Narissis

FWIW, I don't think thermistor issues present any risk of actually 'burning out' the motors. Just of causing subpar performance. In the long run, the preference would of course be to run FX motor bogies with the PWM FX power supply; I'm sure those will be highly compatible. It does make me wonder if this is a small oversight in Michael's testing, though, since I know he prefers to bypass the thermistor in all his 9V motors as a matter of course. But he's also meticulous enough that I feel like he'd test a few non-bypassed ones as well, to ensure compatibility. Maybe it's an issue that primarily affects worn motors, so fresher ones don't exhibit problems? I know a lot of my 9V motors struggle even on the standard first-party speed regulator.

Only Michael could answer that definitively but given that the retail packaging is underway, I would hope within a month or two. Maybe less if they're already in primary shipping.

Not quite yet but they should be dropping soon.

I can only speak for myself, but I'm eagerly awaiting the power pickup axles for two projects: One, a steam engine powered by a dune buggy motor. That motor puts so much load on the battery that a AAA PF battery box can't even run it at all. And it kills my 650mAh battery (marketed fallaciously as 1100mAh; thanks Green Gecko Workshop -_-) in only a few minutes. So that one's going on wall power ASAP. Two, the Orient Express, which I could certainly have motorized with batteries by now if I wanted to, but given the weight of the train I think it would also have battery endurance issues so I've been holding out to use rail pickup instead. Still haven't decided what motorization approach I want to take, but I prefer for my steam engines to actually deliver their power through the large 'drive' wheels for, I suppose, a certain sense of realism. So leaning toward maybe doing two face-to-face motors connected to a common gear. We'll see!

Thanks for the update! I do like a plug-and-play solution so I'm quite interested in the breakout cables and/or the 'smart' bogie. Even more interested in the power pickup wheelsets in the near term so I can convert my dune buggy-powered loco to 9V; PF batteries simply cannot handle it! And I'll have to finally start looking into motorizing my Orient Express, a project which has been holding out for the power pickups...

Another big W for Maria (Mind_the_Brick), who also designed the Old Train Engine Shed.

If you move the road bridge down to align with the harbourfront road in a T-junction, that'd give you additional space for an incline. I think you could then make it fit if it starts right after the curve, especially if you have your trains oriented so they're always going downhill on the steep incline (then you could use a shallower one in the back where you might have the luxury of more space for a gentle uphill return grade).

FX Bricks runs on Valve Time™.

AFAIK, DCC support is still firmly in the 'maybe' camp. The intent is to launch a 'dumb' motor (similar in function to the official 9V motor except with an intercept between pickup and motor for an outside controller to be added) followed later by a 'smart' motor with the PFx Brick hardware built in. Maybe it will be possible to replace the PFx firmware with DCC? But an easier solution might be to just get the 'dumb' motor and add your own DCC decoder to the 'intercept'.

I very rarely ever turn my 9V speed regulators up all the way anyway. Better consistency and reliability at lower speeds, more torque for longer trains, and better durability all sound like fair tradeoffs to me.

New blog post; looks like some switches did in fact come in stock but they sold out almost instantly. Some more news on other products. A while back I had been wondering if Michael might double his power pickup bogie to two axles, like how Bevins Bricks did, to ensure continuous power through switches and it looks from the photos as if that will at least be an option. FX Bricks will have a presence at BSBT, for those fortunate enough to make that event you'll have the chance to chat Michael up in person about what's going on behind the scenes.

Is that double crossover a 3D-printed one converted to 9V? Or did you butcher some of the FX switches? :P

I think the switch tiebar debacle is a good illustration of why the product iteration process is so incredibly long. Michael needs to go back and forth with the manufacturer to work out all these little kinks, and with even the rigid rails without moving parts being composed of multiple pieces that all need to be assembled within certain tolerances, there are lots of opportunities for such kinks to arise.

Michael is an optimistic guy and definitely geeks out about his own products, so he tends to be a little too aggressive on his release date estimates. :P He also isn't big on blog posts or social media so he tends to let those fall by the wayside for months at a time. However, developing the FX Bricks products is his day job now and I think we can rest assured he's working on it, even if his timelines fail to account for inevitable delays. The switches, for instance, were two years behind schedule. But they did make it to market. I have reasonable confidence that the rest of the products will, too.

IIRC he wrote at one point about having tried the plain metal wheels and finding that the traction was good enough that the rubber treads aren't really necessary (plus they foul the track as they deteriorate). As for cleaning kits... well, he has an article about track cleaning over on BrickNerd, lol. I've always thought it'd be fun to build a track cleaning car with motorized cleaning heads, but I'm not sure how to make it navigate switches while still cleaning that contact corner of the rail. I suppose it'd be easier to design one based on all-metal wheels contacting on the tread surface, though!.

In development, but there is still a lot of fine-tuning to be done. All-metal wheels are all but assured; they'll be the same as the ones in the pickup bogie and that's almost ready to go. As of November the sticking point with those was finding a suitable surface treatment for the metal to get a nice black colour without negatively impacting conductivity. The reason the first-party 9V motors had to be spring-loaded was because the contact surface was the flange, and the load-bearing surface was a rubber O-ring, for traction. On the FX products, the wheel will conduct through its tread so the spring action won't be necessary (though you'll probably need to be a bit more diligent about track cleaning to maintain good performance). The solution for conducting power from the wheel into the unit is virtually the same as TLG's, in fact: small leaf spring contacts touching the back of the wheel. As for what actually remains to be engineered on the motor, Michael could correct me on this if he has occasion to pop in here, but my understanding is that it has more to do with finalizing the internals.

The intent is to package one with each motor, so I imagine they wanted to keep production in-house instead of sourcing third-party ones. This way FX Bricks can maintain control of that production (and more importantly to Michael, I imagine, the quality assurance for those parts).

The PF and PU adapter mention is interesting to me; last I spoke to Michael he suggested they might not bother with those because there are already other adapters on the market. Maybe he found their quality wasn't up to his standards.

That's not all that unusual; FX Bricks is a slow-moving machine given that it's run mostly by one person with a lot on his plate and who, by his own admission, is not at all diligent about posting blog updates. :P What I can say following Bricks in the Six in November is that the wheels are slowly grinding away behind the scenes; more track radii are in the pipeline but do expect them to take a while to trickle out. I believe the next big production push is for a restock of the switches so apart from the other things laid out in the roadmap from the last blog post, those will be some of the next things to expect back in stock.

Hmm... how much does that narrow it down? :P

I hope you came to see my layout on the other side of the railing as well. :)

AFAIK, the PFx Brick does not have that support out of the box. I'm not sure if it could be added via firmware. I do seem to recall Michael talking about the smart motor potentially having a DCC-compatible variant, but take that with a grain of salt. I wouldn't expect anything like that to materialize for another couple of years even if it does happen - after the standard versions of the motor.

BrickTracks for injection-molded PF switches. FX Track for injection-molded 9V switches (presently out of stock but new units are in production so give it a month or two). Note that these are larger-radius switches, but for crossovers that's what you want as the overall size of the crossover is smaller than with first-party switches since you don't need awkward geometry or a parallel intermediary track. For switches identical in geometry to Lego's own, the only injection-molded options may be AliExpress bootlegs. For exotic switch geometries, 3D printed is the only option for now.

R120 curves are live on the North American site and all other SKUs except switches appear to be replenished. R136 not yet added. No sign of either on JB Spielwaren but I imagine it won't be long.

The behaviour you're describing could be the result of dirty internal brushes within the motor bogies. I've never done it myself, but I'm given to understand they're not difficult to clean once disassembled... however, getting the bottom plate unclipped and replaced without damage is a bit of a feat.