dr_spock

Welcome aboard, MXL.

Welcome to Eurobricks.

Good one. I hope those guys have insurance.

I think kids might still be into Grumpy Sparrows. I had a GBC display with Grumpy Sparrows module at a kids picnic event last weekend. It basically shoots balls at a piggy target. There were some excited screams when they noticed the Angry Bird.

That's a good idea. I've seen documentary where scrapped steel was transported to a reprocessing plant in open gondolas.

Welcome aboard.

and

Nice. Do you find you lose many balls at events?

Maybe one of these?

Welcome to Eurobricks.

Welcome aboard, Amy. I MOC trains too. It's cheaper than sets some times.

Welcome to Eurobricks. No need to be ashamed.

So

The helicopter appears to be model after one those small single seater copters.

A more detailed review of the red train set than the one previously posted here. http://youtu.be/cbrGf3A2YEI Sometimes they have too many train engineers in the driver's seat of the locomotive engine.

Suddenly

Broke a glass reed switch.

Packed my MOCs for tomorrow's LUG event.

My reed switch order has arrived from China. This calls for a quick test. The LED goes on when the reed switch detects the train motor's magnetic field. To test I put wrote this simple Arduino sketch making use of Roland Wiersma's PF library. ======================== /* Train move with detection Channel 1 Blue dr_spock_888 June 5, 2015 LEGOPowerFunctions library by Roland Wiersma */ #include <legopowerfunctions.h> LEGOPowerFunctions lego(12); // IR LED on pin 12 const int reed1Pin = 2; // Reed switch1 on pin 2 const int ledPin = 13; // LED on pin 13 int reed1State = 0; // Variable for reading reed switch1 status int reed1Pass = 0; // Variable for counting train passing reed switch1 int dtime = 2000; // Delay time void setup() { pinMode(ledPin, OUTPUT); // Init LED pin as output pinMode(reed1Pin, INPUT); // Init reed switch1 as input lego.SingleOutput(0, PWM_FWD1, BLUE, CH1); // Start up train delay(dtime); lego.SingleOutput(0, PWM_FWD2, BLUE, CH1); delay(dtime); lego.SingleOutput(0, PWM_FWD3, BLUE, CH1); delay(dtime); lego.SingleOutput(0, PWM_FWD4, BLUE, CH1); delay(dtime); lego.SingleOutput(0, PWM_FWD5, BLUE, CH1); } void loop() { reed1State = digitalRead(reed1Pin); // Read state of reed switch1 if (reed1State == HIGH) { digitalWrite(ledPin,HIGH); // Turn on LED delay(500); digitalWrite(ledPin, LOW); // Turn off LED reed1Pass = reed1Pass + 1; // Increment pass reed switch1 } if (reed1Pass > 5) { lego.SingleOutput(0, PWM_FWD4, BLUE, CH1); // Slow down train delay(dtime); lego.SingleOutput(0, PWM_FWD3, BLUE, CH1); delay(dtime); lego.SingleOutput(0, PWM_FWD2, BLUE, CH1); delay(dtime); lego.SingleOutput(0, PWM_FWD1, BLUE, CH1); delay(dtime); lego.SingleOutput(0, PWM_FLT, BLUE, CH1); // Stop the train delay(10000); // Wait 10 seconds lego.SingleOutput(0, PWM_FWD1, BLUE, CH1); // Start up train delay(dtime); lego.SingleOutput(0, PWM_FWD2, BLUE, CH1); delay(dtime); lego.SingleOutput(0, PWM_FWD3, BLUE, CH1); delay(dtime); lego.SingleOutput(0, PWM_FWD4, BLUE, CH1); delay(dtime); lego.SingleOutput(0, PWM_FWD5, BLUE, CH1); reed1Pass = 0; // Reset pass reed switch1 } } ====================== CAUTION: Be careful with glass reed switches. They break easily. Sharp glass.

This is very nice. Now I want to use non-PF LEDs in my trains.

What country are you in? Are you doing fan fiction? Do you plan to profit from it? Etc.

Welcome back. That's a grand entrance out of the dark ages.

I think they kept the file size small back then when many people were on dial up or paid by the kilobytes for Internet. Maybe lower res to encourage people to buy the set for the real printed instructions. Not too long ago when they stopped providing printed instructions for Technic B model, the B PDF instructions for Technic sets were high-res but the A model PDF instructions were low-res.

Welcome to Eurobricks, Prairie. I see you used an Arduino minipro. I've started playing around with Arduino. I'm working on a sketch to control my Friends cargo train MOC through infrared LEGO Power Functions.

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