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Types of instruction manuals
I noticed there are 4 different types of instruction manuals (at least for large sets):

Type I: Similar piece colors are not very distinguishable (especially Dark Gray and Black). Some building steps could be clearer (for example, adding arrows or changing the point of view). Similar-looking pieces are sorted in the same bag. Bags are not numbered.
Type II: Same as Type I but with numbered bags.
Type III: The piece colors are a lot closer to the actual pieces and are easily recognizable (Black has even a white outline). All building steps are better described. Pieces are better sorted in the bags. Bags are numbered.
Type IV: Same as Type III but with the pieces to be added in a given step outlined in yellow or red.

One could think of a type to be an improvement over the previous one, and when a new type is released, the old one wouldn't be used anymore. But that's not the case.
Here are some sets with their corresponding type:

Mobile Crane (8421) released on 24-Oct-07 is of Type II.
Death Star (10188) released on 21-Jun-08 is of Type I.
Pet Shop (10218) released on 12-May-11 is of Type II.
Town Hall (10224) released on 03-Mar-12 is of Type IV.
Palace Cinema (10232) released on 01-Mar-13 is of Type III.
Mobile Crane MK II (42009) released on 27-Jul-13 is of Type II.
Maersk Line Triple-E (10241) released on 01-Jan-14 is of Type IV.
Parisian Restaurant (10243) released on 01-Jan-14 is of Type III.

Do you know why the manual types are not in strict chronological order?

Let us not forget there are also instructions with or without part boxes.

I remember that in the 80's black technic parts where always hard to recognize in the instructions, in those years you had to count the studs yourself. Over the years black became a little lighter in colour to a dark grey. This was also shown on one of the first pages of the instructions.
This stays OK until the introduction of dark grey parts. At that point LEGO struggled again with colours in the instruction. This was around 2008. In the year later this was solved by making black darker again. This current colour scheme is used in for example 42009. So this set is not a type II but another type. Also LEGO nowdays try to keep the same parts both in black and dark grey to a minimum per set.
Until now I never noticed that LEGO uses two different ways to show black parts. With and without a white outline. And also on the PDF's instruction it look like the shade of black is different. I don't know the reason for this and if the white outline is only used for non technic sets.
Numbered bags are used through the whole line of sets. And make the building a little easier by reducing the number of parts to look through while finding the part needed.
The coloured outline on the build steps are used at least from 2000. These are often used in larger models like 3723-1: LEGO Mini-Figure, where it can be hard to see where a part go. Often because of the uniform colour of a model.

I would hypothesize that, perhaps, it's not a matter of one style being the "official" current style at a given time so much as there are probably multiple individuals or teams that write the manuals for assembling the models, each of whom have a slightly different writing and illustration style.


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Cell phone holder
Is there build instructions for an interesting cell phone holder that can be placed on a table? The holder needs to hold the phone upright and allow it to be charged at the same time.

What kind of phone? Different models have their charging ports on different sides.

I found a very generic one here from Instructables.com. Probably better examples out there that can be customized to your needs.

source: Stack Exchange

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

sort: votes


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Creating a native EV3B block
I'm trying to create a native block for a hardware sensor. I've got it working pretty well, but can't get it to show up in the "port view" as anything but a sound sensor. I really need the live view of the data the sensor is seeing. Is there an example of how this is done that I could follow?

The answer is: you can't.
The EV3 brick detects which type of sensor is plugged in to the ports by examining the electrical characteristics of the sensor1. Electrically, all NXT Analog sensors look pretty much the same, so they will all be detected at the LEGO NXT Sound sensor (or possibly the LEGO NXT Light sensor - or a very, very small chance as the LEGO NXT Touch sensor).
So, take @momrobo's advice and write a small program that simulates the built-in port view.
Or, if you are really ambitious you can create an adapter so that the sensor will look like an EV3 type analog sensor instead of an NXT type analog sensor. How do to this would be better suited to a blog post.

instead of the live data on the port view you can make a small program which contain you sensor block and a display block and make you sensor block send its data to the text display block so you've made your own port view.

You Can't
EV3 Port view is a simple program 'downloaded as application.
It can only use certain original sensors.
You would have to make your own program. If you want it in the same section, you can use an option called 'download as application'.

all_licenses: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/


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Is there a way to buy printed pieces to replace stickers?
I don't like stickers on my lego models. Does lego sell pieces with custom printed designs, so I can have newer lego models with all printed pieces like the old days?
If not, how do I print designs on lego pieces?
Every time I look this up on google I get a bunch of results about 3d printing lol.

No, Lego does not sell custom printed bricks in small quantities (I suspect if you wanted thousands of the same design it would be a different story).
To get your search to work you need to use the advanced features, specifically by removing results that contain 3D: print on ABS plastic -3D
That turns up mostly links on screen printing, which would be awfully fiddly to do with Lego pieces.
A friend has a printer that will print properly on Lego, but it was not cheap to buy. IIRC it's an inkjet that takes special cartridges, presumably using the same sort of ink that the screen printers use. If you're willing to spend a couple of thousand dollars on buying a printer I can ask him for details. My solution would be to pay him to print bricks for me, as I also prefer not to use stickers, but I rarely use decorated bricks so that hasn't yet been necessary.

There are many LEGO customizers who do custom printing, however please note that all printing makes sense only if hundreds of the same design are requested. Otherwise there is quite a bit of work involved with designing, formatting, color-matching and aligning each print. However if you have the money and willing to pay a few hundred bucks set-up fee for each design, there are options.
Please note that most LEGO customizers won't be willing to do exact replicas of LEGO's own design, as it is illegal to reproduce and sell them.
You might be better off getting water-slide decals, and even designing them yourself. The end result looks almost the same as direct printing on elements, although they will be more delicate.
If you are interested to get your own printer for LEGO pieces they are called pad-printing machines. They are expensive, but prices are coming down, especially on used ones.


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Retrobrite cleaning on old cellulose acetate bricks?
Is Retrobrite (cleaning with hydrogen peroxide, oxyclean, sunlight) effective or ineffective or, worse, downright destructive on old cellulose acetate bricks?
My understanding is that method of cleaning is designed for ABS bricks. What if there are cellulose acetate bricks mixed in the collection at random? Will they be harmed?

The yellowing that is common in some colors is caused when a fire retardant that was added to the ABS plastic breaks down under UV light.
One of the elements used in the fire retardant is bromine. When the chemical degrades, bromine atoms can be freed and can make their way to the surface of the brick where they bond with an oxygen molecule (O2) and take on a characteristic brown tint.
The Retrobrite process uses UV light to break the weak bond between the bromine and oxygen and then replaces the oxygen molecule with hydrogen (from the hydrogen peroxide solution). This molecule is colorless, so the brown tint disappears.
Cellulose acetate bricks did not contain the brominated fire retardant chemical and so are not susceptible to the yellowing problem. You will usually find that the older cellulose acetate bricks are brighter and hold their color more consistently than newer bricks that contained the retardant. Modern LEGO bricks no longer contain brominated chemicals.
Hydrogen peroxide can have a bleaching effect on cellulose acetate plastic. As with any bleach, prolonged exposure can damage materials. The solutions of hydrogen peroxide that are sold as household strength are relatively weak and should not significantly damage the plastic for the few hours they are normally in the retrobrite solution.


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EV3 Block problems?
I don't see what is wrong with the way i made my program.
It looks like this.

The idea is that in the while loop [01] shall the robot move forward until it see something brown.
If it see something brown it should jump to the second while loop, where it will move forward it sees something brown,  and if it sees something white it should move backwards.
But for some reason  it immediately goes to the second while loop, and stays only at the first for few sec.? ??
What am i doing wrong??

Nothing is halting the "02" loop.  It is running forever.
The problem with the second loop is that "brown" is the default.  The switch looks for "white" and anything else uses the "brown" side of the switch.  I suspect you want the lower half of the switch statement to be "any color but brown".  If so, the "default" button needs to be selected for the "white" switch choice.
As for the "01" loop, the content of the loop always runs a first time.  If at the end of one rotation, the color sensor does not see "white" it jumps out of the loop and the program enters the "02" loop.
I'd recommend using the LCD block to write the results of color sensor measurements to the EV3 LCD.  It's a basic tool for debugging.


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Older sets in The Lego Movie?
Are there any existing/hisorical complete sets (for example: buildings, vehicles, etc) featured in The Lego Movie? Sets created specifically for the movie do not count. For example, the bad cop's grandparent's house looks awfully familiar but I couldn't place whether that is an exact set that already exists, or just in the style of some of the older vacation/holiday house sets.

The Toa Mata from BIONICLE briefly appear in the film when Wyldstyle
  is talking to Emmet about the prophecy. So do Fabuland, 9448 Samurai
  Mech from Ninjago, 3189 Heartlake Stables from Friends, 8158 Speed
  Racer & Snake Oiler from Speed Racer, along with a few other themes.
  Some stopmotion videos created by fans on ReBrick were featured in the
  movie.

Brickipedia: The LEGO Movie
The car Emmet drives at the beginning of the movie is a slightly modified version of the 3177 Small Car.

Yes! Well, it depends... When you say featured, do you mean "it appears in the movie" or "it plays a central role in the movie"? If the former, many of them appear in "real life" scenes of the basement.
One of my favorite sets from my childhood was in one of the background dioramas. I got to see the complete basement movie set at LEGOLand California last week. They filled the film with old sets.

Appears in the movie as background scenery could count :)

FYI, 6339 also appeared in Stargate SG-1 season 1 episode Cold Lazarus. You can see it in this screencap.


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How to use two NXT bricks for 3+ motors and 4+ sensors?
I need to use multiple bricks in order to use more motors and sensors.  I need to read sensor values, and tell motors to move.
I've tried using bluetooth, however my attempts haven't been very successful.  I know you can pre-define motors/sensors, and then set parameters using remoteGetInputValues(), and the equivalent for motors.
Whilst playing around with this, I have noticed it doesn't work inside a loop, or inside it's own function?
Does anyone know of any tricks/hints/proper instructions on how to work it out?  I've tried looking everywhere for this.
The firmware is up to date, and I am programming in NXC.

You might want to checkout the question How can I use more than three motors which might solve your motor problem. Not sure if you can multiplex sensors though :(

Looking for the sensors!  I can gear up motors but how to get sensor values?! Thanks anyway though!

Maybe you should look into using a multiplexer to add additional sensors to an NXT brick.
The Hitechnic Sensor Multiplexer lets you connect 4 sensors using only 1 of the NXT connection.

The same thing can be done with motors. For example using the Mindsensors NXTMMX, you can add 2 additional motors per multiplexer (even better, if you daisy-chain the multiplexers together you can control more motors than you'll ever need)


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API for Android or iOS connecting to EV3 by bluetooth
There is official API for Windows, WindowsPhone8 and WinRT https://legoev3.codeplex.com/ it lets you connect to EV3 brick and control it remotely from your WindowsPhone.
Are there any libraries available for Android (Java) or iOS (Objective-C)?
I would like to write custom app for myself that will let me steer my own robots (using either Android or iOS device).

Hmm, I imagine there will be eventually - I'm guessing MS offered to release the Windows one as LEGO hadn't released the "Commander" app on their platform. LEGO did release a BlueTooth Developer Kit and Mobile Application Software for the NXT so it's probably coming.

Taking a look at the code in the Windows API, there are no external dependencies - so assuming you have access to the Bluetooth ports on iOS/Andriod, there should be nothing stopping you porting this to your platform of choice with a little effort - the main "API" is in the Lego.Ev3.Core namespace, which is pulled into the Phone/Desktop/WinRT projects that provide the communication wrappers that are then used by the sample projects - the Desktop project has the added excitement of Brian's WIImote support ;)

@Zhaph-BenDuguid how about Xamarin would it work on iOS

I wrote an android app to do exactly this using LEJOS.
I have an example java project that uses bluetooth communication here
I'll come back with a link to the actual android app project later, but this will get you started.

Did you ever do the android app as I need a way to read sensors and controls motors from android to multiple ev3

I did, although you'll have to devise a protocol for controlling stuff since I just used raw socket IO. I'll get a link to the android project if I still have it

Thank you, any help would be awesome, I really want to communicate between multiple EV3 and a Android tablet but 1 step at a time :)

Here's the project on my github. Hope it helps!

I think your upload failed man, no src there!

link is fixed now

Did you ever work out how to read sensors, if you could work that out WOW, so useful to people!

This was a school project from a while ago, and I don't even own the robot anymore. So,  no I didn't do that, but you should be able to figure it out given my sample

I have started a c++ iOS API at https://github.com/dsjove/legoev3cpp. Contributions are welcome.

Are you still working on this?  How far did you get?

There's an official app released by LEGO called the LEGO MINDSTORMS COMMANDER.  It's available on both Android and iOS.
I believe this is what you are looking for.  LMC lets you control the EV3 brick via bluetooth on your smartphone.  It's not exactly an API, but it lets you control the EV3.


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What do the V# codes represent in the LEGO shop?
The online LEGO shop references products with a V# code at the end, like this:

What is the meaning of this code?

Where abouts in the shop are you seeing those?

During the checkout and final page. Yeah, I just bought those :)

I believe it's related to the instruction manual format - see the comments to this question.
So for example

V39 may be printed on US standard letter size paper
V29 may be printed on EU standard A4 paper

I have ordered some keychains that had V46 and V120 on the invoice, the Back to School pack is also V46.

all_licenses: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


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Best online community for Lego Builders?
It seems like different people use different online communities to share Lego-related things, but is there one that's just the best? I suppose I am asking a subjective question, but what I'm looking for is:

Ability to easily share photos
Ability for others to easily comment about the photo (ideally on the photo)
Ability to form sub-groups within community (eg, "My Family," "SoCal Builders," etc)
Easy to find and follow fellow builders

I know Flickr used to allow commenting on photos, but it's such a generic photo-sharing place that unless you know who to follow, it's hard to find new/expert builders...

I would still recommend Flickr as the number one place. It allows everything you mentioned, and the most important thing is that's where most LEGO fans and all the best LEGO builders hang out. It is by far the best community. Just join some of the main LEGO related groups and you will quickly find people to follow.
Also, follow the Brothers Brick blog. Pretty much everything they feature is from Flickr, and they focus on the best MOCs. This is another way to find great builders to follow.
There is also MOCPages, and there are some great gems there, but the site is mainly full of little kids. AFOLs and serious builders hang out on Flickr. It may not be all LEGO related, however once you become part of the LEGO related groups, you will have some much to do, so much to see, and so many people to interact with, you won't even notice that Flickr is not all about LEGO...(c:

Thanks, BrickBlogger. QQ: do you think the new Flickr enhances or takes away from the experience (compared to the previous version)? I heard some people were not happy that they removed the commenting-on-photo feature...

You can still comment right on the photos just fine. Just put your mouse over the picture and a little box will open up, drag it wherever you want it, and you can add your note. It works the same way as before. ;)

Have you used the new Flickr interface? There's no way to allow you to add comments directly into the photo itself. From what I've heard, many lego builders were pretty peeved by this feature removal...

I use the new Flicker and personally, I like it. I don't think people need to be able to comment on the photo themselves. I remember that on the old Flicker, someone would always put a giant comment over the entire photo and cover up all of the other comments. Sure, the comments directly on the photo are good for pointing out cool parts, but I don't think it was a very good feature.

@Gabe - That's funny. I guess they rolled out (or more accurately; taken away) that feature greadually, because I was still able to use commenting just fine when I first responded to your question. But I just checked again and now I can't...)c:

Okay, I just checked again and this is really weird; there are pictures where I can directly comment on the photo, and there are some where I can't. So I think this is controlled by the person who uploads the photo. I haven't uploaded anything for a while, so I'm not sure, but the point is there are definitely photos I can comment on. And not just old ones, but newly uploaded ones as well.


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How is a LEGO Friends Mini-doll built?
Has anyone taken apart a LEGO Friends mini-doll to see how the arms and legs connect? And are the connection points compatible with any other types of brick?

You can see an exploded view of the mini-doll in this answer, because it comes from a press-pack it doesn't show the arms detached as that's not encouraged ;)

In fact, re-reading that question I'd say this was a duplicate :(


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What's the most effective way to clean dusty builds?
I have a large airplane build that I haven't touched in quite a while, and it has built up quite a large amount of dust. I've tried using a wet washcloth to wipe off the dust, but when cleaning that way I can accidentally break off large chunks of the build. So, how can I clean off dust in the most efficient way?

Hi, and welcome to LEGO Answers - I think you'll find the answer to your question here: Cleaning between the studs :)


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Help with identifying LEGO sets
Our family (with very big hearts) gave us some LEGO they found.
But... I do not know what sets they are from. I already identified 11 sets, but cannot find the last 4 (I think)
Could you please help?

Construction machines

Recycling truck

Girl car

Firetrucks

Please, do not pay attention to the state they are in. I still need to clean them. But I'm reluctant to dismantle them until I know what set they are on ( and have a manual to put them back together) .. yep, I'm a freak ;-)
Please, any hints are welcome.

I believe that this covers everything:
Construction vehicles:

Diesel Dumper (6532)
Backhoe (6662)
Landscape Loader (6512)

Recycle Truck (6668)
Friends car (30103)
Fire vehicles:

Jetport-Fire-Squad (6440)
Launch Evac 1 (6614)
Rescue Runabout (6511)
Looks like just the car from Shell Convenience Store (1254)

The one on the left is 6511-1: Rescue Runabout


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Legal free NXT-G download
Where can I get a legal, free copy of NXT-G for mac?
I lost my disk when I bought my NXT, and I need to get a new program.

LEGO has recenlty made this easier to find:
http://www.lego.com/en-us/mindstorms/downloads/software/nxt-software/

Try looking around here: http://service.lego.com/en-us/helptopics/products/themes/mindstorms/mindstorms-nxt/nxt-software-download
Or here: http://service.lego.com/en-us/helptopics/products/themes/mindstorms/mindstorms-ev3


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Chinese Knockoffs?
I'm looking at the Lego Super Star Destroyer on eBay and I see that a number of people are selling it for ~$600 USD. From time to time there are bids that sell at ~$300 USD that claim to be sealed and brand new. These sets come from Hong Kong or China from a user that has a 0 feedback. This seems to me to be a bit fishy since the set is now discontinued and it should fetch higher than the original selling price of $400 USD.
If you search Lego minifigures from the superhero lines, you get Chinese users selling packs of five minifigures for far below the asking price again. I asked about this one in the past.
Has anyone else noticed this? Do we have a brick authenticity problem?
mj
http://www.ebay.com/itm/LEGO-Star-Wars-Super-Star-Destroyer-Spaceship2-New-Building-Set-Battleship-/251594504283?pt=Building_Toys_US&hash=item3a9433785b

The SSD auction will be a scam and the minifigs are indeed knock-offs of which eBay is awash.

That's terrible. There are lots of people bidding on those items and it's a pity that they're getting robbed.

In terms of the knock-off minifigs, these are all over the place, including Amazon through sellers.

@mj_ Indeed - there apparently is no end to either human greed or human foolishness :(


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What's the best way to machine LEGO pieces on a mill?
Does anyone have experience with modifying LEGO pieces on a mill? Any suggestions on cutting speed?

I don't have any experience modifying a brick with a mill but I have had success using a drill press, knife, and dremel. I can't imagine there being any problems while using a mill.
If you're looking to clean out the pipes inside a brick, I've found higher speeds with a drill work better. At a lower speed, the bit cuts into the pipe but doesn't remove any of the plastic. When the bit is spinning faster, it doesn't cut into the pipe but shaves the plastic off.
Lego is ABS plastic, I believe, so doing some research on working with ABS, rather than specifically Lego, might give you more answers too.


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What's the best way to glue/adhese the street baseplates to a plywood table?
I'm building a Lego city, and I want to permanently glue the road onto the table.  But I don't want it to be "lumpy", or melt, and I want to make sure that the baseplates will not come off the table, whether it be water or indirect heat (such as sunlight).  A friend suggested furniture glue, but I'm not sure that'll be strong enough or flat enough.
Any ideas welcome.

You could always put a screw through a 2x2 plate and use it to fix the corners, the rounded corners on the road plates won't be damaged, and you only lose a very small, cheap part.

Nice, but I'm going to guess that the middle of a baseplate is still going to flex a lot unless you take care as to how you remove elements from it.

If you use technic plates with the holes, you might not even damage any pieces at all.

My only immediate concern would be the edge of the table then.

I mounted baseplates to a sheet of plywood in order to hang a mosaic as follows:

Roughly sand the plywood and the backs of the baseplates.
Squirt a generous helping of Liquid Nails on one of the surfaces.
Lay out your baseplates on the plywood using regular plates as spacers (i.e., attach plates across the boundaries between two baseplates in order to maintain correct spacing.
Randomly distribute plate elements across the surfaces of the baseplates.
Clamp a second piece of plywood across the top of the plate elements.
Let dry/cure for 24 hours.
Remove all of the plate elements.

The reason for step (4) is to create a level surface on which the top sheet of plywood can press when clamped.

This is a good idea, except the table will be 4' by 8'.  Harder to clamp and distribute weight, but not impossible.

LEGO plates are made from ABS plastic, as are plastic shower surround materials. Buy a caulk tube of shower surround adhesive (I have used loctite power grab from Home Depot $5). Scuff the back of the LEGO plates with some sandpaper and apply the adhesive with a fine notched trowel and slap it on your wood ;) Gently press any lumps out. To date I've made 4 LEGO tables like this and it works wonderfully.

Have you considered using velcro-strips? You can cut it to whatever size you want and it won't permanently damage your basepalces like glue wood. And there is also various versions of two-sided tape. Some of them are very strong and can even hold picture-frames on walls. So they should definitely hold baseplates down.

The problem I foresee with velcro would be the uneven "lumps" where the velcro straps would be.

I have used velcro on baseplates and it wasn't lumpy or uneven. Velcro comes in different shapes, sizes and thickness. There are some that are very thin but still have enough grip. If you add enough it is fine. I used the small dot kind that is very thin on 32x32 baseplates; at the corners, few on the sides sides and few in the middle. If you do full strips of the thicker Velcro on all sides and a larger piece in the middle it should even be more stable and should still be fine (not lumpy). If you're interested I would suggest to check with your local craft/hobby store and see their selection.

I have had success with super glue (LocTite). I recommend it because:

You don't need much glue to get it solidly attached. This means, if you are careful, no mess or cleanup, and no worry of bulging or unevenness of the plate.
It adheres extremely fast, so there is no need for clamping. You can just press it together by hand for a half a minute.
If you don't get some edge or corner adhered properly, super glue comes with a long nozzle that will allow you to patch it up.
The bind should be strong without needing to rough up the surfaces. It makes the job quick & easy.
Common: almost any sort of store, even a dollar store, is likely to have it.

Important: Do not ignore what the other answers say about using a block attached to two plates to get the spacing between them right. If you butt the plates directly against one another, they will be too close to attach a piece to both; and if you put very much of a gap between the plates, they will be too far apart.

I used double sided vinyl flooring adhesive.

I used spray-on contact cement (the kind where you spray both surfaces, wait for them to get tacky, and then press together).
It worked okay but the baseplates slid out of alignment over time and started coming off around the edges.
If I did it over again, I would use nuts and bolts after first aligning all the baseplates with each other using small plates, like Windfire though not necessarily through the plates. The important thing is they be well tightened and evenly spaced. And if I needed to fix or replace a baseplate for some reason then that would have been easier with bolted-on plates as well.

Good to know what doesn't work as well - thanks :)


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Does anyone have a picture of the Lego Club alphabet code from Bricks and Pieces magazine?
Somwtime maybe in the early eighties, I read a Bricks and Pieces magazine with a small panel showing the brick alphabet code and it would be great to have a picture of this if someone has it.
This code used an apparently random brick construction for each letter of the alphabet, and it would be fun to write messages into MOCs using the code, or to see if anyone else has already done it.

The code was introduced as a puzzle in the spring 1981 issue and is explained in the summer 1981 issue. (Page 7 at the bottom of the page).
the issue can be found found at: http://www.1000steine.com/brickset/miscellaneous/BricksAndPieces/1981-2%20Summer.pdf
And here is the code:

Enjoy!

Nice, but I'm sure that it was two pieces each letter, using a slope and a 1x1 brick.  I'll look through the rest of the archive just in case there is something else that fits.

Thinking it through, it would have been sometime around the Futuron era, late eighties.  I've checked on bricklink and the sets look right for what I remember from the magazine promotions.


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EV3 bluetooth controller for mac
Is there a suitable EV3 controller for mac? It should be a compatible alternative from the official EV3 controller in the iOS app store or google play.

You could try the MonoBrick Communication Library.  It is supported for Mac OS and does use Bluetooth as a way of communicating with the EV3 brick.
MonoBrick was listed by IntroRobotics with three other software development resources for EV3.


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Decals for LEGO Pharaoh's Quest Flying Mummy
Do all LEGO sets have decals?  I am specifically looking for decals for LEGO Pharaoh's Quest Flying Mummy.

I don't have any, but there are at least 67 of them available on Bricklink: http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=7307stk01
(and no, not all sets have stickers)


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Direct command lego ev3
Is there any documentation about direct command bluetooth of EV3?
Thanks,
regards!

What do mean by direct command? Do you want to, using code running on the EV3, communicate directly to the EV3 bluetooth module?

There are bluetooth commands to drive the motors directly, without the help of ev3 use a program, but there is no documentation about them. I get some commands from source codes of any libraries, I can control motors ev3 by set velocity and power, but I can't control this by step or degrees

Try http://ev3.fantastic.computer/doxygen/index.html and http://ev3.fantastic.computer/doxygen-all/
It seems to be the best option at the moment.


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Is the LEGO Mindstorms EV3 brick waterproof?
I am trying to build a ROV (Remotely operated underwater vehicle) with LEGO Mindstorms Ev3. Is it waterproof?

No, the LEGO Mindstorms EV3 is NOT waterproof. Any electronic product that is capable of being immersed in water will clearly state in the packaging/manual the level of water protection provided. This may be in the form of an IP Code:

Ingress Protection Marking, classifies and rates the degree of
  protection provided against the intrusion (including body parts such
  as hands and fingers), dust, accidental contact, and water by
  mechanical casings and electrical enclosures.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_Code
However, it is possible to contain the EV3 brick within a waterproof case, there are already many cases available suited to Smartphones, Tablets, Cameras and other Digital devices.

If your remotely operated underwater vehicle requires some form of propulsion (perhaps from a propeller powered by a EV3 motor) then you may required to make some alterations to the case. Any physical alteration will compromise the waterproofing and safety of the protective case. Do so at your own risk.

If you intend on building a NXT submarine, check out these projects: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYT3hTpNT4E and http://hackaday.com/2012/08/14/lego-rov-without-a-tether/


text:
Lego Motor for cycling a tool
I am curios to know if I can utilise the Lego Power range to rotate a transducer to a set point and return to its original position and if so is it able to cycle the movements repetitively? Ideally I would like to set the motor to run  to between say 0 degrees around to 240 degrees and then back to 0, 100 times although these figures could change.
Any advice/help is greatly appreciated!
Thanks

It would be difficult to get the exact rotations that you are talking about using Power Functions parts. The servo motor would be your best option, but its range is fixed to +/- 90 degrees from center. If you use a controller with variable speed, it will rotate through 7 steps to get to 90 degrees in either direction.
If you're willing to look at Mindstorms, there is a servo motor with a built-in rotation sensor that was released with both NXT and EV3. These can both be rotated to and from any position, and they are accurate within 1 degree. It sounds like that's the best option to meet your needs.

If you don't need constant speed motion a better idea would be to use a crank running from any modern motor (ie, geared down internally). That way you can guarantee the end points. For a 240° rotation you might need to gear up after the crank, but as long as there's a spring or constant load in one direction backlash shouldn't be an issue.

Here;s a really quick sketch of what I mean. Your motor drives the black axle in the foreground, and that rotates a full 360° (continuously). That pushes the cyan lever backwards and forwards, rotating the black gear. Which in turn drives the grey gear which is your output. By judicious fiddling with the gear ratio and the crank lengths you'll be able to get just about any output rotation you want.


text:
How can I tell if my NXT motor is faulty?
I pulled my old Mindstorms NXT out of storage (it's been there for a few years). After patching together a test robot, I noticed that my motors behave strangely.
At first, one of the motors did not respond to move commands. After disconnecting/connecting a few cables, another motor stopped working (with a different cable, on a different port). While troubleshooting, the behaviour erraticaly switched between all three motors working (rarely and for a brief time), two not working, or one not working.
Now it's stable, with one of the motors not working, always the same one, no matter what port I plug it in. I suspect that it may be faulty, however I'm not sure due to the strange behaviour described above.
Does anybody know how I can test the motors, see which are faulty, if any? Or any other tips troubleshooting this? Thanks.

If the one motor exhibits the same behaviour on any port with any cable and the other motors are working on all of the ports with any cable, then it is safe to say that the problem is definitely with the motor itself.
Make sure you swap cables as well as motors to rule out a faulty cable.
Also, check for signs of corrosion on the pins of the cables, motors and NXT. This kind of erratic behaviour is indicative of poor electrical connections.


text:
NXT shuts down USB on Mac after connecting motors
After successfully connecting our NXT to my Macbook Air and upgrading firmware to 1.31 we built our first robot. We plugged in the motors to ports A, B & C and now we get an Error stating that USB ports have been shut down because a device is drawing too much power. I have tried Reseting NXT and now it is stuck in "clicking mode" I have tried two different computers and three different cables. I also plugged in in through a USB hub all with the same result. I have restarted, Shutdown and restarted, Unplugged and restarted, Reset P-Ram.

The clicking mode means that you need to reload the firmware on the NXT (under the Tools menu in the NXT software).
If you still get the overcurrent shutdown using different cables and different computers, then the conclusion has to be that there is something wrong with the NXT itself. The USB port should be drawing little to no current at all since the NXT has its own power source.
It would also be worth contacting LEGO support if you do indeed have a defective NXT.

I get the over current shutdown using different computers and cables. I will contact Lego. Thanks


text:
Strain Gauge on LEGO Bridge
I had an idea to teach my son (almost 4) about bridges and large structures from an engineering point of view. I thought that it would be cool to build a large bridge and put a strain gauge on it. One of those foil like strain gauges. Then I would drive some heavy LEGO cars filled w/ pennies over it and we could watch the resistance change on the strain gauge.
My question is, would it be possible to get some meaningful results out of this? I see a number of problems.
1) I've never used a strain gauge before, and I'm wondering if the pulling apart of the bridge due to the various forces is an appropriate use case for a real strain gauge. The deformations would get rather large quickly since we're working with bricks and could possibly render the strain gauge useless.
2) The introduction of the strain gauge itself, glued onto bricks radically would change the way that the forces are distributed. The strain gauge now acts as a physical support holding two bricks together.

Why not use a pressure sensitive adhesive such as Blu-tack instead of glue? That way you can still re-use your bricks and strain gauge.

Lego bricks can withstand a fairly high pressure before they deform, but Lego creations tend to deform more easily at the various connection points. Therefore it's possible to build a relatively easily deformed bridge using long pieces, such as technic beams. You could build a bridge that deforms easily and then show how it flexes under the various weights.
As for using a real strain gauge, that might be overkill, but if your bridge is fairly bendy you could probably compensate for whatever structural rigidity you'll get from the guage itself. Also I'd go with putting the gauge on a separate, flexible piece (such as paper or plastic) and just pin it to the bridge using normal lego parts. Presumably you don't need super-accurate measurements for this demo?
Lego also has some springs and shock absorbers which can possibly be used to help with your design. Either use them to make the bridge flexible, or use the compression of the shock absorber as your measurement of how deformed the bridge is.

A pure mechanical strain gauge seems more in the spirit of Lego. And more likely to work and be robust. I suspect you could make a simple "spring balance" type gauge quite easily using a rack piece and an 8T gear, with either rubber bands or suspension print parts. Add a cardboard circle as backing and "calibration" just consists of adding weights and marking points on the dial.

I have designed some special measuring tooling for my previous employer that uses strain gauges, but is is not always that easy. You need for sure:

an amplifier,
glue them on the construction in the correct orientation
2 strain gauges on both sides for temperture compesation
a way to calibrate the measuring device or construction

this resulted for us that we most of the time we were using commercial available tooling like load cells and only make our own if commercial was not an option.
I don't know what will happen if you glue them over the joint between 2 brick, but the measurement will not correct. These strain gauges have a liniear behavior when glued to a surface. When we had a strain gauge that was not correctly glued or got loose we noticed that in the measurents.
I thing I was wondering about, for who are you planning to do these measurement, your 4 year old son, or for your self. I think if its for your son, that he is to young to fully understand this, for the effort you need to get it working.
If its for your son, I would just let the brigde break, when the load is to high. If you want to visualize  the behavior you can also use 1 of the bridge construction games that are available for example on Steam. These show with colors the stresses in the different beams.

I know that he's young, however even if he misses the point, it'll still be worth it since it's something we'll do together. He thinks that "inflation" is a bad guy we need to put in jail :).


text:
Lego EV3 doesn't respond to direct command
I tried to execute command (via bt) play tone:
play_tone = '\x0F\x00\x00\x00\x80\x00\x00\x94\x01\x81\x02\x82\xE8\x03\x82\xE8\x03'
# send commands to EV3 via bluetooth
with open('/dev/tty.EV3-SerialPort', 'w', 0) as bt:
    bt.write(play_tone)

or start program “Demo” on EV3 brick
run_demo = '\x30\x00\x00\x00\x80\x08\x00\xC0\x08\x82\x01\x00\x84\x2E\x2E\x2F\x70\x72\x6A\x73\x2F\x42\x72\x6B\x50\x72\x6F\x67\x5F\x53\x41\x56\x45\x2F\x44\x65\x6D\x6F\x2E\x72\x70\x66\x00\x60\x64\x03\x01\x60\x64\x00'

but nothing happens. No error in python script. Wireless connection status (EV3 brick display) show connected during script execution.
OS X 10.9.4, Python 2.7.5, EV3

Both of your examples are working for me. In the Bluetooth settings on the EV3, make sure "iPhone/iPad/iPod" is not checked.

Unchecking "iPhone/iPad/iPod" do the trick. Thanks a lot!

Please consider accepting David Lechner's answer if it solved your problem.

Hi, as Kramii states, it would be really beneficial for everyone if you can accept Davids answer (click the little check mark below the vote count) - David and you will both get some rep, and other people will know what worked for you :)

Vote up requires 15 reputation... which I do not have


text:
Lego EV3 - sending direct commands over RFCOMM Channel (Objective-C, Xcode)
I successfully open RFCOMM Channel to Lego EV3 brick with code:
IOBluetoothDevice *device = [IOBluetoothDevice deviceWithAddressString:@"xxxxxxxxxxxx"];
IOBluetoothRFCOMMChannel *rfCommChannel;
IOBluetoothSDPUUID *sppServiceUUID = [IOBluetoothSDPUUID uuid16:kBluetoothSDPUUID16ServiceClassSerialPort];

IOBluetoothSDPServiceRecord *sppServiceRecord = [device getServiceRecordForUUID:sppServiceUUID];

if ( sppServiceRecord == nil )
{
    NSLog( @"Error - no spp service in selected device." );
}

UInt8   rfcommChannelID;
if ( [sppServiceRecord getRFCOMMChannelID:&rfcommChannelID] != kIOReturnSuccess )
{
    NSLog( @"Error - no spp service in selected device." );
}

if ( ( [device openRFCOMMChannelAsync:&rfCommChannel withChannelID:rfcommChannelID delegate:d] != kIOReturnSuccess ) && ( rfCommChannel != nil ) )
{
    NSLog( @"Error - open sequence failed." );
}

Now I wish to send direct command:
unsigned char play_tone[] = {0x0F,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x80,0x00,0x00,0x94,0x01,0x81,0x02,0x82,0xE8,0x03,0x82,0xE8,0x03};

over RFCOMM Channel using class IOBluetoothRFCOMMChannel method:
- (IOReturn)writeSync:(void *)data length:(UInt16)length

I tried to do send it using different ways but none of them worked. How should I do it properly?

Does writeSync (or anything else) return an error? Can you post a link to the entire XCode project?

Link to git repository: https://github.com/mclientx/direct-commands-over-bluetooth.
writeSync returns kIOReturnSuccess. Delegates rfcommChannelOpenComplete, rfcommChannelQueueSpaceAvailable and rfcommChannelFlowControlChanged are invoked but not rfcommChannelWriteComplete.

I have found solution. I create category NSString+NSStringHexToByte:
NSString+NSStringHexToBytes.h
#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>

@interface NSString (NSStringHexToBytes)
+ (NSData *)dataWithString:(NSString *)string;
@end

NSString+NSStringHexToBytes.m
#import "NSString+NSStringHexToBytes.h"

@implementation NSString (NSStringHexToBytes)

+ (NSData *)dataWithString:(NSString *)string
{
    string = [string stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString:@"0x" withString:@""];

    NSCharacterSet *notAllowedCharacters = [[NSCharacterSet characterSetWithCharactersInString:@"abcdefABCDEF1234567890"] invertedSet];
    string = [[string componentsSeparatedByCharactersInSet:notAllowedCharacters] componentsJoinedByString:@""];

    const char *cString = [string cStringUsingEncoding:NSASCIIStringEncoding];
    const char *idx = cString;
    unsigned char result[[string length] / 2];
    size_t count = 0;

    for(count = 0; count < sizeof(result)/sizeof(result[0]); count++)
    {
        sscanf(idx, "%2hhx", &result[count]);
        idx += 2 * sizeof(char);
    }

    return [[NSData alloc] initWithBytes:result length:sizeof(result)];
}

and now:
NSString* playTone= @"0f0000008000009401810282e80382e803";
NSData* data = [NSString dataWithString:playTone];
[self sendMessage:data toChannel:rfcommChannel];

where sendMessage is:
-(void)sendMessage:(NSData*)data toChannel:(IOBluetoothRFCOMMChannel*)rfcommChannel
{
    [rfcommChannel writeSync:(void*)data.bytes length:data.length];
}


text:
Index of the City sets by category
I'm running trough bricklink, peeron and brickowl, but I can't find a "good" (I mean 'fitting my idea') index to browse across city sets.
Is there a kind of list like

vehicle

cars
trucks
planes

buildings

houses

7641

police station
...

does anyone of you have knows a such index ?
note: my english is not fluent, so, here are some precisions:
I'm looking for "houses" sets on ebay to complete my son's town streets.
He has a lot of vehicles, but a few buildings

No, but Brickset now provides the facility to enable one to be made. See http://brickset.com/article/12960/tags-a-new-way-to-search-the-database

While there is no explicit "house" tag, I would recommend browsing in Brickset's City theme: http://brickset.com/sets/theme-City
You can refine the search based on year (include only recent, therefore easy to buy sets), tags (building, shop, ...) and subtheme (airport, construction, police, ...).


text:
Direct control of EV3
I need to control a car with an EV3 brick. I want to control it remotely. The trouble is, I'm using an education set so I don't have the remote. What means of controlling it remotely could I use? I already tried it with some Android phone apps but none of them worked quite right. It's a car that uses rack and pinion steering and the apps seemed to be better suited for skid steering. Is there some other way I could have remote control of it? Perhaps through a laptop or a Playstation controller or something else?
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

In relation to both these questions, I'm guessing the main issue is the Rack and pinion nature of the steering - you really need to use a servo motor for the steering, where it only travels between a limited number of degrees, and can return to "home" when you release the control.

Do you really need an EV3? The RC car chassis is a fairly common LEGO construction, complete with an infrared remote. If you need it to be programmable, you can still stick an EV3 with its motors and sensors on top of the standalone car chassis.

There is always the .NET API for Windows 8/ if you don't mind programming an app yourself (this would work for Windows/Windows Phone 8). The sample provided would allow you to control the individual ports of the brick but it doesn't take much to change this to control multiple ports from one button press.
https://github.com/BrianPeek/legoev3
Sadly this solution is probably no good if programming isn't your strong suite :/

The legoev3 project moved to https://github.com/BrianPeek/legoev3

Here are some ideas...
Hardware options:

Purchase the EV3 Infrared Sensor and Beacon (This is a nice option since it can do more than just remote control)
Purchase the Hitechnic IRReceiver Sensor
Purcahse a mindsensors.com PlayStation controller adapter

Software options:

Use the Monobrick Remote.
Read the articles about remote control from Sioux.NET
Use the Lejos remote control library
Use Microsoft Robotics Studio (can connect a gamepad plugged into the computer to the EV3)

Here is a short curses [1] script written in Perl with which you can use the arrow keys on your usb/bluetooth/WLAN connected PC to control the EV3.
It uses ev3duder, part of c4ev3, to establish a connection to the device and then keep sending direct messages to the motors. That way you don't need to modify any software on the EV3.

[1]: Curses is a terminal control library for Unix and is only used to capture the arrows keys. Check Stackoverflow for other means to do so on your Platform.

You can use second EV3 block (of corse if you have one)
If you know a little bit of Mindstorms then you need to use a sending block (it's blue).
But here is the algorithm you need to make two programs the Master program and the Slave program. (One little secret: it will better work if will load the programs with the USB cable turn off Bluetuth on your computer).
Here is the skeleton of the Master program
And here is the skeleton of the Slave program
Here I am making a program  where by a big A motor I am controlling the speed of my robot but you can add anything like gyroscope or touch sensor.

This sounds like a possible option. Would you be able to edit your answer to flesh out how this would be accomplished?

It is possible to connect a Playstation controller (Sixaxis or DS3) directly to the EV3 brick over Bluetooth. Here is how I do it:
http://www.pabr.org/bricks/brickhid/brickhid.en.html
There is a servo emulation mode which should support rack-and-pinion steering.
Note that this is a quick-and-dirty proof of concept with several limitations:

A PC is needed to upload and start a native program on the EV3 brick at every power-up.
A WiFi dongle must remain attached to the EV3 brick.
Joystick events are mapped to motor commands directly; they cannot be processed by EV3 programs (but you can customize and cross-compile the C source code).

The proper way to do this is with a custom firmware with full Bluetooth HID support.

I would definitely use bluetooth instead of wifi, i've tried the dongle but it doesn't operate very smoothly. If you are having trouble with the steering I would use different controls on the app. Also make sure to use the official app as I have not tinkered with other apps yet.

I have long sought such a program, eventually wrote it himself. The basis is - on the basis of EV3Messenger its added buttons and handling keyboard events. I can send the latest version

Welcome to Bricks.SE. Can you elaborate on your program - perhaps add a few representative lines that explain the concept, so that others can write their own version (of course providing a link to your own code is always allowed). That way, even if you cease to respond to people's requests for your code, the answer still has value.


text:
Which is faster: M motor or XL motor?
I understand that the M motor has an adequate amount of speed, and the XL motor is best known for its torque. But is the XL motor really faster than the M motor? Or is it the other way around? I am asking this question because I recently saw the L motor, and one reviewer said "It has the speed of the M motor but the torque of an XL motor." I am assuming this means that the M motor is faster...?

XL (8882):
It delivers a maximum torque of 90,4 mNm (600 mA). Without load its rotation speed is around 220 rotations per minute.
L (88003):
It delivers a maximum torque of 45,4 mNm (450 mA). Without load its rotation speed is around 380 rotations per minute.
M (8883):
It delivers a maximum torque of 40 mNm (300 mA). Without load its rotation speed is around 380 rotations per minute.

Well, I take it you are telling me that the M motor is faster. Now that I think about it, the M motor isn't the fastest motor that LEGO has made. The 9v 2838 motor is by far, much, much faster. http://www.philohome.com/motors/motorcomp.htm

@TaylorGarrett L and M motors have the same unloaded rotation speed (380rpm) which is faster than the XL (220rpm), however they both have lower torque, which means that they will stall under lower loads than the XL.

Theoretically, in terms of power (speed • torque), the XL Motor is faster than the L Motor and M Motor. The reason being, you can gear up the XL Motor 2:1 and have the following output: running torque of ~7 N.cm & rotational speed of ~290 RPM. However, a small amount of these measures will be lost due to friction and decreased efficiency (by transferring drive through gears). Regardless, comparing these measures to the normal output of the M Motor — running torque of ~3.63 N.cm & rotational speed of ~275 RPM; and the L Motor: running torque of ~6.4 N.cm & rotational speed of ~272 RPM — and we have a clear winner, as far as running torque performance goes. Also, it is worth mentioning that the XL Motor has significantly higher efficiency than both the L Motor or the M Motor.
RPM measurements listed here are the loaded characteristics, not no-load. This is why the RPM numbers listed here are lower than what others have said.
Torque and speed measurements are according to http://www.philohome.com/motors/motorcomp.htm

It really depends on what you're going to be using it for. I'm in the middle of motorizing the fancy branded Lego Porsche and I was gonna use a couple of L Motors to drive the wheels and a servo to handle the steering, but after some research I found that because of all the gears going through the gear selection and drive-train, a powerful amount of torque is required and as Damon very correctly stated, the XL Motors are much more efficient in terms of performance. You might not be getting the same speed but you'll end up regretting buying the L motors due to their lack in torque. To solve this issue with my Porsche I just used a BuWizz controller instead of the old IR setup for more speed, flexibility and less weight as I don't need a receiver.

I bought an XL-Motor a couple of weeks ago, but when I saw a video of the M-Motor I knew it was faster. It seems to be that the XL-Motor can pull so much more due to the increase in the size of the whole motor but takes a lot more time to do a full 360-degree spin, and for the M-Motor it takes about less than a second to do a whole spin. If you want to buy a motor due to its speed but lack in torque, buy an M-Motor. If you want to have a stronger motor that won't get jammed easily, buy an XL-Motor.
If you already have an XL-Motor (or L-Motor) and you don't want to buy another (M or L) motor just increase the gear ratio. Take a huge gear wheel and get a small gear wheel and connect them to your build. Basically what is happening here is the big gear wheel is taking longer to make a whole 360 degrees spin and while it's trying to do that the small gear is going twice as fast as the big gear and therefore makes it go fast.
Here is an image of the motor:

To be honest, both small and big gears will take same amount of time to make 360 degree turn on the same motor. The difference in changing speed/torque these make make is due to diameter (and subsequently number of teeth) each gear has.

Then how come the gear goes faster then the motor even though it has less teeth and how can the radius of the whole 360 degree spin go the same speed as the smaller gear?  I mean the gear is big so it takes longer but if the gear is decreased to the size of the other gear they go the same speed and theres no diffrence in speed.

I think you are confusing "gear" with "combination of gears". One single gear attached to the motor axis will turn independently of its size. Usually, adding an image to the answer will be very useful for illustrating what you try to explain. Welcome to Bricks.SE.

As I mentioned, both small and big gear turn with the same angular speed or revolutions per minute as the motor does. Angular speed isn't a parameter of the gear, but rather of the motor itself. You can test this by placing both sized gears on the same axle attached to a motor - they will spin with same speed. Placing each gear independently will result in same angular speed. What you are referring to here is related to gear diameter/radius/circumference or number of teeth of the gear. The bigger the driver gear the quicker driven gear will spin and vise versa.

Let me clear this up, seems like you're confused about how gears mysteriously move faster/slower when connected together. if you put one single small gear on some random motor, it will rotate. A bigger gear on the same motor will seemingly move slower. Why, you ask? Because the size of the gear is bigger, therefore making the rotation longer, as @Alex said. (same goes for wheels or any other round object) You can also connect gears together so that their teeth touch in order to customize speed, too.

(continued) You can have a bigger gear attached to a motor and a smaller gear right after it, resulting in the smaller gear rotating considerably faster than without that bigger gear. If the smaller gear is the one that gets motorized then the bigger gear will end up slower than usual. The combination of gears is called a "gear train". The gear that is being moved/motorized in the gear train is called the input gear. And the gear at the end of the gear train that gets moved by the other gears is called the output gear.

Oh, and putting two gears together that are the same size and have the same number of teeth will result in identical speed, no matter which one is motorized.

I know that i just want to make it go faster

Do you have any ideas?

@Nerd I will send another example of your request when I get the chance (likely that I will do it tomorrow), I'm very busy right now. Sorry to put you under this trouble for so long.

@Nerd Nevermind, I already did it right now. Also, you can click the checkmark next to my answer on your question to mark it as accepted/correct.


text:
Programming sensor to follow light

Cannot get sensor to follow light on other moving robot.

This is a duplicate of your previous question.  You shouldn't open multiple questions to solve the same problems.  Update your existing question and respond to some of the questions in the comments and you will get a better answer.

I've moved your image into your original question for you.


text:
LEGO STUDIOS Moviemaker Set
I was offered a set from LEGO STUDIOS line, very well maintained but without his software.
Can someone share the installation CD in English of LEGO STUDIOS 1349 Steven Spielberg Moviemaker Set or where can I download the software in English??

Generally speaking, you should ask LEGO to send you a replacement disc. In 2006 they sent the software without any further cost according to this forum thread.
Note though, the official software is almost 15 years old by now, and so it is likely incompatible with any modern computer. There is a version that is compatible with XP, but anyways it is generally accepted that the official software is far worse than the best generic alternative.
Keeping this in mind, I would rather recommend you to look around for other generic video-editing software: Free software collection of a hobbyist LEGO movie group

I do have a copy of that floating around somewhere*, and can attest to the fact that it only worked directly with Windows 98.
LEGO did release an updated CD for the "Mindstorms Vision Commander" set that worked with Windows XP that should enable the drivers for the webcam which I also have somewhere*, but I was unable to install the correct drivers for the Camera (effectively a low-spec Logitec webcam iirc) from the install media on a 64 bit Windows 7 machine (I also tried both compatibility settings and Windows XP Mode) - this seems to be a limitation of the Camera.
The software itself was quite good for editing (based on a Pinnacle Software video editor), but the rendered output was far worse than the original/in-app player.
If you have an Apple device, you will get better results from the LEGO Movie Maker app, which provides decent live onion skinning in the viewport, as well as a better camera and output. Other devices have other apps available as well.
* In this case "in a box in the loft" I think - not sure how accessible it is, but I need to get some stuff down this weekend, so will see if I can dig it out.

I managed to find the English version for Windows XP:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/h88sxgzkfs2278x/studio.iso


text:
Mega Bloks vs LEGO bases
Are Mega Bloks compatible with LEGO bases? Do they sell larger LEGO bases for them? I am making a table but want to use the correct base.

Hi Charlene - you might find "In what ways are LEGO and MegaBloks Incompatible?" useful as well.

LEGO Bases work with Mega Bloks, as the bricks are the same dimensions. However, certain Mega Bloks pieces, like specialized items and weapons, may not fit optimally with LEGO minifigures.
Certain bricks (including the maxi and DUPLO-sized bricks) are on a larger scale. They produce bricks that will work with DUPLO plates and such. This is probably the most produced size.


text:
The program downloaded from the education ev3 programming software has a error "VM program validation"
I cannot run the program from the ev3 software.It only shows "VM program validiation" How do I stop this from happening?

Do you get this for all Programs you try to run, or just this one?

All the old programs work except for this one.

How did you download the program to the EV3? According to this post on the Mindstorms forum this can occur if there was a problem sending the program, usually via poor quality Bluetooth adaptors.
You can confirm this if the downloaded program is only a few bytes in size on the Brick.
If this is the case, try downloading the program via a USB cable.

I used the usb  cable

Hmm, I assume you've tried deleting it from the EV3 and re-loading it?

I just learnt that the error occured because of another program had a similar name.


text:
If I design a lego set
If I design a Lego set that you may be interested in selling, whom do I contact in the company?
My husband iis constantly building new buildings etc. Thought your company may be interested.

Note: Lego Answers is not affiliated with The Lego Group. We are a fan site, answering your questions.

Lego has a website called Lego Ideas through which fans can submit set ideas. Other fans vote on their favorite projects, and if a project receives 10,000 votes, Lego will consider making the set into an official release.


text:
Linking two blocks
I am in a contest and would like to use one Mindstorm block to control another.  I am new at this.  We are in invention section of the contest and trying to develop a pipe laying machine. Basically I need to know if they can be linked along with a way to do it.

Not sure if this is a duplicate - as far as I know the principle is slightly different for EV3s. If using LeJOS, you can connect the EV3s via USB and make one the slave and the other the master. I'm not sure how to do this with the standard Mindstorms software though, which is likely what is used in this contest (I assume it is the FLL :) ).

@PhilB. It's tagged [tag:nxt] there's nothing else to say that this is using EV3s.

I hadn't seen the tag - you're absolutely right, it is tagged as #nxt. So yes, looks like a duplicate.


text:
How to fit lego power function LED lights onto cargo train (set: 60052)
can anyone out there explain / illustrate how to fit lego power function white LED lights on the blue cargo train (set number 60052)? We have assembled the engine but I cannot see where or how these lights fit on the engine. I have watched a couple of YouTube videos showing how to fit these on other trains, but not the cargo train. There are not any holes or compatable pieces on the engine that can take the lights - as far as I can see anyway. My son is 7 and I am no lego expert by the way.
Thanks

The cargo train (60052) is not out-of-the-box able to be converted to using LED lights. The light bricks (1x1 round bricks) are fitted on the front bumper of the train with no space left for the light plugs. You would need to make modifications to the train to embed the lights - for example by mounting an additional light on top of the train, or by putting different lights on the front bumper. But you would need special transparent headlight (aka Erling) bricks for that - part 4070 or 30069 is typically used in other train sets.

Oh and here is an example of how you could add working lights to the front of the train - but you would need to work the cables into the design somehow - http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=100657


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Chamber of Secrets set 4730 assembly issues
We recently obtained a secondhand set with no instructions that I identified to be "The Chamber of Secrets™ 4730". So we downloaded the Building instructions from Lego's website and started to build. But there were a few issues we were confused about as we built--and I was hoping some other lego expert builder might be able to clarify.

Step 3 on page 5 adds a 2x3 brick that hangs off the side of the board. What is this piece for? It seems kind of extraneous, and the best I could come up with was that maybe this was to attach the baseplate to another baseplate from the set?

Starting on page 16 through page 20, you build 3 towers. The instructions are incredibly vague about where these towers are attached and which orientation they should face. Page 61 is the only place I can see that even shows the towers attached to the buildings, but it only gives you a side view with how overly compressed the images are on the pdf, it's hard to see. Any 3d models of this? or photos of a different angle of the completed models?
Am I correct in thinking pages 62-66 is an alternate build? That isn't intended to be made at the same time as the previous pages? (I'm not missing a ton of pieces am I?)
Hinges... The ones added on page 32 in step 17 of the skull-face wall. To what should they attach? They appear to, perhaps, be used to attach the skull-faced build to the two large builds? But where exactly?

It kind of looks like it ought to fit like this...but the 3x4 towers are in the way:

This was the only thing I could come up with that fit, but the placement seems awkward:

I don't own the set but found some pictures of the assembled Set 1 and Set 2
It looks to me that you can reenact the scenes of the movie with this set, therefor you have the different sections of the room, where in the movie the action takes place. You can combine the different sections to create 1 corridor by placing them as shown on page 61, the bricks of question 1 & 4 can be used to connect them.
The towers are placed on the wall sections for example as: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=5727533
Pages 62 and further are indeed alternative builds, I don't know if this can be done with the parts of this set, but I thibk so.


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Not detecting motor port D
We are trying to program in LabVIEW, using all 4 motor ports. On the port selector, port D is not even showing up.

Can you be more detailed in your question? What have you tried to do, what is LabVIEW telling you, what have you already researched on the Internet and how is your situation different than what you can find on Google and the likes?

I think LabVIEW only works with 3 motors. You could use EV3-G instead.


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Variable stick lengths and angles at nodes of building bricks
Is it possible to build 3D toys connecting several LEGO Bricks sticks/rods to make polyhedrons? Lengths and angles between sticks should be variable.

You mean like these lovely polyhedrons?

Yes, they look great! Can they be made to get fixed in any set position? Is it possible to make a user defined rigid net of  convex hull like Fuller domes?

There are several style of hinges available. The first 5 listed on that link are nice, and adding Hinge Plate 1 x 4 to the mix might give you everything you need. Anyway, tons of hinges to explore...


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What's the most effective way to align 1x1 tiles?
There are a number of sets (e.g., the Farnsworth House and the Parisian Restaurant) that use a field of 1x1 tiles to represent a tiled floor. I have found aligning these pieces such that they are all square to each other to be a challenge. What techniques can I try to achieve a nicely aligned grid of tiles?
For example:

I will sometimes take another piece, i.e. a 1x4, next to the row I'm about to place so it helps align it. Then use the brick separator's flat end to adjust the 1x1 as needed. But I'm a little ocd about the tiles being lined up...

For a number of sets that I've had these in (the Minecraft Mirco-worlds and the Scientists Ideas set) they've also come with one of the new orange Brick tools.
You can use the edge of the tool to run along between the sides of the tiles and the next row of studs - I find this works better than using another plate or brick because the tool has more play over the studs so can actually get up against the edges of the tiles nicely.

My method is to use a 2x8 (or longer) plate like a pry bar. Put the 2-stud end on the studs next to the tiles and pry up a little and they line up like a charm.

Placement is key - line up before pushing all the way down onto stud. (Though this is easier for 1x1 bricks... Less so for tiles)
Also the curved end of brick separator works nicely to make fine adjustments. Need to push and rock middle of edge of tile.. if you try the edge you always over shoot and end up pushing the other way too much.

If you have tweezers you can use them to grab the tile put it in place with them then push down.


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1998 World Cup limited edition soccer figure
I bought a limited edition World Cup soccer figure in Paris during the games in 1998, #3005.  It does not have the shell logo on the package -but does say limited edition on the right lower corner. The package also says collect both teams.  Does anyone know anything about this lego figure?

Do you have a picture by any chance?

I believe you are referring to a set numbered 3305, not 3005.

Is this the figure in question?

He's the limited edition English or Scottish team player. The other limited edition figure was a Dutch (Netherlands) player. Lego released an entire soccer theme in 1998 in conjunction with the World Cup, which you can see here on Brickset.

Yes it is thank you so much. I could only find the shell branded wrapper with searching.


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Is there a way to set a flat plane at an angle to horizontal of less than 22.5 degrees, but more than 0?
I am building an airplane with a wing dihedral (the wings angle upwards from the fuselage), but I am using parts 44302 and 44301 interlocked as designed:

Unfortunately, one click up is about 22.5 degrees, and horizontal is, of course, 0 degrees. Ideally, I need something almost exactly in the middle of the two degrees.
Are there any pieces or techniques that would let me do this?

Using a cut-pipe into a clip-with-tube will let you build a secure and precise angle.

If you have a solid brick behind the headlight bricks you can fix the angle by cutting the pipe at the right length.

I'll look into this, though I'm worried it might be far too thick to use.

I'm not sure how sturdy your design needs to be, but using bar and clip parts could do what you want. There aren't any fixed angles when using those, so you have complete freedom, but a less rigid connection.

If strength is an issue, you could try using multiple clips or the double wide variety:

I don't think this'll work - the wings are going to be about 7 inches long. But maybe I could stabilize it with some other pieces hidden

You could put a sturdy (Technic?) structure inside the fuselage that provides the wing connectors with the required angles.

But are there any technic pieces that are at this angle?

I don't know of any pieces that achieve exactly such an angle, but you can build a frame that provides one. For example, you could alter this structure to result in a slightly different angle from 90°: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=94689
I've also found this simpler, but less sturdy solution: http://www.dagsbricks.com/2013/11/lego-techniques-on-angles.html

The issue here is that the wing digital is not attached to the fuselage, but to a flat stub of a wing. So any such frame would be too thick.


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Alternative flowers
I'm compiling a list of elements that are compatible with the Plant Flower Stem. In addition to the Plant Flower Small, I'm aware of at least two alternatives —

Friends Accessories Star with Stud Holder
Plate, Round 1 x 1 with Flower Edge (4 Knobs)

Are there any others?

The LEGO Scala flowers and butterflies also fit. You can see them on this page: http://www.bricklink.com/catalogList.asp?catType=P&catString=102
Also the LEGO Belville, flower, butterfly (same as Scala) and ladybug. You can see those here: http://www.bricklink.com/catalogList.asp?catType=P&catString=48
And from LEGO Friends all the other flowers with hole in the middle fit as well: http://www.bricklink.com/catalogList.asp?catType=P&catString=771


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Programming The Lego Mindstorms T-Rex from EV3 Laboratory
I bought the book The Lego Mindstorms EV3 Laboratory fron Daniele Benedettelli. I buid the T-Rex chapter 15 and when I tried to programming the T-Rex (chapter 16) I have a problem. I'm not able to make the last connection when I build the MoveAbsolute block.
I send a picture. Do you know why?

According the book the last input of the MyBlock is a Logic input, instead of a Number (default setting).
Make sure you changed it to Logic and try it again.


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Connect 39k3 powerpack to 417j3 motor
I'm new to lego.  Trying to connect the powerpack 39k3 from 42009 Crane to a 417j3 motor.  Is a 8528 Converter Cables for Mindstorms NXT the right cable?
Is there a way to hack a phone connector onto a power cable?  Where would I find the wiring diagram?
Many thanks,
Joe

Hi Joetest - I assume the powerpack you're referring to is 4506078: Batterybox 4X11X7 - but I'm not sure which motor you mean - where did you get the part numbers from? In which case, it's probably a duplicate of How to use Power Functions with Mindstorms EV3?

You can accomplish this with these two parts:

http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Converter-Cables-for-LEGO-MINDSTORMS-NXT-8528
http://powerfunctions.lego.com/en-us/Products/Default.aspx#8886


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Is it possible to make inverted slopes with solid studs
Many(all?) of the inverted slope pieces have solid studs and hollow studs( e.g. 3665) and a void around the stud. This(void & hollow) looks very inelegant, is it really that difficult to make solid studs with finished surfaces on these pieces? What's the material/cost/grip/aesthetic trade-off?
If lego decided to fill the stud and void of 3665 (i.e solid piece except for anti-stud), what would be the downside (apart from plastic, which is trivial)

Because of the way ABS plastic injection molding works, it is important that parts have a uniform thickness throughout, and don't just have a large section completely filled with solid plastic. This page explains a little about that:

As the plastic solidifies in the mold, it freezes from the outside (near the mold surface) toward the inside. In thick sections, this results in inward pulling stresses (due to contraction) that can cause sink marks in the outer surfaces of the part. In addition, because thinner sections will freeze faster than thicker sections, there is also the possibility of stresses building up between thick and thin sections, resulting in part warpage.

The reason that the stud is open is because that area of the part couldn't be reached from the bottom as usual due to the closed slope underneath. The constraint of uniform thickness forces either the top or bottom of a stud to be open. This is the same basic reason that the studs on Technic beams are open as well.

Cost of the brick would raise by 10-20% of the extra material needed, I don't expect the mould to be more expensive.
But I think the main reason is the production proces itself. ABS is processed at around 200C (don't know temp used at LEGO). After filling the mould the whole brick must cool down again. To keep the brick shape stable, this process must happen at the same rate through the brick. If parts of the brick are thicker than others this takes more time to cool, which can cause the brick to deform during production, so it doesn't meet its tight tolerance spec.
I can't really come up with a Lego brick shape that is locally much thicker than the rest of the part.


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Is there a guide that has the number and kinds of pieces per set?
Is there a guide that has the number and kinds of pieces per set - for example 8 pieces of this and 14 pieces of that?  I am trying to sort out a large container of multiple sets.  I have thousands of pieces, and would like to put them back into sets.

As mentioned by @gev, Bricklink is a great place to go. It is, however, not the most intuitive site to use. Here is how you can easily get the item counts:

Start with the Search box at the top of the page. Before typing in the name of the set, make sure the selector is set to search the Catalog.
Enter a term from the name of the set (e.g. "Millenium" or "Falcon").
The Catalog results will pop up. You might find sets or individual pieces listed, or even several (regional) variations on the set.
Go to the entry that best describes the set you (think you) have. The entry will start with a number (e.g. 10179-1 for the Millenium Falcon UCS) and after the number, in parenthesis, you will find a link to the inventory (labeled "(Inv)"). Clicking on this link gets you to a detailed inventory with item counts for the particular set.

Rinse and repeat for other sets you have ... good luck!
Alternatively if the set is from 2002 or later, you can go to http://service.lego.com/en-us/buildinginstructions to download the building instructions, which contain a detailed inventory at the end. Unfortunately, the resolution and color palette of these instructions is not the greatest (at least on the ones I've tried) so it might require some sleuthing to decipher the different pieces (studs are not showing very well, and it is difficult to tell the different color shades apart, like light grey, dark grey and black).

Best one out there: BrickLink!
Brickset is OK, too, but Bricklink has tons of people willing to sell you nearly any missing part you may need. :)


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Where are the electric pieces for 42029?
I was building LEGO 42029 Customized Pickup Truck, when I got to a page where I needed electrical parts, such as the battery box and the wires. I checked and these pieces were NOT included. Should they have been included? If not, where can I buy them?

These pieces are not included in the set. Motorizing this set requires the addition of a Power Functions motor as shown here:

You'll need the Power Functions Motor Set (8293) if you'd like to motorize your truck. This can be ordered from shop.lego.com or other online retailers. It's usually hard to find in stores, but if you have a LEGO store nearby, they will likely carry it.


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How to switch an NXT sensor port by a motor port?
Me and my partner are finishing up our robot for the RobotCup and we desperately need one more motor port. We will only use 3 sensor ports, so my question was if there was even the slight chance that we could switch one for the other.

That's not possible - sensor ports don't have the hardware to drive motors. That said, you can buy a motor multiplexer like this one to do the job for you, if competition rules allow this.


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Why doesn't lego make many 2x2x4 Pieces?
I'm just wondering if anybody here knows where I can get some 2x2x4 pieces ... It seems that Lego doesn't make many just standard bricks that are 4 high ... I've found a few singles here and there on Ebay, but these don't exit in the pick a brick store and they are reeeally hard to find. Looking for about 16 Dark Stone Gray 2x2x4 pieces ... any leads? Or any idea why they don't make standard bricks that are 4 high? I assume it's because you can easily stack to 2 highs, but for cosmetic reasons I can't do this in my build. Thanks!

The pictures I see on ebay are 2x2x3 bricks being advertised as 2x2x4. Not sure if the "x4" is perhaps marketing speak for the fact that there are 4 studs on the top, but they are clearly (also visible on the picture) only 3 bricks high.

Oh and note that some use the deceiving perspective of putting a brick flat to show that it covers 4 studs on a base-plate, but that doesn't mean that they are also 4 bricks high as the width to height ratio for a LEGO brick is not 1:1.

What's wrong with stacking up 2x2x1 bricks to make the column?

I can't find any evidence that a 2x2x4 piece has ever existed. Bricklink identifies a 2x2x3 brick, and there are many sellers around the world that will happily sell you 16 dark stone grey pieces for pennies/piece.

Another option you might want to consider is looking at 1x2x2 DUPLO pieces. They correspond to 4x2x4 lego pieces (slightly bigger than you are asking for, but not knowing the details of your build you might be able to incorporate these) and they interconnect (a 2x2 lego piece fits on a single DUPLO stud.) If you mount them sideways you get a 2x4 surface (but it would be 4 deep, not 2 deep as you requested).
EDIT: This post shows how DUPLO and LEGO play together :)

As odd Todd mentioned LEGO never made 2x2x4 pieces. The largest brick of similar size is 2x2x3 and 2x4x3. For larger smooth surfaces LEGO usually uses panels. You can find all the panels LEGO ever made here: http://www.bricklink.com/catalogList.asp?catType=P&catString=91

Just note that there is no 2x4 panel either .... 2x3 is the biggest.


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LEGO RCX hardware schematic
Where can I find the hardware schematic for the LEGO RCX brick?
I spend a lot of time but unfortunately didn't find any useful information.

There are partial reverse engineered schematics done by Mark Bellis here


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How would I make a decal for a 2x2 dome brick or a 2x2 round slope brick?
I am looking to make a decal for a custom droid using either the R5-series head or the regular dome R2/R3/R6/R7/R8 head. However, I do not know the process for creating droids. Does anybody know how?

The problem of creating a flat sheet that could be fitted onto a (semi)spherical surface (a dome head) is known to be impossible to solve perfectly, but there are viable approximations of varying precision. This matehmatical paper details one such approximation (for spheres, but the process can be modified for domes) using petal shaped pieces. By varying the number (and so the width) of the petals the approximation gets closer to ideal, but even with three petals a reasonable quality can be reached. Of course, much trial-and-error can be expected.
AFAIK The LEGO Group uses pad printing, this can be quite expensive to set up but produces the best quality prints.
For the R5 heads the process is much easier since the surface of this head piece can be flattened into a shape called an Annular Sector. With some measuring and calculation (and maybe some trial-and-error) it should be possible to design a sticker that fits this kind of head.


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How to import an unofficial parts archive into LDraw?
I recently created a basic EV3 robot in Lego Digital Designer and exported it as a LDraw file. When I opened the LDView file, the EV3 elements were missing. I then proceeded to download an unofficial parts archive from here: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=85317
The ZIP contains the folders "parts" and "p".  How do I import this into LDraw?

You have no need to use these unofficial parts, all EV3 parts (except for the stickers) are now LDraw official parts, and should already be in your library if it is up to date (otherwise, download and install complete.zip from here). The problem you most probably have is that the file LDraw.xml that directs conversion between LDD and LDraw doesn't support EV3 parts. For more details on this file, see here.


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What is the best way to create an authentic weatherboard wall?
I am working on a house where I want to create a weatherboard look for the outside walls.  I'm not certain the best way to go about this.
Currently I'm using the horizontal side of a 1x2 profile brick:

Which gives the following appearance:

I am wondering though if there are any better techniques to create the weatherboard look:

It seems that the 1x2 profile brick has its ridges roughly twice as dense as a true weatherboard exterior.
One advantage of these profile bricks is that their reverse side gives the interior a VJ (tongue and groove) look, which is the interior look of the house that I am trying to model.

However, the lack of anything larger than 1x2 and the overly dense ridges means that I'm leaning towards looking for other options.

Perhaps something like this?

One option would be to use the relatively new bricks with masonry profile:

If you aren't aware, the reverse side of these bricks includes the horizontal lines but leaves out the vertical ones. This allows you to create something like this:

This solutions provides the advantage of less dense horizontal lines, but being that this is a newer part, it also really limits your color selection.
Your pictures make it look like you are trying to build a white house, which is currently impossible using this part as it isn't available in white. The best that you could do is light gray, which is what I used in my example.
There is a 1x4 version of this part that would make construction much easier and sturdier, but it's only available in medium dark flesh at the moment:

This construction also leaves you with a brick pattern on the inside of your wall. It doesn't sound like this is what you want. One solution would be to create a double wide wall, but that may not be feasible in your case.

This would be a good solution, except for the colours.  I am creating a white house.

There are a number of brick-intensive approaches to this.  Here's a few:
This flickr user (Andrew) has an example, but the "how to" image on the next slide is hard to figure out: https://www.flickr.com/photos/8215600@N03/5223554342/in/photostream/
This is one for a roof, but the same technique could be used for a wall: https://flic.kr/p/a3PcXk
Also, I suggest taking a look at the Lego Techniques Flickr group for different wall techniques: https://www.flickr.com/groups/788191@N24/

This definitely looks gorgeous, but will cramp the interior.  I really like this solution though.


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Mindstorms Vision Command - what shall I do with it?
I have a Vision Command camera, bricks and book, still boxed with instructions and a W98 coaster, er I mean CD, and was about to donate it to a charity shop but it seems there's no 64 bit driver for it? Windows can't find one anyway.
I'm not sure it's worth wasting their time with it. I suppose a note saying "not for new versions of Windows" might still attract someone with an older PC but I'm open to suggestions?
Regards

Have you read this post: http://bricks.stackexchange.com/questions/4529/vision-command-and-exploration-mars-software-for-mindstorms-ris-2-0? Someone says that you can use a Logitech driver to get the camera to be recognized.

It is a Logitech Quickcam, and yes, it still works on Linux (I've tried it on ev3dev with my EV3 and Ubuntu 20.04)

Wow, can't believe somebody else is experimenting with this in the 2020s! Did you have to install anything extra to get the camera working under Linux? What software do you use on Ubuntu to view the camera output?


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Slow down the mindstorms EV3 motor so target position is not overshot
I have Debian jesse installed on a mindstorms EV3 and I'm using the ev3.lego library: https://github.com/topikachu/python-ev3
I want to be able to slow down the motor as it reaches its target destination because if it's going full speed when it gets there, it overshoots its target proportional to how fast it was going.
Example Python code: When I use this code to spin the motor:
from ev3.lego import Motor
b = Motor(port=Motor.PORT.B)
b.run_position_limited(position_sp = 100, speed_sp = 300)

The motor spins to position 100 on the tachometer with speed of 300.
When it gets to its destination, the momentum carries it to position 125 or so.  So next time I tell it to go to position 100.  It spins up, then overshoots to position 75.
What is the best way to try to minimize this error so I can tell the motor to move to position 100, and it either slows down before it reaches its target, or otherwise freezes the motor when it reaches the destination?

There are two attributes in the python ev3dev Motor class called:
ramp_down_sp
ramp_up_sp

Link to documentation: http://ddemidov.github.io/ev3dev-lang-python/
ramp_down_sp Ramp Down SP: read/write
Writing sets the ramp down setpoint. Reading returns the current value. Units are in milliseconds. When set to a value > 0, the motor will ramp the power sent to the motor from 100% duty cycle down to 0 over the span of this setpoint when stopping the motor. If the starting duty cycle is less than 100%, the ramp time duration will be less than the full span of the setpoint.
ramp_up_sp Ramp Up SP: read/write
Writing sets the ramp up setpoint. Reading returns the current value. Units are in milliseconds. When set to a value > 0, the motor will ramp the power sent to the motor from 0 to 100% duty cycle over the span of this setpoint when starting the motor. If the maximum duty cycle is limited by duty_cycle_sp or speed regulation, the actual ramp time duration will be less than the setpoint.
Example:
from ev3.lego import Motor
b = Motor(port=Motor.PORT.B)
b.ramp_up_sp = 1000
b.ramp_down_sp = 1000
b.run_position_limited(position_sp = 0, speed_sp = 300)

What the ramp_down_sp does is when the motor is 1000 milliseconds away from its target (doing its own estimations) then ramp down the power from 100% to 0% over exactly 1000 milliseconds.
ramp_up does a similar thing, except ramps up the power from 0% to 100% over 1000 milliseconds.
This helps avoid unnecessary strain on the motors for applications where building up momentum is important.


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Is there a site where I can put in a set of individual lego bricks (by part ID) and get an optimized list of stores to buy (to minimize shipping)
I'm new to this site, so please forgive me if this is a duplicate.
Background story
I got my 6 years old the Lego City Arctic largest set, and then realized he had previously had 2 other arctic sets, that sadly, he lost some parts for...
I have sorted through all of his legos (yes, I do have a life, but this was rewarding on unbelievable and weird levels) and checked marked all the pieces he had. I narrowed it down to the few that he was missing and got their ID number.
I Googled my way into http://www.wallofbricks.com/ and was able to find stores that sell all those pieces!
Problem
The big problem as you might have guess is that it would cost more than re-buying that set again. The difference is not the individual piece cost of course, but the shipping.
The issue stems from the obvious reason that not all stores have all pieces, so you just pay a lot in shipping...
Now, I'm sure that if I cross reference the online stores that sell all the parts, I'll be able to find some, that might not have the cheapest price, but have more than one piece in stock.
Question
This is a very interesting optimization problem to solve, and I was wondering if there is any website that lets you answer the give question:
Given a list of missing pieces and quantities, and the original set cost - finds either the combination of stores such that the piece costs + the shipping is less than the original set, or suggest that buying the original set will be cheaper.

Have you looked at BrickLink or BrickOwl yet? BrickOwls Wishlist feature allows you to fiddle and optimise the (whole) price. Additionally, if you have the part numbers, you can call Lego and they might be able to ship all of them directly.

See also: How can I minimize the number of merchants for given set of requested bricks?

Here link to BrickOwl Wishlist mentioned by @tl8 http://www.brickowl.com/wishlist

There are two pieces of software that lets you do this for Bricklink: Brickficiency and Brick Wizard. The latter seems updated more often, but I don't know if they produce different results.


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usage of ev3 ultrasonic sensor in lejos behavior based programming
I'm using ev3 ultrasonic sensor. And I'm writing a behavior based lejos code. I want to do some tasks when the ultrasonic sensor detects an object which is not further than 30 cm's. And this is my code:
public UltrasonicSensor(Port port)
    {
        sonar = new EV3UltrasonicSensor(port);
        sonar.getDistanceMode().fetchSample(value, 0);
    }

    @Override
    public boolean takeControl() {
        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
        return value[0] < 0.3;

    public void action() {
        ....
    }

    @Override
    public void suppress() {
        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
        suppressed = true;
    }

But I think it is not the right way. How can I implement it in the right way?
Thanks for help,

You can use the lejos.ev3.robotics.RangeFinder abstraction class:
EV3UltrasonicSensor sensorUS;
RangeFinder sonar;

public UltrasonicSensor(Port port) {
    sensorUS = new EV3UltrasonicSensor(port);
    sonar = new RangeFinder(sensorUS);
}

@Override
public boolean takeControl() {
    return sonar.getRange() < 0.3;
}

Use the float getRange()  method to retrieve the distance to the nearest object.


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LEGO Brick Color Palette
Have any new brick colors come out recently? I haven't seen many diverse colors and was wondering if there is still an expanding palette for the bricks being produced.

We should probably update one or other of the answers on How many different colours of LEGO bricks are there? - however the Peeron list is updated as colours are seen, so it should have them all, sadly it doesn't seem to have date ranges on there for "first/last seen" although you can find one per-part: http://www.peeron.com/inv/colortable/3004?ip=0


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Would LEGO use recycled plastic?
I have been studying the application of new recycling technologies because I am concerned with plastic pollution. I have thought of a way to apply new technology differently but the missing piece of the picture was how to find  a company that would be willing to work with our city to apply this technology.
With 9% percent or less of plastics being recycled in America because of sourcing and down-cycle challenges, LEGO is positioned to positively transform the way plastics are used and galvanize support for their brand. It would really just take a single industrial leader, operating at scale to make it happen. Others would follow.
If LEGO could transform the way that plastics were produced, and create living wage jobs, would they?
In other words, do they have any motivation to use recycled plastics, or hire American workers, and if so, what motivations?

We here at bricks.stackexchange.com don't represent the Lego company. We cannot answer this question for you.

I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it can only be answered by the Lego company.

LEGO do already have a sustainability report (see my answer here) and LEGO's environmental pages here: http://www.lego.com/en-us/aboutus/responsibility/environment/goals

The LEGO Group has already created clear sustainability goals.
TLG is currently investing money to try to find sustainable and non-petroleum based ways to design LEGO bricks. Here's some info about the new Sustainable Materials Center that TLG is working on:
http://www.lego.com/en-us/aboutus/news-room/2015/june/sustainable-materials-centre
It sounds like they are investing significant money (1 billion DKK, ~150 million USD) and manpower (100 new employees) into solving this problem. They have also made it clear that they want to keep their focus on product quality while exploring sustainable technologies, so it sounds like whatever new plastics they develop will need to be at least as high quality as ABS.
If you are interested in collaborating with them on this, you'll need to get in touch with TLG directly. This is a fan-moderated FAQ site, so you are unlikely to get a response from a LEGO employee. I'd recommend using the "Contact Us" page on LEGO.com.

Unlikely, since TLG prides themselves on high quality, which somewhat contradicts the notion of reused materials. But there are more practical concerns too:
I'm far from an expert in plastic manufacturing, but I guess it wouldn't be trivial to gather the trash, clean it from any foreign materials, sort by color, remelt and recast into bricks.
Also, recycling would be much better suited to high volume items, like packaging materials, where allowed tolerances are an order of magnitude larger.
LEGO bricks have a very high life expectancy, apart from breaking due to excessive forces or discoloration caused by chemical reactions (which in itself makes recycling quite complicated - who would like their "new" white bricks already yellowed?), there aren't any ways that would transform usable bricks into recyclable trash, so even if implemented, the scale and therefore the environmental impact of this operation would surely be negligible compared to plastic bottle caps for example.


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LEGO Set 10188 Help on Step 160
I have the LEGO Star Wars Death Star set 10188. I am stuck on step 160 because when I try to clip the parts into a circle, parts snap off and I can't seem to bend it down. Thank You.

If you're able to share an image of what you've managed to build of that step, we might be able to diagnose the problem :)

I'd double check that you've got all 16 links in the chain - if you're trying to squeeze it into a circle with less than that it won't fit. Also double check the placement of the pieces from sub-steps 7 and 8.
Finally, when forming the circle, try carefully working your way around from one end, moving completing each bracket before moving on to the next - possible starting with just one click each, and then going back and adding another as needed.

This gets my vote as possibly the most fiddly construct in an official LEGO set, but it sure is worth it once you manage to get it together.