine lieben Wörter!) Yes, I know, this is an English-speaking forum, but to be honest, here, in the depths of nowhere and evil, I cannot care less, to say the very least. Liebe Grüße Thorsten

The way to go ... Best Thorsten

Thank you very much, Evan!!! I think this is a very good idea. And I sure hope, more old-school Technic LEGO heads will find their way and share! All the best Thorsten

WHAT??? Oh man. Here is (was) my approach: Browse the LEGO magazines at a very “well-equipped” store nearby (I am old, and I love to go to a store. Which reminds me, they also have groceries, which is an old-fashioned ... no let's not go there ) Get the one I like - mostly Technic, but sometimes other themes, like flowers or animals ... Go home, unpack, browse through the magazine - OK, I am old, so this is usually not that exciting, it depends though! And I appreciate the effort of these people for the younger >for sure<!!! Get to the instruction page, build the nifty thing, carefully cut this page out, put it into a plastic cover, store it away in a dedicated binder. Feel good And now this: It is all online. A mouse-click away ... OK. But what if blue-ocean goes down the drain? I mean, websites die ... hmmm. OK. I shall continue with my approach. It also makes me feel ... younger . The younger are of course not allowed to drink in public. Just pulled out the binder: Yeah, that's the way to go. All the best Thorsten

You mean what "TLG" or whatever company they contracted for making the LEGO Control Lab software, correct? As you know, I am a RTFM freak, when it comes to new stuff for me . Hmmm - no, not generally true: Only when it comes to decently composed manuals, of the olden days. Not the total crap you get nowadays, which is 10+ pages of endless lists of "don't do this or that or you'll die" and finally a "scan this to get more info" bulls*it. As 9751 is a totally independent piece of HW, which cranks out serial data the moment it is turned on (and if no one listens throws an error), I believe they used whatever is appropriate to read/write data streams, C would be my favorite. I don't see any “Logo logic” in Control Lab software, but rather complex, even multithreaded approaches: Orchestrating 8 sensor inputs and 8 power outputs may need "more" than Logo is designed for. Nonsense: @evank was talking about the user interface's language, which is LOGO (see post from @alexGS below) - and I about the totally unrelated software used to build the Control Lab programming language for the user, which is LOGO ... But hey, what do I know, it is all just wildly guessing. Best Thorsten

No, it is not. < That was nonsense: The "user interface" is to be programmed in LOGO, see third posts below from @alexGS The authentic LEGO Control Lab software runs in a Windows-like environment, based on object-oriented programming. No clue what the underlying software base is. The Interface B is emitting data on its serial port, the moment you turn it on. It does not reply to anything, it just cranks out bytes about its current status. Software simply needs to read these data packets. It uses RS232 in full duplex mode: You can send out your data, they will be executed, but you always need to read the responses at given = fixed rate. Otherwise, Interface B will throw an error. That is all. No Logo, no nothing. Interface B is as dumb as Interface A is. But the latter is dumber. :D Both interfaces are sensor/actuator >drivers<. The access philosophy is different, though: A is parallel and does only what you ask for (R/W). B is serial and bombs you with status data, whether you asked for or not. You can send data to A and B as you wish. Best Thorsten

Thank you for the clarification, Evan! Well, I guess Control Lab software/operation has been “deciphered” Here's the EB tread: It is a 16-page thread, including so many aspects, of Control Lab, a fantastic knowledge base, IMHO! Best, Thorsten

Well. Nothing to add, other than that breaking the laws of physics (I completely agree on) don't cause a frontpage presentation of what can be achieved when it is done. Some get the Nobel Prize in Physics for doing so. It appears as if the bars on EB are even higher. Thank you very much for sharing @Ferro-Friki!!! I am a bit late, but this is not only a phantastic representation, I'd say replication of the authentic machine, it is a technically brilliant approach as well! All the best Thorsten

Wow, what a nice find!!! Congratulations, @amine and @evank Well, as I am relatively new to the 9750 game, I always need to use the webs to get thing into the clear (for me :D). First of, LCSI stands for "Logo Computer Systems, Inc." and not "LEGO Computer Systems, Inc.", which I initially thought it would . Is this the company which was founded by Dr. Seymour Papert in 1981? Guess so, the website of LCSI, having a lovely touch of the early years of HTML, is at http://www.microworlds.com/company/profile.html. It says "Copyright 2001 - 2023" but I guess they just forgot to update that last line. OK, just to get this in chronological order: In the beginning there was the word, then some other stuff happened, and then in 1967 Logo was created as a programming language, with Seymore Papert as one of three co-authors. In 1981 Papert founded LCSI, and now the confusion begins (OK, some people claim, that the confusion began with the big bang, but this is another discussion): According to this MIT article from 1998, "LogoWriter(TM)" is a software product of LCSI, that initially had nothing to do with LEGO (right?). In 1986 LEGO TC Logo was introduced, which was made by LCSI and was entirely based on their LogoWriter software - with added sensor and output support but some other original LogoWriter features removed. In 1988 "LogoWriter Robotics(TM)" was introduced (by whom? LEGO or LCSI?), which was a combination of the fully blown "LogoWriter" version + all the added "LEGO TC Logo" primitives (LogoWriter was naturally missing). So this 1988 software should read "LEGO LogoWriter Robotics(TM)", correct? Or was "LogoWriter Robotics(TM)" also used outside of LEGO world? In 1993 LEGO Control Lab was introduced, which abandoned the Logo programming world, correct? Is this so? Anyway, >very< exciting news!!! All the best Thorsten

@SD100 has sure much more experience! On most of my motors, they were "tagged in" (just pull them out), on others, they were soldered (just desolder them). In any case, you have to open up the motor; there are numerous recipes of how to do that. You have to carefully cut the lids on the bottom parallel to the bottom plane using a >sharp< knife. Reassembling was never a problem for me, I just pushed everything back in place, they never fell apart after surgery. As said, @SD100 may want to chime in, as this was done for much tougher environments compared to my personal layout. All the best Thorsten