Ashi Valkoinen

A little shorter idea, it needs less length by two standard straight track segments: http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/AshiValkoinen/BuildingTricks/all_curves_ashiv.png

I always had LEGO-bricks at home, since the very early years of my childhood, but I never wanted to build a train - until I started daily travelling by train to my university 60 km away from my location. There I met the first generation of Stadler FLIRT electric motor units and after couple of weeks of travel I decided that they should have a LEGO-replica as well. Since the first model was built in 2010 there is no stop for me, I publish 2-3 times a year a new, Hungary-related train MOC. :)

Depends on the locomotive, the width you use, etc, etc. with couple of clever solutions (hinges, tiles under roof, technic solutions) it is not impossible to create a train body which can be easily opened to reach the battery box. Of course, in some cases the battery box holds all the train together, but it is not that usual.

I'm wondering that you are experiencing battery draining problems with using two of the wonderful PF-train motors. I run heavy trains with two or more PF-train motors for 5-6 years by now, without any battery problem. As I remember, the output voltage of the rechargeable battery box is 7.2V, which is maybe not enough for the two motors. For start I advise to make the bigger (AA batteries) PF-battery box fit into your loco. It has the advantage that it won't turn off after two hours, and putting 6 of AA batteries inside (rechargeable of course) will prove you enough capacity to run your train. For more power try to use PF IR Receiver V2, or if the current limitation still bothering you, maybe SBrick. Currently I'm running my Siemens Taurus locomotive with the old RC-train base, using two PF-train motors connected to it and my Stadler FLIRT EMU from SBrick, using two motors as well. The train pulled by Taurus locomotive is around 4 kg-s, the EMU is around 3 kg-s, 6 of AA batteries prove around 3-4 hours of runtime.

Check this video: The tram is a quite light creation, with two 9V motors, supplied with continuous 9V, and it starts moving only when my friend started to used the last 20% of the sliders. It happened with my Siemens Taurus loco as well, without any waggons on it, two PF motors it has, and started only moving after setting output at least 80% on the slider. With normal usage we didn't experience any overheating - it happened only when we really overloaded the loco with SBrick. Pulling 11 kg-s of LEGO trains with two motors and one SBrick is not avarage usage. :)

Dear all Train Tech guys, Thanks to the kindness of SBrick team I got two SBrick units for some testing - one of them was built into my LEGO MÁV Stadler FLIRT electric motor unit, another one into my LEGO MÁV Siemens Taurus electric locomotive. We tried as well to install SBrick between 9V Train Speed regulator and a loop of 9V track, where usual 9V-based trams were running. Fig.1. TFOL driving SBrick-controlled Stadler FLIRT on our layout. 1. SBrick installation For first, a quick overview for those, who don’t know, how SBrick works. If you are familiar with the smart brick, you surely can skip this chapter. To imagine SBrick it is the easiest to think about a normal LEGO Power Functions IR Receiver with four outputs, more channels and without the restriction of the infrared technology - with other words your smartphone or device doesn’t need “visual” contact to the receiver unit, thanks to the bluetooth connection. Also it works surely fine within the range of 50 metres, but by good circumstances it works from 100 metres as well. Other great advantage, that SBrick’s current limitation is 3 Ampers per output, while PF IR receiver has 800 mA - better choice if you want to run something heavier then avarage 6W trains. Fig.2. The SmartBrick unit. (Photo taken from sbrick.com.) SBrick could be powered with normal LEGO battery boxes or LiPo rechargeable battery with a Power Function extension cable. It is also possible to power SBrick from old 9V battery boxes or even a 9V Train Speed Regulator, using the 9V/PF end of the extension cable. In this case you should check, if the little green light on SBrick is on - depending on polarity the SBrick is enpowered, or nothing happens. You can plug on your train motors, lights, other PF motors on the SBrick’s four outputs. Next step is to design your remote control interface for your device. To do this, you need to be registered on social.sbrick.com, then go to designer.sbrick.com to create your profiles. The profile designer works in most of the web browsers properly, you can add sliders, joysticks and buttons to it. It is really advised to fill the “name” field in setting - later you need to know, which slider do what when configuring SBrick. Sliders work like old RC Train Remote control, joystick is an advanced slider, buttons works like turn on and off. For all controllers you can configure maximum output - if you want to limit your train’s maximum speed, quite easy to do, setting a value lower then 1 to maximum output. Also you can set up, if the controller will reset to zero or not, when you stop touching the screen of your device. You can set background for your controller, you can change the design of the sliders, joysticks and buttons - we have dozen of previously created ones, but you can use also own-designed images as well. Fig.3. My profiles designed for event TEMOFESZT 2015. Upper one manages three SBricks at the same time, a tram line with a slider, the ferris-wheel with a button (0.3 maximum output) and two other sliders my FLIRT train. Theoretically, if your screen is big enough, you can manage 16 SBricks and 64 funtions at the same time from the same device - perfect tool to operate a whole layout. After the profile is done, you should connect your MOC to your device. To do this, you need the SBrick application (or for quick play SBrick Tester application). Create a new Creation in SBrick application, turn on SBrick in your MOC, add SBrick to your creation and download your profile to your device. Then click connected SBrick (or SBricks) in your Creations menu, and pair sliders and buttons (if you named them before, it is easier :) ) to the outputs (A,B,C,D) of the SBrick in your MOC. After doing this, click the profile in the app you made for your MOC, and start playing :) 2. SBrick & Stadler FLIRT Surely most of you know this creation. It is my 8 stud wide electric motor unit, the original train manufactured by the swiss Stadler company. The LEGO train’s weight is around 3,5 kg-s, previously it was driven by two 9V train motors and two PF train motors, connected to 9V ones. The train also has front-tail lights (using modded PF leds, described in RailBricks #9) and interior lights - three functions to operate. Fig.4. Cables and cables - all of my train’s funtions connected to the SBrick unit. The bigger battery box (which never turns off) grants continiouos availability until the batteries die. As before, I sacrificed the toilette part of the interior to install electric parts - the big AA battery box powers the SBrick unit, and functions are mounted on the outputs. I had a small issue here with the design of the SBrick - if you plug more than one PF cables on the lower (C,D) outputs, it will be inpossible to plug any to A and B. So if you have to plug more than one on some output, you should put them on A and B, or if three output needs more than one plugs, you should insert an additional extension cable first to lower one C and D, and then plug your needed cable ends to the extension cable. In the train now boogie 2 and 4 are driven - 9V train motors are removed, and normal train wheels replaced them at boogie 1 and 5. The third (middle) boogie is unpowered as well. Operating the train is quite easy, if you learn, how to use your touchscreen properly. Since I have direction dependent front-tail lights, I named on my profile (refer to Fig.3) the two ends of my train “A” and “B”, just like the real thing. When starting, I always turn on lights for first, and later if I press the same direction of driving slider, the train will start into the direction of three white lights on it’s front. This could be especially important, when you have a layout where trains are running not only around on one loop, but they direction can be changed at wye-s, and you can’t exactly remember, which end is which on your fully symmetric train or loco. Fig.5. Wye-s designed by Bill Ward. Perfect way to get lost, where your train will depart when you touch the screen, or even turn the PF remote control around. Operation time was fine - the SBrick unit doesn’t take more power than the PF receiver unit, with the pack of AA rechargeable batteries I operated my train for a full day (exhibiton was opened between 10 am and 6 pm), the train was running for 2,5-3 hours before powered down, and it wasn’t turned off for all the day. Also I tested the train at home for continouos running - after 15-20 mins the PF-train motors got too hot and and train stopped, while SBricks temperature raised from 36-38 °C to 44-46 °C. (You can get voltage and temperature data using the SBrick tester application.) The SBrick unit works fine - I doubted it will manage my quite heavy train (compared to avarage trains built by AFOLs), but it served really good - the more problems I had with the software part. The SBrick application written for Android have several problems - not serious ones, but quite annoying. Connection problems Sometimes the application can’t reconnect to the SBrick. It happens when you exit from the driving screen from your smartphone or tablet (in this case the connection will be dropped automatically), and then you turn on again your controller - it starts to reconnect, then askes if SBrick is powered. This connection issue may happen if you connect your MOC from an another device while the first device is disconnected - until you are connected to the MOC with the second device, you can’t reconnect with the first one. The reconnection problem happened when the second device got disconnected as well. Also using the SBrick and SBrick tester applications from the same device can lead to this reconnection problem. Fortunately, all outputs of the SBrick are resetted to zero when you device loses connection with your train, so no accidents may happen. Fixing connection problems As I experienced, restarting SBrick application helps in most of the cases. If this doesn’t help, in your creation’s menu you should remove the SBrick, then add it again, reconfigure it, and it will work. Application crashes Smartbirck application crashed for dozen times during the three days - mostly when attempting to reconnect. Slider problem Basically I used “slider”-s to drive my trains. I don’t exactly know, how the software part of the sliders are written, but the first 80% of the length of the slider from zero (middle) point is quite useless in train operations. After reaching 80%, the train starts slowly moving, but it is really hard to set up the train speed properly on the remaining 20% length of the slider bar. As far as I know a totally new application for SBrick is under contruction, so the output function for the sliders and joysticks will be redesigned in the near future to avoid this problem, and hopefully previously mentioned connection problems and crashes will disappear as well. 3. SBrick & Siemens Taurus locomotive During the summer event of Kockajáték Club I installed one the SBricks to my Siemens Taurus locomotive. The loco works with two Power Function train motors, connected to the old RC train base - SBrick was placed on the output of the train base, so to turn it on for first I needed to give maximum power from the train base. Check this video of the locomotive pulling cars, and controlled from a distance. With this locomotive we made also some fun tests with the train guys hanging around - we put ten of our 8W, 58-64 stud long coaches on the locomotive to pull them. When the magnet coupling didn’t fail (with careful driving) the SBrick unit (and the two PF train motors) could pull all the cars, but the SmartBrick got really hot in less than 5 minutes - we reached the 90 °C temperature easily, and the SBrick got shut down by temperature protection. After couple of seconds it cooled down, and the smartphone reconnected to it. The whole weight of the pulled train was around 11 kilograms. 4. Controlling traditional 9V lines with SmartBrick Using an SBrick doesn’t mean you have to give up your 9V trains, tracks and motors. Get a 9V speed regulator, put SBrick on its output with a PF extension cable, and use the same cable to enpower the 9V loop, putting the dark bluish gray end on the Smartbrick and the light bluish gray end to the part you connect to the 9V tracks. Turn on speed regulator to maximum, put a 9V train on the loop - and now your 9V creation could be controlled from everywhere in a 50 metres radius circle, not just from the speed regulator. Putting more sliders connected to more loops will give you the oppourtunity to controll all your layout from the same place, while you don’t need tons of 9V extension cables to put every speed regulator at the same place. SBrick is even a powerful tool when you don’t have loops, just sections isolated from each other, like analogous model railway - every section could be controlled as described by loops. If you motorise switches with PF motors and connect them to SBrick, you can manage almost everything only using your touchscreen. 5. Conclusions SBrick is a powerful device to make your LEGO trains work with minor issues. The greatest advantage of SBrick that you need no vision to the receiver unit and you can controll your trains from a great distance - no more runaway trains thanks to the limitations of PF IR receiver. SBricks is also compatible with older 9V-based stuff - those who doesn’t want to switch to the newest LEGO train system can use it as well. The current limitation allows you to make really big and heavy trains to run - which is almost impossible when using original PF IR receiver. On the other hand - one SBrick unit is quite expensive, one brick costs £40 and taxes. However this price is not that high if you compare the possibilities to the possibilities what three PF IR receivers can give you for the same amount of money. Current SBrick application has minor issues as well, crashes and disconnects are quite annoying, and the application won’t work propely on all Android-based smart devices. For final words, I really advise to everyone who is into trains, especially at big shows to make a try with SmartBrick. Running only one train with your phone or controlling a whole layout with one screen - the decision is up to you. Video of the functions described above:

Truly said I advice all to our exhibition/club event/etc visitors to buy trains for kid around 8 or more, not the recommended minimum age six. Depending on my experiences with kids (participated running a LEGO-camp for six weeks this year, and in the last previous two years as well) most of them under 8 just like watching the train running around, while they are holding the controller, but nothing more. Well, it is nice to look at the train going around, but they were far away from the real play experience, what lego trains could offer for a kid. On the other hand, a 6, even a 4 year old kid can't take the responsibility to take good care of the train - it is a toy, yes, designed rebuildable - and it quite happened quite often, that after a crash the pin from boogie holder tile, or even from the motor broke off, or wiring got damaged after not proper use. I advice all parents to buy first train around age 8, even better, if the little kid gives some of his/her pocket money for the train, it can make them to play with more responsibility and enjoying their train for a long while without the need of replacement parts.

Assymetric driver's cab: http://i1106.photobucket.com/albums/h361/EA773/Captur1030111111111111.jpg

Checked back for third time the topic, finally Brickshelf works, so now I could take a look at the pictures, really nice MOC. I think your real loco is this: http://4rail.eu/swe/swe_gc_rc2nr1129_varberg_2010_600.jpg For more realism you could add one more layer of dark bluish gray plates to the loco bottom, and this you can build passanger cars one plate higher (for first look they seem to be flat).

it belongs to 4 AFOLs (Kovács Viktor Péter, Pikkel Zoltán, Farkas Balázs and me) and one TFOL (Matulai Marcell). No three Stadler FLIRTs (4.8 metres long) and Bombardier Talent (1.6 metres long) were included in that train, and no freight waggons as well :D

Dear ust60, the 36 metres long train wasn't able to move not only because of the lack of space, but not 9V speed regulator could make it move. :) Okay, there were some PF locos and motor units inside, but using modified regulators and PF/RC together is cheating in "moving longest LEGO-train competition. :)

And half of it doesn't work in reality, because I had troubles to fit two LEGO leds next to each other, so I had to redesign it quickly without LDD while I was building it. I'll upload some photos of current solution, it works nice with little stress (technic 1×1 bricks have holes with 1 LDU (0.4 mm) offset from headlight bricks and 1×1 brick with one stud studs). Yes, it means, 1/4 of the train is completed from bricks I found at home, not all are necesseraly correct in colour, but it will work!

amazing work, you perfectly captured the angles, and especially the passanger waggons. My only problem - I'm sure it is only mine - that lights are not powered using PF-leds and it's not purely LEGO, but fitting all cables for lights and buying at least 5 pair of PF-leds is much more problem than simply putting some own-designed light system inside.

I installed the package, thanks for sharing and working on it, schematic package seems to be a powerful tool to me to design exhibition displays! Thanks again for the really nice job!

And in April Koncar delivered a regional EMU to Croatian Railways, which of course had different colouring than the prototype, so I had to grab my Lego Digital Designer again and redesign some parts of the train. The result is here: However the two trains look similar, because of different colouring pattern tons of SNOT solution should have been replaced with other SNOT-techniques. It happened quite lot of times I had to fill half-plate thin holes on the train to make patterns look like original one, so I coloured half-plate thin bricks to purple in LDD to show how many of them are inside. SNOT slopes - including cheese ones, normal 45° and it's inverted pair, and slope 1×2×2 parts are coloured pink and levander.

After thinking quite lot about it I decided to redesign my Stadler FLIRT electric motor units - I'm not totally satisfied with the front design, especially with the view exactly looking at the front of the train. I grabbed my LDD again and building resulted in this: I used the idea from my RhB Stadler Allegra design, and tried to use it on my FLIRT. It was a little tricky to do - my FLIRT is higher and I had problems with half stud offsets, and I wanted to keep the possibility of front lights as well, which made the task really hard. Finally I used 1×2×1 panel element behind the trans-clear cheese slope, so I was able to keep the light on stud 2 and 7 (the train is 8W). This week I'll try to get some additional parts needed for new design to look at it, how it looks like for real. http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/AshiValkoinen/BuildingTricks/Stadler-Front/new_flirt_03.png

" it's the curves I have issues with. The tape bunches up on the inner portion because of the radial differences between the inside and outside. " Why are you trying electrifying the outer side of the track? Since 9V motors pick up current from the inner side, you can simplify the problem putting the tape on the inner side and on the top, starting from inner side, and make little cuts on top, and for better look you can tape the outer side as well, but by conduction aspects only inner side will make sense.

Hello everyone, I recently designed a new Stadler product in my LDD, after I made it work on Linux 14.04. I designed this train only because I got a little motivation finding this picture on Brickshelf: http://www.brickshel...y.cgi?i=5929835 So I grabbed my LDD and tried making an 8W, but narrow gauge vechile from LEGO bricks, here you can see the first results: Overall view. The entire train wasn't a deal, the most interesting parts could be find on the front and under the train. The only noticable building technique from the side of the train is the 3 stud wide white doors on end waggons - the real thing is wider than two, but less then four. Look from the front. I'm really proud of it, because it looks like much more as the typical FLIRT/GTW look, than my actual existing FLIRT models. Maybe I should upgrade them with this technique. Also the trans yellow cheese can be enlighten by standard LEGO leds, little trick behind it is the 1×2×1 red panel part, which can contain led light. SNOT tiles grants the space for bogie turnout. Some cogwheels missing from modell, LDD doesn't let me to put them inside, but based ony my prototype bogies, it will work. I plan to drive the train with two L-motors and V2 IR-receiver through first and last bogie. I hope once we can develope our 1000 mm gauge LEGO modell system here in Hungary, unfortunately we have only lots of plans, but less time and money to make these things real. Please leave your comments and critics here! I also attached lxf file for those who are interested in details. http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/AshiValkoinen/OtherTrainMOC/RHB-StadlerAllegra/allegra.lxf

There was no speed regulator which could make it run. We tried, but nothing happened :D

I almost forgot this passanger train from last year: :D

480 cm of LEGO Stadler FLIRT, three units coupled. Video of the trains running together:

On the other hand, search for 9Vtrain videos on YouTube (crashes on long radius curves with Christmas train), they are over millions and millions of views, using the YouTube Partner program and Google Adsense you can get quite good amount of money* after clicks on ads. *Not as much as enough for basic needs, but reasonable addition to your monthly salary.

It seems to run derailed all along to the end station, and then then the point uncoupled the waggon by its derailed bogie.

Reducing speed means heating up your 9V speed regulator, since on lower voltages (lower trains speed) it dissipates the not used perfomance as heat.

Thank you, zephyr! Maybe some of you noticed on Facebook, I finished my bistro car and added Stefano Masetti's stickers to the train, so now it's closer to the real thing, and only three waggons left until the full railjet train!