coaster

They do, but stretch goals are really meaningless. It would be like me saying, "well we need $100k for the switches, but if we hit $120k we might be able to do double crossovers as well!" There's no guarantee of those nor anyway to pledge towards them. So, yes, I could post stretch goals to show what else we've been working on, but I don't think there'd be a lot to gain from that.

First batch of R56s have shipped! I'll get the rest out this weekend. Thanks everyone for sticking with me through this. If you've been waiting for the R104s and R120s, they'll be back in stock on Monday. I appreciate the offer, but I'd be worried about how long you would have to wait before there were enough pre-sales to afford the tooling. Don't worry, I'll find a way. I've got a few things lined up, but if they fall through, I could do another Kickstarter with a lower goal. Kickstarter doesn't allow partials though; they're strictly all-or-nothing.

Thanks Robin. It's a function of weight for the shipping, but then you may have taxes on your end that you'll have to pay. The shipping to Germany usually varies between $15-35.

Absolutely. I can do tracks and pickups, but that's where my expertise ends.

Of course. Money makes the world go 'round, and that's the limiting factor. It's not a tremendous amount required, but more than I have to spend.

That was part of the concept longer term. Supply 12V or so to the tracks instead of 9V. Have a simple device onboard that routed 9V power to IR receiver for the motors, lights, etc, and 12V back to a rechargeable battery. Then if power was cut from the 12V track supply, the device would immediately switch over to 9V battery power, and then as soon as 12V was present again, switch the battery back to charge mode. That device would have to be a PFx Brick or S-Brick type product. I do not have the electronics skill set to make something like that.

Yep, like anything though, I just need money for it.

I've had some discussions with others on how to tackle this. There's no great answer, but the best solution so far seems to be to keep the wheelsets with the classic 9V connections on them, but we're going to need adapters to handoff between the different systems.

@ Ludo, I move to plan B to get these made. We have some things in mind, so it's far from dead. Hopefully we don't have to move to Plan C, because that involves me robbing liquor stores.

It's a little sad we didn't make it, but I'm not totally surprised. $100k on a Kickstarter was certainly an ambitious goal. But there were certainly some positives from it. First, there were over 100 people willing to take a chance on it, and saw there is at least $40k worth of interest in it. Second, it brought a lot of attention and interest from potential suppliers. There definitely was a lot of spam, but there was some good stuff there too. I'm not too discouraged. It's a big ask for people to take a risk on a Kickstarter project. It's much easier to buy when the development is finished. And as Cameron mentioned, there's a lot of 9Vers out there. You'll never take us 9Vers alive! This Kickstarter helped bring more attention to the 9V vs. PF debate for sure. Powered Up is also making a mess of things on that front, but I still maintain our future lies is in a 9V/PF hybrid type system, with metal track and power pick-up wheels.

Yep, exact same thing happened with the curves. In fact, we got further with this Kickstarter than we did with the curve one.

Plan B is already in the works, and is looking more and more likely to become Plan A. Suffice to say, it's not dead yet.

Thanks @weeble1688, still much appreciated.

I am, DBA BrickTracks. You can also find me just at bricktracks.com.

Just as an update, parts are running, and the first batches of R56s should be going out next week sometime.

Appreciated kieran! Plastic tracks are just a stepping stone to 9V. As I'm all 9V myself, I can't even use my own tracks.

Yeah, amazing coincidence they released those a week after we announced the Kickstarter...

If this doesn't happen, I am working on a Plan B.

R56 curves: Running production now, so these will go out as soon as they're done.

The 3D printed ones are ok, but the surface finish is definitely not the same thing as the LEGO ones. The bigger issue is they don't hold up to repeated use. We 3D print a lot of parts when we prototype, but after a bit of use they lose clutch power, both in the studs and in the track-to-track connection.

This^. I'm spamming the boards and Facebook groups quite a bit, but any and all word of mouth will help.

Thanks @Ludo! In other news, the R56s will be delayed a couple more weeks. We still had some issues with the studs on the end ties being a little undersized, and I want to get it right. It should be fixed now, but we've missed our production window. I'll also send an email out to those that pre-ordered.

@dylanfarrow @M_slug357 You guys weren't the first to suggest a new thread, but I've finally got it up now. @dylanfarrow, who's Jang? I'm afraid I don't know them. @M_slug357, that top level is to entice some LUGs. Though I admit I'm not looking forward to assembling that many switches for one order!

Hi Everyone, forgive the shameless self-promotion, but a lot of people (including EB mods) have encouraged me to post this in its own topic instead of just the BrickTracks thread. Long story short, we have finally launched our Kickstarter for the the R104 switches. It's something we've been working on and been asked about for years, so we're finally ready to make it happen. If you don't know about BrickTracks, our tracks, or these switches, you can read all about us and the project here. We've had a tremendous start to the launch, hitting almost 20% in less than a week, but we still have a long way to go. Why do we need so much? Frankly, injection molding tooling isn't cheap. Yes, I'm aware of 3D printing options, but for all the 3D printings I have used, both professionally and for BrickTracks prototypes, I've not found one that can stand up to the wear and tear. The early track prototypes that were originally too snug have all but lost their clutch power entirely. To do this properly, we need to mold the parts, and that tooling is expensive, especially for something this large and intricate. We often complain that LEGO doesn't cater to the train community enough. There's little we can do about that, but we're not helpless. We can take care of ourselves. Let's work together and fill in the gaps in LEGO's offering. And who knows, maybe if we get enough backers we can get LEGO to sit up and take notice, too.

It doesn't right now, but that'd be an easy enough piece to piggy back on one of the tools. If there's enough money for it I'll include it.