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Mr Hobbles

Eurobricks Knights
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Everything posted by Mr Hobbles

  1. Mr Hobbles
    The Pikachu looks a lot like the smart brick Mario. I dunno, I expected it to look different. Since I’ve heard they’re using the brick inside an X-Wing I thought it’d be shaped less like a character and more like a large normal brick. But, as has already been mentioned, that is clearly not the 18+ Pikachu. That’s a different set, a play set.
  2. Mr Hobbles
    Lego has been experimenting with 3D printed elements for a few years now, specifically for elements that have motion built into them. I have a few of them. This particular 3D printed train has moving wheels, wheel linkages, and the smoke goes up and down when the train is pushed along and the wheels turn. This isn't multiple pieces that were put together, it was _printed_ together. I do agreed it's an odd choice to include in this set though - it seems like something a more hardcore Lego fan would appreciate than the mass market Lego Christmas set purchaser. I can't help but think how many of these they've printed, they must have dozens of printers going 24/7!
  3. Mr Hobbles
    My theory is that at extremely low speeds the PWM duty cycle isn't long enough to actually move the motor. It then realises this (by virtue of the fact that it hasn't detected rotation) and applies a longer duty cycle, which makes it move, but at a higher speed than desired. It then detects it's moving too fast (again, through rotation having moved to far) and reduces the PWM again, causing it to not move once again. Repeat this cycle - leading to jerky motion. I'm thinking that both my motors have slightly different properties (ie. manufacturing variance?) that means that the required PWM duty cycle to start rotating differs between the two.
  4. Mr Hobbles
    Thanks for that! Our code is similar, though my button mapping acts a little differently. Interesting that you have 45 as your minimum speed. Perhaps the video was playing tricks but I thought your locomotive was running slower than that. Incidentally, I tried with a second motor of mine. With the original motor, around 30 is the point where movement isn't "jerky". With the second motor, 20 is doable without jerkiness. I wonder if I run-in in the motors for 15-30 mins then slow speed performance will improve. Ps. I was wondering how the heck you fit front glass in with the wire going through the frame, but then I realised, you'd tucked it under. Great little design!
  5. Mr Hobbles
    Love the performance. Can I ask what your code for Pybricks looks like? I've attempted similar with motor.run() but movement is incredibly jerky for me below 70. It looks like you've managed to get yours smoother. Great design!
  6. Mr Hobbles
    Lego just posted this wallpaper on the Lego rewards site, that can only be found through the new legobuilds instagram. It's pretty cool, and features all the lego modular buildings to date, for the 20th anniversary of Lego modulars (I think they're about 2 years too early?!) (Also, further proof that Lego considers Market Street part of the modular buildings line. :D )
  7. Mr Hobbles
    Ah yes, right. Yes, it has very basic LWP3 support - mainly for the specific VM commands used by the Control+ app. While the hub reports a suite of motors and sensors, the LWP3 implementation is woefully buggy and incomplete. Actually similar to the Boost Move Hub years ago before they updated the hub. Additionally, TLG made the hub required signed firmware, making it so Pybricks can’t be loaded onto the hub. I hope they push out some updates for the Technic Move Hub, otherwise it can’t really be used as a proper LWP3 hub for scenarios other than an RC car.
  8. Mr Hobbles
    For the new Lego Education Science components?! I know Pybricks has LWP3 support, it's had it for a long time. I'm saying I don't know if the new components have LWP3 support. Ps. I'm the author of node-poweredup on GitHub, I'm very familiar with LWP3. :) I just hope the new components are LWP3 compatible.
  9. Mr Hobbles
    Unfortunately I'm skeptical that Pybricks will be able to work on these. The most recent hub (The Technic Move Hub, included in the Porsche 42176) requires signed firmware, to which only Lego have the signing keys. The Pybricks team have said they will not be able to support Pybricks on it. If that is the case with these new components, then Pybricks may be out of the question also. I hope for at least LWP3 protocol support, so we can control them remotely. EDIT: I just saw you hope that Pybricks can talk to them remotely. Yes, I hope for this also - but that requires LWP3. Fingers crossed.
  10. Mr Hobbles
    A couple of new pictures from an event at Lego HQ, taken from Boone Langston's Instagram. https://imgur.com/a/HRjhk6e What we can see is the pairing light and USB-C charger on the controller, which suggests an internal battery, instead of replaceable batteries like on the existing Powered UP remote. Along with a better view of the dual motor component, which seems to be 10x6x3, not including the sticky outy rotaty bits. Additionally, this picture is weird: https://imgur.com/a/KcKyQ7o Why are they holding the connector card up to the motor? Can it "read" it somehow?
  11. Mr Hobbles
    In one of the higher resolution pictures there are regulatory markings on the side of the motor suggesting it has a battery. From the details, the new components are: * Controller * Single motor * Double motor * Color sensor My theory is that every component has its own battery, and components talk wirelessly. So the controller can control the motors, no wires anywhere, and everything is charged via USB-C. They also detail that "connector cards" are included - these seem to be color coded from the pictures. I wonder if these are used to control the color sensor. I wonder if everything uses LPF2 LWP to talk to each other and is therefore technically Powered Up compatible.
  12. Mr Hobbles
    Hi @Toastie - I use this version of nqc which comes with USB tower support, without a requirement for a seperate driver install (at least on macOS, which is what I use). You may find it useful. https://github.com/BrickBot/nqc
  13. Mr Hobbles
    I agree that the locomotive isn't great, but by and large I love this set. Also, the Crocodile wouldn't look bad hauling the Orient Express. ;)
  14. Mr Hobbles
    It's very nice looking, but far too far off minifigure scale for my liking. Also non-standard track gauge and non-motorisability = hard pass. The Harry Potter crowd is sure to love it though.
  15. Mr Hobbles
    I ordered the 1950's Diner and the Modular Construction Site at 10:00am on the dot. They were the two I really wanted. Ordered the Chalet later because...why not. I wish Studgate wasn't so ugly, I'd really like to support a train station...
  16. Mr Hobbles
    Man, I'm on the fence whether to get this or not. On one hand, I want to support more trains, and I really like the small train that comes with it. On the other hand, I really dislike the station itself. It doesn't appeal to me in the slightest. Decisions decisions.
  17. Mr Hobbles
    To me the front looks like the Japanese N700 series Shinkansen: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/N700_Series_Shinkansen
  18. Mr Hobbles
    Speculation on my part, but is it possible the passenger train contains the rumored new Powered Up train headlights? Look at the front - the headlights are a 1x2 slope, with the light coming in from the side. Unless I’m mistaken, the only feasible way for this to work is if it was coming from a new 1x2 light-emitting brick placed alongside it. The existing Powered Up lights wouldn’t allow this angle. The box says lights included. Am I reading too much into it?
  19. Mr Hobbles
    I tried something based on something you said @Toastie - hooked up my 9v power regulator to a PF IR receiver (via the empty battery box trick) and tried controlling the broken motors via an IR remote. Guess what - no issues! They run beautifully (maybe 5% slower than the others?). I wonder why - is PWM a little kinder to these motors than the old-school 9v output directly from the regulator? I'm assuming the PF IR receiver is outputting PWM in this setup...? Picture of setup - https://imgur.com/a/v1Xwxry (Control Lab 9v Output -> Empty PF Battery Box -> PF IR Receiver -> 9v Track)
  20. Mr Hobbles
    Thanks for the replies! Yeah, I mean the track isn't super clean, but out of the 12 or so motors I have only 2 are experiencing the behaviour. The other 10 are clearly offspring of the Energizer bunny. Not super heavy, no. Metroliner + club car (but with Powered Up battery boxes inside for another purpose). But as I mentioned they also have this problem even when it's just the motor running on its own, with no train. Thanks, so is the solution to remove the thermal fuse? I'm guessing there's no way to do that without cutting the tabs and cracking the motor open? :p
  21. Mr Hobbles
    Howdy! So I have a dozen or so 9v motors I use on an infrequent basis. I gave them a good run this evening, and a couple of them are behaving weirdly. They run fine for about 30 seconds or so, but slowly they come to a crawl then eventually stop moving before 60 seconds is up. If I leave them for a couple of minutes, they start running as normal again, but then they slow down again over the minute again. This happens whether or not they're running as motor-only or with a train behind them. Secondly, if I hook up a 9v wire directly to the top of the motor and let it run in the air (ie. not on the track), this doesn't happen. They can go on and on at all types of speeds. Any thoughts what might be wrong with them? Thanks
  22. Mr Hobbles
    I have no interest in anything Jurassic World, and I didn't buy the D2C Jurassic Park gate because it had no Ford Explorer. But this will be the first Jurassic Park set that I buy. And I'm buying two so I can build both cars completely. :D Day 1 instabuy, I've literally been wishing for this for years! (Now I have to hope that one day they release the Jeep!)
  23. Mr Hobbles
    Hi @BrickTronic, I was referring to the serial protocol for talking Pi<->HAT. I think for the LFP2 UART protocol you need to look elsewhere, such as the Pybricks repo you posted.
  24. Mr Hobbles
    @Toastie That’s correct! It’s a board that plugs on top of the Raspberry Pi via the GPIO pins and provides 4x LPF2 sockets. The Raspberry Pi foundation worked with LEGO to develop it, and they’ve also released a special LEGO Technic plate that allows the Pi to be easily mounted to other elements. They’ve published a Python library to use with it, as well as full documentation for the serial protocol - which also leaks the existence of an upcoming train switch motor, as well as two more types of lights! (Not necessarily train related…)
  25. Mr Hobbles
    I checked this out this morning and saw this too, it's very exciting. Not just for the HAT for the Pi (so cool that this is an official partnership with Lego!), but the news about the train switch motor. Wonder what it'll look like and how much space it'll take up. Perhaps the perfect excuse to come out with a LPF2 extension cable? :)
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