text:
Help with Multiple Motors/Intelligent Bricks and coding/ programming/ daisy chaining

I have built the accompanying robot earlier in the week. I have a challenge where the robot needs to find white/black bricks then store them on a tray and then travel over to another robot and transfer the bricks from the tray. I am an absolute novice with coding and I'm not sure where to start.
I have access to multiple EV3/NXT units. I'm thinking I might need 3? Any Help on programming, advice, hints and tips would be greatly appreciated.

Daisy chaining is straightforward. In your EV3 project, you click the little wrench in the topleft to open the project properties and enable the option "Daisy-chain mode" below the project picture. The EV3 bricks themselves need to be connected with the USB to mini-usb cables that are normally used to connect them to your computer.
After enabling the modes, the port selectors in your blocks will have layers, first layer being the EV3-brick immediately connected to your computer. 2nd layer the EV3-brick connected to that EV3 and so on up to 4 layers (4 bricks).
However, for the project you are describing, perhaps you could do with less motors and one brick would suffice:

grabbing and lifting can be done with one motor as is is for example done in the gripp3r standard model included with the software.
The double articulation of your claw arm might also not be necessary
Perhaps the arm does not need to be able to rotate if the vehicle itself is maneuverable enough


text:
When did LEGO Minifigure Leg mold designs change?
I am trying to identify the changeover dates for different minifigure leg molds. e.g. a figure from 1978 has no visible seams on the legs
figures from the late 1980s have visible seams, but it might be earlier
a figure from 2018 has visible seams on the outside of each leg the leg, and ©LEGO imprinted under the toe. It sees to have happened after 2012
The legs with seams have a marginally larger hole in the base for studs, and so are easier to attach/remove to/from an attached plate than the older ones.
Does anyone know when these molds changed over more accurately
?

Could you show the mentioned seams in the legs ?

Further investigation reveals that 2013 was when the word '©LEGO' started to appear under the minifigure 'toes'  I am still unsure about the first appearance of seams in the leg molds

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Where can I find this piece in LDD V4.3.11?
I am building a mech in LDD V4.3.11 and I need this piece for the head sculpt of the mech. I can't find it anywhere in the toolbox, with and without using the search box above. Where can I find this piece (Part No. 14704)?

https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=14704#T=C

Strange, I have a slightly older version of LDD, version 4.3.10, brick Version 2248.1
The element is present both in standard and extended mode there.

That is very strange. Thanks to @MichaelVerschaeve's answer, I found it only in Extended mode, and not Standard Mode. I think Lego made this part a legacy part for some bizarre reason.

There's no reason for this part being considered a legacy part. From bricklink you can check in which sets it was present and sort by year released, still plenty of 2018 sets having it... One reason I can think of for moving it to extended mode is the difficulty one might experience in LDD when modelling connections with it...

Maybe. But the part works relatively well in Extended mode of LDD, so I fail to see why Lego just wouldn't put this in Standard mode for mech makers.

I tried in version 4.3.10. The element is present both in standard and extended mode.
I updated to version 4.3.11, had to update anyway as 4.3.10 apparently wasn't supported anymore and only worked offline.
In the standard mode, I can confirm element 14704 is not present.
However, if you switch to extended mode (Main menu -> View -> New themes -> extended), it's present.
Unfortunately the extended mode let's you build in colors that might not exist...
I hope this gets addressed in a next update as to me this seems a standard element.

Thank you so much! I thought I had to abandon my mech build after so long because of one stupid but essential part. I can confirm that the part is there in the extended version of LDD V4.3.11

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


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Source of LDD models
I have just begun using LDD and want to teach my grandchild.  Is there a community inventory of some kind of LDD models that people share?

Eurobricks has a very large list of official LEGO sets recreated in LDD by community members. I found it extremely useful. Look through the list and search for sets by set number and/or name: https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/41226-key-topic-official-lego-sets-made-in-ldd/

You're very welcome. :)

@BillDuncan then don't forget accepting the answre


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Problem assembling wings as shown for LEGO Air Race Jet (Technic 42066)
On Page 158 (Step #231) of the assembly instructions for the Air Race Jet, two red rivet bricks are shown being inserted into a wing.  But the pieces in question will simply fall through the holes in the wing, which appear to be larger than they should be.
Either this is a LEGO error, or else I am missing something obvious.  Does anyone have an answer?

The "rivet" bricks are length 2 axles (cross shaped diameter). Beneath the wings, there should be L-shaped 2x4 lift arms. These end in axle holes (also cross shaped) so the axle should fit tight in those, not fall through.
Perhaps you have positioned something erroneously, or you have skipped a step somewhere?

Thank you, @MichaelVerschaeve! I had positioned the L-shaped lift arms incorrectly.


text:
Why do LEGO bricks keep their value even though they are still being produced?
I am curious why prices of individual bricks do not decrease because of increasing number of bricks produced. As an analogy to currency, when some government is printing money, their value gets lower. But this does not apply for bricks.
I don't think that bricks around the world are utilized in the same rate they are produced. Most of people know the value of that "toy" and don't simply throw them out when children don't play with them.

Banknotes and coins tend to have very little physical value relative to their face value.  LEGO bricks usually are valued more for their function rather than the material value. In most cases it would not be cost effective to buy LEGO bricks just for the material itself.
Well treated bricks can be handed down, generation to generation. A 2x4 brick made 30 years ago is virtually identical compared to one made today. A lot of construction toy brands hold their value over time.
Traditional toys lose their value as they no are longer fashionable or they wear out. A broken doll house might not be worth keeping but a LEGO set with a few missing pieces can still be built with spare parts or re-built into something else.
Individual bricks do actually decrease in value relative to the increased production, particularly soon after a new part has been released as LEGO introduce the part to more and more sets in different colours. This piece released last year is worth about 1/5th of what it once was when it was only available in two high priced sets.
Certain parts also experience a large increase in price after they are discontinued as they consequently become harder to find. Some parts (rubber, electronics, cloth) deteriorate faster than plastic bricks.

I was hoping someone will have a good explanation to this interesting question. Good work! :)

I feel it necessary to point out that I think the durability of LEGO is a bit romanticized.
When coming out of my dark ages, there was very little I could do with my old LEGO, the pieces were scratched, had teeth marks, were yellowed...
I haven't thrown this LEGO away, but it's stored and not used, hence not in circulation and hence has no economic value.
I think there is definitely a constant need for new and shiny bricks, unlike currency where newly printed money has exactly the same value as old.
Also I'd like to point out that selling individual pieces is not the main activity of LEGO, they mainly sell entire sets.
Deriving brick prices from set prices is a bit pointless as its hard to factor in the value of the set (the box, the instructions, licensing,...)
I think the main market place for buying and selling individual pieces is bricklink, and there you definetely see the economic principle of supply and demand in action, as already pointed out in the previous answer.


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What is the appropriate way to request a creator to add more of their designs to MOCHUB?
There are some brilliant LEGO creators with many designs on YouTube out there who choose to remain anonymous- who put some of their designs on MOCHUB but not others. (In particular ones relating to pneumatic engines.)
There might be a reason for this I’m missing.
I could comment on YouTube but then my comment would be against my name for all to see forever, and I’d prefer a communication method more discreet.
What is the appropriate way to request a creator to add more of their designs to MOCHUB?

I see LEGO fans asking the question all the time if the creator would share instructions (via LDD, MOCHub, ReBrick, etc.). There is no shame in asking the question. The worst that can happen is they say no. Many LEGO fans don't care for sharing instructions because they build models on the fly and don't want to spend the time re-creating them digitally, or they don't want to have someone steal their designs. I just don't see why you would be so concerned that others can see you asking a simple question that many others ask. You can also send them a private message via YouTube.

Some creators may not want to share building instructions as there is a fear of knock-off companies releasing them as sets. Especially if MOC's are of top quality.
It is also possible there a personal choice to limit (control) their work results via fewer platforms. Or simply may not like some platforms at all.
Edit: Thinking from my point of view (someone who has created and shared instructions for LEGO MOC) I would consider alternative web redources if there would be obvious benefits. So it might be worth finding such reasons, like audience growth, unique features, something else. Then contact the author via one of the ways he is available and suggest him to contribute to your choice of web portal listing the possible reasons. It could be the easiest way of letting this person know and understand if he has anything against it.

Welcome to Bricks.SE.  While you've explained the designer's motivations well, it doesn't seem like this actually answers the question.  Can you add a bit more to this to tie it together?

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


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How to flash a LEGO Mindstorms brick and program it in another language
I have a basic LEGO Mindstorms kit which I wanted to use for testing a very simple object-avoidance project.
I am trying to find a relatively simple way to flash the brick and upload scripts to it for executing, preferably something simple like Python or C++. I've been looking around the Internet for a few weeks now and have found almost nothing.
I see some instructions how to flash the brick with some generic firmware, but no more information how to get to the point of programming it the way I need. I see the most popular source for programming the NXT in Python is NXT-Python. However, there is 1) no documentation 2) outstanding bugs on the ultrasonic sensor that has not been addressed since 2015 and 3) only executes the program on the PC and sends command to the brick, rather than uploading the program to the brick.
I see that NXT is usually programmed in the language NXC, which fortunately has an extensive documentation in PDF form. However, this language (based in C) seems like an entire beast of its own, and idk if I would have the time or patience to master an entirely new language just to program for this one small project. Furthermore, the GUI for NXC seems to be only for windows, but I'm using Ubuntu.
NXC seems to be translatable from Python using the PyNXC library. However, it also doesn't seem to have any documentation except a couple of examples, and otherwise just pointing to the NXC tutorials.
Anything I am missing here, or is that the entire length and breadth of programming the NXT? I have a feeling there has got to be something more straight forward, as other people online talk about programming the NXT in python as if it was easy.
Thanks

Have you checked out the answers to this question and this detailed page? I think the fundamental issue is the Python limitation. RobotC has three different flavours ranging from Graphical, through Natural Language down to a more C-like version

The limitation is not really Python, but just some existing, usable language. I did see that chart before, and my issue with it is that the only languages it mentions are Assembly, C, and Java. I could try to install the Java version, I guess, because I don't see myself getting very far programming in either Assembly or C. Even so, Java is not exactly the kind of language meant to be used for a Robot, so idk why I should be forced to use that. As for the rest, I don't want to have to work with a completely new language from scratch, even if it is "C-like".

I can program a Raspberry Pi in any language I want. How much more complicated can a piece of LEGO be?

I think it's more that the NXT is much simpler than the Raspberry PI, and so can't cope with the runtimes required to support higher level languages - Assembly and C are both "low level" languages, keeping you very close to the hardware, while Java is at least compiled to byte-code that then runs in a virtual machine - Python by contrast is an interpreted language, so it needs a runtime interpreter, which in turn requires something to host it.

The NXT has a 32bit, 60MHz ARM processor, 256KB of FLASH memory and 64KB of RAM. The PI Zero has a 1GHz processor, 512MB RAM, while the PI 3 B+ has a 64bit, 1.4GHz processor, 1GB RAM, etc.

LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 runs Linux and can be programmed in Python using ev3dev. Perhaps you have been hearing about EV3 instead of NXT?

The kit I have is NXT. I have to use that hardware

The main source of confusion for me is that, while Java is designed for programs between computers such as website design, Python is specifically designed to program AI algorithms. It being an issue of interpreters I understand, but then why can't we have programming in C++?

I've had great success with Bricx Command Center or BricxCC (as mentioned in this post) on my NXT using NXC (which is easy to pick-up when you already have a C/C++ foundation like you've mentioned).
Installation, using the supplied drivers and connecting via USB is a breeze :)
Hope this helps!

In my experience, most 3rd-party firmware can be flashed to the NXT brick using the standard NXT-G software "Firmware Update Tool." As others have mentioned, BricxCC with NXC is also a great option.
And if you're having trouble with the Python implementation, it's definitely worth checking out LeJOS (Java for Mindstorms). While Java may not be the usual choice for robotics, LeJOS runs fast and is easily the most feature-rich of any language available for the NXT.

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


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Fan door does not close completely - Air Race Jet
After completing the Air Race Jet, I found that the upper fan door does not close completely (stopping short by about 1/2 inches) when I switch from VTOL to Flight mode.
The attachment points to the pulley pieces operating the door seem correct, and the engine nozzle and flaps move into their correct positions.
So I have not been able to see what is blocking it.  Any ideas on fixing this?

I did notice that the two gray pieces that support the black engine nozzle cowl are shown as upright in the instructions, but are slightly slanted in my completed model.  I wonder if this may be related.

Yesterday I contacted LEGO customer service about my non-closing fan door problem, after disassembling about 30% of the model in a vain effort at finding the cause.  Their response was that there was nothing wrong and this was normal, even after I sent them Youtubes showing normal operation and a video of my issue.
So in addition to asking for any input on fixing my problem, I’d like to also ask anyone familiar with this kit if you agree that there is a problem.
Well, I decided to call customer service at LEGO, and a very helpful fellow confirmed the existence of the defect in my model — doubtless a mistake buried somewhere in the 1,151 parts, as I thought.  So back to my question - where should I look for the defect?
He suggested focusing on the area depicted below.  You’ll notice a yellow crossbar going through two gray support pieces.  With the doors shut, they should be flush against one another with none of the yellow showing, but in my model they have a gap when Flight mode quits, as shown.  If you manually push the doors (top or bottom) shut, they are flush.  So this area may be key, or (shudder) just an artifact of a mistake elsewhere.

I don't have this model.  Never built it, but thanks to Youtube we can understand with moving pictures the frustration, and build fatigue you might feel.
JANGBRiCKS says:

"It's one of those builds where you need to get everything exactly
  right the first time.  Penalty for making any sort of mistake is very
  very high and there are many things that are left incomplete for long
  periods time as you're building up the functions inside of this.
The main build of all of the gears, and all of the levers, all of the beams,
  and everything that connect together, ultimately, very very late in the game,
  late in the process of building to form the functions that are all
  powered by a single motor."

Think Loud's video review and speed build, is similar to your issue, where his fap door doesn't close properly, and he has to manually pop it down too.  So, I see what you mean, Bro.

I'll take your word that all connections are good, so we're not gonna think it's, an

"artifact of a mistake elsewhere."

(Luv how you said that!)
So, in trusting you, I think your build is right instruction-wise, but our engineering insight could use a slight twist here and there.
So, in this Vertical Take-Off and Landing mode, we see:

Top blue flap comes up.
Two bottom blue flaps spread open.
Rear gray exhaust nozzle drops down.
Two black flaps on back of wings that turn down.

For all of these features to work properly, you have to go back to your build, and manually turn each section, or gear torque completely to position "0" of VTOL mode.
So, if one or more is off, even slightly, it will affect the total length of deployment, and retraction of the others.
I can only imagine one of the features positioned too early hitting a physical wall, or space constraint, causing the other features not to fully complete their run.
You did mentioned the top gap, bottom gaps, and misaligned tail engine. Yes, they're all related to the VTOL feature so, if one is off, they're all gonna be off.
Try this out, and hit us back with your results.

My source videos:

LEGO instructions - Technic - 42066 - Air Race Jet. by LEGO
instructions - Fan - Site.
Lego Technic 42066 Air Race Jet - Lego Speed Build and Review by
Think Louder.
LEGO Technic Air Race Jet 42066 review! by JANGBRiCKS.

Thank you for your thorough and thought-provoking comments, all of which are very much appreciated. The most valuable portion of your commentary to me is where you reference Think Louder’s identical problem with the fan turbine door. Bingo! Identical to my issue. So I guess there is no getting around executing a disassembly and reassembly of much of the model, which I shall now undertake. I will indeed report back on my results. –

You’re welcome, my Friend.  Hey, before you get deep in the disassemble, run your model as is, a few times, and visually look at those (4) hot spots to see which one doesn’t have the room to complete it’s full diployment run.  Note: LEGO has been trolling us in this way for years.  All of us can follow instructions, but LEGO wants us to understand our work too.  The engineering mistakes force us to observe the cause, and see the effect.  JANGBRiCKS showed us how it should work and look by end run.  Another thing:  Listen to the shift change in sound as the moving parts winds down.  Later!

Check step 63
There is in zoomed picture showed when small black wheel has to be connected to  beige wheel,when connected it will "lock" the position of closed roof and bottom
To correct it when u already built it is very easy
Move that small black wheel from beige ,u added in step 63. When black wheel moved,press the "L" lever in red box zoomed picture down,your roof and bottom will close,when closed hold the position and move black wheel back to connect with beige, now it should work pretty well


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Is it acceptable practice to finish an incomplete set and sell it as complete?
I found a vintage LEGO set from the early 1980s, with box. It is missing 25% of the pieces. If I purchase the rest of the pieces separately, is it acceptable practice to sell that as a "complete set"?

New bricks of the same kind often comes from a slightly different mold. And pieces from different year will look different, especially white ones. So there is a high chance that difference will be seen.
Most ethical thing to do is to sell it as complete set, but in description clearly state what bricks was replaced.


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Minifigure Hand broken and stuck in arm

A friend of mine gave me some of his old minifigures. As you guys can see, the hand of one of the figures is broken and a part of the hand is stuck in the arm.
Do you have any ideas how to remove the broken part?

I think you would have to drill it out somehow, but that seems difficult. Might be easier to just replace the whole arm with some cheap blue-armed minifig from BrickLink.

I wonder if you could heat up a sewing pin with a lighter and stick it in and wait until it cools / solidifies.

That is no soldier, that is now a pirate Arrrggghh! who's hook, hat and parrot have been lost during a daring raid!

been sucessful with Aarons method twice, works fine!

Don't fix it
I sympathize with the desire to fix it, but on closer consideration it doesn't seem easy or worth it.  Getting the hand out would probably damage the arm even if you manage to do it.
Replace it
The entire torso is available for less than $1 on BrickLink.  This is the easiest path forward.  Some similar torsos are half as much if you don't need an exact match.
There are replacement arms for many colors and color combinations on BrickLink, but not a plain blue arm like this that I could find.
If you get lucky.
Apparently you can buy just the hands as Mr. Shiny and New 安宇 pointed out.  So if you manage to get the hand out without damaging the arm you can solve your problem for a few cents plus postage.
Or re-purpose it
As with all of LEGO the possibilities are limited to your imagination:

maybe this soldier had his hand cut off and he's too poor to get a  prosthetic.
maybe this guy is holding a tray of drinks on his right arm during a battle.  I don't have an arm with a missing hand to test this, but I hope something could be attached to it.
maybe he had a tragic shaving accident and you can make a bloody scene about it.
maybe this soldier put on the wrong uniform and you can live with 2 new matching arms from BrickLink that aren't entirely blue.
maybe he's sticking his arm into a bee's nest or a hole in a dike.

So I hope you can see some way to get more value out of your "broken" torso than just tossing it.  But sometimes we've gotten all of the life out of a piece and it is time to let it go.

Love the wacky re-purposes!

Hands are available for sale

I looked and looked and did not see that.  Kudos and thanks for finding what i could not.  I corrected my answer.

I've had this problem several times before. There are two general ways to solve this issue.
Brute Force Needle
Stick several needles into the arm area at an angle. Then simultaneously push down on all the other ends of the needles to unstick the needle
Hot Paperclip
This is excessive but effective.
I wore gloves and used my kitchen stove to heat up a paperclip and stuck it at an angle into the plastic. It melted the plastic and stuck really well and after the plastic solidified again (in a literally a minute) I pulled the entire stuck arm out.
Good luck!

The tiny screw method works. We dipped it in dish soap, made a tiny groove with a thumb tack and then threaded a very small screw. Used two pairs of plyers, one on the arm and one on the screw, and pulled the broken hand out with no issue.

I extracted two broken hand stumps with a hot needle and replaced them with unbroken hands from less important or otherwise broken figures.
Procedure:

Position the figure's arm pointing straight out and remove accessories that might fall off.
Hold sewing needle with pliers over stove until glowing hot.
Plunge hot needle into hand stump at an angle.
Quench with water.
Pry the hand stump out with the needle.

The needle will not have enough friction with the plastic to pull the stump straight out unless it's really lose, so the direction of pulling/prying must be at an angle from the needle.

Of the two figures I used this technique on, it worked on the first try for one and took two or three attempts (at different angles) for the other. The hand stumps were recessed to different depths.
The hot needle caused minimal distortion to the inside edge of the hand socket and did not interfere with the ability to install a new hand. With enough skill, I think you could avoid touching the arm socket at all, but I nicked mine a little tiny bit. Of course, this minifig has seen worse, so I'm not too concerned.

The king is all better now, with a new hand. The stub of an old one is on the table next to him.

Welcome to Bricks.SE! Great answer!

I just got one out using a very small drill bit and twisting it with my fingers. Took about a minute of twisting to make a hole in the hand piece. Then pressed the drill bit to the side of the hole I made and pulled it out.

If you have a tiny screw, it might be possible to screw it into the inner part and then pull on the screw to remove.
Almost like opening a bottle of wine with a corkscrew, except in this case the "cork" is set into the bottle a little.

Unless you had a super tough screw, you can't push it through the plastic. It could be melted though, to make it softer.


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EV3 does not react to Bluetooth commands after 1.7 seconds
Short description:
I want to send commands via Bluetooth to an EV3 brick from a Linux computer.
I use python to send bytecodes via Bluetooth and not any EV3-specific software
Pairing the device was successful.
If i send a "beep" command directly after establishing a connection, i can hear a beep from the brick.
However, if i wait longer before i send the command, e.g. 2 seconds, then i can hear no beep.
Any ideas how i could fix this behavior and be able to send commands many seconds after i established a connection?
Longer description:
Assuming the devices are already paired and Bluetooth enabled on the EV3 brick, i use the following setup:
To create /dev/rfcomm0, run
sudo rfcomm bind 0 <MAC-adress of the EV3>

Then, execute the following python script as root:
import time
beep_code=[0x0f,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x80,0x00,0x00,0x94,0x01,0x81,0x1,0x82,0x0b,0x02,0x82,0xf4,0x01]
# beep with 1% at 500 hz for .5 seconds
b=bytearray(beepcode)
f=open("/dev/rfcomm0","w+b",0)
f.write(b)
f.flush()
time.sleep(1.7)
f.write(b)
f.flush()

I got the bytecode for the command from here.
The result is that i can hear only one beep, instead of the expected two beeps.
If i make the waiting time shorter, e.g. 1 second, i can hear two beeps.
I use a computer running Kubuntu (Linux kernel 4.4).
The firmware version of the brick is V1.09H,
the hardware version is V0.60
Maybe i did something wrong with my Bluetooth setup on Linux, but the Bluetooth connection was successful for
Some comments and observations:

very similar behavior can be observed when connecting using the Matlab support package for EV3 and Bluetooth
similar behavior can be observed when using a motor (using Matlab)
sometimes it works (i.e. i hear two beeps) with a waiting time of 1.7 seconds, sometimes it fails for a shorter time (e.g. 1.5 seconds), so it is not completely deterministic
starting the connection with open() takes a few seconds, so it would not be possible to re-open /dev/rfcomm0 for every command
i cannot circumvent the problem by sending a command every 0.5 seconds. In this case, the brick still does not produce beep tones after roughly 1.7 seconds (starting from when the fopen() command finished). So it is not just a simple timeout if there is no data.
on the EV3 brick the Bluetooth connection is marked as "connected" until f.close() is executed or the python script has completed. The same connection status can be observed using bluetoothctl on Linux.

I know the problem is already solved, but there is a new firmware version which I think is 1.10E. Updating could also help.

rfcomm is an old and deprecated tool, so I'm not going to try to figure out what exactly is going on. I suspect that it has to do with the fact that it treats the connection as a TTY and it is sending extra characters to the EV3 that messes up the communication protocol. I tried adding:
import tty

...

tty.setraw(f.fileno())

to the program to fix this, but it does not seem to work.
Instead, I would recommend just using Bluetooth sockets in your python program instead of using the rfcomm command line tool. Here is a working example:
#!/usr/bin/env python3

import time

import bluetooth

# change to *your* EV3 Bluetooth address
BDADDR = "00:16:53:00:00:00"
PORT = 1

# beep with 1% volume at 500 hz for .5 seconds
BEEP_CODE = b'\x0f\x00\x00\x00\x80\x00\x00\x94\x01\x81\x01\x82\x0b\x02\x82\xf4\x01'

sock = bluetooth.BluetoothSocket(bluetooth.RFCOMM)
sock.connect((BDADDR, PORT))
sock.send(BEEP_CODE)
time.sleep(1.7)
sock.send(BEEP_CODE)
sock.close()

This worked for me. However, i am still looking for a solution which makes it possible to use the matlab packages, which seem to require serial communication. Thanks!


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Can anyone identify these two Lego parts? White ramp and yellow door
Bought a big bundle of parts recently, two of which I'm struggling to identify and load onto Rebrickable.
Can anybody assist?

That yellow door doesn't look like a Lego part. More like a door from the loading bay on some truck-model. Oh wait... I just see that that is already said in another answer.

I don't know what the yellow piece is, but the big plate is an old 1955-69 garage floor plate, with the rectangular holes.
Garage Floor Plate (Old style)

I can confirm this. There is also a slightly different version (nr 820a) of this plate which has a narrower lip at the bottom of the slope and octagon holes (that is the one I have). The garage doors have spring that comes under tension when you close them. The lip blocks the doors from opening. Press the lip with your fingertip and the doors will spring open en the car rolls down the ramp and leaves the garage. It was pretty amazing back in the 1970's when I got this for my birthday.

The yellow part looks like the hatch door of an older Siku Truck like this one in eBay

That ebay link won't last for long.  Could you add a screenshot to your answer?

@chicks unfortunately i don't have an Image at hand. Everithing i can find in Google links total eBay or similar Pages. I'll have an Look at this Ehen i'm at Home.

@Syberion I don't think it's a god idea to steal copyrighted images from eBay. I therefore removed the Image again.


text:
Can anyone identify this Lego piece? Clear red Bionicle head with clip?
I got this in a big box of LEGO from my cousin and this was in there. When I asked him he said he didn't know anything about it. I also couldn't find anything on the Internet about it. It has no identification number or any other marking except Lego 2003. I was wondering if this was a prototype. If anyone can identify it I will be very happy.

Is there a number anywhere on it, maybe next to the Lego brand?

Looks like it's got a "(c) LEGO 2005" (or maybe 2003) on it.

IDK what it is, but it looks similar to a BIONICLE Toa Mata head. What does the back look like? Is there something inside it?

Whatever this is, it's not one of a kind. This eBay listing, however, contains no information on it other than the possibility of it being a replacement part. No part number.

Can we get more pictures from other angles?

Maybe put something known in the pictures, so we get an idea of scale.

It's from a tooth brush. It is the thing that covers the brush itself. Here is a better picture of the green one.

Another picture :


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Why did lego stop the Ninjago Spinjitzu Flyer and switch to the Ninjago Spinjitzu Spinner?
A while ago Lego ran a Ninjago Flyer line of products:

Now there seems to be a 'dumbed down' version of this that doesn't fly, it just spins along the ground.

It seems like maybe there was an Health and Safety issue with the flying ones, or maybe kids were getting them lost on the roof or in the next door neighbor's yards or something. But surely that's part of what makes them so fun!
My question is: Why did Lego stop the Ninjago Spinjitzu Flyer and switch to the Ninjago Spinjitzu Spinner?

Possibly because getting two spinners to collide in mid air is much harder than on a 2D plane...

Maybe the popularity of Beyblade (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyblade) made them change? I don't know how popular they are, but one of my little cousin is a fan.

The flyers were released in 2015, 2 years is an average production run for LEGO sets. Note that spinners have been released before, in 2011 and 2012 with expansion packs like cards and weapons.
I think the most likely reason that the flyers were discontinued is that LEGO did not see enough marketing potential in a second wave.
As to being more "fun", that is entirely subjective. These flying plastic rings were around in my childhood as well and I hated them.
To me they seem now old fashioned compared to the myriads of flying drone toys that are available today.
Update: Apparently, it was a bit premature to state that the flyers line of ninjago had ended: https://brickset.com/sets/theme-Ninjago/subtheme-Dragon-Masters

My local retailer mentioned issues with flyers getting lost as they flew away... a little too well


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Can anyone identify this dark grey remote control and receiver with yellow and orange buttons?
Does anybody have an idea where this remote control and receiver are originally from:

Bionicle manas set 8539.
Top part from your foto. Bottom one.


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Lego mindstorms ev3 spinner factory problem
I hope you can help me with this. I'm on an education where we practice all stuff about IT. I'm currently working on the Spinner Factory project in the EV3. However, when i looked through the program description, I stumbled upon this picture
I have no idea what the grey block before start block means. I've tried a lot of googling, but can't find a solution. I don't know how to implement it either,.

My Blocks can have input and output parameters.
What you're seeing is an input parameter.
This particular My Block has as input parameter the color the factory bridge needs to drive to.
If you create a My Block from a selection of blocks and there are already data wires going in or out of the selection, input and output parameters are created automatically.
You can also add or edit input or output parameters in the My Block Builder dialog.
Perhaps this tutorial helps:
http://stemrobotics.cs.pdx.edu/sites/default/files/MyBlocks%20%281%29.pdf

I'm trying that out now. What would the default value be for the parameter?

I don't know. You should inspect where the MyBlock is used. If the rest of the program is well designed, the MyBlock will always be used with the parameter specified so it doesn't matter what you select as default parameter as the default will never be used. But however, perhaps as a short-cut, they've given priority to one particular color. In that case you can set this as the default parameter and for that color, no parameter needs to be passed to the MyBlock

Hmm. I still can't figure it out. I can create a MyBlock and "attach" a parameter to it. But it seems that somehow a parameter os created before turning it into a MyBlock

You need to have one or more blocks selected that will get turned into a MyBlock, if data wires are going in or out to one or more of the arguments of the selected blocks, parameters are indeed created automatically. I assume you can edit them afterwards... If not, and the automatic parameter creation is problematic, remove the data wires before creating the MyBlock...


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How are LEGO Bricks and colors numbered/identified
I'm wondering how bricks are uniquely identified.
In the back of instruction booklets, the set parts are listed and the numbers match the numbers on the LEGO.com website. Each number seems to identify a part in a specific color. The design number listed on the website seems to identify the brick separate from color.
I guess my question is, are these numbers available for all bricks or did this only start later?
This same question goes for the identification of brick colors.
If there are any other ideas on how parts can or should be numbered/identified I would really like to know.

Parts have a design ID, and an element ID.
The design ID applies to the part - eg 1x6 brick
Similar parts, with different colors have different ELEMENT ID’s.  Before -1998 these were in the form of designID+colorID.
Now the design ID is not easily related to element ID
Occasionally, after a period of absence, a piece may be re-released in a color. Eg sand green 1x6 was element 4155053 from 2000-2012 eg monster fighters haunted house and then reappeared as 6177081 in 2017 eg Minecraft ocean monument.
The design ID of the first version of an element tends be be used by bricklink, whereas LEGO will normally change the design ID if there is a significant change to the mold. Eg the thickness/shape of clips.
Brickset.com lists parts by both element and design ID when you look at inventories for a given set.
Colour IDs can also be found at Brickset, who also refer to Ryan Howerter’s website as a resource
I hope this helps answer your question.

Thanks for your response. Though not what I was hoping for, it is kind of what I expected.

Thanks for the explanation!  I'd add my two pence.  While inventorying my Lego collection, I've found a colliding element ID: the same design and color has different IDs in two sets: 4619599 in set 10692 and 6170300 in set 10704.  What's interesting is that both sets are quite new: they had been released in 2015 and 2017, and both are being sold in Lego shops currently, so it doesn't look like the part is re-released.

Haven't been enjoying my lego hobby long enough to have experienced it first hand. However, from some researching (read googling), it appears that design ID's and element ID's were starting to be published around 2006.
I assume these ID's are either published through the lego replacement parts service (or similar services as PAB) or in the inventories at the back of instruction booklets.
It appears that for elements that haven't been available through the replacement parts service or in sets more recent or as recent than 2006, these ID's were not published but for most elements, the design ID or element ID is printed on the element. However, this is certainly not the case for all elements.

Brickset.com draw inventories for sets directly from LEGO’s data base. The LEGO group don’t always include every element in the online inventory, even though they might be listed in the instructions. Those which are published in brickset are typically available through bricks and pieces, while the elements that don’t make the published inventory don’t tend to be.


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Mindstorms EV3 Spinner factory complete code problem
I recently posted a question about the creation of My Block. Now I have another problem. I have written the code as described in the program description, and double checked it, but it still doesn't work. I'm sorry for the way that I've visualised the program, but it seemed the easiest way:
Spinner Factory

I feel this is relevant from meta: How do I ask and answer homework questions? I think your question cannot be considered very specific... Perhaps you can tell us what exactly doesn't work?

I don't exactly know. I think it is the block GH_1, but I'm not sure

I know you're banned, but you should try selecting certain blocks at a time and press the run selected button. Keep trying this throughout the program until you get an error from either the EV3 Brick or the PC. More often than not it may come from the PC

Currently, the EV3 education software can be downloaded for free
https://education.lego.com/en-us/downloads/mindstorms-ev3/software
It includes the program for the spinner factory, perhaps you can study that program and compare it with your own implementation to find the problem
Alternatively and probably much more instructive, you could learn how to debug programs. For EV3 this is easiest with inserting sound alert or displaying values on the EV3 screen (with a wait block) during the steps of your program, you can find hints on how to debug a program here:
http://stemrobotics.cs.pdx.edu/sites/default/files/debug.pdf


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Is there a difference in the part number for those pieces?
The bottom tube of one of the bricks is hollow and the other one isn't. How do I know which version was used when I want to rebuild a set with "original" pieces?
Is there a part number difference?

I also have the same question for plates.

LEGO has changed their moulds, first they added that hole, then they removed it again, and they haven't changed design id, or even (as far as I remember) the element id. Knowing when those changes happened, gives some information (see later).
If you buy bricks on bricklink you can try to ask the seller, but you should be prepared that most sellers will probably answer that the variants are mixed in their stock and that they won't spend time sorting through it to sell you something specific. - I know a guy who was in a similar situation, caring about a(nother) detail that LEGO hadn't changed ids for, who ended up changing the colour of (parts of) his MOC because the period in which the part was made in the "new" colour meant he could be sure that only the good (for his usage) variant had been produced.
So if you care about that hole I think you're pretty much out of luck, but I believe the same set have been sold with both variants in many cases, in some cases you can probably even find single copies that have contained both variants, so I wouldn't care.

For plates (and other less than brick sized elements), it seems that LEGO hasn't switched back yet to solid tubes, I checked several recent sets I have built here...
Same story as for the bricks though, neither LEGO nor bricklink identify the elements as different, except that it will be harder to find plates with solid tubes as the molds where switched out during the 90's.
Also, I recall having read somewhere that LEGO didn't replace all the molds in one go during the 90's. LEGO kept using the old molds until they were worn out. This meant that both solid and hollow tube bricks and plates were present in sets during that time, sometimes even in the same set.

Thank you, at least I found an hint regarding hollow posts on the underside of plates.


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Identify set(s) based on open bags
How can we identify these Lego bags?
It has 2017 year on the bags. Also, there are five random pieces of bags. Most of those pieces yellow and orange colors

Since at least some of these bags have been opened, their contents no longer help us in determining which set(s) they were from. At this point, they are just random plastic bags. You have combinations of elements in these bags that do not exist as combinations of pieces within one single set, for example in the top-left bag (with #2 on it) you have both a 2x8 Brick in Dark Bluish Gray as well as a 6x5 Girder in Yellow. Those pieces have never been in a set together (the Brick in Dark Bluish Gray only ever came in 2 sets).

Came to the same conclusion, some of the combinations are simply not possible according to bricklink... Also, some elements lead to sets that definitely would not have their bags numbered (sets too small/easy for that)...


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How to cross reference a part to all instruction guide pages
Built my new Millenium Falcon and took it into the office before someone managed to knock it off my desk and onto the floor. It blew up.
Having managed to rebuild it, there are a few pieces left over that I can't figure out where they originally went.
Is there a way for a given piece to find out all the pages in the instruction manual where it is used?

I don't think such resource exists. Would be great if it did exist but seems to me quite a bit of effort to update such database for every produced set. LEGO is not likely to have or publish such information, so the database would have to be updated manually...

Related: https://bricks.stackexchange.com/questions/10021/how-to-visually-search-for-specific-parts-in-a-3d-model

Depending on how common is your part, a combination of the PDF manual and 3D models can help. I am looking for tools that can filter and locate parts within the model and indicate them visually.

I'm using the discontinued program LEGO Digital Designer where what you want to do can be done with the program's Selection Tools.
BIG NOTE:  The only thing you'll have to do is to search for your model in LDD format.  I'll give you a leg up and schmooogle a search string query for you. You'll just have to sift through and find that file.  Good luck!
Okay, Friend, shall we diiiiive in?! RIGHT! LET'S GO!!
I'm gonna step through the motions using a model comparable to the size of your busted up Falcon.
Schmooogle says there are 7,541 pieces in MF, so we have to go big with Super Mario Bros. End Stage Castle which pieces out at 7,994 bricks.

1)  First let's imagine it was knocked off it's perch:(
2)  Painstakingly rebuild what we can, but... huh, we got extras?... F***!!
3)  We got 5 stragglers in hand...err empty blue glove:

a red inverted slope,
a 1x1 white brick with a hole in it,
a yellow 1x1 tile stuck to a yellow 1x1 plate,
and finally a 2x3 brown brick.

4)  Open your model in LDD.

5)  Use the menu and place a digital copy of each extra real-life piece at the bottom of your model all in a nice neat little row.

6)  Okay, zoom out a little.  One at a time using the "Shape and Color" Selection Tool, click on each extra piece to highlight all bricks in your model that has that same shape and color.

7)  To see those pieces visually unhindered by other bricks, click "Invert" selection to highlight everything that wasn't originally highlighted.

8)  Then hide those obstructing bricks by clicking the "Hide" selection tool.

9) For remaining bricks:
Lather,
Rinse,
and Repeat.
Whoa! That's a lot of 2x3 bricks!.  In cases like this you might have to practice up , and do some old school find the difference picture comparisons, and get yourself geared up to find that missing hole in your model.  Good luck!

Here! Enjoy a troll fish...lol!  Peace!

Wow! Amazing what can be done with that software; nice tutorial on how to "reverse-engineer" to find where the missing pieces go.


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How can I access the brick id in ev3-g?
How can I access the brick ID ( or brick information) in ev3-g?

I don't think this identifier is used anywhere in the EV3 software or EV3-G programming language. Can you tell us why you would need it? Perhaps we can offer other suggestions... Note that you can give your brick a name in the hardware tab of your project (bottom-right)...

I want to make a block that works only in a specified brick.

Only thing I can think of is to write the ID in a text file manually and use the file block to read the ID.
To do that: Use an application like notepad++ to create the text file. Make sure the line endings are just a newline character, not the carriage return.
Save the file with .rtf as extension.
Use the memory browser in the EV3 software to upload the file to the brick in the project folder of your program...
Alternatively, modify your program temporarily to write the ID first to file (manually select the value in a File block...), don't forget to close the file (second file block).

I want to give this block to another person. And I also want this block, doesn't work in another bricks

I don't think what you wish to accomplish is possible in EV3-g. There are other programming languages / environments (e.g. LeJos, ev3dev) where this task would be trivial.

This is the correct answer. There's no way to accomplish this task using EV3-G blocks.


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How to visually search for specific parts in a 3D model?
For a missed/loose piece that needs to be reattached, I plan to check all the steps where the piece was used. If I can also get an overview of the possible piece locations from the existing 3D models, that should speed things up as well. However, I don't see any option to filter/show by piece in Mecabricks or LDD. Is there any other way?

If you're trying to reattach one piece to a single set, I would advise you to let us know in your question which set and part you're trying to reattach. If you're just asking to find out if there is a function to search for part usage during building, hopefully someone answers you soon :)

@SlicksterTheBrickster It was something from 75192..figured it out in the end by careful backtracking. I did not specify any model so that the question can be more useful to others.

Okay Bro, here we go.  I still use LEGO Digital Designer.  Open it, and you'll be using a combination of a few tools to filter out the exact piece locations in your model's 3 dimensional space.
Below we'll use pictures of Bowser as an example for a few selections.

The "Selection" tool sub tools:

Single Selection: Pick one piece you want to move.

Multiple Selection: Pick multiple pieces you want to move. Shortcut Key:  Hold down control button to to select multiple pieces.

Connected Selection: Move the pieces that interlock in a continuous cluster. (VERY USEFUL FOR ME!)

Color: Pick a specific color.

Shape: Pick a specific shape REGARDLESS of color.

Color and Shape: Pick a specific shape and color.

A combination of two other tools that will bring it all together is the "Invert" Selection Tool and the "Hide" Section tool.
Connected + Hide Example:
In this example of "Connected" Selection, look at Bowser's toes.  They're not highlighted, which means they are not connected, but after we hit the "Hide" button we see a green piece of Bowser's chest just a floatin' too.

Connected.

Hidden.
Multiple Shape + Invert + Hide + Shape and Color Example:
I buy my models on Bricklink.com but have to upload them through Stud.io, but Stud.io doesn't recognize which 1x1 tiles LEGO Digital Designer is using.  So, I have to filter them out regardless of color, and figure out how many of each color I need to manually add them to my purchase later.

Selection of 1x1 tile regardless of color.

Invert Selection.

Hide non 1x1 tiles.

Specific Color and Shape for PINK.  Lower left corner tells me exact amount I need in this color.

Specific Color and Shape for GREEN.  Lower left corner tells me exact amount I need in this color.

Specific Color and Shape for TAN.  Lower left corner tells me exact amount I need in this color.
With these combinations you should be able quickly see and fix your shit!  Good luck and Later!

invert selection is the key here, very good explanation of LDD functionality which I had no idea of


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Is the app to print LEGO storage labels from www.bricklabels.com still available somewhere?
It seemed like the perfect solution, so that I am not printing labels that I don't need.  However, the domain is for sale, and I am not well-versed in github so I don't know how to get the application from there.

I'm not aware of this being live anywhere. It looks like a web app, so it may be a little tricky to get running if you aren't familiar with those. For others, I think this is the Github repo: https://github.com/Gottwik/legolabels

Do you mean http://www.legolabels.com?  That site still seems accessible.

Maybe they renamed themselves.  Those look very similar to what I remember on the other site.

In which case LEGO Groups legal department won’t be impressed.


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Can I import existing Lego kits into LEGO Digital Designer?
Is there any way to import existing LEGO kits into LDD (LEGO Digital Designer)?
For example, I like to have this set in the LDD and
https://shop.lego.com/en-US/Compact-Tracked-Loader-42032
I know I can download the PDF instructions, and I like to have the model in LDD or any other LEGO 3D designing tool.

The only way to achieve that is to manually build the set in LDD. If you don't want to do it yourself, check the Eurobricks library for sets built in LDD by the LEGO fan community. You can find virtually any set released within the last several years: https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/41226-key-topic-official-lego-sets-made-in-ldd/
The set you mentioned is on the list, so all you have to do is download the LDD file. :)


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EV3 brick not turning on, nothing on display?
Ev3 brick not turning on, nothing on display, just red leds are on, tried 3 buttons not working.

Each time I experienced what you are describing, replacing the batteries with fully charged ones addressed the issue...

I add the same problem. Hitting the central button would only turn on the red light and they would start blinking. As Michael said, replacing the batteries with brand new ones solved the problem. +1

Try pressing the 'return' button along with the center button for about 5 seconds


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Which set is this bag 3 from?

This is the bag. Please help me identify and find instructions.

Do you have any other pictures of the bag?  The glare on the bag makes it hard to see the parts.  A picture of the back in better light would make this much easier.

THe appearance of  part 973pb2859c01 - Torso Scuba Vest with Utility Belt with Pouches and Lavender Tentacles Pattern / Yellow Arms / Black Hands means this is from one of these 3 The Lego Ninjago Movie sets.
The dominance of Red and Black bricks, combined with the presence of part 78c02 - Flat Silver Hose, Ribbed 7mm D. 2L narrows it down to set 70615 - Fire Mech.


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Which set is this bag 2 from? White airplane pieces?
Which set is it from? Can I build anything with it on its own? It says 2007 on the bag.

3367 space shuttle seems to match, although it is a 2011 set
https://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemInv.asp?S=3367-1
The tail piece does not appear in older sets in white according to bricklink...

That's the one! Thank you so much. It seems that for some reason the copy right was in 2007. Secondary question, i got that bag in an other set i got from a charity shop. What would be the best way to get the pieces from the bag 1? Or shoukd i just give up the idea and leave the pieces to my son's imagination?

The year on the bag, might just be the year the bag was produced/designed. For getting the pieces from the other bag(s) of the set (and the pieces et al. - e.g. the sticket sheet - not in any bag), you can use bricklink, if you make a wish list I believe you can make bricklink tell you which seller has the most of the needed parts, but it's going to be a lot of work, and if you can't find one or two sellers that have everything, shipping costs might make it more expensive than just ordering the complete set.

More likely in my opinion that the 2007 is another code altogether than that the bag was produced/designed 4 years in advance...

The design of the bag (typography, placement of text, production mechanism) was copyrighted in 2007 and likely used from that year onwards until replaced with the next style bag (copyright 2011), which is used on some current sets still, even though it has been replaved by yet another design (with the white band down the middle) in 2017.


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LEGO Digital Designer Part Numbers
When I go through these LEGO kit instructions (as an example)
https://shop.lego.com/en-CA/Telehandler-42061
I get the list of all parts and part numbers at the end of the PDF pages:

None of the part numbers in the above list are recognised by the LDD. LDD had different part numbers. Why is that?
Is there any easy way to convert part numbers mentioned in the instruction PDFs to the LDD part numbers? Or is there any easy way to have LDD recognize the part numbers in the instruction PDFs?
Update 1:
All of the parts in the 42061 kit are available in LDD, with different part#. You can see for yourself by taking a look at its LXF file available for download here:
https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/41226-key-topic-official-lego-sets-made-in-ldd/&page=189

The two different number systems are:

Element ID: 6-7 digits, uniquely identifies a piece by shape and color
Part number: usually 4-5 digits, uniquely identifies a piece shape, stamped on many bricks

(Unfortunately an element ID is not simply a few numbers added onto a part number)
In LDD regular mode (not extended mode), you can search by both numbers. I was able to find the 3L blue pins by searching both element ID 4514553 and part number 6558. When in extended mode however you can only search by part number (many of those pieces listed are only in extended mode).
Generally, you can also search for an element ID on BrickLink and find the part number. Not sure about going the other way.

Please see the Update 1 I added to my post. All of the kit#42061 parts are available in LDD, with a different part number.

@AllanXu Yeah, you're right. Turns out extended mode works differently. I've updated my answer.


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Why do hidden Lego pieces have different colours?
I noticed recently that hidden Lego pieces in many sets (I did not check them all of course) have completely different colours than those are visible. They usually differ from not only the colour of the visible parts but they seem to be somewhat randomly coloured. Why aren't they coloured the same as the other pieces? Is it cheaper to use base colours?
Example: The statue of liberty set (21042) practically has two colours visible (green and sand), however inside there are red, yellow, blue and black pieces as well.

Seems to be a duplicate of Why do some sets contain parts of an unrelated colour that are hidden on the final model.

Using different colors on the inside makes the instructions easier to follow. For example, in the case of the Statue of Liberty that you mentioned, if the entire model was sand-green, it would be easier to make mistakes in 1.) following the printed instructions, 2.) finding the pieces in the pile of loose elements, and 3.) attaching the pieces to the model under construction.
Remember that LEGO sets are primarily designed for children, so LEGO puts a lot of testing and effort into making the instructions frustration-free. Using different colors is beneficial even for older LEGO fans who may start to have failing eyesight and would have difficulty finding pieces and seeing the instructions clearly.
As far as which colors are chosen for the interior, they are something that contrast with the main colors of the model, easy to see in the instructions booklet, and easy to find in the pile of loose elements. Another thing that may be taken into consideration is that if the set has instructions for alternate models and what colors those alternate models would need (i.e. LEGO Creator 3-in-1 sets).

"As far as which colors are chosen" - one more aspect is - what colors are in production at the same time, for other sets. Saves money.

Easier building: If all bricks where the same color you would have a harder time to see where one brick ends and another starts.
Availability: In some cases parts are only available in specific colors. LEGO could produce them in new colors, but for inside parts that is not needed so they reuse the existing color(s).


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NXT motors spin when in air but stop on ground
I have a car that I made with 2 motors in the back and one motor in the front. The motors spin fine in the air but when I put it on the ground to test my program the motors stop. The robot itself isn't very heavy so I don't think that is the issue.

Did you try what Phantom_IV suggested? I bet either the gear ratio between the front & back motors are different (which would cause the gear binding that Phantom_IV mentions) or else your batteries might just be too weak to drive the motors? Try disconnecting the front motor from the wheels, so the front wheels free-wheel to test if different gear ratios (wheels spinning at different rates) is causing binding.

I just noticed you have some sort of sensor in the front facing down; is that an optical sensor? Does your program turn the wheel motors off if it detects something? Try pointing the optical sensor off to the side & see if the motors start driving the car then.

It  is a color sensor for a line follower I am trying to make.

How can your car steer to follow the line? Is that what the front motor does? Or did you plan on the rear motors turning in opposite directions to steer it? To troubleshoot, did you try holding the car in the air, but with the color sensor pointing at your desk at the same height from it as shown in the picture? If you do that, do the rear wheels stop? If so, then it's your program that's making them stop. You'll have to troubleshoot your program.

NXT and EV3 motors don't slip unless set to coasting. This means that any external means to speed up or slow down the motor will be counteracted by the motor control. I believe basically one or more of your motors is acting as a brake for the others because the controllers believe that they should act that way to obtain the desired speeds you programmed them.
Even if all things are equal (desired motor speed, direction and wheel diameter), other minor variations within the motors can cause variations in the total speed that are counterproductive...
I once created a sumo bot having three motors, the intention being two motors for tank steering and an additional motor to provide extra power. I think this is similar as to what you are trying to achieve. My solution was to combine the motor speeds with differentials (as present in several technic vehicle sets)...

Can you post a picture of your car? Is it possible that the gearing is different, or wheel size is different, between the front & back? Maybe that would cause the gearing to bind up. Maybe try letting the front wheel free-spin (no motor) to see if the rear wheels will propel the car by themselves. If that works, switch it around, and let the rear wheels free-spin and see if the front motor can propel the car on its own. If so, note the speed of the car with the rear wheels motorized, and compare it to the speed of the car with the front wheel motorized. If it's different, then gear binding might be the issue.

Sounds/looks like a software issue.  My first guess was that the program is jumping straight into a line following algorithm and that program is stopping as soon as it detects the table top.  But, that would be fairly easy to test by approaching the table from the edge of the table, so the light sensor would stop the motors before the back wheels got close to the table.
Second guess.  The line following algorithm starts up in a mode that runs the motors at a low power setting (less than 5), which works when suspended in air, but it not enough power to turn the wheels when on the table because there is some resistance (either the front wheels or ?).  The line following is waiting for some rotation distance before moving to the next step and it waits forever.
Probably best to copy/paste sections of the program.  Throw out half until something works.
Of course, a screenshot of the program would help.


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Help identifying a bag containing many white plates
I have a bag with number 135149. Can anyone help identify the set it comes from?

This bag is from 75053-1: The Ghost


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What part(s) can I use to connect technic liftarms with modules?
I have the following setup:

How can I connect the liftarm to the stacked bricks? The holes have different distances, so I can't just use black pins. Any suggestions?

IIRC, the will holes line up every 3 or 4 bricks?

Put two plates between each layer of Technic bricks and the holes will align.
This technique was used commonly in studded Technic sets. Here's a page from the instructions for 8042 where you can see this used in several different places:

Are there any pictures of this technique?

Is this suitable for a strong connection?

@chicks Added an image for you

This is one of the times I want to be able to upvote an edit.  Thanks for the helpful picture.

@nikeee this ist one of the strongest connections used by TLC


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9398 reduction change
I am studying implementation of 9398 crawler reduction.
Here is the stripped part, in order to see the gears and their relation - the image is made with the excellent tool which is LDCad.

My idea is to use this Lego design for other model and I need to know how would I calculate the effect of changing it a bit.
My intention is to replace the two 16 teeth gears 94925:

with a pair of 12 and 20 teeth (32270 and 32269):

and to remove the last reduction pairs, the ones in portal axle:

so it would be as follows:

Would this become faster/less powerful or slower/more powerful?
My aim would be to keep it pretty close to how it performs now.
Also, is there a way to combine gears in order to add a distance of half of a stud between the motor axle and the next or the second one? In the image below, I have moved the parts and created a gap between the gears, in order to point what I intend to move, but the contact must be assured by some gears, obviously by replacing the existing ones. Would be there possible?

This modification won't change the rate of reduction.
You can calculate the ratio of the angular velocities of two adjacent gearwheels as
i12 = w2/w1 = n1/n2
where w is the angular velocity and n is the number of teeth of the gears. Hence the original reduction reads as:
i12*i23*i34*i45*i56 = 12/20 * 16/16 * 20/28 * 12/20 * 12/20 = 27/175 = 0.1543
while the modified is:
i12*i23*i34*i45 = 12/20 * 12/20 * 20/28 * 12/20 = 27/175 = 0.1543
What you did is you simply removed the 16/16 and replaced the 12/20 gears, which results in the same reduction because the order of the multiplication is arbitrary.
To the second question:
You can change the 12-20 gears to 16-24 ones to fit the increased distance. In this case, the new reduction is
i12*i23*i34*i45 = 16/24 * 12/20 * 20/28 * 12/20 = 6/35 = 0.1714
Note that the new gears may intersect parts not shown in the figures.

If the only change is replacing the two 16-tooth gears with a 12-tooth gear and a 20-tooth gear, then you will reduce speed by a factor 12/20 and increase torque by the same factor.
If you want to increase the distance between gears by 1/2 stud, then you can experiment with using bigger gears and offsetting the motor sideways so the gears don't touch vertically. This may induce some play in the gears.

I would drop the portal axles, so the performance will be kept. The reason is for implementing this on other model with less axle height (42069). Well, I did it partially, but using a horizontal transmission and keeping a similar design, with only 2 reductions instead of 3 (as this model has). It performs acceptable - a little faster than 9398, but powerful enough to run over decent obstacles for its tracks. I couldn't find a combination of gears for that 0.5 stud displacement, though. The gears are usually too tight to work safely together.


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Was the LEGO flower petal redesigned?
I noticed part 24866 in one of our sets from TLG:

This looks a bit different to me. Has this part been redesigned?

After a bit of research, it looks like this is a new part for 2018.
The part that it is likely replacing is the old flower petal with stud connections:
Old: New:
The new part has 5 petals instead of 4, and they are shorter so that they don't collide with neighboring parts at any angle. New Elementary did a writeup on the new flower parts that includes an image to highlight this:

Both parts include the interior flower stem connector so that they can be used with either the new or recently redesigned flower stem.

It looks good from above but bad from all other angles. The petals simply aren't proportional to the plate height, which is a shame. IMO the trade-off in favor of functionality is rather poor.

I see your point. They look particularly stubby when compared to the original flower petal.

On the bright side, having more flower molds means you can mix and match them to create more diverse gardens and even bouquets :)


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Can I use two remote-controlled LEGO Tracked Racers 42065 simultaneously?
I want to buy two sets of the LEGO Tracked Racer 42065 so that my children can play together. I can't tell if they would be able to use the racers simultaneously.
Are the IR receivers multi-channel? Can the sets be raced simultaneously?

Great question and welcome to Bricks!

Yes, LEGO's Power Function IR elements have 4 different channels you can switch between with an orange slider on the receivers and remotes, so you can run up to 4 at a time.

Another friend in our LUG uses 4 models at a time. Two for each of her sons, one for their uncle and one for herself...
She redid the models in splendid new color schemes:

That's very cool with the customizations. What is LUG?

Lego user group... a lego club operating in a certain way... some are recognized by the LEGO group, those are RLUGs, they can offer advantages to their members with support from LEGO but also have some responsibilities towards LEGO then. I'm sure you can find a LUG in your area if you are so inclined...

Thank you. I didn’t know. I live in São Paulo, Brazil. I imagine a city this size has to have a LUG or RLUG. I’ll do some research. Thank you for the insight.

The following website can be used to locate a LUG: https://lan.lego.com/clubs/overview/ So for you that would be LUG Brazil, I met some quite nice people of that LUG at the Portugal fanweekend event last weekend ;)


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Why are my pieces breaking? "3612 Arm piece straight with 2 and 3 fingers"
I've dug up my old LEGO (from 1990's) and most bricks are simply scratched and dirty.
However, the arm pieces 3612 break on touch!

Are they simply a bad, too thin, design, or is there something more to this abnormal degradation?
I don't suppose there is anything to be done to fix the bricks now?

Transparent or  not?

Normal bricks. Fully opaque.

OK,  then I have no clue.

Interesting. What percentage of these parts are breaking? Were they assembled during storage or loose?

I've had pieces with those connectors crack too, even back when they were brand new.

During the 90's I was gifted older LEGO bricks from a friend of my parents that were about 30 years old. Many were discolored, warped and specifically the blue and gray pieces would break if flexed.
30 years forward and some of pieces from my 90's mix are discolored specifically gray, blue, white, yellow, brown.  I think there is shelf life of about 30 years with certain color blends.  Note that pieces that have sat in sunlight have been affected more.  Maybe the sun's UV rays are not so good for certain color blends.
A few suggestions:
(1) Buy new.  Head over to Bricklink and buy new pieces.  Unfortunately, I've never seen this piece in Green and the site is saying that this is somewhat rare. (Site wise only two exist! Sold by a store in Belgium at $2.16 each. Ouch!).
Record keeping purposes.  After breaking out my pieces from the 90's, I have creations and designs that once disassembled would be lost.  I don't want to lose these old drafts, or the build knowledge gleaned from them that I could use in future creations. Things can get more exasperated if these pieces are breaking due to time.
(2a) Get a virtual LEGO program (I still use the discontinued LEGO Digital Designer) and preserve your builds digitally.  Label them correctly and store them indefinitely in The Cloud.
(2b) For me, I can look at a model and figure out how it was made, so it might be faster to use your phone and make a short video of your creation from all angles, and upload that for preservation to The Cloud.
And finally, those pieces I have that are at least 60 years old, a few blue pieces can be crumpled in one hand...


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App (Win/Android) for managing and cataloging Lego sets
I'm looking for an app to keep track of my Lego sets. For my DVDs/BRs I'm using DVD Profiler:

Desktop application (Win 7+)
Android/iOS app
They sync by using a single account
But you can use all the apps offline as well

I don't need "fancy" functions like seeing what other sets I would be able to build with the bricks I own, I just want to add new sets on my PC (Win 7), then see which sets I own on my PC and an Android phone (offline as well!).
If I can set the purchase price and date (and maybe when I first/last built the set), that would be a huge plus but I can live without functions like that.
Is there anything like that?

Brickset allows you to do all of the things you mentioned. It's very simple to use, but it also has some optional advanced features. You can read more about keeping track of your collection on Brickset here: https://brickset.com/mycollection
There are some Brickset based apps providing options for Android and Windows 8+, although I'm not familiar enough with them to be able to recommend one that would work for you.

Unfortunately Brickset is a website and because of that I won't be able to manage my collection offline, which is a must for me. I'm looking for a Windows application with an Android "companion" app, maybe something that uses your Brickset profile?

There are some Brickset apps, although I'm not familiar enough with them to be able to recommend one that would work for you, but someone else might be able to point you in the right direction.


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Is there a cross-reference guide?
Is there a database that will tell you what possible sets you are able to build based on the sets you already own, sort of a cross reference guide?

Welcome to Bricks.SE! I've closed this question as it appears to be a duplicate of one of our previous questions. Hopefully the answers there meet your needs. If there is anything else that we can help with, feel free to ask other questions!


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How can I motorize 42077 Technic Rally Car with LEGO Power Functions?
The new 42077 Technic Rally Car set looks really nice, and even has a built-in steering system which can be controlled by a gear on the top. There's also a fair bit of extra room inside, is there a way to add Power Functions elements to make it remote controlled?

Please add the “Annual-support” tag :)

@PhilB. I've added that in.

With some Power Functions elements and a few extra pieces, it's pretty easy to turn the Rally Car into an RC car.
Here's a quick demo video of my design in action.

And here are the instructions I made for it.
Required extra pieces
First you are going to need some extra pieces:

Power Functions:

1x - Servo Motor
1x - IR Receiver
1x - Battery Box
1x - L-Motor (alternately you can use an M-Motor but it is not as powerful)

Technic:

1x - 5L beam
2x - 2L thin beam
4x - Axle Pin with Friction Ridges
2x - 3L axle

In addition to that, you will need a Power Functions remote, and possibly some extra pieces to build the remote. If you don't have a remote already, there are instructions for one at the end.
Disassembly
To add power functions, you will need to disassembly it a bit to remove the engine block and manual steering system.

Remove doors.

Remove roof sides.

Remove roof gear and pull the blue pins out one step.

Take the center of the roof off with the front window frame.

Detach the trunk.

Detach the hood.

Remove seats.

Remove fire extinguisher.

Remove manual steering.
Removing the steering system is a little tricky, but doable.

Locate the place where it attaches to the back.

Push up on the grey piece to detach it from the small black pieces, so you can slide it back and remove all the yellow pieces.

All of these pieces should be removed.

Also remove the black and blue pieces that hold it.

After they are removed, the engine block will be easier to remove.

Removing engine block

On the back, locate this area.

Partially detach it temporarily.

Remove the gear and axles.

Reattach the section.

From the underside, locate where the engine block attaches at the back.

Push up to detach the engine block and the white pieces and pins that attached it.

Check alignment
At this point, you going to want to make sure the front gear attached to the gear rack for steering is perfectly vertically aligned like so. If not, slide the pin out and adjust it. It needs to be vertical for the servo motor to attach to it.

Locate pieces
In these sections you removed, you will find some other pieces you will need.

Disassemble them to find these pieces.

Add drive motor

Build this.

From the underside, position it to slide in the back into the differential area.

In this area, you are going to need to add the black gear.

Hold a black gear in place, then slice the axle and motor into the holes.

Add steering motor

In the front, flip up this white panel.

Slide the dark grey in the gear out one stud.

Build this bracket.

Insert it here, then slide the red pins out one stud.

Through the seating area, insert the servo motor into the bracket and push the red pins back in.

Now if the axle is correctly aligned, you can just slide the axle into the motor.

Flip the panel back down.

Adding Battery Box

Build the following.

Slide the batter box into the back here.

On the sides, attach it with the pieces you just built.

Re-assembly

Reattach seats.

Reattach hood.

Reattach roof center, and slide the blue pins back in.

Reattach the trunk to the blue pins.

Hold the trunk in the up position, and reattach the roof sides.

Reattach the doors.

IR Receiver

Attach black pins to the receiver, and attach it to the spoiler.

It's tricky, but run the wire through the crack down to the batter box.

Now run the wires from the motors up through that crack, and attach to the IR receiver, servo to blue, engine to red.

Turning the car on.
Turning the car on/off is as simple as opening the hood and switching the orange switch on the battery box.

Remote
You can build the following remote with a few extra pieces.

Power Functions:

1x - IR Remote Control

Technic:

2x - Axle Pin 3L with Friction Ridges
2x - Axle and Pin Connector Angled #1
2x - Axle 2L
1x - Liftarm 1 x 4 Thin with Stud Connector (or the version without the stud connector)
1x - Wheel 30.4mm D. x 20mm (or some other wheel rim)

Build sticks.

Attach sticks.

Build arm.

Attach arm.

Attach wheel.

Happy building!

This is FANTASTIC

Great writeup! This is thorough and beautiful. Nice work!

Nice work and write up! I would suggest popping out the steering limiters on the steering rack as well. Much better turning radius without them.


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Red 2x3 plate with triangle post part number?
2x3 plate with a triangular post.  Found 2 in a bin with a1 and a2 on the bottom

Does this answer your question? Part Identification - bricks with posts

These are train direction toggle posts from the old 4.5V train system. Part 3218 Train Direction Switch - 4.5V 2 x 3.


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What LEGO set is this thrift store find from, dark red and dark grey?
The part from a thrift store box of LEGO parts:

It appears to be the main model from Ronin R.E.X. (70735-1):


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Lego Part identification needed (x4)
Four different parts that I'm struggling to load onto Rebrickable.
Any help gratefully received.
Part A is a 1x1 round plate with a open stud and a horizontal bar.
I'm not convinced that it is actual Lego, but would be happy to be proven wrong.
Part B is a 1x2 brick with no studs as it is split into two hollow channels that work as stud holders from either side. Again, probably not Lego I'm guessing.
Part C is a 2x2 cone (1 brick tall) with an open stud and four oval mouldings on the side.
Part D is a pylon of sorts. It sits on a 2x2 base and is 3 bricks tall and is slightly swept back, rather than being completely vertical. The top stud is open, but the 2 studs on the 'branches' are hollow with the Lego logo in each of them. However, the underside of the base doesn't look like what you would usually expect Lego to look like from that angle.

Part A is definitely from megablocks - I've shown one here before.

The last part is 4289 Boat Mast 2 x 2 x 3 Inclined with Stud on Top and Two Sides:

I believe you are correct that the others are not LEGO elements.


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How can you pin the Penguin Suit Guy down?
I like penguins and so I was really amazed to find the Penguin Suit Guy in Collectible Minifigures Series 16:

But despite coming with the 88646 tile he won't stick to it because of the skates:

There's no place to receive studs or anything else on the back of the legs.  So how can I keep the Penguin Suit Guy from bouncing around in his display case for ever more?  Is there a way to easily attach to the skates and not break too many LEGO best practices?

Whilst I wouldn't normally condone it, if he is going to be in the display case forever more, then glue may be a solution. Also, you have his right skate on backwards.

Instead of glue, a little bit of blu-tack will work also. This way, the attachment won't be permanent. OP could also just remove the skates and put them next to the stand. It's how most people display the penguin. There is also a possibility of angling the skates a bit to "hug" one of the studs on the plate. It's not a sturdy solution, but it allows the penguin to stand with the skates on.

Once I got the pictures in the computer I saw the reversed skate too.  I wish I could still see these things unaided, but my eyes are not as young as they once were.

Using glue would get me unglued grief from the lady in my life so that's not an option for me.  Blu-tack sounds like the easiest option, but I'm working on a brick-built solution.  I should be able to test it tonight or tomorrow.  If it works I'll definitely add an answer.

I was really stumped on this when I posted the question because there didn't seem to be any place to attach to.  But then I realized the neck could be a starting place.  I tried some things with hinges and plates, but decided to simplify and I ended up with:

With only 4 pieces I was able to get this to work out pretty nicely.  From neck to plate there are:

42446 "Minifig, Neck Bracket with Back Stud" - above in Brown
30241 "Brick, Modified 1 x 1 with Clip Vertical" - above in Blue
4599b the common Tap - the only Black part added above
3005 Brick 1x1 - above in Lime

Looking at it from the front you can't see the additional parts much at all:

You can barely see some of the lime between his legs.  Switching to black bricks there's no chance of even that shining through:

I'm happy now that he won't be rattling around in his case forever.
And I hope folks are relieved to see his skates are going the right direction today.  I'm sure that made the skating easier until I pinned him down.  :-)

The neck bracket is available in black which makes it look even better

For any CMF's with skates, I put the figure on the stand with no footwear, and attach the footwear to the holes behind their legs.  That way their accessories are there, and stuck to the figure, but the figure is on its stand!

That's a worthy idea, but it doesn't work in this case because their are no holes in the back of the legs.

Spring-boarding off your nice work-around, I would suggest a further aesthetic tweak with the symmetrical re-positioning of the support shaft, and as a bonus, eliminating the 88646 tile all together, if it's not being used.
I don't have penguin accessories in my parts library, but here are some pics to help visualize my techno babble;)

While looking up the series, I noticed many of them come with the studs-down-the-middle 88646 tile, given that this is the standard baseplate for all of them, this work-around still mimics the same footprint this baseplate uses, and in conjunction with your tweak, pins down Penguin Suit mini-fig dead center.
R.I.P. Loki...

This is an interesting addition.  Thanks for the screen shots to make your plan clear.  Since the other minifigs all have the 88646 tile I'd like to keep that under the guy if possible for consistency.  With that tile the minifig will either be sitting on the studs or between them and I think between the studs looks better.


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Help needed on identifying parts and assemblies, yellow Technic pieces and teal lobster?
I have the following pieces and sub-assemblies and would like some help determining what sets they are from.  The green/turquoise crab has a 993-1 mark on it, but have not been able to find anything about it.

The right assembly is from set 8225 - Road Rally V from 1995.

The middle assembly is likely a MOC, there is no set that I can find which includes this build with the 2 1x4x2 Fence pieces with only 2 studs in either Dark Gray or Dark Bluish Gray.
The crab-like item on the left is from set 8268 - Scorpion Attack, also from 1995.

I used BL and searched for alternative words to ‘crab’. As it happened, Scorpion was the first alternative I looked for, and the rest is history :)


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Duplo rail accessory compatibility with older trains

Are the new Duplo rail accessories, like #6225521 and #6225519  (appearing in, for example Duplo #10872: Train Bridge and Tracks; #10874: Steam Train; and #10875: Cargo Train) compatible with older Duplo trains (for example, #10507: My First Train Set and #10508: Deluxe Train Set)?

Physically, these parts are compatible. They simply rest in between the rails. Various elements have made use of the space between the rails for years, such as points:

Older trains don't have any way to understand the function elements and respond accordingly, but they won't derail or anything like that.


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Repeat until sensor value is accepted does not work.
I am trying to create a robot that follows a line. I want the robot to turn on its vertical axis ("move-tank") until it finds the line again and then keep going straight. My problem is that the "repeat turning until color sensor value is less than 20" loop does not stop although the sensor value meets the criteria (i.e. less than 20).
This is my code:

Any ideas what am I doing wrong?
The logic inside the loop 02 is that it turns tank-left (-10,10) for 0.5, then it turns tank-right (-1 x -10, -1 x 10) for 0.5 + 0.3 seconds, etc until it finds the line (sensor value < 20).

The loop does stop but you can not see it: You should add a brake block after the loop that runs until colour sensor<20 otherwise there is no visible indication that the loop has stopped. Hope this helped.


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What are some uses of part 93589?
I discovered that part 93589:

Was used in the Creator set Extreme Engines (31072):

This element strikes me as the sort of part-out-of-other-parts that was created to serve a single purpose: the front end on specific race cars. For most cases, it seems like the 4x1 slope curved can do the job quite well minus the slight curve at the front:

The element only gets used in the main model. What are some other uses for this part? Why was it created?

This part was introduced for licensed polybags in the Racers Ferrarri line (30195 and 30190):

It has been used that way a few other times since then, but it has also been used a few other ways in released sets.
It was used in 95012-1 BARC Speeder with Sidecar to round out the back end of the CIS speeder nicely:

And identically in 75017-1 Duel on Geonosis:

The part was also used to create a nice nose for a dragon in 70736-1 Attack of the Morro Dragon:

It has also been used in a couple different City sets to round off aircraft components such as the engines on 4209-1 Fire Plane:

And the top of the Helicopter in 60010 Fire Helicopter:

This part has only appeared in about a dozen sets in six different colors. It's fun to have another shape to play with in models, and this part adds some unique possibilities to possible builds.


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Can anyone help identify the LEGO bags, lime, dark green, and dark grey?
I have 3 bags of LEGO. I need the instructions. Can anyone help?

These bags are from
9457-1: Fangpyre Wrecking Ball

Based on

Track Element, 5X1,5
4625623: Cupboard 2X3X2
and the multiple other Bright Yellowish Green parts

Joost, thank you so much! we bought used Lego for our kids and got unopened Lego bags from time to time. This is going to make their day. Thanks again.


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Stepping through Mindstorm program for debugging
The code does not do what I think it should.  It is frustrating to tweak it, download it, run it from the block, and find that once again, it does not do what I think it should.
Is there some way to step through a program on the laptop, displaying variables, outputs etc as it runs?   Maybe lighting up each block as it is traversed in the program?  It is hard to see where my code is bad if I can only test it as a package.

No, the software does not provide these kinds of debugging capabilities (although it does animate each block as it runs if you start the program from the programming software instead of starting it from the brick).
There are other ways to debug though. Here are some ideas:

Use a display block to show values on the screen
Use tones/sounds to indicate when a certain point in the program has been reached
Use the brick lights to indicate the state of the program
Use a wait block with the brick buttons (or a touch sensor) to "pause" your program at a certain point, then press the button to resume

The block animation was subtle on my screen but I watched for it after your post.  Thanks.


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String thickness comparison
I am currently working on a project which uses a massive array of strings linking little levers.  I am currently using the "thin" type string as it is the only type I have, but I am running into problems caused by actuation distance in the levers being absorbed by the strings stretching.
I am wondering if using "medium" or "thick" type LEGO strings would lessen this issue (without losing more actuation to sag from being heavier) but I have none to test with.  Has someone done, or can someone do a test of elasticity between the string types?

Lego string used in Technic is now wider and a silvery color, it does not stretch much to my knowledge (I own some) so maybe try that, if the problem persists, maybe it's due to vibrations in the string.
Here is a url to the longest length of the new string: https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=x77cc300&idColor=85
and here is a link with the differnet strings lego make for sale: https://www.bricklink.com/catalogList.asp?catType=P&catString=231


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Help identifying LEGO set, smaller pieces with M printed on them?
These are smaller LEGO's than my kids normally play with. Some have an "M" on it and some still have "LEGO" on them.  What sets could these be from?

http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/Modulex From the sounds of it looks like they are part of the Modulex line that was released for professionals. From what I've read they are smaller than normal LEGO system parts.

With those "M" logos on the studs I was sure this was a clone brand.  It was neat to learn about Modulex's association with LEGO.


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Third power functions train runs backwards, why?
We have the passenger train and freight train, both run from a single controller - one through the red and one through the blue side. At Christmas we got the holiday train, and with the power functions kit coming back in stock with Lego, we just added power to it.
Having set this train to red on channel 2, its forward is counter clockwise. Both trains on channel 1 go forward when the dial is turned clockwise!
How do I reverse the controls of channel 2 without affecting channel 1?

Have you considered lifting the train off the track and turning it 180°?

Possible duplicate of My 9398 crawler going in reverse way

The power functions motor block is symmetrical except for where the power cable comes out:

So I think it likely you can (partially) rebuild your city train with the motor turned 180 degrees, which will clearly change the direction the train travels...
Since I would expect all trains going in the same direction when exactly built according to the instructions, perhaps you oriented the motor wrong in the city train or the other two trains ?

Looking at it all closer Michael Verschaeve has it. The drive units on the 2 large trains are the rear bogey on the train thus the power cable comes out the front of the bogey. On the Holiday train the power is in the front wheels so the power comes out the back. As such the unit is reversed and the drive. Stupid I didn’t notice it but thinking now I may switch both the big trains onto one channel and reverse the other for the holiday train.

There are little black switches on the train remote control which you can use to invert the direction.

The little black switches change the direction but of all the trains so the 2 trains on the red dial then reverse how they operate. This means the Christmas train and the blue train work turning the dial clockwise and the passenger train anti clockwise. Turning the train round to face the other way obviously makes no difference!

I see, you want the trains controlled by the same remote. Then my answer indeed doesn't help much, I'll post a different one

Any way to do this on the 88010 remote (or the 88009 hub / 88011 train motor)?

For the 88010 remote, you can physically turn the switch... (plus becomes in the minus position and vice versa), there are no additional control switches...


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Does my child need a smart device to control LEGO Powered Up train sets?
The first two Powered Up train sets can be controlled with smart devices (phone, tablet, etc). Is this required to control the trains?

No, a smart device is not required to control train sets 60197 and 60198. These include a standalone Powered Up remote control:

This provides much of the same functionality as a smart device. From the FAQ:

The LEGO® Powered Up remote control works a lot like how you would use your smart device (mobile phone or tablet for example) to control any other electronic device via Bluetooth technology. If you connect the remote control to the Smarthub in the train, you can control the speed or stop the train.

However, there are some features that are only available from a smart device:

The app does provide you with additional features, such as sounds, and the ability to see how fast the train is travelling from 0-10 increments.


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How many motors can be controlled using the Powered Up system?
I'm wondering how many motors I can control at the same time using the LEGO Powered Up system? What components are required to make this work?

With current hardware, the answer is 10. From the trains FAQ:

You can run up to 10 trains at the same time from one remote control. There are 5 channels on the remote control (you can tell them apart by their different colors), and with each channel you can control 2 Smarthubs in separate trains with motors plugged in – as long as on one train the motor is in port A of the Smarthub, and on the other train, port B.

Each Smarthub provides two ports:

There are 5 channels available on current remotes, so you can pair up to 5 remotes with Smarthubs and control 5×2=10 outputs at the same time.


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How do I connect the LEGO Powered Up remote control?
I'm trying to use the Powered Up remote control to control my new train set, but it doesn't seem to work. Is there some process that I need to follow to connect or pair the remote with the Smarthub?

The Powered Up system uses Bluetooth for control, so the remote needs to be paired with the Smarthub. To accomplish the pairing between the Powered Up remote and the Smarthub, you simply press the green buttons on both devices at the same time as shown in the instructions and in this review by Beyond the Brick:

If the pairing process works correctly, both devices should have their lights lit up in the same color.


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What is the range of the LEGO Powered Up remote control system?
I'm curious how far I will be able get away from my creation before the remote and/or smart device is no longer able to control it.

Your mileage may vary, but according to LEGO, the range is about 10m (33ft) in open air.

The Bluetooth signal distance is usually around 10 meters/33 feet in an open area, but it can vary, depending on a few things: Low batteries in the remote control, and obstacles – concrete walls, for example – may decrease the signal distance. Try to remove obstacles, or find another place to play with your train, if it seems like the distance is shorter than expected.


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How many and what kind of batteries are needed for LEGO Powered Up?
I'm considering picking up one of the Powered Up train sets. What kind of batteries does the included Powered Up remote control system use?

The current line of Powered Up components uses AAA batteries. The Powered Up team has indicated that both regular or rechargeable batteries should work fine.
You will need 10 AAA batteries to control one train with the included remote, or 6 if you are using a smart device as your remote. Here's the battery layout shown in the instructions:


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What is this large drag-grey piece? I see it being sold with 9v train tracks, and it is about the same size

What is this piece?  I see it being sold with 9v train tracks

Great question! Welcome to Bricks.SE!

That's part 42936 Track System, Straight Track 16 x 8 x 2.

It was used in the Racers track system and was found in sets in the early 2000s such as 4588 Off-Road Race Track:

It really has nothing to do with 9V train track, but sellers don't always understand the details of different track systems and simply sell elements that look like track together.