shroomzofdoom

Point taken. Proportional controls, adding servo/encoder functions to PU were a leap forward, losing physical remote was not great. But PF XL motors and RC motors seem to still be desired by MOC builders, despite their clearly suboptimal physical form factors. Hell, even the 3P guys replaced IR on PF remotes with 2.4GHz. I still feel that minor, incremental changes were needed to put PF on a better trajectory. Evolutionary change, not revolutionary change might've been better. Could be that Lego saw increasing demand for PF, took one look at the their PU offering and realized it was time to produce the garbage pile that is the closed, all in one motor. Are there any fans of this thing?

I was hanging with my non-AFOL friends and showed them a few Lego Technic sets and third party sets. As the story veered off into discussions about the motors, I made a glib comment to the effect of 'third parties have probably sold ten times as many units in this form factor when compared to Lego since Lego killed the original line.' These are generally business-minded folks so naturally they challenged my premise and we discussed things like what Lego has learned, how they responded, etc. Sure, I pulled that number out of my big behind but the premise remains the same: Is my argument generally valid? Who sold more units by sales volume? Lego or all other third parties? Is that advantage 10X? 20X? 100X? While we think killing PF form factor was a mistake, do you think Lego has regrets? Instead of advancing or improving existing lines, TLG responded by almost totally abandoning the 'rebuild' pillar of the Technic line. I find this ironic especially since third parties aren't knocking off the PU line. Instead of mindstorms, we have a limited grab bag of motors and stuff like this: Closed and destined to be released in 20 different uninspiring color variants to a 5 year parade of yawns, I absolutely hate this thing. Did Lego really give the market what the market wanted? Ironically, several of their competitors offer something similar that IS programmable! I searched for anything I could find but that the fact is that TLG is a private company and so are there competitors so sales numbers are likely nonexistent. If you respond, please keep it about the PF form factor and related market: I don't want to devolve into right/wrong, IP theft, model quality, etc Please don't mention third parties by name, just say '3P' or 'third-party', if you're not into the whole brevity thing.

Hard to say really. That's why I asked. I guess it's possible they licensed the design? Or knocked it off and keep the brand name intact? As you can see from the box, they are covered by proprietary plastic fenders which are cosmetic. Was just really surprised to see Buwizz in a MK box.

Those are white and branded Buwizz

Sorry if I've been out of the loop but I just picked up this MK set because I wanted the white monster motors, turns out they're not MK monster motors? Anyone know what's going on here?

Did you guys see Sariel's scoop on the new Education motors?

I've not done it for BW, but when my cordless drill battery dipped too low, I connected it to a bench power source for a minute to get it above the threshold. After this, the battery would charge normally. If it's gone through too many charge/drain cycles it may be easier just to replace it. I buy the BW batteries a few at a time so I have a few spares on hand. They're cheap enough.

@msk6003 and @Jurss - Thanks for the help. I'm building a really small steered 4x4 with IFS which will be powered by Circuit Cubes so I def have to break a few rules. We've all built big and powerful stuff so I'm trying to take this in the other direction. I think I got the wheel sorted out with some standard parts. The end result bead locks the outer part of the wheel and also improves backspacing to keep the tire from contacting the steering hub. The wedge belt wheel provides just enough friction to keep the tire from spinning on the rim and seems to be perfectly sized for the diameter of the tire bead. Since I won't need it to hold up to a ton of torque, I believe this will work.

Does anyone have any advice on 30 x 20 rims with 3 pinhole arrangement that might work with the 1st gen Monster Jam Tire (5632 / 55976)? It looks like these guys (4492) would work but they're a bit hard to get at the quantity I need. Also looking to see if there are any options I've missed?

Bummer... https://www.newelementary.com/2025/02/pick-brick-update-on-new-parts_22.html?m=1

Thank you for the compliment! I wish I had the programming skills to help but I'm practically a caveman. Really great work on the app. Such a polished product!

Thanks! They last a little longer than my ADHD...maybe 3 mins running them like this.

One thing I like about this piece is that the top row and bottom row are exactly 3 x 3 square. AFAIK, this arrangement doesn't exist anywhere else. It was very helpful to me in building a few gearboxes. I'm sure I can find these in the resale market for a long time. I hated building the old fake motors, I liked that about as much as applying stickers. :-)

Just received my PAB Standard order from Nov 11, pretty much right at 3 months from Denmark to the US. US PAB site still showing ~4500 total PAB parts, no standard. I guess they're still working on the logistics for the transition.

@Repkovsky I just wanted to THANK YOU and share what I've created using your circuit cubes and PU controller app: I was also wondering: is it possible to control all three motors through your interface? Or combine two motors to one controller output?

Those are very cool Thierry! I'm sad to say that the only creativity I could muster on using them in locking differentials involved kra-glu and a drill. 😁

Always good to remember that Lego was, technically, not the first. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilary_Page

If Mattel is doing this they must have firm legal ground to stand on. Competition is good, it provides downward price pressure and disrupts the status quo. https://shop.mattel.com/pages/about-mattel-brick-shop

Good to know!

Solid advice. It just seemed like a rather interesting design decision when all the competitors have a '+'. I was curious if there was a benefit I was missing. Seems to work on RC train motors, not so well here.

Anybody have the new buwizz micromotors yet? I REALLY like the form factor and general design except for one little thing... The axles don't stay in the motor and the resulting connection is very sloppy/imprecise. Am I the only one wishing there was a '+'? Maybe this was a mistake during manufacture?

I couldn't find efferman's so I made my own. I've been using Philo's for a while. I finally figured it out...it's better to create a part by adding others together, rather than erasing/subtracting. Once I got going, it was easy!

Not sure if this a noob question or belongs somewhere else... I want to create a few elements so I can use alternative bricks with Studio PartDesigner. Following Playwell's tutorial on yt, I was able to more or less able to start with a 3x3 and trim off the piece but I can't figure out how to round off this corner. I tried clicking every tool imaginable. Anyone know which tool is used for this purpose? Thanks in advance for any help! I have a few other alt bricks I'd like to create as well .

I use wahl clipper oil for Lego lube. It's safe for plastics..