michaelgale

@supertruper1988 I apologize if I came off a little harsh in my response to your warnings about 9V motors being damaged. I do acknowledge that old 9V train motors can be prematurely damaged by some PWM type waveforms and with the right combination of heavy load, i.e. increased current/voltage and corresponding power dissipation. At the end of the day, we want the same thing: long life out our 9V motor bogies and achieving the best performance for our trains. With respect to horse and cart, we're simply doing the best we can to develop these products. I'm not sure if there is a best schedule for product release--in reality, the motor bogie, track feeders and controller need to be simultaneously released to have any real value. PWM based motor control is the best way forward for our products since it will yield the highest performance, efficiency, and longer life for the motor since the motor will be dissipating less power over its operational life span. I trust our Power Station product to safely operate legacy 9V LEGO train motors and subject my fleet of train motors to rigorous and regular testing. Can I guarantee every 9V train motor will be safe? Probably not--it would be foolish to claim otherwise--but I think the probability of failure is so low given the known mechanisms of failure and the remedies included in the design of the Power Station. Lastly, we have to look forwards and not backwards. Our priority is getting the best performance possible and that is the focus of our new motor bogie product. We're designing the Power Station and the new motor for 12V operation using high frequency PWM--the best combination of efficiency, performance and long life. Our new motor bogie uses metal bearings within a metal internal chassis for the best possible performance, durability and smooth operation. It is nothing like the LEGO 9V train motor internally. We've even had to "dial back" our design since initially we were going to use expensive Swiss made coreless motors, but decided that you folks would be better served with an affordable product using a quality iron core motor instead. This is not an easy product to design; however, it is a modern design guided by sound engineering principles with the aim of elevating the LEGO train operating experience that is both long overdue and worth waiting for.

All of our motor bogie products will be DCC "ready". This means they will offer separate access to the track power pickup and motor terminals so that you can use an external control, e.g. DCC decoder, PFx Brick, etc. Integration of the DCC decoder in the motor bogie itself is in the roadmap--but this will come after the first "DC" motor bogie. I don't dispute that folks had issues with RCX bricks and 9V train motors. It is likely that a combination of "coast" mode PWM and no snubber/filter components lead to a premature demise of the motors. However, I strongly suspect those motors can be resurrected with brush/commutator refurbishment! As you say, 9V train motors did pre-date the widespread adoption of PWM speed control and therefore do not have a minimum snubber capacitor. It is almost always a good idea to place a filter capacitor in parallel with brushed DC motor terminals. As mentioned, this reduces sparking of the brushes with the added benefit of reduced EMI. Your suggestion of a 9V plug accessory to act as "snubber / filter" for legacy 9V motors is a great idea! It will be an easy product variant since our new 9V connectors have internal PCBs and therefore installation of a capacitor/resistor snubber network would be simple! Having said that, the Power Station itself has a snubber network as well as Zener catch diodes for over-voltage spikes. This isn't as good as capacitors at the motor terminals themselves due to the inductance of the feeder cables + track between the motor and the Power station; however, it is better than nothing. We'll be sure to put together a FAQ / disclaimer guide, since we cannot possibly guarantee fuss free operation with every motor load configuration, condition, age, quality, etc.

A blanket statement that PWM kills motors is simply not true. This is a big topic, suffice to say, almost all modern motor speed control systems use PWM due to its efficiency and performance. Having said that, you can have issues with PWM if the PWM frequency is not matched to the motor type. There are many brushed DC motor architectures including cored, coreless, different number of poles, etc. In general: 1. Low Freq (<200 Hz) - best suited to large motors but suitable for most 2. Med Freq (200 - 1000 Hz) - suitable for most small motors 3. High Freq (1 - 15 kHz) - suitable for most small motors, but will require filter capacitor for EMI reduction and brush/commutator sparking 4. Very High Freq (>15 kHz) - "whisper" quiet PWM suitable for many motors, but especially required for coreless motors There are several mechanisms of "killing" a motor, but the two most common are (both can happen with PWM and pure DC): 1. Thermal Overload - excess current in the motor windings can cause the insulating coating on the motor winding wiring to break down and short circuit to adjacent windings. This has a domino effect whereby successive breakdown increases heat which increases breakdown, etc. LEGO motors have a thermistor to limit heating effects and therefore this is rarely an issue. 2. Commutator/Brush Oxidation - Brushed motors use carbon brushes which rub against a copper commutator to deliver energy to the rotor windings. As the rotor turns, it switches contact between the different windings (or "poles") in the rotor. During this switching interval there is an instantaneous change in power flow across the commutator gap. This discontinuous switching interval results in sparking between the brush and commutator. Over time, this sparking action can cause a build up of oxidization/contamination on the brushes to the point whereby they no longer conduct electricity. This seems like the motor is dead. However, it is often possible to fix the motor by disassembling the motor and carefully cleaning/refurbishing the brushes/commutators. Since PWM uses voltage waveforms which apply full voltage during the ON cycle (and no voltage during the OFF interval), the sparking action can be more intense, leading to premature brush oxidation. Almost all modern commercial motors (like LEGO PF/PU, model trains, etc.) put a capacitor across the motor terminals. This serves two purposes: 1. EMI reduction - the primary goal of the capacitor is to reduce ElectroMagnetic Interference (EMI). Sparking causes radiated EM noise/disturbances which can effect other electronics near the motor. Consumer electronics goods need to achieve the CE mark / FCC certification to be legally be sold in the EU / USA. These certifications include a maximum EMI limit. That is why almost all motor based consumer electronics products will have some form of capacitor/EMI snubber network at the motor terminals to supress EMI to within legal limits. 2. Spark Reduction - this is effectively the same as EMI reduction, since it is the sparking which causes the EMI. However, the sparking action shortens the life of the motor brushes and therefore reducing these effects is beneficial. The Fx Bricks Power Station output driver circuit includes a "snubber" network which can reduce the sparking effects of "unprotected" motors (i.e. motors without capacitor filters). Its always better and more effective to have this capacitor at the motor terminals, but anything helps. The Power Station also uses a PWM mode called "braking" (i.e. it does NOT let the motor coast during OFF intervals). This reduces sparking and absorbs accumulated current in the motor windings--this reduces power dissipation in the motor and prolongs the brush life. The trade off is that it increases power dissipation in the Power Station driver circuit. However, this circuit is more than capable of handling this excess power dissipation and the effect is quite small in comparison to the overall power load. I have used PWM based motor control with LEGO 9V and PF motors for many years without issue. Today's modern consumer electronics with motor control almost always use PWM based speed control. Its benefits of efficiency, precise speed control and reduced power dissipation in the motor far outweigh any perceived downsides. Blanket statements of X causes Y without explanation or evidence simply do not help. I took the time to write this long explanation as an educational benefit to the community to help understand these issues and to remove any anxieties about using PWM to control motor speed.

More details regarding the Power Station can be found on a video we made on YouTube: Re DCC: The Power Station is not DCC--it is variable voltage DC controller (strictly speaking its actually PWM). DCC is in the roadmap--but well into the future. We need to walk before we can run!

@legotownlinz This controller is called the "Power Station". This is because it is not only a speed controller but a power source for other speed controllers (half-width add-on modules) and accessories. Telling folks to use a commercial model train controller simply doesn't work for many LEGO fans. Its not a plug-and-play solution which fits into the LEGO system. The development of the Power Station does not pre-empt the development of other essential components, e.g. motor bogie, track feeders, etc. The development of all these items is very much a combined engineering effort since there are elements shared between them--notably the new 9V-style conductive stud connectors--an element which will be used by our entire system. Development of the motor bogie is going to require a decent power speed controller and connecting accessories for the track--therefore, the time spent on developing the Power Station is both a useful and necessary. The Power Station also addresses two key shortcomings of the LEGO speed regulator: 1. POWER - One of the key issues with the legacy LEGO 9V speed regulator was its very limited output power. The Power Station delivers 30W continuous (45W peak) power with very high efficiency (>85%). The LEGO controller uses a linear voltage regulator with less than 1A current delivery and would often be bounded by thermally restricted performance due to the inherent inefficiency of linear regulators. 2. SPEED RANGE - The legacy LEGO 9V speed regulator would only permit 7x discrete speed settings in each direction. It is all but impossible to achieve smooth and realistic train operation with this limitation. The Power Station has a continuously variable and precise speed control over then entire range from 0 to full speed. Furthermore, its ability to select peak voltage and PWM frequency makes it possible to tune performance even more. I'm currently road testing some prototypes of the Power Station in the lab and I intend to make a quick video showcasing its performance and features. This should hopefully convince folks that it is worth waiting for and will be another necessary piece in the puzzle for offering LEGO train fans an entirely new level of performance missing for so long.

The location of buttons and controls to the front panel is strictly a question of economics. They are all soldered to a PCB behind the panel. Putting controls in other locations means additional PCBs, wiring harnesses, bulkhead connectors, etc. This almost doubles the cost due to the additional labour and steps during manufacturing. A purpose of a front panel is for control and reporting status. Moving voltage selection elsewhere makes things more confusing and less clear--the operator would not have the same level of clarity of operational status. Each of the controls shown are of equal relative importance and quite frankly there's not a lot of controls and plenty of room on the panel for a neat and tidy layout. What's wrong with blue? Its a lovely colour! :) Seriously, the colours have meaning and our new power system is going to use a "colour code" for different functions, e.g. outputs, lighting, motors, digital, sensors, etc. More details will be released in future, but rest assured there is a systematic approach to our design choices--it's all part of a "System" (sounds familiar doesn't it?) :)

Glad to see all the responses! :) The design of this controller is not fully finalized--we are currently testing both electrical prototypes and 3D printed enclosures for usability etc. Also, we are listening to the feedback from you folks. Rather than explain everything--we released this "teaser" without description to see what your responses would be without our influence. In any case, in response to some of your points: 1. Style - yes the style is guided by the legacy 9V speed regulator. This includes studs on the panel and a raked front panel. It also has a rear connector shelf. We did extend the styling in a few key ways: - 33 deg slope angle to match a LEGO system standard slope angle - 16x16 stud footprint - every horizontal surface aligns to an exact LEGO plate interval 2. Voltage Selection - it is important for this control to look forwards as well as backwards--that it why it has 12V available--to support new high performance motor products. Accidental selection of 12V mode for legacy 9V motor products is highly unlikely to do any damage--almost all motors are capable of operating beyond their "rated" voltage. As was mentioned, it simply increases heat dissipation and there is protection for thermal overload. Besides, its unlikely that anyone is running their 9V motors at full power continuously and any train running at 12V full power will likely not stay on the track for very long! 3. Current Output - This controller is rated up to 3A but will limit operation to 2.5 A continuous. It has short circuit/overload protection on all its outputs and has automatic quick-disconnect/retry. The controller uses switch-mode power regulation with >85% efficiency and can operate with input voltages from 12-19V. It will automatically lockout the selection of 12V if the input voltage < 13.5V. 4. Safety - As well as the usual short-circuit/thermal overload protection on all outputs, it has a few other safety features. It will prevent direction changes and voltage selection if the speed > 0. This will prevent instantaneous reversal/changes of voltage when in operation which can shorten the lifespan of a motor. 5. Auto/Low mode - These are not finalized. These labels refer to PWM motor control modes. Auto is a the default quiet high frequency PWM mode. Low mode is very low frequency PWM for older and/or sticky/crusty/bulky motors! Sometimes these older motors do not operate very well with high frequency PWM and require a bit of "boost" with longer durations of motor current in the PWM duty cycle. We're not sure if we're going to retain these labels and modes but we're still testing. 6. Blue connectors are fixed voltage outputs to power up accessories or "slave" speed controllers (half width). The orange output is the variable voltage/speed control output. Lastly, we will be releasing new track feeder cables with 9V-style connector termination and brick form factor track side connections. We'll release more details soon. And of course, we are actively developing the motor bogie. The motor bogie is trickier to manufacture since we require several different manufacturing suppliers, e.g. injection molding, CNC, metal turning, electronics assembly, etc. In addition to coordinating these suppliers, we are setting up our own final assembly, test, QC, and packaging facility in Hong Kong. The goal is to have our HK facility be responsible for the critical final assembly and test functions of not just the motor bogie, but all of our new electrical accessory products.

Wow! A geometry discussion! The way I would do this calculation is to compute the sleeper/stud locations for a "normalized" track element, i.e. centred at the origin (0, 0) rotated at 1/2 sector angle (e.g. 11.25 deg for an R72). Then you can take this list of stud/centre points and perform 4x rotation/translation operations into a complete 90 curve using matrices/linear algebra. This should generate a concatenated list of all stud centre points. You can then loop through each point and perform a modulo 4 mm operation and if the residue is less than a given tolerance in both x, y coordinates, then you have a candidate stud for attachment. I would use a tolerance of around +/-0.2 mm or maybe even +/-0.4 mm since the slack tolerance for a curve is somewhat generous. I'm sure an hour of coding in python would yield a result--extra marks if you can generalize to any curve radius/sector angle!

Hi Folks, Sorry to hear about the R72 tracks bending slightly--it seems to be an issue confined to the R72 tracks--and not all of them. TLDR: Its easy to fix by either: 1. Gentle twisting back-and-forth of an individual track section. 2. Or let the track settle out with usage. The lift does settle out over time. Long Explanation: We suspect there are 3 factors which contribute to this phenomenon: 1. Settling of the product from the climate differences in China/Hong Kong vs. North America/Europe can manifest itself as very slight warping due to the different thermal coefficients of expansion of ABS plastic vs. metal rail. 2. Variances in metal crimp points along the length of the rail can result in slight mechanical stresses which produce this vertical lift. 3. The rail joint connections are designed to be tight and secure. This ensures excellent electrical performance and secure track connections. However, the tight joint introduces mechanical elastic forces in the plastic rail which have to be absorbed by the rest of the track assembly. This can manifest itself as a vertical lift to relieve this elastic tension. Vertical lift due to factors 1 and 2 will be observable with a single track element after it is removed from the box and placed on a flat surface. In our experience, most of the R72 elements will rest flat; however, in some cases we have observed very slight vertical lift, but within mechanical tolerances. Vertical lift due to factor 3 is more common, not only for the R72, but also other L-Gauge track elements. The mechanical forces which cause the vertical lift can be relieved with slight twisting back and forth along the long-axis of the track. This disperses accumulated tension along the entire length of connected track elements and reduces the vertical lift. These forces will also disperse naturally with repeatedly running a train over the track. The forces applied by a passing train will gradually disperse accumulated mechanical tension. Brand new track elements, especially hybrid ABS plastic / metal track, have tight crimps and do not have enough elastic performance to resist the forces applied by rail joints. Over time, the crimp joints loosen slightly, and the track element is becomes more elastic and therefore able to resist these forces and stay flat. It is analogous to "breaking in" a brand new car. Car manufactures specify a "break in" period to allow mechanical stresses to disperse and settle to a nominal equilibrium. Similarly, our track elements will settle to a nominal elastic equilibrium with normal use and handling. This should reduce the probability of observing this vertical lift. p.s. I don't recommend using a heat gun! You might end up with an R72 shaped puddle of plastic!

Without going into too much detail, our product plans for electrical accessories and control is based on this simple idea: it's not the technology that makes it special, it's the form factor. That is what made the 12V system of accessories special--simple technology (obviously)--the appeal was the modular LEGO-like way it all worked together. The 9V system's appeal was the genius and versatility of the 2x2 plate connector.

@ivanlan9 Thanks so much for the support! Also, thanks for calling out the 3-axle motor bogie--we do appreciate hearing what you folks want--and we have heard many requests for a 3-axle version. We're actively developing our motor and control systems and in fact have a purpose built R&D facility for it—"the 9v Nürburgring": A silly name for a serious workstation!

@Vilhelm22 I forgot to answer your two questions: 1. I don't know if we'll make curve radii larger than R152. Each track element is quite expensive and offering 7x different radii R56 to R152 is already very generous! I'm not saying we're never going to make >R152; but we are more tempted to prioritize elements such as the 90 deg crossing, diamonds, accessory elements, etc. before other curve radii. Also, our product strategy is also guided by you guys--both in what you tell us and what you buy. We've learned a lot about your priorities over the last year--for example, we didn't plan on releasing a R56 curve track--but we heard enough vocal demands for one, that we went ahead with it! :) 2. The motor bogie is quite a complex product. After we release the familiar 2-axle version, we are tempted to develop a 3 axle variant as a follow-up. A dedicated steam locomotive drive unit would be more complex and quite honestly more likely to fail. This is because of the large variety of steam locomotive wheel arrangements, coupling rod gear, wheelbases, wheel diameters, etc. etc. It would be an impossible task to make a steam loco drive unit which would satisfy everyone. The better approach is for us to release power pick-up wheel sets and standalone motor drive units with cross-axle interfaces. That way, you are free to build the steam loco wheel chassis (with all the awesome BBB wheels, 3D print coupling rods, etc.) and use our power system to drive a motor of your choice.

Hello Folks: JBS and we at Fx Bricks are definitely at the mercy of our supply chains and logistics companies. The freight brokers we work with are really good at their job and are doing their best to get the goods from our warehouse in Hong Kong to Canada and Germany. In the current climate, both air and sea freight rates have been in constant flux with rates more than tripling in the past few months. Furthermore, customs/import procedures have changed in Germany this summer and JBS faced a longer processing time to finally clear the consignment of R88 tracks. We do know that the shipment has finally cleared and JBS are working hard to fulfill orders with R88 tracks. (Luckily Canadian customs clearance has been mercifully smooth and quick!) We have a pipeline of more track shipments enroute via sea container and soon we will be green-lighting the R56 and R104 for a production run (with pre-order soon after). In fact, they are already in the shop for you guys to check out! https://shop.fxbricks.com/products/r56-curve-track https://shop.fxbricks.com/products/r104-curve-track We know our release schedule has slipped (predictably), but rest assured, we actually do deliver on our commitments eventually! I suppose I can't resist to reveal another bit of good news... We're getting closer! Both the left and right P40 switch master molds and the metal rails. We are so impressed with the precision and quality of the progressive metal stamping for the longer rail segments. This will make a big difference for smooth running and electrical continuity. Lots more work to do, but we're actually doing it! As for more work...the motor bogie, power feeder, speed regulator, etc. are all in the pipeline and in active development...more on those another time! Michael Fx Bricks

Hi @Andrew Harvey Thanks so much for your support and your order--much appreciated. If your order contained R88 tracks, then those orders were delayed due to production delays. However, we've received the full complement in Hong Kong about 3 weeks ago and we sent both Canada and Germany small consignments of R88 by air freight (the remainder by sea). In Canada we have already shipped every pre-order batch including those with R88s and I believe JBS received their consignment of R88s and should therefore be actively shipping those orders. I know that their pre-order volume was quite large so they are likely just going through their pre-order list as fast as they can. I would expect to see some shipping notification from them very soon and sadly to expect some delays through the UK border. If you don't here anything within a week or two, let me know through the Fx Bricks shop website and I can follow up directly with JBS. Cheers, Michael

@legonerd54321 Wow...your timing is spooky! Just this week, we've been trying out pre-release candidates of our new firmware which include enhanced sound playback effects for trains. Some of the key features: 1. Gated Playback - Gated playback of sound files (for "chuff" type sounds) can include up to 4 different and sequentially played sound files. This makes the sound playback sound less "robotic" and flat. Furthermore, you can have up to 4x groups of 4x playback sounds. A group is selected based on motor speed with the same boundaries as the indexed playback. This will let you specify a different "chuff" sound sequence through a locomotive's total speed range. 2. Speed Triggered Extra Sounds - The indexed playback mode now includes specifying playback of extra sound effects based on speed. This includes: a) Accelerating from stop - e.g. a turbo-charger "whine" sound, a steam or air brake release sound, etc. b) Accelerating while moving - e.g. turbo charger sound c) Slowing down quickly while moving - e.g. dynamic brake sounds, fans, steam release, etc. d) Slowing down to stop - brake squeal sounds Note that these sounds are based on acceleration as well as absolute speed. Therefore a gradual slow down to stop might not incur a brake squeal sound. This makes the overall sound from the model feel more realistic and life-like. 3. Developer Tools in Python - We've added some more scripts and tools to help developers with make sound profiles for the PFx Brick. For example, you can specify all the details of a sound profile in a convenient plain text YAML file. A python script will read this file and automatically load the sounds, configure motor and playback actions and setup the PFx Brick ready to use. This will let you make changes and fine-tune the behaviour of the sound profile quickly since the script only makes changes that are required to the PFx Brick. For example, if you change one audio sample file, it will only load that changed file and not reload the entire set of files. There's still a bit more work to do in terms of testing and documentation; however, we're getting very close to a public release. This will include: 1. New ICD document v.3.38 2. New firmware release v.1.50 3. New PFx App release v.1.10 4. New pfx-brick-py Python language tools (v.0.8.0 on pypi probably) Stay tuned!

@Jedi Bert Great! Thank you! We've increased the weight limit to the USA to 10 kg. We've also added shipping rates to UK / AU / NZ up to 5 kg. The store now also has a currency selector in the footer so that you can see equivalent pricing in CAD, USD, GBP, and EUR. Note that our default currency is CAD. A reminder to folks in the EU (and the UK): purchase your Fx Track from JB Spielwaren (in Germany). They offer very competitive flat rate shipping to the EU. For PFx Brick and accessory purchase, you may continue to use our Canadian web shop from our website.

Thanks all to have already placed pre-orders for more Fx Track--much appreciated! There was an issue with weight thresholds for shipping that should hopefully be resolved. Standard shipping products are for <2 kg; therefore we have added shipping tiers for up to 6 kg (USA) and 5 kg (Aus/NZ). @TuffTuffTuff We're not exactly sure when the M-Speaker brick will be available again--our manufacturing pipeline is just stuffed with track! :) The CAD for the new M Speaker is complete, we just have to figure out when to schedule it for manufacturing. It is very likely we will use JB Spielwaren for reselling the PFx Brick and a few key accessories; however, we're just getting started with EU distribution and our focus is getting the process working smoothly for Fx Track. We're not sure when this will occur, but it will. As @zephyr1934 pointed out, all our store's pricing is in Canadian dollars (CAD)--US dollar (USD) prices are approx. 20% lower. And indeed you require twice as many R88 elements to make a full circle as R72. Since our cost is actually based on the number of elements, curve radii above R72 will cost more--its just the reality of what you're physically producing and its associated cost. One last word on prices: its really difficult to keep prices low these days: 1. Manufacturing costs have increased dramatically this past year 2. Freight costs have gone up 3x !!! 3. Electronics availability is going crazy: e.g. the CPU in the PFx Brick is currently 48 weeks lead time! the Bluetooth radio is 14 weeks with ZERO stock worldwide. You probably have seen items in the news about "chip shortages" etc. -- this is very real and it is impacting us. Luckily we have a good inventory buffer for the electronics so far--but we're getting concerned about future products like our motor bogie and speed controller. In any case, these are factors we can't control. For the factors which we can control, we try to offer the best retail price we can. If we were making USB cables for Amazon--then low cost matters--custom engineered LEGO compatible metal track is different story!

@Jedi Bert There should be no issue shipping to the USA. However, we suspect that their might be a weight restriction with standard shipping options offered automatically by the new store. It be worth trying to process an order with a combined shipping weight of <2 kg? We're going to look at configuring alternative shipping options for larger/heavier orders. Sorry about the trouble, but we're just getting up to speed with this new e-commerce platform! @Black Knight We set retail pricing in USD and it is up to JBS to setup their equivalent MSRP in EUR. We suspect that their pricing is due to currency exchange rate fluctuations and other factors. Its tricky for us since we're dealing with multiple currencies for sorts of things in our business! In any case, JBS still offers great value since they offer very competitive flat rate shipping for the entire EU.

We've not finalized pricing yet. However, the price does not simply scale with the size of the item. Each track item is roughly the equivalent in terms of tooling costs, i.e. plastic mold + one (for straights) or two (for curves) pressed metal stamping tools. The amount of plastic consumed per unit is not a big cost driver. Furthermore, other costs such as shipping, labour, and material prices have increased a great deal in just the past 6 months--each of which contributes to our cost of goods.

Hi folks! Sorry for the delay in updating you guys with updated product availability. We've posted a detailed update on our site here: https://www.fxbricks.com/fxblog/?post_id=46&amp;title=new-fx-track-product-availability TLDR: 1. Pre-orders of S8, S32, R72 and R88 tracks start June 1, 2021 2. Deliveries expected to start late July/early August depending on sea container shipping. 3. No per-customer quantity limits 4. R56 and R104 available in 2021, confirmed schedule TBD 5. P40 switches currently in tooling -- complex manufacturing with many parts, but expect availability in 2021. 6. Motor bogie, power accessories in detailed design / some components in prototyping Thanks again for your awesome support, feedback, reviews, etc. -- we can't wait to bring you guys more products and are committed to applying the very best of our engineering and design skills and quality standards to these exciting new products!

@Ashi Valkoinen The short straights (S1.6 and S3.2) are not out of the catalog. They will be made. We're still deciding how they will be packaged. They could be packaged with the switch, or as a separate pack of "short straights". We're leaning towards offering them as a pack of short straights since folks are likely to need very different amounts depending on what they are building. It will likely come as a box of 8x S1.6, 8x S3.2 and 2x or 4x S8. The website needs updating. The short straights do not appear on the catalog page since they are likely to cause confusion without an explanation about how they are used.

@Wimmer Thanks very much for your support--much appreciated! :) I see the error and will make a manual entry into the order database to make sure it is processed. Your order will likely ship tomorrow.

@Duq Honestly, we don't know what the retail price will be for the switch kit yet. I guess all I can say is that it will be expensive :( The development costs are pretty big. However, it will not be out of line compared with model train switches in the biggest scales. @Duq, @Black Knight, @Ashi Valkoinen Don't forget, there is one nice use for the "leftover" R64P curves: short and grid aligned S-bends!

@SD100 We are very likely going to sell the switches as a kit which includes the following: 1x P40L Left Switch, 1x P40R Right Switch, 2x S8 Straight Tracks, and 2x R64P Curve Tracks. These components allow you to build a complete parallel loop siding. The reason we want to start selling the switches as a pair is to avoid asymmetric inventory by selling Left and Right separately. At least in the beginning, this will be important for recovering some of our development costs. In future, we would be open to selling the switches individually for Left and Right. @Ashi Valkoinen We will likely remove the 3x quantity per order limit on the next batches available for sale. We are increasing the production quantities of all the next items in the pipeline.

@Wimmer We're doing our best to develop and produce the key elements of our system, in particular the motor bogie and controller. We're glad you like the P40 switch! We spent a great deal of engineering on this element and applied the same geometric principles used in designing real railway switches in 1:1 scale! Unlike an all-plastic switch, the design of a metal rail switch is much more complicated. Not only are there more components, but the design must maintain electrical continuity for each rail and ensure sufficient clearances for wheels without short circuiting. @Ashi Valkoinen Glad you like the S32 straight tracks--thank you! The P40 switch is already in the pre-tooling stage with our manufacturers and it is going to be produced for this year. It does not depend on the sales of our other track elements; however, it does help! Technically, the diverging route of this switch is not a perfect segment of a R104 circle. However it is very very close. In all likelihood, given the wide tolerances of Lego train track, you would be able to form a parallel return curve from the diverging route with 2x additional R104 curve tracks. The reason why using R104 curves it is not a geometrically perfect configuration is because the diverging route centreline MUST terminate 64 mm (8 studs) laterally and 0 mm axially relative to the straight route. This is necessary so that you can make a crossover with 2x switches with 16 studs parallel separation. Two R104 curves with 11.25 deg sector angles form a R104 curve segment diverging at 22.5 deg. Its centreline terminal point is +7.9 studs (63.2 mm) laterally and -0.2 studs (1.6mm) axially instead of (+8.0 / 0.0). This error would be added to a parallel return curve and is not on the "grid". However, since our P40 switch terminates at (+8.0 / 0.0) at a diverging angle of 22.62 deg, a perfect return curve can be made with S8 straight element and R64 curve element (with 22.62 sector angle). It is not just close, but mathematically perfect. That explains why we have chosen the geometry of our switch to be 22.62 deg diverging. Furthermore, a 22.62 deg rotated geometry can always be "realigned" in 16 stud intervals indefinitely with the use of multiples of S1.6 (12.8 mm) straight elements. If you stack P40 switches in a yard ladder configuration separated with S1.6 straights, you can build infinite yard ladders aligned to 16 studs LATERALLY. And by adding repeating multiples of S1.6 in each siding, you can align sidings AXIALLY to 16 studs. As it turns out, the diverging route is tantalizing close to a R104 curve, but not enough that we would label the product as a "R104 switch". If you look at how real railway (and some model train) switches are described, they rarely use "radius" in the terminology. Often they will use other more important factors such as the length of switch and the angle of crossing frog/vee. We chose the nomenclature of P40x since it is short and sweet and concisely descriptive of what this switch really is (and is not).