Giottist

That was not what I ment. I expect a function to switch the lights on and off indipendent from the motor direction at the other port. Instead this I found the lights are treated as a parallel motor. With the actual version of the official app the lights does not make sense. What a pity.

First thank all the experts here for their rentless research I've found the following beaviour testing the PUP hub with the new app and the new firmware, both in the lates version from yesterday: The Batmobile part of the app does exactly what is described by LEGO with one minor addition: In any configuration you can controll both ports individually. It works with the medium motor (= WeDo 2.0 motor) and the train motor (!). The lights does not work, but this makes little sense anyway. The train part in both variations shows strange behaviour. The train motor works as expected on both ports. The medium motor does nothing. Amazingly the lights are treated like a motor: In forward direction the lights are dimmed equvalent to the speed of the motor, in backward direction the lights stay off. This does not make sense, if you like to illuminate your trains.

Yes, both app and firmware are updated today before testing.

Just updated all my hubs ... And yes, the new app for Android works much better than the old. There are no crashes with old Android 5.0.2 any more. There is no need to buy a new smartphone/tablet. And then I tested the new firmware for the train hub with the lates version of Cosmiks software: The crashbug with the combination of tacho motor and the colur/distance sensor has gone - But! No motor reacts anymore. All motors are recognized correct, either by cold or hot plugging. But no motor of any kind shows a reaction to the speed sliders. Hmm ... Another bugfix is neccessary ... The new LEGO app performs very well instead, so I sure no hardware error occured.

An image tells more than 1000 words.. I can only guess: The axle distance between two flanged wheels may be to large. For large wheels (85489) 7 studs is the limit. And if you use three flanged wheels in a row, You can't negotiate any curves with mor than two flanged wheels. Use blind wheels instead.

... and the offer of PU components has disapperared again ...

Ingenious! You made my day Serios: As long as possible it's recommendable to get PU hubs from Bricklink for a reasonable price ...

Ah, I didn't know - thank you

Hi Cosmik42, I've found another issue with the latest version 1.2 dealing with the train hub: If I connect a WeDo 2.0 / Batmobile motor in combination with the colour/distance sensor to a train hub, everything works well. If I connect a Boost motor (with build in tacho sensor) but without the colour/distance sensor, everything also works well. But if I combine the Boost motor with the colour/distance sensor, the train hub crashes and finishes the BT connection. No big deal, but I am think about to equip my trains with colour sensors for further functionality. And the Boost motor has a slower gear ratio for more torque. BTW: It seem, several PU components will be available in the near future ... Best wishes

Thank you! Very interesting. I looked up the german shop -> nothing. Last time it took two or three days more. Unfortunately TLG left the price tags at skyrocketing levels. 50,- for a simple hub is out of sanity. The simple medium linear motor, nothing else as a PF medium motor, triples its price and is more expensive than the much more complicated medium linear motor with the buildin tacho sensor. Can anyone explain the TGL price policy to me? Ok, after the short appearance in January I bought three hubs at BrickLink for the price of one at the shop now. I anticipated this ...

Here are my humble experiences with Shupp's 3D printed wheels: The designs are simply spoken great. Many thanks to Shupp who shares the designs with us. Please keep in mind he earnes nearly nothing with them, all the charge is for manufacturing and shipment by Shapeways. BTW, Shapways increase their prices heavily in the passing weeks ... I'm using XXL drivers (both boxpok and disk drivers), large boxpok drivers compatible with the large original LEGO wheels and medium small wheels fitting to a train motor with three axles like in the 12V era. The surface quality is rather rough, if you choose "natural versatile" quality and remarkable smoother if you choose "processed versatile". I have no experience with higher polishing grades like "premium" due to high costs. I prefer "processed versatile", the smoother surface is worth the additional $1 or $2 or Euro equivalent. The dye from Shapeways is trash and has no value despite the bold charge for it. Black ist more a translucent dark gray and red delivers an ugly pink tone. Buy original white wheels and paint them by yourself and save the money. Black ist black (RAL 9005 for instance) and the best matching tone for LEGO Red ist "Traffic Red" RAL 3020, a very common colour tone. Two or three very thin layers and the colour cannot distinguished from original LEGO parts. The surface is still a little bit rougher than injection molded part but not much. The axle hole in the center is not printed very exact and often too tight to fit with an axle at the first attempt. I have to use a screw vice to force an axle into the cross hole at the hub, but only once. Afterwards the hub widens a liitle bit and the axle will fit with acceptable force. But fortunately I have never found a hub with a too wide hole. The holes for the crank shaft make no problems, any pin will fit direct. On the rail the wheels do their job flawless. I never experienced a derailment caused by Shupp's wheels. O-ring gaskets fit immediately with the right dimensions. The nylon material is very sturdy and shows no wear. Conclusion: Highly recommendable! Pros: Full functional, perfect looking designs, large variety. Cons: High price cause only by Shapeways, unsable dye tones from Shapeways

On PaB holders (2878) and wheels (57878) are available, but no axles. That's true, but it's not a problem: On Ebay are a lot of suppliers from China/Hong Kong for model axles with matching size. I've ordered a package and the axles fit perfect into the holders and the wheels. No play, no friction. For real little money. I'm afraid, if the rumor (until now it's only a rumor, please remember) is true, a lot of unneccessary friction will be introduced making it harder to drive a real long or heavy train to decent speeds. Plastic on plastic, that not the dream pairing for low friction.

What an impressive demonstration Thanks to all who makes this possible. @Lok24Can it be I know your T 41 "Schweineschnäuzchen" from the Absolut Steinchen exhibition 2018 at St Augustin? I love this MOC!

The rumors have a real background: On January 9th LEGO anounced the components on their website including the color sensor: 88007. LEGO mentioned prices but not for the color sensor. On January 12th LEGO removed the anouncment again ... For the later anounced Control+ device no number is known - we have to wait until August.

Please have a look here. There is another suitable solution for rechargable batteries ...

Sorry, I do not like to transfer this matter in to an international forum. The true facts are different as claimed: The mentioned youtuber applied for a trade mark (or similar, I'm not an expert) and the rules are that the TLG may disagree. TLG did it, perhaps somewhat clumsy by a letter from a lawyer, but definetly without any threat or penalty charge or something like that. This mentioned youtuber did tell us that deciding fact after a request from other more relaxed indipendent AFOLs. BTW, this mentioned youtuber claimed immediately the TLG changed the PU port plugs just to squeeze only more money out of us obviously without checking the PU concept in advance. Source (in german language): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsCftQIy-pI&t=3s. I think, Cosmik42 (and you!) demonstrate the opposite by the best way imaginable. I have a humble request: Can we stop to discuss about this case? I bet, the TLG has nothing against the name of Cosmik42s marvelous work according to their fairness site.

Do you allow me a different opinion about the name of the project? I do not understand the discussion, The TLG fair play rules allow the naming. In the case we are wrong TLG will tell us. Without any lawsuit or charges, an (in)famous event in germany demontrated last month.

Just tested version 0.8: Wonderful, all is functional as long as tested ... Please update your Sbricks to the newest firmware (18 in the case of Sbrick plus), otherwise occasional crashes occur.

Another point of view: The LEGO train project is a big safety measure! Please imagine what will happen if Vengit shuts down their servers. In this (hopefully not so probable) case all our costly SBricks are electrical waste since we must use the online platform to reconfigure the original app. So with Cosmik42s LTP software we can use all our stuff offline. For my sake in a deep cave, at the south pole accompanied only by penguins or on the far side of the moon. Now I feel much better with the concept. And the LTP solved the problem to use any LEGO motor or sensor stuff in most imaginable combinations, also offline of course. I does not expect something comparable from LEGO itself since I could try their bloated and buggy apps, which are not running on my old smartphone anymore, not to speak about what LEGO apps do with the memory. For a replacement of my old smartphone I could get six (!) more UP hubs. Q.E.D.: LTP saves a lot of money! Please be gentlewomen and men and do not forget to send Cosmik42 a matching donation

Please note my "solution" is only a crude study if we can use Li-Ion 6F22 blocks for PU hubs. Yes, we can. But please also notice it's your own risk! I am not responsible if you short or exchange a circuit and destroy anything! I've talked with the people from TrixBrix about my idea, but they have no plans to introduce electrical devices. I can understand that becaus it means to mount contact clips and metal stripes by hand or maschine and that's not their business. Unfortunately I have no experience in 3D printing for the contact carrier. This is not a cheat at all. Li-Ion cells deliver 3.7V, two cells 7.4V. Toastie talks about LiFePo cells which deliver 3.2 V. The big advantage of Li-Ion technology is the very low internal resistance. If you wirk with high currents, ordinary alkali cells will show a significant voltage drop, Li-Ion cells nearly not. My trains are really so fast at full speed that the locomotive jumps out of the rails running over normal R40 curves. Maximum is 70% with Cosmik42s train software.

Hey folks, What about the idea to support Cosmik42 by writing a tutorial for the software? Does anybody here has knowledge to set up a Wiki for instance? (or something similar ...)

I have not so good news: Best looking and most realistic for a current pickup is a pair of "Belville ice skates" 42013 (*). I saw just on bricklink that they are nearly sold out. Since the belville series is stopped since 10 years there is little hope of a large resupply. We have to look for an alternative or somebody with 3D printer skills. The original LEGO pickup 37494 or the old version 2922 have only 4 studs width and are to short for realistic designs. *Remark: The original usage for 42013 was really weird: Little bunnys on skates, really!

Perhaps it's useful to mention an existing software which supports PU hubs, the BOOST hub and (!)SBrick devices running on Windows 10. This software written by Eurobricks member Cosmik42 distiguishes between different sensors and the lights but makes no difference between motor types in the actual version. Stability is excellent and I could not find any issue with the BOOST motor connected to the train hub. Try it, you will be convinced

Cool. My idea is to introduce the SerialPort class into my C# code enabling the communication with the Arduino world. It can be useful to save limited BT channels for the moving trains and let Arduino controllers serve the switch motors and readout fixed sensors besides the rails. Hmm, promising At the moment I am somewhat busy but this is real motivation to get experience with C# code in the train software. Let me a little time.

Hello Bartosz, I assume you're talking about this design: Theese wagons are color modifications of the original tank wagon from the 7939 set. (in my opinion one of the best cargo train sets ...) The design contains three parts which can make trouble obtaining them. The cylinder 87926 needed four times for one wagon, the double sided snot brick 2434 needed two times and the 6x6 dish needed two times too. Since the studs of the dishes are covered by round tiles it is absolutely irrelevant if they are hollow or solid. Both bricklink and the LEGO sparpart service are full of affordable offers. Same for the both side studded modified brick 2434. It is covered over all by other bricks, therefore the color doesn't play any role. The only remaining problem is the cylinder half 6*3*6. To get the wanted color you ned either a realy lot of money OR a lot of patience. The cylinder in dark red is nearly unobtainable at the moment. In 2015/16 the situation was different. More than 30 pieces were offered for more than two years on ebay and nobody wanted them. Ok, after several month I purchased 20 pieces for 5 tank wagons not recognising how rare they are! Perhaps in the upcoming years another opportunity occurs again - who knows? Hold on and look up ebay frequently! If you have time until february, the spare part service of LEGO reopens. I can remember that cylinders 87926 are available in white, light bluish grey and tan (?) or dark orange, all colours suitable for tank wagons. The spare part service of LEGO ist affordable, quite often cheaper than most bricklink offers. So, wait for another 3 or 4 weeks and look into the spare part lists. Over the years my collection of chemical plant wagons grows like this :