Desvejk

Hi idlemarvel, Thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately Xtrkcad will not run on the latest Mac OS. I have found this to be common with shareware or free software. For the Mac users I'd encourage you to have a good look at what is already available with your Mac, The applications are free and very powerful software. A useful purchase is Acorn 8, which can help with any design. https://flyingmeat.com/acorn/ Cheers Des

Hi Matt, Excellent question. I've never found any application that worked to my satisfaction. More importantly I could never get the results to be customisable to my room layout and tables. So in the end I used the drawing tools in Apple Pages and Keynote. My solution also will work for Windows users using standard applications. I developed standard track layout elements - track, switches, trains, baseplates, lego pieces and IKEA tables that in my room I standardised the scale and use the layout tools to position the elements, combiing as nesessary. Keynote is best because you can create backgrounds for the layouts and use the slides to build each part of the design. You do need to be familiar with the drawing tools but they are easy to learn. The image below of my layout is quite accurate to the actual layout and I used baseplates in the background. I've included some elements that I combine, rotate, group and resize as necessary. I found it helped when I included the trains and other buildings. Cheers Des

Great implementation. Good luck with it.

Excellent idea. Will look forward to seeing the build.

I used the method below for the lovely yellow tram from 60271 LEGO® City Main Square https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/188622-maximizing-integrated-use-of-the-powered-up-hub/&tab=comments#comment-3476354

I did hear that. it will be a great help.

Thanks Thorsten, That was an excellent explanation. It makes perfect sense and I understand it completely. The underlying issue with the PoweredUp app is the lack of documentation. There have been so many issues that I have faced that would have been so much easier had the reference material been available. The work of so many who have put material online is much appreciated, but Lego has seriously fallen short with this. It's a shame because the product is really good and I have been able to implement so many great solutions. Brave Des Agreed "kudos" for the "bit bit"

Thanks Lok24, Thanks so much looks like it worked! I have changed the code to assign the internal device number. I wonder why internally 0...3 are used? This is a great help.

A question for the PoweredUp app users. Can the device number of the PoweredUp hub be set as a variable? This would make coding with multiple hubs much easier. The coding example does not run the motor. When the variable is removed the motor runs when the device number is set 1…4 Am I coding the variable correctly or does the coding block require a number?

Thanks for your comments. It’s working fine now and it good solution for tight builds. Thanks for commenting on the tram. I’m proud of it.

Thanks for all the comments. I'll have to digest all of this and come back with a more specific question.

I think you are probably correct with the motors. I’m very interested in doing this with a PF lighting kit and joining it to a PU motor on the same port. The other port is used with a sensor. Could this work?

Thanks so much. This is a real possibility. How did you make the PU plug for the hub?

Thanks again. Could you join two motors together this way?

Thanks for your answer. When you say old lights, do you mean using PF lights spliced to the correct wire on a Powered Up Cable?

I have a question about running additional powered up items such as lights, sensors and motors from a hub. The small hub has two ports which is quite limited. Would it be possible to splice two motors together by joining of “piggybacking” the wires together? Could the same be done with lights and sensors, or lights and motors?

I have now fitted the color and distance sensor so that I can program the tram Ising the Power UP app. Fitting the sensor brick was easier that I have found for other trains. All works as I had hoped.

Thanks. It was quite tricky to fit everything in place. Now the mini figs are happy and that’s the important part.

Finally finished. I'm very happy with the result. Now this tram is crowded with mini figures! VIDEO with the tram running https://flic.kr/p/2mPQzv3

Finished the circuit board enclosure.

I agree. I’m confident the battery will be fine. Building the tram now.

Thanks for your comments. I usually only run trains for short periods and I’d be confident that there are minimal safety issues. I’m planning to use this mod in the Lego light rail from City Main Square 60271.

Thanks. My plan is to make an enclosure for the controller board and place the rechargeable 9 volt battery separately.

I'm exploring splitting the Powered Up Hub into parts. The controller board and the battery. I want to use a small profile rechargeable 9V battery to allow me to fit the Powered UP controller into a smaller Lego build. Early testing looks promising Can this work? Any ideas. VIDEO: https://flic.kr/p/2mPutgt

Thank you Thorsten I may give this a try when I can buy some PU cables. The light accessory is difficult to buy from Lego Australia with stock supply hard to predict. This may change soon (hopefully). Cheers Des