kbalage

The proper servo control implementation is a tricky one, it'd be nice to see what is TLG's official solution used in the Control+ app. Until more information is shared you could have a look at the solution used in BrickController 2, might be helpful.

I wanted to try the app for a long time now and finally had a few spare minutes :) I really like the customization options, it's great to have an alternative to BrickController 2 for the ones who prefer the on screen controls! I tested it with 42109 quickly, I share my findings if you don't mind: Controls elements default to the 10% speed when created, is it on purpose? Calibration works great, but the Servo function is often laggy and does not respond every time to quick changes. For the buttons it is confusing to have the ability to rotate them on screen but I also need to choose servo/run in the settings, you don't have the same for the single-axis joystick. First I simply turned it to vertical and did not understand why it does not move the XL motor. So the acceleration works properly, but I could not make it work for steering. The calibration runs fine but then it only turns the wheels a few degrees. If I start a motor with the slider then it holds the speed even if the app is minimized and holds it until the app is killed. It's great for train models but not sure if it is a bug or a feature You've made a great progress so far, hope to see new updates coming!

I'm not sure what you are trying to achieve. There are 2 way to program the movement, one is to use the code blocks, the other is to record a set of movements. If I recall correctly then the code blocks have movement commands relative to the current position, so if you tell it to turn 5 degrees then it'll turn the arm relative to the start position. The recorded movement "script" however will move the boom/arm/bucket first to the start position of the recorded session and initiate the sequence from there. I'll have the set assembled again in a few days and I'll be able to help if you provide some details.

Great model, I really like the size and all the functions! Can't wait to see it in action :) About the buffer exchange challenge in LPub3d, I do feel your pain. It's so "fun" when you have an assembly that you need to move 100 steps later, so you need to include that assembly hidden with buffer exchange through those 100 steps :)

Currently there's no official computer-based solution to control the Powered Up devices. There are some custom apps being developed but they are not focusing on the coding aspect and cannot be used for educational purposes. You can use the Powered Up app's free coding canvas on a tablet, it is quite complex but lacks official documentation so you'd need to develop everything yourself for educational use (I made an unofficial block library that can be used freely). The other approach is to use Spike Prime, that is actually "Powered Up for education". It has a better hub (6 ports, basic graphic interface, sounds, code runs locally) and it is fully prepared for classroom usage. The software is Scratch-based and it can be used on PC/iOS/Android. As I saw online you can use some Powered Up motors with the system but not all of them, since they are 100% compatible on a hardware level it's just a matter of time to have the software updated.

There's no exit in the Control+ or Powered Up apps, even if you turn off the screen of the device the connection to the hub remains active. Your son told you half of the solution - if you double click the Home button then you'll see a grid or carousel view of your apps that are running, you need to tap and "slide out" the Control+ app off the screen in order to close it. Here are some visual instructions for the different generations and iOS versions.

"official" reviews still weeks away.. if there'll be more lazy Walmart employees and lucky buyers in the US then you can expect fan reviews popping up on YT/Fb/etc soon.

@Collibosher it's an interesting image choice considering your previous (otherwise legit) argument about the wheels and rims, they totally match this car Anyway, what I think should be considered is the limitation of the LEGO theme and the piece count. If you can come up with a significantly more accurate version with ~1000 pieces and mostly Technic parts then I'm happy to accept your point. Otherwise I'd say it was an unfortunate scale and/or theme choice, could have been better as a Creator Expert car, or better shaped if it comes in a similar scale like the Bugatti or the Porsche. If we look at it realistically the reason of the theme choice is probably the fact that we had the Ford Mustang last year and they did not want a similar car as the next one in the series. Regarding the scale, I guess it is does not fit in the supercar series and will simply sell better in this price range.

That's the price in the Finnish shop, for some reason it's always more expensive than the other European shops for LEGO. Germany has it for 99,99 €, in France it is 109,99 €, in Finland it is 119,95 €... different taxes maybe?

That's the 7x11 one

Here's my take on the set based on the high-res photos:

Very impressive, especially if you can drive the buggy motors with 12V without the protection kicking in. Can you please give us some details about the "unrestricted" motors, did you modify them in any way?

Based on the information from Nuremberg most sets are scheduled for June and August. If I recall correctly April was mentioned for the F&F car but the movie is postponed to 2021 so I'm not sure that set will be actually released.

Yes I was thinking about the same thing :) The rotating part is only there to help you to align the buttons.

@Gimmick you can use the button presses for anything as an input. I will test the steering, not sure yet if it is more convenient to have only full left / full right or the steering should be somewhat slower so you can turn the wheels to a lower angle with a short press. Rotating the remote does not send anything since that position has no electronics. Interestingly if you use the remote input block with the data operators then the green button appears as well as a possible value, but when you press it it does not seems to be picked up. Maybe it is reserved for a future upgrade.

The Powered Up app received an update with the following new features (officially): We are introducing LPF1 support! Yes, you are now able to use your old Power Functions hardware with the Powered Up app. It is a bit techy, but we’re sure you’ll figure it out. Find more info on our website. There’s more. We’re also introducing Handset support. You can now connect the handset remote and reprogram it while connected to the app. Sound blocks now work with numeric input starting at zero. Obviously the most exciting one is the Power Functions support, but the handset support is also very handy. Unfortunately both of them requires a lot of coding, the PF control also requires the PU color and distance sensor and some knowledge of the PF IR protocol... you can see the details in my video:

Apparently the movie will be pushed to April 2021, I wonder if this affects the release of the LEGO set (I think so).

Seems to be another site ripping off MOC creators, if you check their products there are creations from a lot of well known MOC builders. I highly doubt any of them gave permission, honestly since I've seen most of these on many Chinese sites, I don't think this company who has "integrated professional R & D, design, production and sales, equipped with advanced production, R & D, testing and other equipment" is doing anything else than drop shipping fake sets from Aliexpress.

@PasBeenBricked this is my video, if you check the subtitles I mentioned that it was a test build of the app with a basic support for the DUPLO hub. I don't think the the public version has this support implemented yet.

False alarm guys, it's just another video promoting the Rally Car:

At last, the master of the most gorgeous LEGO photos is back! Thank you Jim for this very detailed review, I really missed your in-depth analysis, it was a very enjoyable read. I'd like to add a few things here and there if you don't mind Actually there are two M motors available in the Powered Up family. The first one is more similar to the Power Functions M motor, it was used in the App-Controlled Batmobile set. The other one is more useful for the studded builds, it came with the Boost set and it has a software encoder as well (can report the relative position of the motor). About the performance of the set - I think it is speedy enough to drive around the house, but it lacks the power by default for climbing. Luckily with a simple gear swap you can significantly improve this, and if you replace two pair of gears and sacrifice some more speed for torque, it becomes a really capable crawler. Regarding the software side I absolutely agree with you, this is the domain where TLG really needs some improvement, especially to support MOCs better. Control+ was always meant to be the app with the "official" set profiles and no customization, that's the task for the Powered Up app. Unfortunately this is not advertised at all on lego.com, TLG needs to improve their communication as well. The free play area of the Powered Up app was created for MOCs, but it is a mixed bag at the moment. On one side it offers a huge variety of code blocks similar to Boost with great coding possibilities, but on the other side these blocks are confusing, they don't have an official documentation and there're some very basic controller options missing along with a customizable interface. I think the chosen path is not the best one, while the code blocks might be useful to explore the full potential of the Powered Up ecosystem, there's a need to have an intermediate solution similar to the BrickController2 or BuWizz apps.

I hope this is actually the Stig taking a revenge for 42109 :D

They sort of support MOCing in the Powered Up app, but it requires an awful lot of coding to achieve a similar result that the stock Control+ profiles have for the 42099 or 42109, especially for a decent return to center steering. I think the fundamental mistake TLG made was building the whole Powered Up customization concept on the Boost code blocks. Currently there's no chance anyone can do anything useful without a decent coding knowledge, and despite the high number of blocks they don't really offer simple solutions for the most frequent things people try to do with a motorized LEGO set.

I think most of the people use two apps - BrickController2 or BuWizz. The main difference between the two is the need of a game controller for BC2 and the lack of proper return to center servo support in the BuWizz app. The BuWizz app can only connect to the Technic hub so no support for the AAA hub either. Since I control mostly cars and I prefer physical controls BC2 is the choice for me :) Besides these you can use the PU app with the code blocks as I mentioned before but that requires coding skills and does not give you a flexible interface. On the plus side you can control all 3 hub types with that and now you can connect up to 4 hubs simultaneously. There're also other apps like Controlz, I did not have time yet to try it.

I'm afraid you won't find anything official to create a custom interface similar to the ones available in Control+. Besides the code block guide I created two sample customizable controllers, one for cars and one for trains. You can have a look at the code and adjust it to your needs, unfortunately at the moment we're stuck with the two controller interfaces in the PU app which is far from ideal because the one with the joystick does not even work properly. Unless you would like to do some coding besides the basic controls I still strongly suggest to stick to BrickController 2 :)