mostlytechnic

Nice job cramming a full pneumatic setup into such a small set.

Signs on the shelf in my store did list what was excluded (super hero, new ninjago, dino, forget which else) According to the ad, this coming week (dec 18-24) there's b1 get 1 half price on all but star wars. However, as of right now, it's not applying to super hero online. I did just order a pair of Tower Bridge though :)

Nope, no luck. I thought at first it would. There are two tabs that need removed, marked with the red circles. Only the "vertical" part needs removed. I did it by just grabbing it with a pair of needlenose pliers and twisting and the tab tore right out. motor-marked by mostlytechnic, on Flickr However, with those out, the white gear at the non-wire end goes right in, but the wire end has extra plastic for the wiring under the white gear, so it won't fit reversed. So I tried making it have just 1 driven axle. Still no go - worked while the motor was open, but there's actually little notches in the cover for the orange gear - once you put the lid back on, it binds against the reversed orange gear and it won't turn. So alas, what I thought would be the easiest way doesn't work at all. It'd take serious mods to make the gears work backwards...

I think I tried that and they (the white gears) wouldn't fit on the other side. I'll double check though... if that works, it would definitely be the simple solution!

There is room at the end of the motor where I bet you could add a switch, with the switch lever sticking out the end of the motor (under the power cord, so it'd be towards the center of a loco and not interfere with adding a buffer and such to the other end of the motor). (look at my 3rd photo, with the motor open showing the orange axles. Picture putting a switch in there at the right hand end of the motor. It'd take cutting a hole in the end and mounting the switch, but should be doable)

You are correct. However, I have a stack of PF motors and no RC motors, so I went this route :)

I thought about that, but that's another wire to stuff into the loco - this is completely contained. But sure, crossing wires in an extension would do the exact same thing.

I wanted to dual-motor some of my locomotives, but didn't want the expense or space to add the pole reverser to do it the "official" way. Given that, I tried opening up a motor and found that it's actually pretty simple to make it run reverse. First, you need a tiny Torx T-6 driver: IMG_7822 by mostlytechnic, on Flickr Flip the motor over, and there's 6 screws to remove. Once in each corner, and two in the center area. IMG_7827 by mostlytechnic, on Flickr Inside, you see the motor, some gears, and that's about it. IMG_7829 by mostlytechnic, on Flickr On one side, there's a small brown disc. I believe that's the thermistor that'll shut things down if it gets too warm in here. Keep that attached to the wire (doesn't matter which side of the motor it's wired to) but disconnect the two wires from the motor. IMG_7832 by mostlytechnic, on Flickr There's not enough slack in the wires to cross them and wire to the opposite terminals of the motor, so I added a couple extra bits of wire and covered it with heatshrink tubing. Solder the wires back onto the motor (crossed, of course). IMG_7838 by mostlytechnic, on Flickr One last thing to do. There's a diagonal ridge inside the cover that holds the motor in place. With the wires crossed over the motor, that's in the way. I used a knife to weaken the ridge a bit, and then grabbed it with pliers and wiggled till it came off. Reassemble, and the motor is now reversed. Probably oughta mark it somehow so you know which motor is which. IMG_7842 by mostlytechnic, on Flickr Now, put this and a regular motor on your loco, wire them to the IR receiver, and the dual motor locomotive is ready to run.

Oh, the wife is getting so much... the new 2012 ambulance (to go in the train layout we're going to build over the winter), a couple smaller castle sets, probably the space rocket launch set (already have 10231 shuttle, but it's probably too big for our train layout). Kids are getting a few sets too. And I've already started building on mine - fire brigade and grand emporium :)

I modified a regular switch to move easier for easier motorization. I was able to get the bottom plate off without needing to drill (like the one brickset gallery shows) - just pried the plate off. Then I filed down the bumps on the sliding piece like it shows. I left a bit, so it still "clicks" each way, but it's much easier to switch. I'm all PF, so I have no idea about the (very nicely done!) metal foil job to make the switches 9V compatible.

Thanks for your input. I also tried going to a 330R as the base resistor, and that didn't seem to change anything. Yes, the final design will use a 12V supply to run the 7 LEDs. For now, I'm just trying to get the circuits working with a single LED off the 5V supply from the USB connection. I'll probably switch to my 5v/12v supply this weekend if I get a chance... What about the BC337 makes it better? Looking at the datasheets, the 2222 is rated for 600ma continuous, 1100ma peak. The BC337 is 500/1000. So what else should one be looking at to pick a transistor? (in my case, I picked these cause I got a bag of them for cheap at a local store...)

The transistor is a basic pn2222 (think that's the right # - it's the super common one NPN one. Rated for like 600ma or something like that) Base resistor is a 10K. Is that the problem? edit: lemme see if I'm right (I know little about electronics; I'm more of a software guy. But I can google well!). I want 200ma out of the transistor, right? So assuming a gain of 100, I need 2ma into the base. Using V=IR, that'd mean a 2500ohm resistor with the 5V circuit. So swapping the 10k out and putting in something around 2-3K would be better? Not able to test it at the moment, but I can later tonight hopefully... edit 2: So I did some calculations and ended up trying a 1.8K resistor instead of the 10k base resistor. It does help - range is better, but still not as good as the real remote. But, my final design uses 7 LEDs in series, so I think it'll be ok. Still debating though on whether to put the LEDs on the table pointed up (to bounce off the white ceiling) or mount them on the ceiling pointed down. The first would look better (can probably even hide them in buildings w/ a hole in the roof, or put them behind things since only one side of the layout will be accessible) but the second more reliable I'd think.

LOVE the head-in-a-cap to be a swaddled baby Jesus. Just fantastic idea. (that is a hat, right? Or if not, what part is that blue thing?) edit: checked bricklink, now I'm sure that's the skier beanie from the collectable fig series 2 skier, right?

Ok, hopefully you can help me... Still working on the hardware for my remote. I've got an arduino running basically SuperCow's code to generate the IR signals. From the pin on the arduino, I have a simple transistor amplifier circuit (pin - > resistor -> base, emitter to ground, and collector to the IR led w/ a 22R resistor from 5V) In theory that should be giving me 200ma thru the LED. I've tried a couple different LEDs (one from radio shack, and a couple from a pack I ordered off ebay). No matter what, I only get about 4 feet of range, even pointed directly at the receiver. I also tried changing the values in the code to adjust the freq (in case it wasn't right at 38KHz). No improvement at all, and if I changed it too far, it quit working all together. Any ideas?

Awesome... bookmarking so I can build one when I get our layout up and running :)

I think the technic bricks in the roof are so that you can assemble the three sections different ways. The "bridge" attaches to the two sides w/ a couple pins, so by having more technic holes in the back of the sides, you could arrange them differently. And to see the "brick-brick" just go to bricklink: http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=98283 There's photos of both sides of it. I've got these in both the medium dark flesh (this set) and the dark tan (two ninjago sets), and I like the dark tan much better. Just not a fan of the MDF color myself... but with 27 of the MDF in this set, vs 4 or 6 in the ninjago sets, it's a lot easier to get a bunch of the MDF version :)

Thanks for that tip about the oscillation freq. I saw the note in your code. I might try tweaking that a bit - don't have an oscilloscope, so can't measure, but I can try adjusting it just a bit to see if that makes a difference. I'm running on a arduino duemilanove and a teensy, both 16mhz processors. It'd only take a few minutes, so worth trying...

Thanks supercow. I've got something similar - an arduino w/ some pots and switches set up as inputs to control speed, and an output w/ transistor to boost the IR power to 200ma. I'm guessing either I've got some dud LEDs or something else is wrong. I'm getting only a few feet of range, pointed straight at the PF receiver from above.

Yep, once I clean up the code a little more I'll be sharing it. Works great... currently runs on an arduino w/ a custom set of levers for control.

You could w/ the old 9V wires, but the PF can't be turned. They only connect 1 way.

Quick question - I know to dual-motor a loco you can use the reversing switch to change the second motor. I don't have room for that. Am I correct that the center two wires in the PF cable control the motor, so cutting an extension cable and crossing those two would also reverse the motor? Just thought I'd double-check before I start cutting. Measure twice, cut once and all that :)

Thanks - it's your code that I'm using. I found it over on the arduino site, but didn't realize you visited over here too :) I've modified it now so that the extra address space works. I'll post it soon, just need to clean some things up. On your remote, what LED specs are you using? Is it a 940nm or 850? how much power? I'm currently using a 940nm w/ 200ma, and the range just sucks.

The main IR code that I'm using, I didn't write. I've just made adjustments as needed to it (to add extra space ability, for example). Looking at it, it doesn't appear to send the command 5 times.

Awesome, had some time to play last night. It's working perfectly! I was able to use my arduino to put a train into extra space mode and control it just like normal. Confirmed by the fact that the train ignored a normal remote. So now I've got lots of extra channels for a train layout. Once I get things a little more polished, I'll be publishing the code so others can do it too...

My store was giving just the 1 free PAB box per person, none w/ your purchase, and 1 free of the #2 christmas set w/ purchase. I did get a 20% discount though (and saw someone get a 50!) but didn't get to see discount till checking out. Still fun though, and I spent like $800 of course :)