Toastie

Wow. It is the scale that makes this so hard - and you nailed it. I also like very much the "notion" of your diorama - the tribute. In the movies, storm troopers are mostly (if not always) treated as - well - dumb idiots with guns that are available in masses. There are ugly acronyms for such folks in every language, I believe. In a war - regardless of a star war or a real war - there is hardly time for saying "goodbye" or any kind of appreciation upon death arriving - war is war - and what is it good for? Absolutely nothing, as Frankie goes to Hollywood's song goes. In your diorama, there was at least time to bury the body and erect some sort of memorial symbol. As they did in real wars as well - provided there was time to do so. Very, very nice - your models should be present in every SW collection. I have a few SW models, also these whatever they are called - figures - about 20 - 30 cm high. This would be a perfect addition. To put things into perspective. Thank you very much for sharing (!), and congratulations on the front paging! This really deserves it. All the best, Thorsten

@Black Knight: your entire post is a very clean and nice analysis! I completely agree with everything you wrote. All the best and have a nice day, Thorsten

To be quite honest - your post is a very good reason for me to buy this set. Wow. Thanks for sharing! All the best, Thorsten

PID rocks. Best Thorsten

Well - tipping hat, and a slight bow. What else. Wonderful. Just enjoying the pictures - every single one. For me Emanuele, there is one thing that is very "assuring": There is no surprise. There is: "Ohhh - new entry from Emanuele". OK. That has to wait a little though, when the daylight is fading and work is done. When a nice bottle of ice-cold beer is waiting. And then, when other new entries were passing by - I click on your entry. Before scrolling down, there is this hiss (tiny, the beer is ice-cold) - and then I sit back and relax. And enjoy everything that is "appearing". Frontpaged? Uhm - of course? Thank you very much for all these wonderful models you create and show here. This one is as beautiful as so many others you have created. Warmly, and please say hello to the family! Thorsten

@Zerobricks (and the entire BuWizz) team: Wow. Brilliant. Clear descriptions, nice graphs - absolutely stunning. Comparing this to the LWP3.0 protocol doc on GIT makes the latter even look worse. Thank you very much for all this work. Writing such a document in a clear and concise way is absolutely nothing that "simply happens". It is hard work. All the very best, Thorsten

I tried to get this: "Politics". What exactly is meant by that? None of the online definitions fits here, as far as I am concerned. "mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, yours, theirs" with regard to politics? (https://dictionary.cambridge.org/de/worterbuch/englisch/politics) Best Thorsten

Guys, this is terrific. Just my world. @alexGS, @Chris1982, @legoROBOLAB, @hypertalking Did you see this thread? Sure, I started it, but this is absolutely >not< the point; it is about all that (almost) forgotten "how to" ... 8 bit ... Amigas, C64s ... whatever ancient electronics could and more importantly cn do. 8 bit or not - your stuff is of historical dimensions ... So cool! Whenever you find out all the "possibilities" ... and machines to run that software on ... Best wishes, Thorsten

It's a little different - the PCB layout (i.e., the etched copper layers) are pretty nifty. There is no potentiometer in there, just a "slider" (with some conducting grease) and the < 5 cent "electronics". This assembly actually steps the voltage (= nearly unbreakable), but you hardly notice when running a train. So AC (or DC) goes in, is rectified, and the dial/slider + and a couple of resistors tell the LM317 regulator what to do. Nice photograph of this impressive electronics thingy here (original post, 3rd pic): And they actually change the polarity completely >mechanically< using this slider when going in reverse. This regulator is essentially a PCB with hardly any electronics on it. 5 cent sounds absolutely right for that part. I'd say 1$ for the nice layout. No clue, what the case costs (Da Molds!) Best Thorsten

I voted "mixed thoughts" - which are mostly caused by TLGs ("smart") electronics and software development and maintenance department" (Sesame) Just very few examples: The recent introduction of the entire PUp line is a complete mess. PF had the option to be expanded to 16 channels (they have it even in their very own PF protocol description, they made publicly available a long time ago ...) but TLG pulled the PF plug before even introducing that. That is laughable, as it needs one single additional bit to be decoded by the PF receiver (oh yes, that would need to be a V3 version - sooo expensive). Ever taken apart an RC train base to have a look at the "electronics"? 5 cent each, max. Everything was rushed here. HW, firmware ... made - well - somewhere. The "grift" regarding the 10V DC wall wart type power supply costing $30 to charge the PF LiPo - >with< TLG knowing that a $3 wall wart supplying 9, 12, 15 V - and everything in between would do. The pricing of TLGs low voltage electronics in general. Production of large volume BLE devices (and before BLE: IR = RC, PF etc. pp.) has become so cheap, it is unbelievable. Yes, firmware and software development is sooo expensive - when done right, certifications etc. as well - reality though demonstrates that other consumer electronics with comparable capabilities is >much< cheaper. There are many, many "good" thoughts as well. I love many of TLGs products. They "have me" as customer; it appears as if that will be the case for the rest of my life. Best regards, Thorsten

OK, again, sorry for bumping this topic, but this is "the" Legoino-thread, isn't it? Let's assume it is I have a question regarding the Legoino library (1.1.0) running on a JoyIt ESP32 nodeMCU, programmed with the Arduino IDE. All is good - except using "tacho" motors (in this case a PUp L-motor) in "speed" mode: TrainHub180.setAccelerationProfile(port180A, 5000); TrainHub180.setDecelerationProfile(port180A, 5000); doesn't change the "behavior" of the L-motor, when calling TrainHub180.setTachoMotorSpeed(port180A, PercentSpeed, 100, BrakingStyle::BRAKE); it just jumps to full speed for PercentSpeed = 100 and breaks after sending 0 as speed, as a "dumb" motor would do. According to the LPW3.0 protocol, up-to 8 profiles can be used; the command is "SetAccTime (Time, ProfileNo)" and then applies to all motor commands): "The selected profile will be used in all motor based commands if the UseProfileFlag is set TRUE. The Time and Profile Number set for the profile is ignored if the UseProfile-Flag is set FALSE." According to the LPW3.0 protocol, the tacho motor command is: "StartSpeed (Speed, MaxPower, UseProfile)" It can very well be that Legoino always uses "profile 0" and always has the UseProfile flag set to 1 when using tacho motor commands. Has anyone encountered this problem as well? Maybe @Lok24? I believe @Cornelius is not on this board anymore. Thanks a lot and best wishes! Thorsten

and then you simply order all the M2x3 screws available on this side of the pond - and even go bananas on the plugs no, wait, I meant order the banana plugs. Good to know all these details - 12V for ever. Best Thorsten

Oops got that wrong. Now, in that case - it depends . Difference is now: The protocol is fixed (and still asynchronous): All the receivers are waiting for some sort of "start" signal and use that to try synchronizing with the next signals coming it. Signal means there is a 2.4 GHz or 38kHz, or whatever you want to use, carrier signal present. When the timing is off, the receivers can't sync, they simply start over - to listen for another start signal again. In other words: Both the start signal as well the timing of signals (length of pause between the time of carrier present) are critical for this mode of operation - which is called on-off keying (OOK), I believe; I'm a chemist and just work here. Now, you can have different protocols active at one time in one room: TLG did that with their IR line of devices. Manas, RCX, RC, PF are all relying on a 38kHz modulated IR light OOK protocol. Nevertheless, you can control an RC device (e.g., a train 7897) AND a PF device (e.g., another train 3677) in one room, and they will only react to their corresponding (unpaired) controller, because length of start signals, as well as the length of the pauses in between signals are different for each product line. However, when you repeatedly operate the RC controller, it will most certainly flood the room with IR light carrying the RC protocol. It will be very tough for the PF IR light to come through, as the PF IR receiver sees also all that RC IR light and gets confused. It doesn't do anything when you press the PF controller once. And vice versa: Bang the PF remote and the RC receiver is virtually "blocked". There are of course other means of signal modulation/encoding, see e.g. here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On–off_keying The paired 2.4 GHz devices use much, much smaller "packages" of deeply coded information (you can put >much< more information into a package using a 2.4 GHz carrier than you can with e.g. 38kHz. One cycle at 2.4 GHz is 0.5 ns long, compared to 30 us for 38kHz - which is a factor of 60000. But even when unpaired, they still may operate more reliably in parallel to other 2.4 GHz (unpaired) devices in the same room, due to the temporally much shorter packages sent around (= far less overlap). Hope that makes any sense. Best Thorsten

That sounds good! Was about to say yesterday (and then decided not to) - the 12V train stuff was a rather European made line, wasn't it? I forgot. But if so: Europeans like the M-line of screws ... For all of you really wanting to dig deep on what "M2" means and never dared to ask: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_metric_screw_thread With regard to the M2 screws sitting inside that miniature banana plug: Here's all about that: https://asset.re-in.de/add/160267/c1/-/de/000730572DS01/DA_Kahlert-Licht-Miniatur-Bananenstecker-Stecker-gerade-Stift-2.6mm-Schwarz.pdf It is in bloody German though ... it says they are of size M 2x3. It also says the plugs have a diameter of 2.8 mm within the document and 2.6 mm when you order it (https://www.voelkner.de/products/89270/Kahlert-Licht-Miniatur-Bananenstecker-Stecker-gerade-Stift-2.6mm-Schwarz.html?ref=43&amp;utm_source=google&amp;utm_medium=organic&amp;utm_campaign=fpla&amp;gclid=Cj0KCQjwkIGKBhCxARIsAINMioI0u_brbc-gqWwd6EgUmJOM08yRSZ3V5FbhRRZki50nbipSRPl66RAaAgfBEALw_wcB). I believe the sockets don't care that much about the 0.2 mm. And there are about 100k other companies selling these, I believe. Happy reading! Best Thorsten

@LEGO Train 12 Volts and @Phil-B259, do you have any of these screws? If so, take a good resolution photograph, with some calibration device visible (ruler ...). Then zoom in and guess length, diameter and pitch. Well, this is what I would do. A caliper helps as well ... Best Thorsten

@Gimmick, as @AVCampos said: When controller and hub "pair", they negotiate their own "private" protocol. So when other 2.4 GHz devices begin to talk as well, they begin to raise the "floor noise", which the two don't understand and thus handle as such: noise. As long as the two talk loud enough, they understand each other; the louder the noise, the closer they need to be. It is as if you were with a friend in a large room. Let's assume, both of you talk a very special idiom of a language popular on Betelgeuse (i.e., hardly heard on Earth ). When you two are alone, you will clearly understand each other over a long distance. Now the room floods with people from many Earth countries. And they begin to talk as well. First a few, then more and more. The noise increases. Although your language is (almost) certainly unique, you will need to get much closer to each other to understand what your friend says ... Well, I believe it is like that. Best Thorsten

(Ahh, I see, channel-wise) Yeap, pretty much so, pairing wise. Can you "detect" any of the devices with any kind of BT or BLE equipped tool, such as a tablet or computer (e.g. Win10 -> search for other devices)? Guess not - but BLE has become dirt cheap as well. Best Thorsten

It would need "pairing" when using corresponding high-level protocols, such as BT or BLE. But it could also be that the 2.4GHz is just the carrier frequency to do very simple (and hardly used by others) encoding/decoding sort of what TLG did with PF or earlier with RC. There isn't much "interference" for PF and RC from other IR devices because of that - other than just "traffic" = IR dirt. So simple on/off keying could work fine - by simply replacing the IR transmitter/receiver, which do exactly the same in the PF components. There could be much more of course; when you turn on your components, are they just doing their work, or do you need to perform some sort of pairing, @2GodBDGlory? You are mentioning 16 available channels - that sounds pretty much like TLGs PF protocol with the extension bit enabled - and then just swapping IR with similarly dirt cheap 2.4GHz components. But who knows. All the best, Thorsten

And some have simply too much money - enabling this frenzy. BTW, this overpricing stupidity is exactly the contrary of what LEGO is all about. Clever or not: When you have that money at your hands, the type of cleverness you are referring to it not necessarily within your grasp. Nor does it have to be. But who knows. Best Thorsten

Nice - how's the grid holdin' up? Laser beam interrupter-wise? I mean, this is close to a high-voltage laser containment system, isn't it? What I like the most, is the DOSC with that floppy drive. The good old days were better ... although 3 1/2" floppies are/were not really floppy ... You guys rock. 9V was the best, is the best - and will be the best. The latter, because you make it happen. Best Thorsten

I cannot agree more. Very well said. I truly hope that as well. Best Thorsten

How about hiring people that get all the smart electronics stuff aligned? The firmware, the software? It was and it is a >total< mess. Not promoting the people coming up with super smart name tags such as "Spike" or what-so-ever, but folks that know what they are doing? Man. The potential in RCXs, NXTs, EV3s, and then I am losing it - Spike boom bang - has >never ever< been explored and exploited by TLG to the extent "possible". They left it to nerds out there. To people who knew and know what they are doing. Never being hired though, I guess. generate new, solid patents? And not folks who sue on old stuff? people archiving all that LEGO software stuff? Heck, it is mostly gone into oblivion already ... ABS lasts forever, software for a couple of years only? When companies rally-up on legal issues (and this is what I take from this post, I may be dead wrong), things have already gone into a totally wrong direction. Not ahead anymore, i.e., leading and pushing the IDEA. I know, they have to do that. Honestly? Simply be better than others are. And move forward. Best Thorsten

I agree with @MAB and @Jack Sassy. There is something else, though, I believe. It is the way you "store" your models. Just my personal view: When your sets are assembled, nothing much will happen, creativity-wise. On the other hand, when you have a box full of >parts< of several models, ideally so many, that you can't "see" the individual models anymore - creativity may pop in there. I am convinced it will. But that requires to simply give up the "model" idea of LEGO. The original idea of LEGO was not to collect, but to build. It may very well be, that they switched to "please collect, as we can make more money that way" - or - because creativity is not in the forefront anymore. Who knows. You know, 18+ and such. And only very limited "smart" simply piece sets. Bricks and bolts and so on. Furthermore: "Just do it". Sounds dumb; this is my personal experience. Put something together - and take it apart again. Learn to like the building experience. Learn to like your MOCs. "Later on": When you have all these pieces at increasing numbers in your "box" ... maybe sort them. That may result in "knowledge" on parts. Others (as me) may like the box, or boxes. You know, when the box count goes up ... or the one box gets bigger and bigger, MOCs will appear by your imagination. And just don't judge your MOC against others. >Never<. Your MOC is your MOC. It is all that counts. Best Thorsten

@metalgeekzy can't agree more with @1963maniac, maybe steer away from Amazon. It appears to be convenient, and it is, but as Jeff said when he flew into the skies upon his return: "... you are paying for this ..." There are much better sources. Expensive, they still are. Because TLG abandoned ship. So it is up-to you to decide on where to go. Best Thorsten

@Black Knight: I know ... I forgot to post this one: . So, no offense. It was just to point out that all these "3rd party" (in addition to being 100% dependent on the supplier) are under serious pressure, trying to hold up with other "ordered today - delivered tomorrow" companies. And be assured: I can see your point clearly! Cross my fingers that you will be served sooner than later!!! All the best Thorsten