Plumber

Thanks for all your suggestions and help, have found a solution that works for me! Copied Brickstore inventory (complete with drawer locations!) and my model parts list onto a spreadsheet and performed a MATCH() on part number columns of the two lists - bingo - an instant list of quantities (in hand or short) and locations independant of colour - one happy Plumber and actually frighteningly easy in the end!

I think I understand what you are saying but there is no hope of me reproducing it Way over my limited abilities! This sounds more promising, do I need to have a 'pro' membership for this? Thanks for the suggestions guys, I'm going to have a proper play this weekend see if I can make something work!

Thanks for the suggestion, just taken another look at Rebrickable and tried a compare search, unfortunately it still wants to match part colours The other reason RB doesn't work for me is that there doesn't seem to be any means to record where the parts are located/stored ( my aging brain is not up to the task of remembering where any of 4000+ part types are stashed!!), this seems to be a missing feature on most of the popular sites, its a workaround on Brickstore to add the location info as a remark or comment, I only ever found one brick inventory control software that offered this functionality natively but it was obviously a pro product with a price to match and that waaaay was out of my budget I used to use Basebrick which is great but it's part storage location system was not comprehensive enough for my needs and also with my glacially slow broadband/their server speed it was painfully slow to use, it does have a 'compare' function which on the face of it offers what I need (check box to ignore colours) but it seems to return pretty random results for me If I can find a way to convert my inventory Brickstore file to a CSV file I guess I'll have to dust off my spreadsheet (lack of)skills and query that way, though I can't help thinking I'm missing something obvious here!

I have a large project on the go and build sections in Studio, not being the sharpest tool in the box I often make daft mistakes in Studio which just don't work in real bricks, so I design in Studio then build IRL to check, then modify the Studio model with any alterations needed (often multiple cycles) These 'check builds can be done with any bricks I already have regardless of colour so I can make alterations before making BL orders that turn out un-needed I recently spent some considerable time and effort to catalogue all my parts into a Brickstore database along with their locations in a new storage system. The idea of the database was that I would down/upload the Studio model parts list into Brickstore and compare the uploaded model list with parts in main inventory to show if I have the parts needed in any colour and to have the locations (comments and remarks). So tried this for first time today and it seems that Brickstore is not capable of this colour agnostic manoeuvre It seems that if a field is not in the 'Edit/Copy Values...' dialogue then its value MUST be a match. I can get parts quantities on hand and quantities short for order but only if all fields of the part record match i.e. colour (as well as status, condition etc). It seems my only option is to make a copy of my inventory and set both files with all parts colour N/A gives me locations for picking but no quantities on hand/needed which I would have to note down as picking or run a separate data merge from start. So is it me? I'm not very IT literate so am hoping I've missed something obvious? I imagined many people would check build in colour vomit before committing to large BL orders and therefore do something akin to what I am trying? Assuming Brickstore cannot do this for me is there another way? Can it be done in Bricklink? In conjunction with BL? I'm not a seller but I do have a 'closed' store as it seems to be the only way to obtain a key for BL/BS synchronisation.

Another spear reference? maybe my humor is lost in translation?

Thank you for a very interesting read, while I'm a sucker for BR modernisation era locos I've never been an L-gauger so this book gave me a great insight, thanks for your hard work It's a little ironic that you point out that Holgers prior book about the PF era should have been released just as Lego decided to can the product line given the rife speculation regarding PU

It has brick built headlights - what's not to like??

What a coincidence to happen across this topic today! Just been discussing this with my family this weekend, I lost my little brother four years ago, he and I amassed quite a collection between us in the seventies and early eighties and he left his share to my young nephew my sisters kid (confirmed bachelor my bruv!) Roll on four years and the sets which were being stored at my parents place ( secured out of my reach) needed a new home as they are downsizing, sis had never mentioned the sets to her son as he was too young at the time but turned nine this week, cue him being offered the sets to play with: The ungrateful little tyke made some very uncomplimentary remarks about his late uncles penchant for babies toys and turned up his nose - I almost kissed him - roll on the screen obsessed generation !!! My bike panniers, tank bag and a large rucksack are currently stuffed with sets, all on their way home with me and SHMBO (most of the time) has been put on notice that I will not be available for chores the rest of this month As regards the future of my newly enlarged collection, my Wife knows that the stuff has worth and where to best sell it if she needs the funds at that time but since Lego runs a close second behind the dog for time spent ignoring her, she's more likely to burn the lot

Hardware - software - doesn't really matter which bit is incompatible, the point is it was all made/marketed to look the same with the same (new) connector but motor/hub combinations were a minefield of incompatibility, control+was (albeit subtle difference) not the same as PU and my limited perception of the proliferation of different incompatible softwares in the 'robotics' sets was mind boggling, all of which was seemingly undocumented for years by Lego or hidden behind the high paywall of the Education theme , I would not agree that situation was anything close to perfect! I have no skin in the game regards complex control, not my area of interest ( in spite of, or maybe because of, a career in process control for heavy industry), I have plenty of 9v and PF hardware, am quite happy to buy more from third parties and am quite able to design and fabricate dumb motor packages in any form I might want, just makes me giggle how Lego thought they were going to keep up half a dozen different control programming environments in the crazy world of smart phones and tablets etc without it becoming all consuming but a bit sad for those who do enjoy the 'robotics' type product because PU hardware seems to be gone and the software for the earlier systems seems to be being withdrawn (not just unsupported) and I guess PU apps will follow in medium term I do get that the real hardcore users will do there own thing but then one has to ask why bother with the lego aspect at all? Since this is all getting somewhat off topic I'm gonna shut up now and wait to see what '27 brings us

Thanks for the info and the link - my bad - never owned one (8878) and only ever seen it described as rechargeable and assumed was NiCad or metal hydride like an 88000 with rechargeable AAA cells - every day a school day To clarify the general thrust of my suggestion, I meant a battery box of high capacity and high current capability as seen in RC world since afaik a frequent complaint/observation re PF is the battery box is current limiting which in today's world is a design choice at the power levels /loads we are discussing More generally, we agree that almost all the negative aspects of the PF system could be solved by updating with mature off shelf components/tech, why they didn't??? Anyone's guess! I reckon it's bitten them on the big behind though and played into the hands of the third party generic PF manufacturers

All a very interesting debate but I think it misses the point, Lego have had a solution to this dilemma for decades by running basic motors for lego modellers and the 'education' theme hardware and software for those inclined in that direction Dumb motors and battery boxes for those who just want simple motorisation of mechanical function eg 9V, PF Programmable motors/controllers and sensors for those more interested in automation/coding RCX,NXT,Mindstorms, Spike,Prime or whatever the latest fad is The intermediate ground for RC vehicle models seems to be comprehensively covered by some excellent third party products already The issue I see with PU was that it attempted (unsuccessfully) to standardise hardware across all use cases and forces screens and coding onto the masses that have no interest in this aspect and object to needing a smart device Compound this with the rat race (huge resource) to keep up with (maintain compatibility/functionality) the ultra consumerism that smart phones embody, the lack of timely/adequate documentation, and the (relative) high cost hardware and I think it was always doomed in current form My suggestion is that PF concept should be updated to offer Lipo battery boxes (as well as traditional replaceable cell type), radio (not BT) receivers based on standard RC technology that can offer longer distance control, proportional control of the PF servo (maybe make the servo continuously proportional rather than just 7 steps) via either a basic Lego control or function with third party RC world controllers for those that want more facility It seems to me that all the above is mature tech sold at consumer price and availability meaning it could be accomplished with off the shelf hardware/designs packaged in a Lego housing with ease! As far as a new family of the 'robotics' coding/programmable hardware goes I can't really comment byond saying that I suspect the answer lies in a similar pattern of adopting currently circulating technology that already does what people want, I have words like Ardiuno and Raspberry Pi floating in my mind :-)

The torque convertor in an auto box is extremely poor at transferring energy into the engine from the wheels (it is after all been designed to maximise efficiency in the other direction) as a result there is very little engine braking in an automatic which increases the necessity to use brakes under all driving conditions

Being a confirmed biker I only ever owned one car, it was my dad's first car and it's repainting featured large in my parents courtship. Its a manual, a newfangled four speed (cf 3 speed on prior models) and it even has lazy driver syncromesh on top which is nice as there's no space to heel and toe if you have bigger feet than a child. Just by way of confirming my bonafides as a luddite, earlier this year I bought a 2004 BMWK1200RS and was horrified to find the brakes were electrically operated it was sent straight back to the dealer in favour of a '98 model with rider operated hydraulics that work without relying on decades old electronics! The day I can't wind my own windows, adjust my own seat, turn on my own lights, stay in a lane and read a map let alone change gear for myself at the appropriate time is the day it's time to stop driving.

22 or 32?

Thanks very much for the explanation of the naming

Some exciting new parts coming with this set and interesting mechanisms, that said one thing that puzzles me, what is the purpose of 'ghost mode' IRL? And why is it called that, seems a car waving all its doors, bonnet and boot in the air is anything but ghostly ?

Voi Vod! there's a blast (quite literally) from my past!!! Anyone for Bathory? S.O.D.?

Visiting from technic theme so castles are usually just, meh, for me but: WOW, just wow, stunning in the clean 'simplicity' and the effect of the 'patchy' stonework. The brick bending is the icing on the cake.

Knocking on the door of 60 here (wow how did that happen ) and as a engineering and practical individual by inclination and profession, technic is my theme. As youngsters we were fortunate to have classic lego but then the magic happened!!!! 1977-81 ish coincided with peak birthday /christmas presents for me and my siblings (young enough and fortunate enough to still be indulged as my parents financial security matured ) and my brother and I received the lot in set order from 850 onwards, then as the presents tailed off we were old enough to have part time work that allowed us to continue under our own finance. By '84 girls, exams etc. started to take precedence so V1 pneumatic sets were the tail end of the spree. Always kept a hand in and bought the highlight sets through into the studless era but this would have to be my dim(not completely dark!) era,. Unrelated to Covid, 2020 saw me have to close my business and find occupations that could be undertaken from a bed and the Lego world exploded into my life again, boy what a change the internet had brought Bricklink/Owl, Rebrickable, Blogs Ldraw/Studio and of course Eurobricks along with the whole AFOL world. In summary though, for me the 70/80's era of system based technical lego will always be the golden era

As has already been mentioned FDM printing is not practically capable of producing fluid tight (gas or liquid) structures and, more importantly, I would be doubtful that they would be sufficiently strong enough to be safe, even small quantities of compressed have significant potential energy to cause injury Most professional model makers supplies sell tubes and fittings that can be used to fabricate small low pressure (as in lego pump pressure - never compressor or tyre pump) air reservoirs that can be solvent cement assembled. Use the 3d printer to create the mountings and bond to the outside. https://ema-models.co.uk/abs-tubes-fittings.html

That's what I thought, thanks for confirming.

In such a situation is it possible to turn off collision detection for individual parts or submodels?

Back of a headlight brick? Still a hole but at least maintains squarish font style.

@SpacePolice89 Thanks for the heads up, Account created!

How about something similar to the rack card 'programmable' crane in the back of the lego ideas book 8888?