Snapshot

Following on from my double-width bookshop last year, here's my double-frontage three storey version of the town-house. I reduced the crawl space to just one brick in height, enough for the bases of the bow windows, and did away with the curved steps. Internally, on the ground floor, I left the door for the crawl space stairs as an under-stairs cupboard and added a TV lounge in the new room on the left. I then added a new floor which is basically a mirror of the ground floor but with a window rather than a door at the front and without any interior detail (yet). Modifying the top floor for the increased width was 'interesting' and I added a 'power-bulge' at the end which could accommodate a bathroom. I considered making it the full 32 studs wide but the only way to do it would be to add four studs either side of the door and the thought of having to re-do the roof didn't help.... I just need to make the empty 8 studs into a garden or something. .

I did that a year ago: Now I've moved my files to an https site I must post my double-frontage three storey house too.

Thanks but it's a MOD, not a MOC, and the stairs are how they are in the source set. However you will get your wish when I upload the pictures of the house as there's a later version with an extra floor and without the curved steps.

I created a new thread here with some images linked to my main web site. The images display correctly in Firefox on my PC and tablet but just as markers on Edge on the PC and Chrome on the tablet. The image URLs seem to be correct as right clicking on one of the markers and selecting 'Open image in new tab' goes to the URL. As the original images were 1024 wide, I created a new set 800 wide on my secondary web site and edited the post in Edge but it made no difference. In fact I can't insert a new image at all using Edge. So what am I doing wrong? Is it because neither of my web sites are https?

And neither are notifications or I'd have got onto this earlier. They're fine in Firefox but not in Edge although the URLs are correct in Edge as right-clicking on one of the image markers, selecting 'Open image in new tab' shows the image. What browser are you using? I'll try editing my OP in Edge in the morning and we'll see what that does.

Given how everyone complains that the individual buildings in the 10270 modular bookshop are too small, I was surprised I was unable to find anything similar to what I've done. The bookshop was relatively easy to build in double width but the house was more difficult. This topic just covers the bookshop as it's quite photo-heavy. As you can see, I've expanded it to the full 32 studs wide but keeping the original design as much as possible. On the ground floor I used the extra space to put in conventional stairs up to the mezzanine and a door to separate it from the shop. There's a storage cupboard under the stairs. The un-tiled space on the right now contains an extra bookcase. I didn't do anything clever on the other two floor, just doubling up on the original design. I needed a little extra over the two sets - the stairs, a few extra robot legs for the roof, an extra window or two and a load of profile bricks which I had left over from another project.

Oh, I used to be and most of it was real-time stuff to do with telephone exchanges and data comms so using flags to control things takes me right back thirty years and more. It's just that C has never been part of my life before.

Thanks, that's what I suspected about the colours. I was able to set up the code for a four-state hub state yellow this afternoon and it works. I had to do a bit of Googling to find the Return statement to stop the code dropping through the detected If statement and executing the one that the hub state had just changed to. I've never learned any version of C which is hampering me a bit.....

Unfortunately, that doesn't change the stopping distance as what it does affect is the time between detections. If it's more than the configured time since the last detection then the sensor responds immediately to the next. But if it's less than that, the sensor will miss a second coloured plate that's too close to the first. I've taken it down to 800mS to make the loco slow down on one plate and stop on the second as @Lok24 suggested. This works very well. However, that throws up another problem of what colours the sensor will detect reliably. Red, white and yellow are fine but I need a fourth. Orange is detected as red. blue & green aren't detected at all and I haven't got any other colours without going out to the garage to hunt for something. Have you found any others that work?

1. Well, yes, obviously. 2. A better idea and one I was going to use with my NXT-controlled PF trains. However, there is definitely a delay in BAP compared with the same function in the PoweredUp app. I went back to the app and found what I wanted was very simple: And, at the same speed, this stops the loco within four or five studs. I wouldn't be at all surprised if it's Windows getting in the way and slowing everything down. Still, whichever device I use as the controller, I can now continue with the rest of the design of the GBC module.

I have it working now so many thanks for the assistance. Everything looked fine but the sensor wasn't detecting the coloured plates on the track until I lowered it by one brick. My only disappointment now is how far the loco runs (about 12 studs) after the colour detection.

I'm testing on a very short length of track so I've changed the first RampMotorSpeed to a simple Stop and adjusted the second to 0,20,500 and 0,-20,500. So the hub is detected by BAP when I turn it on, I Start Sensor Events and nothing happens. I can start the motor using the slider under Hubs but the sensor doesn't pick up the colour plates. What fundamental principle am I missing in how BAP works? From a programming POV what initialises the state variable? I'll be away for the rest of the day as I now have a 300km round trip to London to see my mother.

I think it actually needs a comma inserted between the "A" and the 0, compared with the version in the first set of code, but I will check the syntax of the instruction. Thanks for spotting the faulty line.

@Lok24 Many thanks for the fast response. It took me a while to work out but I finally got there and I pasted the appropriate bits of your code into each sensor event. When I try to run them from the code editor, White compiles correctly but Red gives the following syntax errors: Compiling code ... Compiling failed. Error (CS1026): ) expected Error (CS1002): ; expected Error (CS1525): Invalid expression term ',' Error (CS1002): ; expected Error (CS1525): Invalid expression term ',' Error (CS1002): ; expected Error (CS1002): ; expected Error (CS1525): Invalid expression term ')' There's probably a single character typo in there which I'll hunt down once I'm on a larger screen than this little 13" laptop. Thanks again Jonathan

I'm having trouble grokking how to configure this software. All I want initially is my loco (PoweredUp hub, train motor, colour & distance sensor) to go forwards until it detects red,wait a few seconds, go backwards until it sees white, wait a few seconds, go forwards again, repeat..... What I'm after next is two trains in a layout with three stations but the central one is a passing point. I can write the pseudo-code for it easily enough as I've had it working using NXT and PF control so I'm hoping I can write this one myself once I see how the first one works. If someone would be kind enough to help an old man, I'd be very grateful.

Yes, ideal for GBC modules that run at full speed, leaving the train controllers for those that don't. The only downside is that it's not as easy to turn off as a train controller. I'll be buying some once they're in the European shop.

I could get the same effect by just slowing the belt down but it would drop below one ball per second which I need as I do collaborative displays. I think Great Ball Pit's suggestion of a splitter fails for the same reason but I'll look at it as it might be adaptable to drop one out of three. I thought about asymmetrically spacing the pins but decided it was a non-starter as there's not enough control over the starting position or, as you note, a ball not being picked up. I like the idea of a moving block, however, and will see what I can come up with.

So I built this dropping-bucket module. It's not original but I think I've improved considerably on the one that inspired me. The buckets drop once they receive two balls and it works well as long as the ball delivery is slow enough. At the requisite one-ball-per-second the first bucket doesn't always have time to get back into position before the third ball arrives. That ball then might drop through into the second bucket or hit the edge of the first one and bounce out completely. It's not a friction or interference problem as I padded the structure out with liftarms so the swinging arms only touch at the pivot points. There's a certain amount that can be done by changing the balance of the arm but the total travel time seems to stay effectively the same. There are hard stops at each end of the travel. So what I think I need is something that will release two balls at a time, possibly in the ramp between conveyor belt and the buckets, and I'd greatly appreciate any suggestions. Front Back Showing maximum travel

I'm about to start my build of this. Wish me luck......

Thanks. I'll add that module to my build list and investigate when it gets to the top.

Does that (whatever it is) actually work or does the increased height require some re-engineering? I have some wheels that are the right diameter but are too tall to be direct replacements.

I'd love to build Cup-to-cup too but haven't got and am not prepared to pay for the cups. Do you know of an acceptable (affordable!) alternative?

I'll only cut Lego if it's to make something that isn't otherwise available, (preferably) isn't visible and has minimal waste. So 2.5L axles are easily made by cutting a 5L in half. A GBC module I've just built needed a weird 4L connector which wasn't easy to source so I sacrificed a 9L beam to make two 4L beams. Baseplates are also fair game for making custom sizes. Paint, though, I would not even consider. It might come off and cause problems with moving parts or just look ugly in addition to possible problems with fit as you've noted.

The standard PF extension lead is all you need to use the motors with PF and the 9V contacts connect to the inner pair of PF contacts.

Thanks very much for this. It worked perfectly for me. Now, if only someone would update LDD so it doesn't make such insane choices about the build order........