Toastie

And as we are in the right thread without getting in deep trouble: Here's the Pearl - on the top left. On the right is TLGs Silent Mary - again a wonderful ship. I removed all that stuff for setting her up standing on a shelf - mine is attached to the wall using some Technic parts - and so I could "close" the hull a bit more than in the original: And a side view: And here's the 39,99 Pearl a little retrofitted. I glued some black bell wire to the outline of the sails, so that they could be massaged into the right shape and added some additional parts to the front and back sections. Best Thorsten

Oh wow! Thanks a million! This certainly is the "original"!!! Well the Chinese even made these rope pulley (don't know what they are called correctly) pieces, so that you can attach the ropes nicely. Also - I believe my rigging is not >that< bad. I also rearranged these pulleys a bit - otherwise the small cannons would shoot them to shreds - and I see that this was done in the original as well! Now it is time for me to find a copy of that game - I don't do any games, but I would certainly like to see more of her! And find more pictures. Such a >great< find (for me personally)!!! Thank you very much again, sir! All the best, Thorsten P.S.: Just fired of the Google: The game runs on Win10 - oh man.

It does: My maybe-son-in-law (one never knows) found it funny to attach the two (pearl golden) goblets onto the octopus, way before I had to attach it to the back - without telling me. So these two goblets were "missing" during the build - but I had some "originals" in my LEGO storage facility . Even when I attached the octopus, I initially did not notice. Well, found that funny as well and left them there: (Sorry for the bad picture quality - sloped walls in the way) Best wishes, Thorsten

Yes she really is! Would you or anyone here on EB know whose MOC this set is based on or even is? I looked around for some time now but to no avail. There are many "remotely similar" (all from Clone Brands) designs, but nothing as go as this one. IMHO of course. Love to get in touch and tell her/him, how much I love this ship! All the best, here is to feeling good ! Thorsten

You'll achieve that, I am sure. Best Thorsten

True. But to master it, as you did, is so much more. Your build has become my favorite "those who remain" vision. Everything really resonates. No T3000's, no super human cyborgs. Totally cool. Thank you very much for sharing - the 10 minutes to pose him are more, much more than worthwhile! All the best Thorsten

@Brick New World I am completely taken away by your skills and dedication to realize your micro-city. This is really breathtaking. I believe it is so much more difficult to build at this scale AND make the builds not only recognizable, but enjoyable, as you do. I really do admire your skills they are well in line or even better than what TLG does with Architecture. Thank you very much for continuous sharing!!! All the best Thorsten

ABS does not provide that many degrees of freedom in the monomer formulation. "They" (not TLG, they simply melt ABS in their moulding machines, but the chemical polymer power players) may have changed the formulation, but that a) depends a lot on global demand and thus raw ABS supplies (other companies need orders of magnitude more raw ABS material) and b) I don't believe TLG focuses that much on melting issues but rather on clutch power, smooth edges, and - well - cost optimization. Best Thorsten

I take the freedom to fully second, what @dr_spock has said. Not only the citation above, but his entire post. Fully. Mechanics is beautiful. Truly beautiful. But mechanics combined with some sort of "intelligence" is so much more. Also, I like to stress @dr_spock's point of "don't forget": In essence, TLG is doing the same thing >over and over< again: There are X sensors and there are Y actuators (and X and Y are not that far away from "3") - and some brain in between. Sure, the brain is getting bigger and more powerful; at the same time, more memory demanding operating systems are used. Think Python and compare to LEGO "machine code" = byte code. Plus other programming languages like C or C++. And this is absolutely OK. Nevertheless, and don't get me wrong, GBC machines don't need super computing power, they need reliable >synchronization<. As far as I know, I never did GBC(!) but enjoy every video available on the net ;). Reliable synchronization depends much more on intelligent sensor reading and response, of course in accord with temporal requisites. As an example, an RCX is really "fast", when you let it off the leash. I believe that virtually all PBricks [Scout, Spybot (BTW, these feature >two< internal, fully controllable motors!), RCXs(!), NXTs(!), and yes, EV3s and the PUp hubs)] are very useful within GBC applications. Once again, I am just echoing what was said by a very experienced member of this board. All the best Thorsten

Absolutely. "Rubber" is such an undefined polymer, it almost hurts. They can choose whatever they want; rubberrish behavior and properties (soft, grip, whatnot) translate to: Not good for decades of conservation. My (hundreds) of rubber tires (as I don't need all the tires, but the parts - I am more into trains and non-car fun ) are surely well separated from all my other ABS pieces. Some rubber tires (particularly the glossy ones) seem to develop a liquid like behavior on the surface. The storage place is not humid, nor hot. The rubber polymers simply degrade over time. Some faster, some apparently much slower. Which means the former are environmentally friendly ;) Upon rubber degradation, smaller molecules, which seem to have the property to partly dissolve ABS, evolve. Well, you can dissolve ABS quantitatively in acetone and other "almost" house-hold chemicals. No surprise here, I guess, when ABS is in contact with "rubber". All the best Thorsten

And this is a wonderful story, really. I love it. And I can really very much see that! Now, within a wardrobe, the temperature will never ever reach any adverse levels. Never ever. Put that thermometer in there, and take measurements. The results will tell you: No problem at all!!! I was concerned that you may have access to some sort of storage "room", which in turn may have windows etc. heating up some areas to really high temperatures. But in your room, in a wardrobe? Never ever. You are on the absolute safe side here. As I said: Take the measurements, put your thermometer in there and post the results in this very thread. We'll have a look. It will tell you: Decades of storage are no problem. But: Proof (measurements) are better than claims. Always. Thank you very much for sharing your experience with LEGO. I would never call that a "fetish", but much more so love and/or passion. All the best Thorsten

Hee hee - ABS is simply superior to humans. It also doesn't complain about the weather all the time. The main points of @ks6349 were: ((for decades) = true) AND ((very very hot) == true) The former is tough - needs a longtime experiment - I most certainly will not survive. The latter is easily answered by measuring the temperature, as very, very hot is even worse than °Fahrenheit So I'd still say it depends. Is in indoors and in your room? That temperature would do no harm to ABS as it is superior to humans and you would suffer so much in there - maybe even die. But: Do you store your LEGOs maybe also somewhere else? In a building exposed to sunlight (storage room etc?) I'd say you'll be good below 60°C. Or 50? Due to the decades? Moisture/Humidity should not affect ABS at all. Best Thorsten

@Hod Carrier: Absolutely, my pleasure! I am either using a standalone ESP32 Node MCU - which I program using the Arduino IDE with the Legoino library of Cornelius Munz installed (https://github.com/corneliusmunz/legoino), and behold, or I am using my own VB6 SP6 program (no joke, yes the stuff from around 2000) with the /n software IPWorks Bluetooth active X control from 2016 - they gave me that one gracefully for free. The VB6 program gives me free access to any of the commands/methods described in TLGs LWP protocol (https://github.com/LEGO/lego-ble-wireless-protocol-docs) [which is static since 2018 , still buggy, but this is all I have]. This is the code I am using the set speed sub command (section 3.27.5. of the LWP3.0 doc): "Output Sub Command - StartSpeed (Speed, MaxPower, UseProfile) [0x07]" Furthermore, the Powered Up App (programming mode) can do that as well, just tried it to be sure. It is described here https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/162288-powered-up-a-tear-down/&amp;page=22&amp;tab=comments#comment-3185689 @Lok24 and many others know a >lot< more on how to use the app for train control, I just work here. The glitches he reports are gone, as far as I can tell - one year has passed since then ... and yes, you can control trains with the PUp remote hooked up to the PUp app, the train hub as well, and the the remote talks with the app which in turn talks to the hub. (So the remote is not directly paired with the hub). I never tried that, see above, don't like to use a smart device to do translations. But apparently it works very well. @kbalage has assembled a >very nice< summary of PUp hard and software including TLGs apps. I find this page most helpul, when tinkering with the Powered Up app (which I hardly do, but it is nice to test things): https://racingbrick.com/powered-up-code-block-guide/ I am sure, you have all these references - maybe others find them useful. With regard to: That was, what I meant with "9V/RC/PF/PUp motors": The respective train motors. Nearly impossible - but maybe I can't resist and will carve out the electronics of a PUp L motor ... maybe And I am >very much< looking forward to what you come up with!!! All the best Thorsten

Now if I were you, I certainly would get a (electronic) thermometer. With min/max measurement capability. These a dirt cheap, you don't need any high accuracy at all. Could it happen? Sure. But it all depends. First, you should not be concerned with the melting temp of ABS, that is not a good number for polymers. The heat distortion temperature is more of concern (c.f. for example this link: https://polymerdatabase.com/polymer physics/HeatDistortion.html) From that website: "The heat distortion temperature (HDT) - also known as the deflection temperature under load (DTUL) or heat deflection temperature - is an important property of polymers. It gives an indication at what temperature materials start to "soften" when exposed to a fixed load at elevated temperatures." Your bricks may not be under external load (also called stress), when stored as loose parts (in contrast to a built model; there will be stress), but as they are really precision pieces; minimal dimensional changes will affect clutch power and the like. I am not sure, how much >internal< stress they still have; injection molding experts here should know better. But there all these reinforcing elements in almost every brick/piece here and there. It also depends on the actual monomer formulation to make the ABS polymer, which may slightly vary. Plain vanilla ABS has an HDT of 80°C. I'd say assume a significantly lower HDT when storing them for >decades<. They certainly don't partly melt, they slightly deform. Which is as bad as melting, as there is hardly any way to reshape them. Fun story: My mother once upon a time (must have been around 1970) got hold of a bucket of dirty LEGO bricks. So what did she do? Put them into a big saucepan add water, soap, fire up the gas and boiled them for half an hour. Success rate of very badly deforming the pieces: 100%. Can you imagine how that hurt? First: Cheers and the feel of being the luckiest person on planet Earth - and then Chemistry hits hard. Maybe this was the reason I became a chemist, who knows So be indeed careful. Get that thermometer and take (many) measurements in several storage places. In some non-ventilated places, it can get hot, you would not believe. As you said: You cann feel it ... Best and good luck, Thorsten

Hee hee - da mods ... but is good here as well da thread! Superior sets: One is for me Mould King's 13138 pirate ship The Flying Dutchman ... >never< had such a nice building experience AND fun looking at it after finishing - every day. I rigged her up a bit - this is I believe not anywhere close to the original - but I could not care less. Nor do I know how to do that rigging in a decent manner, just tried it from a "securing" masts and yards standpoint. Again: Because I like it. No minifigs in this set as this is meant to be a model; clutch power of the plates and bricks stronger than TLGs pieces - which is very good for modeling. For example, the balls/socket joints used in the bow section are such tight that they hardly turn when attached. Perfect for smoothly "forming" that delicate "mouth" region. Also, the bow/bowsprit section becomes much more stable with some rigging using to bobstays which I added for just that purpose to the bowsprit. By the way, no ghost appeared nor did the model fall into ashes when I used original LEGO pieces for that purpose ... also for that little water bed - the ships is on a nice stand, but I wanted it "afloat" ... 3650 pieces, the set runs anywhere from 100 to 200 €. I ordered mine from BlueBrixx as I like the folks over there for 160 € incl. Perfect handling, perfect shipping, nice box, clean instructions. I am (still) impressed, even after 5 months (that box arrived Christmas ...) Best Thorsten

What I like so much about this MOC is that it really gives the impression the pistons are propelling it. Wait ... or do they? I couldn't tell - maybe they really do ... Fantastic MOC. All this motion - and so close to the original. But: To be "expected" from such an experienced and skilled builder! Best regards, Thorsten

I was waiting for this - but I am unprepared. Let me take some photographs (amateur style) tomorrow and throw them in here, before the mods realize ... Nice. Thanks a lot! Have a good one Best Thorsten

Nice one! Actually, I love the Punk Death Star, which is no Death Star at all anymore! How about adding "superior" to the list of bizarre and hilarious? That's fun as well! Best Thorsten

You must have a different "front page" than I have - you mean the page that loads, when you press "portal" on the main menu? The one where the featured MOCs are? Mine says "Back to top" and things like that ... Could be your rank, right? Best Thorsten

Of course! Missed to mention that! (Btw: Do the 590s really exist in red? Wow. What's their current value? In Bitcoins?) And if I were the King of TLG, I would issue an order, that the electronic pieces of the already existing PUp motors be arranged in a way that the resulting PCB fits nicely into a 9V train motor. And I would give such a dirt cheap board along with the magnet and a (on one side wired) PUp connector >for free< to any LEGO freak buying an original, highly overpriced PUp hub, provided they declare that she or he is a train head who believes that the end of the 9V line pushed us years closer to the coming end of this world. Yeah. If. Best Thorsten

I have a radical idea (no not that one: If the door swings both ways, we could reverse the particle flow through the gate ...) but I just googled PUp motor internals. I bet this has been discussed elsewhere, so maybe this needs to be moved/merged/deleted by mods. Did not check, sorry. It is meant to be a joke though: Too expensive, may not work. BUT: TLG could do that easily >in< a train motor - there is ample of free space in there - for sure!!! Here we go: This link shows the internals of a dumb PUp M motor: https://bricks.stackexchange.com/questions/10367/what-is-inside-the-lego-powered-up-m-motor. @Philo tells us (https://www.philohome.com/wedo2reverse/connect.htm) that the hubs simply recognize dumb motors by measuring the resistance between PUp pins 5 and 6 (OK, they do A/D conversion of the voltage at one of these pins): A short for a PUp train motor and 2.2 kOhms for the dumb PUp M motor. All other (smart) PUp motors like PUp L do something different, which is Philo also reporting here: https://www.philohome.com/wedo2reverse/protocol.htm What's inside an PUp XL motor is shown here: https://bricks.stackexchange.com/questions/15031/what-is-inside-the-technic-powered-up-xl-motor. Here we can see, that there is 1) an additional electronics board and b) a ring magnet is sitting on the geared output axle. c) I may be wrong, but the one chip in the front is mounted in a way that the (segmented?) ring magnet and the chip (hall?) sensors could compose a simple rotation encoder, as used in many devices, e.g.: https://www.analogictips.com/rotary-encoders-part-2-magnetic-encoders/ This is what we do: Open (which seems to be an irreversible process) a PUp L motor. The circuit board should be smaller than that of the PUp XL motor. Desolder/remove the motor + the ring magnet. Get out the circuit board. Put the ring magnet on a 9V axle. Build something nice "around axle and circuit board", @coaster can maybe do that - and BINGO: We have a PUp rotation sensor with(!) power output (lines M1 + M2) to a motor. We wire these to any type of train motor, 9V/PF/RC/PUp. We sure hope, that the characteristics of the PUp L rotation number is somewhat close to that of the train motor axles (which it should be, looking at my Croc), so that the control algorithm in the hub does not freak out. The PUp hub thinks it has an PUp L motor attached to one of its ports. We set speed to x% and - done. Well that wasn't such a chore now, was it? (3:23) Best, Thorsten

Ahh - yes - thank you for that link! Now then: No rotation sensor for sure - just making one for these two is dumb. And since TLG has/is phasing-out PF - no reason for them as well. Just imagine: All motors without internal sensors (9V, PF and the two candidates you pointed to) could be run in a controlled fashion, would there be such a sensor. Best Thorsten

Blessed are the color-blind Best Thorsten

Absolutely true. As far as I know, PUp-wise only the L and XL motors do have the internal rotation sensor. Now what would easily resolve the issue: TLG gives us a reasonably designed PUp rotation sensor - then we can do speed control with all motors ... it won't happen though. Best Thorsten

As far as I remember (I don't do the "apps" - just tried it once, to see whether the "speed" setting = PID controlled power output to the PUp L motor actually works), when using the "speed" (not power) command, I could run my Crocodile at 5% (!) speed without noticing any slowing in curves or so. Even a smooth start ramp may be used (according to the LWP3.0 protocol). Best Thorsten