Mr Hobbles

I suspect there won't be a need in most cases. It seems to me that Lego's only reason for including a remote is to help those who don't have a phone or tablet. Bluetooth apps can be far more can do what we want far more flexibly, including running one motor in reverse in sync with the first. Either Lego releases a more sophisticated train control app or the community does. Thankfully with this new system what the community can do is limitless, we can far outdo the official apps if we want. :)

Very well spotted. Also glad to to hear. Also Brickset got some box art for the upcoming app controlled Batmobile, which shows the same Hub/Battery Box as the train, as well as two WeDo 2.0 Medium Motors. Good to see them getting a general release. The LPF2 range is slowly starting to get fleshed out. :)

Now THAT'S interesting. I wonder how many Hubs can be connected to a single remote? How many "channels" to switch between? And I suppose the reverse too, how many Remotes can be paired with a single Hub? Has anyone tried pairing a remote with a Boost Hub?

I think I have a couple of more requests. ;) 1. Can a new firmware be released for the WeDo 2.0 Hub that brings it up to date? ie. Speak the new Boost/Powered Up wire protocol, properly report values on newer sensors (Boost color and distance, interactive motor), enable rotation by amount on interactive motor, report port conflict information? As its the only LPF2 hub with an AC adapter at the moment it's really useful for things like track switch motors and track sensors. 2. Are there plans to release rechargeable battery packs and AC adapters for the Boost Move Hub and/or Powered Up Hub?

The London Leicester Square (and a couple of others I think) store has essentially a photo booth in it. You pay £99, you go in there, it takes your picture, and "mosaicifies it", and prints out a big 48x48 stud version of you made from yellow, black, white and grey 1x1 plates. The box you get is standard - it contains enough pieces to make every photo that the booth can spit out (you end up with a lot left over).

I wondered this when I saw the new Duplo trains - they are app controlled via Bluetooth just like the System train sets, and they have a colour sensor built into the bottom. I wonder if it presents itself with a similar protocol (pu hub+color sensor attached). I don't own any Duplo stuff myself, but it'd be interesting if someone tried sniffing it to check. :)

1. Release documentation for the BLE protocol and wire definition. :) 2. WeDo 2.0 compatibility information (I still can’t get the Boost color/distance sensor fully working on the WeDo Smart Hub, only color information) 3. If possible, information on whether there’ll be converter wires for PF/9V, and if there’ll be a LPF2 splitter wire. 4. What other motors/sensors will be coming? LED’s? App feedback: 1. For trains, an ability to control motors attached to both ports of the hub with a single up/down button (Allows for trains with multiple motors). 2. Similarly, control multiple Hubs with the same buttons (with options for reversing certain motors) 3. A combination of the two! :) For example make the first set of up/down buttons operate motor A on hub 1 and motor B on hub 2 in reverse.

@Sariel The Bluetooth protocol for WeDo2.0/PoweredUp/Boost has already been figured out, people (including me) have written apps and libraries that can replace the controller and allow custom apps on laptops and phones to control the trains. :) I suppose someone could make and release a single app that supports both Powered Up and SBrick, just requires someone to have the inclination.

Interesting! So I guess with the service UUID being the same the only way to tell the hubs apart would be by their advertised name strings. Also interesting that the train motor shares the same id 0x01 with the WeDo motor, this means there's no way to tell them apart. Although why you'd want to...? So you're saying the remote/handset advertises itself as a BLE server as well as a client?! That's amazing. That should make it quite a lot simpler to code for once everything is figured out (like a handshake you mentioned). Thanks for the info! Ps. Interesting that you mention the Hub is advertised as "HUB NO. 4.". We know the Boost hub is labelled "HUB NO. 1.". That likely means there's two more types of hubs out there that are either a) Yet to be released or b) Will never be released. ?

Thanks @JopieK, I knew you guys would be on the case. I was hoping to have a crack at this myself but I have to wait to buy the train like everyone else. ? Can you answer a few questions for me so I can modify my code ahead of time? ? 1. Is the BLE service id for the Powered Up Hub the same as the Boost Move Hub? ("000016231212efde1623785feabcd123"). 2. Does the Powered Up Hub use a single characteristic for all notifications like the Boost Move Hub, or multiples like the WeDo 2.0 Smart Hub? ("000016241212efde1623785feabcd123" on the Move Hub). 3. What's the type id of the new train motor? (eg. WeDo Motor is 0x01, Boost Interactive Motor is 0x26) 4. When you say it acts like the WeDo motor, I'm guessing you mean there's no angle detection, timing commands like the Boost Interactive Motor? Thanks for the info, pleased to hear it was so easy to crack! I also had another idea for something else I wanted to try when I get my hands on a train. If I can get my laptop/raspberry pi/whatever to pretend to be a Hub by advertising the same services/characteristics, I wonder if I can get the remote to connect to the laptop. That would open up the possibilities to have remotes control trains, multiple motors, even "reassign" remotes to trains without re-syncing them!

Thanks, useful pictures! I noticed that there some exposed pins on the controller, and in some other pictures I saw more exposed pins on the inside of the battery compartment of the hub. Do you think the micro controller can be reprogrammed?

Of course it's always been possible to make your own hardware to interface with it, but with the new system you don't need to. Just pure Bluetooth, no additional hardware or modification required. :) I don't plan to use a touch screen, I'll be writing my own code that runs on a laptop/Raspberry Pi that talks over Bluetooth. I'm planning to make fully automated train layouts and cars.

@zux Here you go (A bit ripped but you get the gist). https://imgur.com/a/p2FAobR Edit: I just wanted to throw in my 2c and say that LPF2.0 has me way more excited than LPF1.0 ever did. I held off on LPF1.0 as the use of infra red reduced automation potential as no device (Laptops, smartphones, raspberry pis, etc) have IR transmitters anymore. We know that Powered Up/Boost/WeDo 2.0 (ie. the LPF2.0 range) are fully compatible thanks to the reverse engineering done by several projects on GitHub (And are limited purely by the capability of Lego's official apps). As a programmer, it excites me as I can use my laptop to connect to a whole bunch of LPF2.0 hubs, sensors, and motors, and fully automate everything from AI driven cars or complex train layouts, purely through Bluetooth. It's also worth noting that this is still early days. It took a while for the LPF1.0 to get fully fleshed out with more devices, and this is still version 1.0 of the respective apps. Give it a little while for more motors, sensors, hubs to arrive, and more apps/versions to be released. :) Reference projects: https://github.com/JorgePe/pyb00st https://github.com/hobbyquaker/node-movehub

It seems the official name for this new WeDo2.0/Boost/PoweredUp tech is "Lego Power Functions 2.0". I bought a bunch of the new motors and sensors from a seller on Bricklink, and they came sealed in official Lego polybags, with item codes 45303/45304/45305. If you go to the Lego replacement parts site and punch in these product codes, they show up as: "LPF2.0 Medium Motor" "LPF2.0 Sensor Detect 2X4X1" "LPF2.0 Sensor Tilt 2X4X1" Also, the hub for Lego Boost (Set 17101) is labelled as: "LPF2.0 Hub Motor 6X16X4 No. 1" I also notice that the connector is stamped "(c) Lego 2014"! This has been in the works for a while.

Can you try with the WeDo 2.0 motor and see if it behaves the same way as the Boost motor?

Thanks for that! Good to know that its confirmed that Boost motors work out of the box with the new Powered Up Hub and Remote.

I had more thoughts too! Imagine putting color sensors on the bottom of the trains. You can have coloured tiles stuck to the tracks to mark positions. The trains can then relay their positions to the laptop based on what the last color they encountered was, and the laptop would then issue commands to the train. Block level control, and full bidirectional communication with the trains from a central command laptop, all over Bluetooth! The train Hub (Whatever it's called) has two ports, so perfect for one train motor and one color sensor. You could even extend this system to control switches and signals too.

If you're doing classroom work, you might be interested in this Python project. :) https://github.com/JorgePe/pyb00st Yeah, it'd be nice to have a single iOS/Android app that supports the full suite of PF2 motors and sensors rather than splitting up the apps by product. I'm quite excited though as for train layouts, full automation will be possible by writing code that runs on a laptop, that talks to all the Hubs via Bluetooth, and running everything remotely. It's going to be an incredibly powerful system!

There's no need. :) People have already reverse engineered it via sniffing. Lego Power Functions 2.0 / Powered Up are exactly the same tech as Lego Boost and Lego WeDo 2.0. The connectors are the same and all the motors and sensors are recognised by all the hubs (But restricted by the capabilities of their respective iOS/Android apps). Projects: https://github.com/JorgePe/pyb00st/ (Python) https://github.com/hobbyquaker/node-movehub (Node.js) Current support includes the Smart Hub, non-interactive motor, color/distance sensor, and tilt sensor from WeDo 2.0, and the Move Hub, interactive motor, and color/distance/diode sensor from Boost, along with the tilt sensor and motors built into the Move Hub (basically everything Boost and WeDo to date). One interesting tidbit is that the Smart Hub and Move Hub advertise themselves under the same peripheral id, and therefore functionality is the same, but ports C and D only exist on the Move Hub (The built in motors). If you try to send those commands to the Smart Hub, nothing breaks, but nothing happens. So to make the new train tech compatible, two things need to happen: 1. Ensure the new Hub advertises itself under the same peripheral id, and 2. Figure out what the id of the new train motor is so that it can be talked to. EDIT: As @JopieK already noted, there are also third party remote apps out there.

Actually, that's not quite true. The sensors and motors are recognised by the Move Hub or Smart Hub, and if you're capable, can be programmed by writing code. Libraries like node-movehub allow you to program with WeDo sensors attached to the Boost Move Hub. For example (https://github.com/hobbyquaker/node-movehub/blob/master/README.md), supported sensors color (Boost), distance (WeDo), tilt (WeDo), rotation (WeDo and Boost). However, if you're using the official Boost app, you're right that they're not displayed as options. I hope they add full support to the app at some stage.

Lego Power Functions 2.0 IS Lego Boost and Lego WeDo 2.0. All fully compatible:

Found in Tesco Extra in Galashiels (Scottish Borders) this afternoon. Regular Tesco outside Edinburgh didn't have it from what I can see. They weren't in the regular Lego section, they were at the end of the aisle in their own cardboard stand, along with some other Solo movie sets. Its £4 to buy itself or free with any other Lego Star Wars purchase (No you can't buy one and get one free. :p)

I must admit, it was pretty predictable this wouldn't be available during the Oct double VIP - that's why I got mine at launch. Even without Lego vastly underestimating demand, most popular items are backordered within hours of the VIP sale starting.

I think this only serves to show just how few of this set is actually out there in the wild. I imagine making this beast seriously strains Legos production capacity. If you assume the average set you can buy is 700 odd pieces, then this thing takes 10 times as many resources to make. For every one of these Lego makes, that's the time they could have spent making 10 other Lego sets. They still have their normal set obligations to fulfil too...

The ones you're seeing on eBay are from the Leicester Square midnight launch. The first 100 to purchase the Falcon from there got a black VIP card in a presentation box, which could be signed, along with the set, by Lego Star Wars designers. They are specially numbered 113800001 to 113800100, in reference to THX-1138. Everyone else will get theirs in the mail in ~6 weeks time, with their own VIP number on it.