MajorAlvega

No problem, I'll just change the name to "The Mists of Atlantis" and add some mermaids and tritons :D

Yes, one of our LUG mates has an aquarium pump and I might try it. But I'm more Technic/Mindstorms than Castle so I'm considering something more complex like this:

Yes, inputs are 3V- and 5V-compatible I'm not aware of PF connectors on the market. I've been using LEGO PF cables, cut at the middle and solder the wire to other connectors or directly to the boards I use. Pretty expensive (Bricklink doesn't help here) and also a capital sin, I know :)

This thread at Eurobricks Technic forum discuss something like that: BricksTer - Open Source Bluetooth for your LEGO models http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=87340

I use Pololu DRV8835 (dual) and DRV8838 (single) driver, not with trains - small motors so no heat problems. I think the L293D will work with the PF train motor with a proper heatsink for common usage but perhaps can't give enough current for heavt usage. With the Raspberry Pi I use L298 modules (mostly from Itead but they are almost all designed from the same reference circuit) because they can handle more power and came with an heatsink, But it's perhaps to big to put in a train.

Thanks, that's a good tip we've never thought of. Indeed, the cables were not supposed to be seen... but lack of time and preparation made me forget about that (we had several other things at the table, our first collaborative castle the most important). We've been discussing several water aspects - we want waves (a decent Technic wave generator is on the way for the third exhibition) and better shores (BURPs or something better) and we are considering the bottom of the ocean to be covered with LEGO. So a dye might also work, we'll considerer it. Funny you said "kids bath die"... some of us almost brought soap powder to try some bubbles at the end of the event.

Hi! This is a small island made for the Medieval table of our LUG exhibition, Oeiras BRInCKa 2016, last week. The Mists of Avalegon by Jorge Pereira, on Flickr This was the second time we had real water in our table and since one of us brought a smoking vulcano (real smoke from a RC "portable" fog machine intended for parties) I've been researching ways of doing a fog / mist effect at small scale. Have been working with model train smoke generators and also custom made smoke generators but for this particular MOC I decided to use 3 USB bottle cap air humidifiers. Each unit has a wick that brings water from the bottle to a small metal part at the top that vibrates fast enough to disperse the water in small droplets that float in the air - one can see two of those metal parts at the left size of the island, near the cauldron and the dolmen, the third one is hidden near the pine tree. Each wick was cut to the height of the unit and I also opened a small hole near the bottom so water could reach the wick. Luckily the USB plug is near the top of the cap so no need to protect it from water. At the beginning of the exhibition I used just 1 USB power adapter and 1 USB hub to power all units but later opted to use 3 power adapters to give enough power to each one (I suspect each can draw near 700 mA). It worked very well all 4 days, except that after 8 to 10 hours I also found that I had to remove and reconnect power, not sure if there's some kind of timer or temperature protection in the units. Merlin by Jorge Pereira, on Flickr The Merlin minifig is using a custom made cloak, printed with an inkjet printer on canvas ("Reeves acrylic pad", A5-size paper for painting, 190 grams per square meter) and a Brick Warriors lyre. I forgot to put the elf minifig original cloak but after some hours of exhibition I decided it was best to leave that way, there was already to much water over the MOC and it would probably ruin it.

Hi, thanks for creating another thread. I had played with an ESP8266 like yours but gave up shortly after. It's great for very small and specific purposes but I found it difficult to use for my own purposes - just 2 digital I/O, not a proper power supply, need to use a FTDI cable to program... So I got myself a NodeMCU v2 (or ESP-12-E... naming is not quite standard around the several ESP modules): It's twice as bigger but has more I/O pins and can be USB powered or directly with a 3.7V LiPo. And it already has the FTDI part onboard so when I connect it to my laptop I can use Arduino IDE directly - the IDE changes the firmware so it no longer runs LUA and after that I ran some some examples like WiFi, http server and RC servo. I'm using it to control my micro-car (a RC servo for steering and a micro DC geared motor for traction) from my Android phone with UDP messages. For a guy like me with almost no previous Arduino experience, was like "plug and play".

Hi! I'm JorgePe at GitHub (ando also Jorge Pereira at Youtube... identity problems, I know). Thanks for giving me the credits, I apreciate a lot. I'm glad my code worked with the Raspberry Pi. I've been using it mainly with my Linux laptop and my Mindstorms EV3. I had a setup similar to yours but with RFID sensors and tags instead of reed switches and magnets - yours is definitely cheaper than mine :) Don't want to hijack this thread but I would like to comment things: - I've been also testint the ESP8266 and agree that Wi-Fi is much better than BTluetooth 4.0( BLE) at the moment, although BLE needs much less power; - With Arduino and Raspberry Pi I've been using Itead L298 and Pololu drv8835 (dual) /drv8838 (single) motor drivers. You can see later with a grown-up version of the ESP8266 (nodeMCU) here:

Love you power chain concept, will keep it in mind.

Awesome "look". I like hexapods very much, your MOC walks in a very "organic" way.

It's insane for sure! An amazing work!

Very impressive! Looks quite solid, would love to see projects using this framework.

The PC is an interesting option for BIG and/or complex systems, like Trains. I got some RFID tags that I've been using with trains controlled by SBricks (could be LEGO PF IR also). I use USB RFID readers to detect the train passing by and LEGO WeDo to control track switches and lights. I'm thinking of using the laptop as a central coordinator for EV3 and probably some Pi. But have not enough room space for such a setup so keep delaying that project.

That's a good question. If you're using the EV3, or the Pi, or the Arduino, you're most certainly using also a PC. The PC usually is to big + clumsy + expensive. And usually it's also difficult to interface to something like LEGO. And even when you have something to interface it's difficult to do what you want if you're using Windows. But I do use my laptop sometimes: - it's portable enough for some of my projects, altough rather expensive so have to be sure to make no electrical mistakes; - I've found some USB devices that allow me to do what I want like a relay board or a 1-wire bus controller; also use LEGO WeDO (USB) and Vengit SBrick (Bluetooth 4.0) and IrDroid (earphone jack or USB) - I use linux so getting to the devices is easier - it allows me to debug more easily - it allows me to test some code (Ubuntu) that later I'll use with the Pi (Raspbian) or the EV3 (ev3dev) sometimes with no modifications at all

:) I've return from the Dark Age because of the Pi, two years ago. Was using a Pi and trying Scratch when I found LEGO WeDO. I got two Power Functions kits (Motor-M + AA Battery + Lights...) and "adapted" the PF motors to control them with the Pi and an H-bridge. Then I found Bricklink, then I got adicted and after a while my wife found PLUG and... oh boy. Arduino doesn't appeal so much as the Pi. But I've been using a NodeMCU in Arduino mode to develop a small WiFi LEGO car, trying to achieve a size compatible to LEGO Speed Champions. I've not explored the BrickPi yet, but I will now that I've got a Pi2. To much computing power to be ignored. I'm pretty sure we will see more mix-and-match in the future. I would love if LEGO would make an EV4 with more horse-power. But even now, ev3dev is partning with RobotC trying to put ev3dev in the EV3 as a firmware instead of just an SD card. That will make a strong combination: ev3dev and RobotC. IoT is just a buzzword. With ev3dev, RobotC, LeJOS and a few other projects, anyone can already connect the EV3 to the Net, but it's not "plug and play" yet. Perhaps if LEGO or a third party creates a IoT gateway things grow faster.

Well, in that case you may use your EV3 as a web server and let people around the world interact with your LEGO world. Perhaps a smart house, controlling the lights, room temperature, etc... You don't need to use the EV3 as a robot's brain, you may use it just as an expensive microcomputer. But if you're not going to use most of the parts of the kit, perhaps you really don't need the EV3, check the BrickPi (a Raspberry Pi with an Arduino extension) and the Evshield (an Arduino shield) both allow you to use LEGO Mindstorms sensors/motors) without the EV3.

You're a software developer and you have experience with arduino and Pi so I suggest you http://ev3dev.org/ or LeJOS. I'm a computer and Linux guy so I'm totally ev3dev biased. ev3dev is a version of Debian Linux for the EV3. You put a miniSD card with ev3dev in the EV3, turn it on and you're running Linux. So almost anything you can do with the Pi you can do with EV3 (but slower). You don't think the standard sensors are that exciting... almost anything USB can be used with ev3dev so you can use relays, servos, webcams, GPS, bluetooth (even BT 4,0 BLE), 1-wire or I2C or RS232 adapters... You steel don't like it... sell it to me :)

Hello! This was my Halloween MOC. It uses a SBrick to control 4 functions: - White light - Ultra-violet light - Fog - Minifigs rotation The white light uses a regular LEGO Power Functions Light pair. One LED is inside the pumpkin at front, the other one is bellow the floor, pointing up. The ultra-violet ("black") light uses 3 home made Power Functions UV pairs, with UV LEDs. I'm using a rectifier bridge and two 100 Ohm resistors to drive the LEDs, a circuit identical to LEGO PF Light pair. 2 pairs (4 LEDs) light 4 torches in the left and right walls. I put the LED inside a technic 1x1 brick with hole, behind the trans-neon-orange flame to hide it (black light sources are also blue light sources). Some UV passes trough, not much but I complete it with another pair (2 LEDs) bellow the floor, pointing up. There is a fifth torch in the back wall, without UV LED behind but still glowing a bit, like the spider in the left corner. The fog cames from an home made fog generator. It uses a kantal wire to heat glycerole/glyrecin, like the smoke generators used in in model trains as also most e-cigs. Has a silica wick that takes the glycerin from a small tank, enough for more than 30 minutes of work. The fog is not spreading allover the MOC as I intended. I might add a small fan later. Finally the minifigs rotation uses an old 9V micro-motor. No gears so it turns to fast :( Everything is powered from a LEGO Power Functions LiPo. You can see most of the electronics in this photo of the base while being assembled:

Yes, it will work, that is for sure. And yes, I think that normal usage would not over stress the SBrick.

It seems to use a pack of 8 AA NiCd batteries, the pdf I found says 800 mAh. I don't think that motor consumes more Amps than a LEGO 9V RC motor... so I think it is OK. But don't take it for granted, OK?

9.6 Volt is safe. But if you're going to use real RC parts be careful with current - no more than 3A per channel and no more than 5~6A total for short periods.

Your videos are always a great surprise!

Define «directly» :) If you have a Power Functions IR receiver you can control it a 3rd party IR emitter connected to the EV3. Works with the default EV3 firmware. If you have a SBrick you can control it with a USB Bluetooth 4.0 dongle connected to the EV3 but doesn't work with native EV3 firmware, you will need to run ev3dev (a Linux version made for the EV3).

Maybe an ultra-violet lamp? Like those cabinets used to make Printed Circuit Boards.