shroomzofdoom

This is a point everyone here seems to agree with. Although, I wonder how many people would have purchased Buwizz 3.0 and Buwizz motors if their page said something to the effect of: "Please be advised that you will need a single Buwizz 3.0 to operate EACH Buwizz motor if you plan on building larger models or if you require the ability to change directions quickly" Short of a fix, I don't see anything that would convince me to buy additional products from Buwizz until this FW update is addressed.

@Jeroen Ottens which parts, specifically? I've been looking for: LEGO Frame 3 x 19 (67491) LEGO Gear Wheel Z12 (69778) LEGO Gear Wheel Z20 (69779) Maybe it's an option in Europe and not in US?

The issue with the hub shutting down with two buwizz motors has been a known issue for at least 10-11 months. I've opened a case recently and was told that they are working on a FW update but there is still no timeline for release. I was advised to try adjusting ramp values. I spent $600/€600 in March of 2022 and I would not have purchased had I known about this limitation. How could fixing this NOT be the highest priority for their dev effort? The lack of a defect fix doesn't just affect a consumer channel of their product, it affects an entire secondary market of MOC designers who rely on revenue from selling their designs. Designers who create pull-through revenue for Buwizz when consumers buy the MOC and then the Buwizz units to build their dream model. There are two possible reasons for it taking this long: Buwizz didn't initially prioritize a fix thinking the scope was not as bad or that didn't affect as many users. They have now realized it, adjusted their priorities, and are working heads down to deliver a fix in the days to weeks timeframe. They are unable to fix it via firmware update. A fatal design flaw in the motors or with the circuitry in the hub itself. I sure hope it's (1) because I want Buwizz to succeed and will actually continue to throw money at them if this is the case. I am withholding a $1200/€1200 purchase until such time as I can validate a fix. I recommend that everyone withhold ordering anything from Buwizz for the same reason. If it's (2) then I will ask: when did they find out versus when/what did they communicate to their customers? If they are continuing to market a defective product while hoping to sell units then it is fraudulent behavior. I love the Buwizz concept, but the execution is not meeting with expectations thus far: center steering, lack of robotics control, lack of physical controller support, etc are all major disappointments. These things imply a dev effort that is overwhelmed or very poorly managed. I work for one of the largest and most well known tech firms on Earth. We are not allowed to run our lines of business in this way. We know that mistakes are inevitable. But we also know that our valued customers will stick with us if we are transparent, honest, and provide open communications to them when things go wrong. When we make mistakes, it costs money to fix. Trying to avoid that and the cover up is always worse than the crime. Anything short of a well-publicized effort to own the defect and provide periodic updates on the progress implies that we are embarking on a darker chapter. Their website has seen many updates, they produce tons of slick marketing videos, and even held a camp recently. If I was @Sariel or @kbalage I would be hesitant at this time to use my likeness to continue to market this product until there is more clarity. Further, anyone selling MOCs that include Buwizz should temporarily pause sales of those MOCs. I'm not saying this with any anger or malice--I WANT Buwizz to succeed! Many designers NEED Buwizz to succeed! Loyal customers will help you fix the problem by buying more product but they will ONLY do this if you are open and honest with them. @Zerobricks print this out and take it to your management, their actions over the next week will define which fork in the road they choose.

Oh yeah... Full disclosure: I haven't actually tried to build anything yet. Clearly I have some work to do.

In the pic below, power input is in the 12 o'clock position. Locking the opposing side (6 o'clock) directs power to the large gear which becomes the driver gear, and the two small ones become followers. It takes extra space and the way I used them, it would likely frag the little gears. You can easily connect up to 5 outputs to these which opens up a lot of possibilities for construction vehicles with multiple options powered from a single motor. @1gor and @Zerobricks that's a great suggestion, I kinda forgot about that ring gear lock on the gray carrier. Thanks! I'm going to try that (as soon as my knockoff gears come in from China) @2GodBDGlory Thanks, I am going to try that as well! End of the day I wish I could find easy ways to do this within the confines of the single 5x7. I'd like to think that the designers thought of this. But it seems like it took them forever to come out with the 28T bevel so...maybe they didn't. These are the ones I use for other applications btw

Has anyone found a more elegant way to lock the Daytona diff? Only thing I could come up with is locking one of the outputs (below)

Just assembled 42144 last night and hadn't even noticed! You are correct, the turntable is not bevel. Interesting.

Fantastic work! Do you have occasional nightmares/flashbacks about constructing the treads? That clearly took ALOT of patience.

Good to know--- thank you @Toastie!! Yes I am powering the PF receiver from the Buwizz output. I've also found that I don't need to pair Buwizz via bluetooth or even use my phone for this! When connected in this way, the Buwizz 3.0 acts similar to a PF battery box - allowing the PF IR receiver to control the motor while the Buwizz supplies the drive motor with operating voltage! There are two separate subsystems which are linked via IR: 1) The pybricks/mindstorms hub controls steering, connects the PU remote, and fires a PU Color Distance Sensor which sends signal TO 2) the PF IR receiver, which controls a PF XL motor powered by buwizz 3.0 I built it all and then found out that Buwizz 3.0 support for speed modes is planned (Ludicrous, etc). However, it was fun to build and I learned alot while doing it. Here you can see the final results. (Sorry for the background thumping, my wife is learning drums) Each of the hubs/controllers has its own drawbacks so merging the two systems in one model seemed like the best way to go: Buwizz: -center steering logic is...uh....errr....needs work -lacks robotics functions to operate a gear selector (planned) -No support for remote control (phone apps=yuck) -But it has GREAT power output! Mindstorms hub: -doesn't support PF motors -power output is not great ** MVP award goes to @Pybricks for flawless implementation of steering logic, support for PU remote, and using color distance sensor to bridge the gap between PU and PF. Plus, it's so easy even a caveman could do it!

I bought metal axles twice from ebay: 1. stainless steel axles from ebay seller 'cncgear' in April 2021 - the seller is no longer offering any items on ebay. 2. I bought the aluminum axles from ebay seller 'darkicedesigns' in May 2022 - it looks like they are still selling them Both held up very well in some high torque applications (4 XL motors). I prefer the aluminum ones for weight and torsional rigidity and will likely buy more soon. I wish I had bought some of the metal universals that cncgear was selling last year. He also had metal liftarms with bearings which looked pretty cool. :-( It's cheaper to buy the longest lengths and then cut your own.

I was able to get a Pybricks Mindstorms with a ColorDistanceSensor to fire a PF Infrared Receiver V2 and PF L Motor. link It worked great with a PF battery box so I tried Buwizz 3.0 as the power source. I'm quite excited that this works because I want to use it in a design. Buwizz controls are set to simple on/off button in ON condition, the Hub/ColorDistanceSensor is just sending 'red' to the IR V2 receiver to switch it on. It looks like the IR receiver would be switching the Buwizz 3.0 -- 9v or 11.2v output https://buwizz.com/tech-specs. I'm thinking of using it to power 2 PF XL Motors or 2 Buwizz Buggy Motors. Thanks to @Philo's work, we know that the PF battery box @ 9v "doesn't provide enough current to allow V2 reach its full potential" However, his testing shows the PF battery box is the limiting factor and of course, I'd like to give it more.... Given how hard to find the V2 receivers are I didn't want to damage it so I figured I'd see if anyone was doing this.

Even though they are not on the PAB, many parts released after 3 months can be ordered by calling TLG customer service by phone. I've done it twice now for the new blue gears and 3x19 frames. It's far better than paying bricklink prices.

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Nice work! Wait... are your walls covered in griebling?!?! Now THAT is commitment to the theme!

Does anyone know of aftermarket sources for the PF IR receiver V2? There seems to be alot of Chinese ones on ebay. I'm all in if I know these have the upgraded motor driver. But there seems to be no way to confirm other than trial and error.

I started building MOCs 2 years ago just for fun (not to sell). When I started, I had assembled maybe 3 technic sets and took them all apart to use them for parts. Most of us start by simply stacking WAY TOO many beams thinking this builds strength--it doesn't. Weight it at a premium. The best designs were those I learned to use substitutes and was only able to complete 90%. Over time, I purchased the top 10 largest technic sets used from ebay and built them while learning a number of design techniques (differentials, suspensions, gearboxes, frames, moto placement). I then used those parts to build as many technic sets from lego.com and as many free MOCs from rebrickable as I could find. When you do this you're following the work of another designer who's solved some problem or came with a creative alternative and that is truly magic. I can't even tell you how many times I thought I had everything, got halfway through and sat and stared at it frustrated as I was out of suitable substitutions. I would have to break it all down to wait for stuff from brickowl or bricklink. Over time, you will learn the basics and the limitations, you'll rebuild and fail...rebuild and succeed and that's part of the fun.

When they were first released, I think one of the online reviewers said that the 3x19 frames were a 'game changer'. This feels a bit understated. I almost feel like I am cheating. My world is no longer 15M max, it's 19M.

TLG has a survey open on their latest iteration of Pick A Brick. Credit to brick fanatics for publishing this out https://www.brickfanatics.com/lego-wants-your-feedback-on-new-pick-a-brick/

Agree 100%

ALL code is very particular about indentation and syntax. Too many tabs or a stray character and it won't work. It's not as easy as just removing spaces, the indents have to be EXACTLY like it shows in the code snippet that pybricks posted

Door to door in 7 days. These most certainly did not come from Denmark.

I just did some quick tests... First, I tried from my Samsung Note 20 and was able to download the firmware to the hub with Chrome, but ONLY when I selected 'Settings>Desktop Site' from the mobile browser. When I tried copying and pasting the Cat code using the same method I got 'Indentation error'. Second, I used a BT enabled Chromebook and was able to copy/paste the code no problem.

Sorry for the detour. The Cat program loaded fine for me. Yes. I loaded mine from Chrome on Windows 10 machine. Are you using a phone or computer?

There are many ways of describing it, I think these two are the best https://sariel.pl/2009/01/subtractor/ http://mapageweb.umontreal.ca/cousined/lego/1-varia/Adder/adder.htm

@Polarlicht just going to throw this out there. I am loving pybricks for almost everything. However, I wasn't a fan of the pybricks Cat variant because it didn't implement the 'subtractor' control layout. In fact, of the 8 or so hubs I converted, this is the only one I switched back to the original firmware.