zephyr1934

Good work with the mechanics

Amazing work, as usual. If money is no object a neat way to display these would be a heavy overhaul facility with a couple of them in various stages of having the hood removed.

Great job!

Probably yes, but there may have been a separate thread about making the brass contacts

I think 3 or 4 years ago someone posted a thread in the forum about replacing the contacts crafted from metal rods rather than donor parts

I would imagine that most train builders would use the KB either for the IR receiver or the SBrick, so the orange dial is probably unnecessary in the first place. I would think that focusing on the PUP version makes the most sense anyway. Oh yes I understood that, I was just suggesting you have "coming soon" or something like that on your web page. Telling people that one can get them independently is a great thing too, e.g., Like Hod I would love a "one to one" replacement for the PF battery box, but I'm sure I can figure out how to work with a USB output with the the wire sticking out one end. The fact that the PF version is a simple retrofit is great.

The PF box looks great. However, as per the above quote, the port orientation is not good... The PF connectors require at least a 2x3 footprint due to the way the wires come in Also, assuming one is using the IR receiver, for most applications one would only need a single port. The PF LiPo had a power level setting with the orange dial so that you could eliminate using the IR receiver, but I don't know if many train builders actually used that function though. Since you can stack PF plugs there really isn't a need for more than one power output. If you did support variable power then perhaps replacing the green button in the above photo with a second plug at opposite polarity to the first might be nice. But all of that adds to the price and the battery box is likely to be expensive. So I THINK a single output without the functionality of the orange dial would be fine. To be a one-to-one replacement for the PF battery keeping the PF output in the same spot would be helpful. What might be an easy and attractive variant though would be to have studs on the side of the box so that you can cover the sides with tiles. That would be very handy for building "almost" 4 wide hoods with batteries inside. Since these cables are an obvious extension for your product, you might be well served buying a few dozen yourself and offer them for resale at a markup on your site as an addon. Presumably you could get them for cheaper in bulk, so even if you sold them at 2x or 3x markup it would wind up being cheaper for your customers (or at least worth the cost in terms of time savings).

You are channeling the Lego designers of 1979. The little shunter is fantastic and seeing all that 12 v equipment is always amazing

There are a couple of problems with this, from the KB side of things, currently there is not a reliable 9v power pickup available on the market. So presumably sales would be limited to proper hackers. Secondly, doesn't the PUP hub turns itself off after 2 hrs? Regardless, I would think you would want to swap two trains every hour or so both to rest the motors and keep it things interesting for the crowd. Or you could do it like LegoLand and the discovery centers, and have the trains rest most of the time on top of a charging station with shorter periods of running. Agreed, my first thought when I saw the price was that it was a lot of money (not that it was over priced, just that it was expensive) so adding cost to the base unit for extra features that most users will not use does not make sense to me. But making it an add on brick is a brilliant solution, that is one of the benefits of using 3D printed cases, small quantities do not require expensive molds. I'd keep that as a future option. Stick with the base model and if it sells a lot then consider variants... ... though in terms of possible future expansions, what about a version for PF trains? For now I am sticking with PF because I like the IR control and lower priced components better. Perhaps that could be the "economy" model described above.

Yes, this would be (is) a killer feature. Would it be possible to make a cheaper non-battery KB that passes power through from a usb power bank to the the PUP hub? Now on a different question, is the power boost mode (specifically using a higher voltage) at risk of degrading the motors quicker?

Getting the exterior to look good is hard enough, complete interiors like that is simply over the top. My interiors always seem to fill up with snot to get just the right offset on the outside and reinforcing structure, but excluding my steam I build 6 wide. Meanwhile, things are still chugging along with the rods, thank you for the references!

That is an amazing build, the detail that you've packed in is incredible

That is amazing work!

That is an amazing diorama and the train too (that poor golfer ripping his own arm off...) while I did not see anything I trust there's a caddy shack and perhaps a happy gilmore somewhere on the layout

Now you are just showing off with all that detail under the hood (grin) That's a fantastic MOC

That is amazing work! Those poor judges are going to have a hard time selecting a best build out of all of these great entries.

Coming along nicely! (and yes, virtual trains seem to move slowly some times, I've been working/waiting on one for over 9 months now)

That's a great build!

Yes, start slow and see if it is sustainable. FX Bricks started with 3D printed cases and probably built on demand bricks. Find your niche and the products will start to sell themselves by word of mouth. I'd certainly be cautious of it, but definitely NOT a sure thing. The boxes were clearly designed for some form of rechargeable, but the PF LiPo's disappeared overnight, I suspect Lego decided they did not want to be in that market any more and that might carry over to PUP.

That looks really good, seeing your build and then thinking of all of the official sets, it is like night and day. Great job

Unbelievable work, amazing!

Actually, this becomes a test of the superior aerodynamics (grin) Excellent!

Amazing work!

I don't know, the packaging is still a value added element of the product for direct to consumer shipping. You open the shipping package and bam, professional packaging. Big impact. Its been a few years but if I recall the SBrick came with a complicated packaging. I'm sure TrixBrix has enough sales history to know that the huge up front cost of the molds will be more than recovered from savings on a per unit basis. Some of that savings they are turning around into packaging. I can't imagine you will see TrixBrix stocked at your local store though, they might be aiming for the vendor market at lego shows though.

While more track options are great for us, I suspect Lego will simply shrug. Given the track offerings Lego has, they clearly do not care about selling track.