dr_spock

If you have the parts, you can make your own pirate ship. I did a LEGO Friends version of the Black Pearl with parts I got from my LUG, Bricklink and mostly my own collection. I prefer BP over QAR. You could make both to attack the Imperial Flag ship from both sides.

It seems like the pololu can handle 3.3v logic without converters for 3.3/5V? ESP8266 ESP-01 is a cheap way to add WIFI to the Arduino. With the more recent modules like ESP-12E with more GPIO pins and interfaces exposed, it seems like the Arduino may not be required for some devices. There are motor shields for the ESP8266 NodeMCU board, it is like putting together an Arduino with motor shield. The hard part might be finding PF power connectors cheaply.

You should really buy samples of each from LEGO or Bricklink to do a proper clinic analysis. Pictures may not tell you everything. Weight? Volume? Stress test. Touch, smell, taste. Grab test. Xray. Etc. It would be interesting to see. My guess is version 1 had problems cracking under play conditions if version 2 has new reinforcement. But there could be other behind the scene things like reducing material usage, increasing pieces produced per mold, included in a redesign that the public may never know.

The NodeMCU version looks like a much easier module to work with. I see eBay has some versions for around $6 USD. I'm going to get a couple to play with. What type of motor driver do you use? Is the L293D suitable to run the LEGO PF train motor?

Budget control is spend until your spouse tells you that you have reached her limit. Wouldn't it be easier to rent a truck? Is your new house ready?

The road work is worth the effort. Looks amazing. I am not sure how you can bring to an event to display without major pothole repairs. Good use of technic wheels for columns too.

It could be they are trying to get their money's worth after spending so much on a mold. To the bean counters, a mold sitting idle is not making money. That would figure into the return on investment calculations for the train parts. Why spent x amount of money to make to mold that only generates y amount of revenue when you can spend the same x amount for a mold that will bring in twice the y revenue?

I cut 3mm flex hose to size. They are easier to cut with an X-Acto knife than a 4L bar in half. I would use up my LEGO ones before I resort to hardware store ones. Since the LEGO word is not printed on flex hose, it will be hard to tell the difference if the colors are close.

Good story. Clever way to incorporate Chima into your MOC. Vegetation looks good on the temple. I think you're using a cell phone camera? Phone camera works best when there is lots of light. Avoid using the camera's flash which can give harsh shadows and reflections on LEGO.

Thank you again for your kind words. Aye, Sea Rats have a well disciplined tidy crew. It comes with years of swabbing the deck. That's a great idea. Could be used for the furnance too. But that's the fun of MRCA.

Thank you very much. Did Myth Busters also use the clutch power of their feet on the studded harbour floor? She has the type of hands that you probably don't want to be at the receiving end of her heavy handed punches in a bar fight without a good dental insurance plan.

It was retailed for $50 USD in 2009. I think it is around $300 or so now. There is an old review of 2009 version on EB: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=32651 It was a good set to get a lot of RedCoat soldiers for army building too. With that set and the current set, you would be well prepared for a Tournament of Retribution contest in the pirate forum.

So that is what the COW in COWLUG stands for. Our LUG was wondering when we saw the name on a LUG list. We thought they like cows. Very nice display. Pirates and trains, can't go wrong with that combo.

Speaking of MOCs, I MOC stole my captured ship back from the NPC Mardier. Do I have to resubmit license form?

Freebuild #2 Feb. 2016 Previously, Susieh and her crew were monkeying around with an escape plan. They bribed a monkey with a banana in exchange for the cell key. After opening the cell lock with key, they sneaked out and headed towards the Mardierian Harbour to find their ship, the White Skull. At the harbour or rather under the harbour, we found our Sea Rats using a tried and true technique for ship theft. They quietly climbed up the anchor chain. Once on deck, Susieh overpowered the unlucky guard. Her crew quickly gained control of the White Skull. Susieh felt good to have her ship back as they sailed away from Mardierian territory. She wanted to give Mardier the finger but LEGO hands didn't seem to have fingers for pirates to make rude gestures. She sighed and gave a goodbye wave.

Results | dr_spock | Sea Rats (MCRA results) Cannon Factory | dr_spock | Sea Rats Steal My Ship | dr_spock | Sea Rats

Recommend staying to watch the credits too.

Good points. The previous Pirate chess set from 2009 was better identifying the Rook, Knight and Bishops pieces. It doesn't follow the height like in normal chess sets either.

A fine ship for a Prince. Good diplomacy to show that Corrington is friendly with Eslandola. Oleon should worry. I had comments before that gun port doors should swing up instead of down. I am glad you used down so that I'm not the only ship that does that.

So that we are not hijacking Asper's thread and being a raspberry, I started a new topic for ESP8266 discussion. Please move ESP8266 related discussion there. Thank you.

Hi everyone. I'm starting a topic for the ESP8266 and LEGO trains to discuss and share experiences of using ESP8266 to control LEGO trains and other layout functions like switches, signal lights, train detection, etc. ESP8266 can also have a lot of uses in the making of IoT (Internet of Things) devices. ESP8266 is a low cost WIFI chip with TCP/IP protocol and microcontroller. You could run a simple web server on it and control your device through a web browser. Features: 32-bit RISC CPU: Tensilica Xtensa LX106 running at 80 MHz 64 KiB of instruction RAM, 96 KiB of data RAM External QSPI flash - 512 KiB to 4 MiB (up to 16MiB is supported) IEEE 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi Integrated TR switch, balun, LNA, power amplifier and matching network WEP or WPA/WPA2 authentication, or open networks 16 GPIO pins SPI, I²C, I²S interfaces with DMA (sharing pins with GPIO) UART on dedicated pins, plus a transmit-only UART can be enabled on GPIO2 1 10-bit ADC I picked up a ESP8266 ESP-12 module last year for under $5 USD with free shipping. The low cost makes it affordable to experiment (and if you fried it, not a great loss). I haven't really had a chance to work with it. It's confusing with all the different firmware you can run on it, such as AT-commands with include firmware, NODEMCU with LUA, etc. It is hard for a noob like me to figure out which one to use. As you can see the module is about the size of a 3x2 LEGO plate. Daleks could use a MESH network of ESP8266 modules to link together

I recall it being talked about in the Ideas thread over in the Embassy forum. I think it is DOA too. It's too many pieces to fit in the production space that LEGO allocates for Ideas set production. I am not really crazy about the brick sails either, too much like Sea Cow.

Deadpool. So that's how unicorns make rainbows. It definitely has adult contents. If you are an adult who is offended by what is often labeled as adult content, you should probably avoid this movie.

It looks big. I'm guessing a crane with superlift. Be mindful of the background. It's funnier when you take pictures of people and a tree is growing out of their head.

The top one will just fine. The bottom may have issues. You can make middle wheels slide horizontally if you find them bind in the curves.