text:
Where can I obtain the software called “Instructor”?
The instructions on JK Brickworks state (boldface mine):

Publishing was done using Instructor version 1.6

However, if I search the Internet, the only pertinent results are the aforementioned instructions and the creator of that site does not provide any means to contact him to ask.
Where can I learn more about this software or obtain it? Is it known under another name?

An older version (1.4) of Instructor is advertised in this forum post and can be downloaded here.
As you can see on the Google+ post, the differences between 1.4 and 1.6 are mostly cosmetic.

It seems Instructor is actually being developed by JK Brickworks themselves, according to this Google+ post. Your best option would be asking them directly, as there is no download link on their website.

Your best option would be asking them directly – Sadly, I fail to find any contact information …

If you're on Facebook you can send them a message.  https://www.facebook.com/JKBrickworks/


text:
Help identifying which set this bag is from? White plates and Technic panels and transparent red circle plates?
Can anyone help to identify the set that is shown in the photos?
They were in a bulk lot of LEGO - so no manuals, no box.
Thanks!
Dale

Having a bag 4 implies a larger set so there should also be bags 1-3 and maybe 5 and up.  Do you have those too?  Or just bag 4?

Hi Chicks, I only have bags 3 and four (unopened). There may be some of the other parts in the bulk lot (already opened).

Given the transparent red Plate, Round 4 x 4 with 2 x 2 Hole, white plates, and trans-blue Windscreen this is set# 76028 Darkseid Invasion from the Justice League series.

Thank you very much! I will go through the lot and see if I can find the other pieces. I downloaded the instructions so will have a go at assembling the set.

My pleasure.  :)  Happy LEGOing.

source: Stack Exchange

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

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text:
Set number of this brick-built 2015 Canned Fish Toy commercial Award LEGO Duck
I found these two ducks in a thrift-store but cannot identify them or the award show. The text on the stickers says: "Canned fish - Toy commercial Award - 16-18 September 2015 - Ringkøbing" and the instructions are marked: "Design seminar 2015". Google is not my friend :-(

Not that this helps much, but if memory helps this duck is a recent remake of an old wood duck that was one of the first, pre-building-block toys made by Lego.

Edited my answer due to new findings. See if it works?

I looked into this, and it would seem that this is not a numbered model. According to an attendee of the event (who works for LEGO,) there aren't numbers for a lot of promotional sets, likely including this model. I have also searched Bricklink for this. It makes sense that this isn't a numbered set because it was for a seminar.

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


text:
What set is this LEGO pack from? Grey pieces with 10x10 octagonal plates in grey and green?
I need to know what set this LEGO pack is from as my friend gave me his packets but without the box and manual and said he lost it.

LEGO Kingdoms - King's Castle 7946.
I see the green and gray plates and other pieces the look like that
Edit to add supporting details for this answer: as of now (2022), 3 sets have at least two of each of the octagons, and only one of those has a substantial number of red pieces.


text:
How do I make the Mini Cooper (model 10242) motorized?
I'm trying to find out what exact parts I need to make the Lego Mini Cooper 10242 motorized. I'm trying to surprise my boyfriend with the set plus the parts he needs to make it motorized. I'm just at a loss of finding what extra parts I need to buy so any help and advice is much appreciated! Thanks so much!

Welcome Danielle! The Mini Cooper is a static display model, unlike many Technic LEGO cars which have working steering and transmissions. You will need to make significant modifications to adjust the car enough to make it accept a working drive mechanism, including incorporating axles and gears, putting a motor and battery-box under the hood and other cosmetic and functional adjustments. Definitely not a simple "add a motor and it works" option. Also, this would not address steering - the model itself has no working steering mechanism. Net, a significant challenge - not impossible, just large.

There are lots of pictures and videos of people who have done this on the net, but I couldn't find anybody that had shared instructions or a part list.  You could get a kit that includes the motors and remote control and give him the challenge of merging them together.

Here is the only example I can think of.
We can see an example in the following video @0:39 by PPUNG DADDY:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvVJXhs_Q3s&t=38s
Here is the servo-motor:

And the IR receiver on the rear, next to one motor. The battery is located behind the driver's seat:

We have a better view at the end of the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvVJXhs_Q3s&t=1m31s

In order to do the same build, you would need:
What we clearly see in the video:

Rechargeable Battery Box (or the cheaper but bigger Battery Box)
Servo-Motor
IR Receiver
L-Motor

What is not shown but necessary:

a remote controller: IR Remote Control or IR Speed Remote Control (allow to control speed of the motors but it responds more slowly)
mount front wheels on a steering: see the front of this car for example: there are some fixed and free parts
mount rear wheels on rotating axis with a differential gear between the 2 wheels
some gears in order to transfer the movements from motors to the wheels:

direction on the front wheels from the Servo-Motor (but there may be some simpler setups)
gears between the differential and the L-Motor

These pieces would cost between 80 to 100 $, € or £ (I used the Brickset's average prices).

I don't have this model so I can't tell you what exact parts are required, sorry.

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


text:
Identify this piece please? 2x2 plate with 8-sided bar running around it

Can anyone identify this item for me please?
Its brick name or design ID would be great!

2x2 Modified Plate with Octagonal Bar Frame, also called Parabolic Ring. Part number 75937.
Older version: http://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=30033#T=C
Slightly different newer version: http://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=75937#T=C


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Lego RCX 1.0 brick relationship to Robotics Invention System (RIS) & RCX firmware versions
What is the relationship between a Lego RCX 1.0 brick and these:
Robotics Invention System (RIS) versions

1.0
1.5
2.0

RCX firmware:

firm0309.lgo: RCX firmware version 3.09
firm0328.lgo: RCX firmware version 3.28
firm0332.lgo: RCX firmware version 3.32

There is no significant hardware difference (*) affecting software between the RCX bricks, so 1.0 brick is compatible with all firmware and RIS versions.
(*) Known hardware differences:

RCX 1.0 sold with RIS 1.0 had a power adapter plug.
RCX 1.0 sold with RIS 1.5 no longer had this plug.
RCX 2.0 had a 76 kHz IR interface instead of 38 kHz. It remains compatible with old versions (harmonic 2) albeit with a slightly
reduced range. New frequency allows to communicate with Spybots bricks.

Doesn't the earlier RCX 1.0 brick have a power adapter plug, which has been eliminated in the RCX 1.0 brick supplied with RIS 1.5 and in the RCX 2.0 brick supplied in RIS 2.0?

Yes it does, but doesn't matter for software. Answer edited for more details!

The main differences between the versions were:

Firmware - although later versions of the firmware were backwards compatible with the earlier bricks
Power Adaptors:

RIS/RCX 1.0 had a power socket on the brick as well as battery options
RIS/RCX 1.5 removed the power socket from the brick
RIS/RCX 2.0 Functionally equivalent to RCX 1.5

IR Tower connections:

RIS 1.0 and 1.5 had a serial connection for the IR Tower
RIS 2.0 had a USB connection for the IR Tower, which doesn't operate nicely with 64bit Operating Systems (ironically* the serial connection does work with a serial-USB adaptor apparently)

Manuals - I believe the Constructopedia was more comprehensive in 1.0 than in 2.0.

* I say ironically as I originally returned my 1.0 or 1.5 set as I was unable to get the serial connection to work on my PC at the time and later bought a 2.0 which worked fine then, but not any more on my more modern hardware.


text:
Which set does bag 9 being to?
We were recently gifted a lot of LEGO and have an unopened bag in among all the pieces.  We are trying to identify what set it belongs with.  Any one have any idea which set it might be?

Seems like some castle pieces and ladders there...

It is from set 70404 King's Castle from 2013. Hope that helps.


text:
What set is this piece from?

I got this in a random lot with lot of pieces from 2001 sets. If you depress the black square on the side, it makes an auditory noise like a siren, but warbled, like in old sci-if movies.
The body is white, except for the button, and the top is that radioactive orange that Lego doesn't make anymore.
Also, only part stamp on it is H1. The lego stamp has no year.

It's a bb42 "Electric, Light & Sound Siren 4 x 2 x 4 Jack Stone"
http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemIn.asp?P=bb42&in=S
and in that colour it came in the Police HQ set 4611
http://brickset.com/sets/4611-1


text:
Ø in LEGO part names
Many LEGO part names use a Ø character in the name, for example, Armor For Hand W/Ø 3.2 Shaft (28803) or Beam A 4M Ball/Cup Ø10.2 (90611).  Can anyone explain what the Ø means?

It's not a Ø or a ø, it's a ⌀.

It's not Swedish "crossed O", it's not Greek "capital phi", it's not even Cyrillic "Ef", it's a dedicated "diameter symbol".

@Agent_L: Swedish doesn't have Ø; they use Ö instead. Ø is used in Danish, however, which is more relevant for Lego.

Ø is a pretty standard notation for diameter. So w/Ø 3.2 Shaft means the item has a shaft that has a 3.2(mm) diameter.

To elaborate on hobbs's comment, that character should actually be ⌀, U+2300 DIAMETER SIGN, the meaning of which should be self-explanatory.
The character you asked about was Ø, U+00D8 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER O WITH STROKE
Of course, it's entirely possible that the wrong symbol was used by the person naming the part in the list you're looking at (perhaps due to poor unicode support, since U+00D8 lies in latin-1, but U+2300 requires utf8).

Or perhaps because Ø has its own key on most keyboards used in Billund.

http://fontmeme.com/images/danish-keyboard-550x183.png

It's an international symbol, whose curious intersection between a line segment and a circle visually depicts the concept of a "a measurement exceeding the diameter of a part by some 15%, I reckon".

This is completely incorrect.


text:
What is this silver and transparent green electronic piece for / from
I found this Lego in a box with other old Lego parts and I have no idea what it is for. It has a 'Lego' logo with a code 5202 but I can not find anything online.
Could someone please give me more info on this?

This is a Spybotics Module from set 3809-1 Technojaw T55.


text:
Color sensor use in Commander app
I'm trying to build the MindCub3r model shared online at http://mindcuber.com. It often has trouble scanning the cube so I wanted to check the output of the colour scanner by using the Commander app. I've made a custom controller panel featuring a colour sensor output, but it only shows red, either dark or bright. The EV3 colour sensor can detect more than that, how can I get the Commander app to show me what colour it really sees.
Incidentally when scanning the cub I see it shining RGB light at the target. When using the app it is only shining red.

The MindCuber program uses a special ColorSensorRGB block (see section 2.1 on the MindCuber EV3 Page). This block uses a "hidden" mode of the LEGO EV3 Color sensor to read raw RGB values. This mode is not available in the Commander app for Android or iPhone.
The mode you are seeing in the Command app (with only the red LED) is the reflected light mode.
If you want to see what the MindCuber program sees, then you will need to write a program using the LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 desktop software along with the special ColorSensorRGB block from the MindCuber web page.
The MindCuber program does not actually care what color each square on the Rubik's cube is. It actually guesses which squares are white and then sorts the remaining colors by hue. So, observing the RGB values directly will probably not provide much insight. You will need to study the MindCuber program and copy parts of it to debug what the MindCuber program is "seeing".
There is also a list of troubleshooting tips on the MindCuber EV3 Page as well as a link to the MindCuber Facebook page which is the official way to get support for the MindCuber.


text:
Can anyone identify what this set is from please? Green terrain base with large grey and black mountain pieces
Can anyone identify what this set is from?

Welcome Steve! Are you sure this is LEGO? Is "LEGO" printed anywhere on these plates (especially on the studs on top)?

A little bit of searching identifies baseplates as being from Mega Bloks Dragons. The line isn't well-documented, however, so I couldn't tell exactly what set these pieces came from, or if they are indeed only from one set.
[Phil B]: Added image from the above website for reference:

Those base plates actually seem to be from a Power Ranger set:
https://bricker.info/osets/MEGABLOKS/5730/


text:
Does the Mindstorms EV3 software work on macOS Sierra?
I guess this is a continuation of these two questions:
Does the Mindstorms EV3 software run on OS X El Capitan?
Is the LEGO Midstorms EV3 software compatible with OS X yosemite?
macOS Sierra was just released, and I want to upgrade. Will there be issues with the software, or will it work properly?
My Mac: Retina MBP 13", Early 2015

I have a Mac Mini with macOS Sierra, and the LEGO software works on it for me.

FWIW, LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 Home Edition was crashing on startup (latest Mac OS X Sierra du jour: 10.12.6 16G1113) — presumably (from callisto's answer) because my installed version of Mono was too recent. I uninstalled Mono by typing the following commands in a Terminal:

sudo rm -rf /Library/Frameworks/Mono.framework
sudo pkgutil --forget com.xamarin.mono-MDK.pkg
sudo rm -rf /etc/paths.d/mono-commands

Afterwards, I uninstalled and reinstalled LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 Home Edition from its official source and I could successfully run it. FWIW, the version of Mono that LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 Home Edition installs for itself is 2.10.9:
# ls -l /Library/Frameworks/Mono.framework/Versions/
total 8
drwxrwxr-x  12 root  wheel  408  8 mai  2012 2.10.9
lrwxr-xr-x   1 root  wheel    6 25 nov 12:46 Current -> 2.10.9

Beware though. If you install Xamarin on your OSX machine, it will grab the latest Mono framework which is NOT compatible with the EV3 software (I don't recall which MONO version is used by EV3 software).
I have contacted Lego support a few times, and they are not going to update their OSX software. You will either have to then use a different machine or a VM to run the EV3 software.

Could you please share your insight on exactly which versions of Mono are compatible?

IIRC EV3 Software uses Mono 2.10.9

FYI, LEGO has (mostly) fixed this issue. Both versions of Mono can be installed side-by-side and the LEGO software will now continue to work even when you upgrade Xamarin/Visual Studio for Mac. I think that installing the LEGO software may temporarily break other Mono software because it sets the old version of Mono to the default, but you can just reinstall the newer Mono and all your programs should work.


text:
Can I open/repair this Duplo pullback motor?
My son has a Duplo pullback motor.

This motor does not work well. After pull back it moves forwards 2 and a half wheel turns and stops. There is a small resistance forcing it forward two millimeters it makes a louder click and then the wheels rotate again 2 and a half turns to stop again. After forcing 2 mm it continues again and again until the spring is loose.
As there are no screws to open it and fix the mechanism I don't know how to open and fix it.
Can anyone give a tutorial to open it non destructive and fix it?

Some Lego assemblies like this are welded together or otherwise permanently assembled. Usually the best you can do is cut them where there are seams, then glue them back together. Or, if that seems like too much work, buy a replacement on Bricklink


text:
Drive motor via Power Functions IR with own power source
I want to see if it is possible to drive a Power Functions motor both with variable speed and forward/reverse with my own power source. I am planning to use my own power source, an IR receiver and a motor.
[Power Source] -> [IR Receiver] -> [Motor]
As I understand it, the pin out for Power Functions is as follows:

GND
C1 +/-9v
C2 +/-9v
+9v

Which of the above pins would I need to power to achieve this?
Do I need to provide a constant 9v to the IR receiver for it to function?
Can I rely on the IR receiver to vary the speed of the motor?
What would happen if the IR receiver was powered with less than 9v?
My power source may not always spin fast enough to develop 9v so I am wondering what would happen in this case.
P.S. I am returning to this hobby after 25 years so not entirely up to speed on how all of the new "stuff" fits together!

Which of the above pins would I need to power to achieve this?
You would apply the (-) side of your power source to GND and the (+) side of your power source to +9v.
Do I need to provide a constant 9v to the IR receiver for it to function?
Generally, yes. However, lower voltage or suddenly losing power will not harm the part.
Can I rely on the IR receiver to vary the speed of the motor?
Yes. The IR receiver handles the speed regulation.
What would happen if the IR receiver was powered with less than 9v? My power source may not always spin fast enough to develop 9v so I am wondering what would happen in this case.
I haven't tested this, but I would expect it to lose range, provide less power to the motor, and at some voltage level under 9V completely stop functioning. This shouldn't cause any damage to the part.
It sounds like you are powering this from some type of generator. Make sure that you have protection in place to ensure that the IR reciever isn't power by significantly more than 9V.
Welcome back to the hobby! If you're looking to simply interact with PF motors at a low level, the control lines are simply attached directly to a 9V motor, so you can use those much like the old 9V motors. The basic motors aren't steppers or anything complicated.

Thanks for the fast reply. From what you are saying the C1 & C2 are not used in this case. I guess the IR receiver pulses the received current (PWM) to drive the motor. I was wondering if it needed a constant 9v to do the pulsing. Seems not. So in theory I could provide a 6v input, and provide both variable speed and direction control to the motor with the setup I have described?

The IR only needs power. It will generate the C1 & C2 signals. IF (and that's a big IF) the RF works on 6V, and 6V drives the motors, then yes, it would work. Also, please check out Philo's excellent documentation on the Power Functions protocol and characteristics.


text:
Science fair: "Can Lego's Fly"
I am doing my science fair on "Can legos Fly!" I am going to build a glider and test it 3 times (Independent variable). the wings will be foam. I will test it on how far it flys (Dependent variable).
The point is if you have any suggestion I would love to hear them, but you better hurry, before I order the parts.

You can hurl LEGO across the room - unless that's not considered 'flying'

No... I'm looking for sustained flight.

and besides, that's what I;m doing for the control.

I have about 2 weeks before I order parts, so hurry!!

For inspiration, watch this: https://youtu.be/EwMBjKcY2Uc


text:
Is 9585: WeDo Resource Set compatible with 45300: WeDo 2.0 Core Set?
As title, not sure if these two can work well together?
Or, should I wait for WeDo 2.0 Resource Set?

As far as I have understood from talking to one the people who developed WeDo version 2, it's not compatible with the old.


text:
How do I robustly tilt a strength-1 wall?
Background
I am still working on my model of a ride-on mower, which has a seat that looks like this:

As you can see, the seat is mounted onto an inclined surface, which I realised to my satisfaction and which causes the seating area of the seat to be inclined as well. However, this means if I build the back of the seat in a rectangular manner, it will be inclined forwards, which is unrealistic (and uncomfortable for the driver). Therefore I need to tilt it backwards.
Goal
I have a 6×1 wall mounted onto one side of a regular 6×n plate and want to tilt it by at least 10° and at most 40°. With regular hinges, this looks like this:

However, if I use regular hinges, the result is not very robust and the wall falls down easily. I am therefore looking for a more robust solution.
Some specifications:

Whatever is needed to tilt the wall may not extend below the plate. (I need that place for something else, namely the complicated mounting.)
Whatever is needed to tilt the wall may extend somewhat forward (onto the plate) on the sides (resembling the above seat) but not backwards.
All components should be available in black. (I used red in the examples for better visibility.)
The inclination may begin somewhat above the plate.

My best solution so far are minifigure legs (which are pretty robust on their own) combined with a clip tile to hold the wall in place:

I propose a slightly different solution for the chair: Use Technic bricks.

In this picture I have used 32526 Technic 5x3 bent 90 pieces, with 43857 Technic Beam 2 and 32523 Technic Beam 3 pieces to make the chair uniform. You can make one or two attachment points to ground by either utilizing 64276 Technic Beam 2 Liftarm with Straight Ball Joint as in the picture below, or using 3651 Technic Axle and Pin Connector with a friction pin instead. For optimal reproduction of the original chair, you might want to use two of these supports in your model (my image only shows one).
Then, tilt the chair lightly back on the ball joint or connector, and use 4274 Technic Pin 1/2 together with 1x4 and 1x3 tiles to create horizontal and vertical armrests just like on the chair in your picture. You could even combine the new 1x2 tile with rounded edge with a 1x2 or 1x1 tile, mounted on a 1x3 or 1x2 plate, to create a curved top and bottom edge. Note that in the picture above I have offset the vertical tile by half a stud to make it fit more nicely.

Thank you for your answer, but I have already devised a complicated mounting of that seat, which I am quite satisfied with (with shock absorbers and the option to half-unmount the seat and turn it forward – all of which you can do with the original seat). This mounting is what happens under the 6×n plate in my setup and requires that the seat is inclined forwards (because it is mounted on something which already has to be inclined).

You could still use the above design, by making a rotating joint at the front instead of at the back using the aforementioned 3651 Technic Axle and Pin Connector.


text:
What is the largest number of pieces in a set for LEGO, Nanoblock, or any other brand?
What is the largest number of pieces in a set for LEGO, Nanoblock, or any other brand?
I recently bought a 6800-piece LOZ Block set (Chinese Nanoblock knockoff).  I was wondering if there are sets in any block size or brand that have more pieces than that.

The LEGO World Map set has 11695 pieces.

"Are we updating all the questions that ask this? I'm confident there's more than one." – If there is more than one question asking the same thing, most of them should probably be closed as duplicates. (If they're similar but not the same, they should probably not be closed, but perhaps edited to differentiate them from one another.) In any case, such meta-commentary probably should be left out of your answer itself.

While this is true for now I suggest to include this link to Brickset that would always list sets with the most pieces. It would make this answer always relevant.

Brickset has a query for sets with most pieces: brickset.com/sets/query-45
Top of the list is Taj Mahal with 5922 pieces.

The obvious update for this question is the LEGO 75192 Millenium Falcon with 7,541 pieces.
I wonder whether LEGO has plans for a 10k-piece set, maybe also the Millenium Falcon :)

Largest Lego set apart from the world map is the 10,000 piece Eiffel Tower (technically 10,001 but that includes a brick separator). Followed by 9090 (Inc 3 brick separators) for the Titanic and 9036 (Inc 1 brick separator) for the Colosseum.

TIWI Fantasy Castle = 6850 nano blocks. (Amazon)
Magic School, Nano Brick Harry Potter style castle - 6369. (eBay)
I found Swan Stone Castle on eBay = 11810.

Is 6850 the set number or the piece count? Adding a photo or a link to the set would help this post enormously.

Certainly not from the Lego camp, in terms of commercially released consumer sets. As far as I can remember, the Taj Mahal from 2008/9 had something around 5900 pieces, and is no longer available to buy new.

I was asking about any size or brand as the one i just bought from loz blocks  already has more pieces than that (6800)

Here is Koyae European Castle (Amazon URL) set that supposedly has 11,810 pieces. There are many clone sets that are advertised with many more pieces than they have, this one might be real according to the size of the build.

There is a 11,800 nanoblock building Neuschwanstein Castle.

A picture or URL to official source would greatly befit this answer.

The box for Kawada Nanoblock Schloss Neuschwanstein says "over 5800 pieces" and does not support the 11,800 figure given in this answer. https://imgur.com/tZvN1f1

My googling was also unable to find such a set.

Careful with numbers on clone sets, there are quite a few around that claim 6,000+ pieces and reviewers say it’s only 600. No idea if it’s fraud or just cluelessness. I found one with downloadable instruction booklet that was clearly 2,000 parts according to the instructions instead of 6,000.

And try googling for “New Swan Stone” as well. :-( Seriously.


text:
Starting Lego robotics projects low-budget with the intention of expanding later
I've been digging around for cheap ways to build and control simple devices and was looking at the Mindstorms sets when I found WeDo and WeDo 2.0.  WeDo appears to be compatible with Power Functions sets, but WeDo 2.0 uses a different connector which is similar to, but not the same as, Mindstorms.
I'd like to start low-budget (suggesting WeDo as my starting point, because those controllers are much cheaper) but I want the option of expanding to more of the Mindstorms functionality in the future.
For my purposes, right now, WeDo seems adequate, but it looks like a dead end (unless the WeDo 2.0 connector is the future, in which case maybe EV3 is the dead end!). That's antithetical to the reasons I would even consider Lego in the first place.
Digging further I see rumors that WeDo 2.0 and Mindstorms may be set to converge in the future.  So even if I convince myself that i have no choice but to start with EV3, that could still turn out to be incompatible with future parts; but on the other hand it may turn out that my cheap WeDo 2.0 controller would work with future Mindstorms accessories.
Perhaps WeDo 2.0 and EV3 are compatible using just a cheap adapter, like how PF1 parts are.  I don't know.
In brief; if I want to expand my kit in the future, and I don't want to spend a lot of money today, then what should I buy?  Is there any concrete information available about compatibility or future kits that would help me make this decision?

Any adapters to get components from one set working with another would be worth knowing any, too.

A helpful but out-of-date overview here.

According to the WeDo 2.0 FAQ

Is this a new plug system?
Yes, this is the new LEGO Power Functions plug that has been optimized also to meet potential future needs.
What does that mean for the existing plug systems on other Power Function and MINDSTORMS products? Will they also be changed?
Yes, eventually we will convert to the new plug system after a transition period. The exact timing of this transition has not been determined.

However, if you want to build something today, WeDo is a good choice since it is compatible with the current Power Functions products.
There is also the 3rd-party SBrick that works with current Power Functions products but uses Bluetooth Low Energy like WeDo 2.0.

How does that fit in with Mindstorms products?  The power functions set seems a little limited and if that doesn't change, and if they're not compatible (say, with an adapter), then I might have to abandon them and repurchase everything when I come up against that limit.

Your question seems mostly about WeDo. Perhaps you could reword your question a bit to make it more clear what exactly you would like to know. For example, what is the end result that you hope to accomplish?

Looking more closely at all the options, I see that only the Mindstorms sets have removable cables in the devices themselves.  That gives me the option of buying spare cables to make into adapters for other kinds of controller without having to spoil the device itself.
So I think it's best if I buy just the motors and sensors from the EV3 family that I need, and use a cheap third-party controller rather than the EV3 brick.
I do see a couple of devices designed to control EV3 parts (eg., PiStorms and EVShield), so I wouldn't even need to make up an adapter.  Those are more expensive than the WeDo controllers, but they're at least compatible with Mindstorms parts.
But I think what I'm more likely to do is to rip apart a cable and attach it to a micro:bit, because break-out boards and motor control boards for that are dirt cheap and I already have the main board sitting here in front of me.


text:
Can you help identify my new LEGO set? Round glass door, black and red hoods, gray and black with a few red pieces
I have a new LEGO set that I can't identify. I have looked all over Google. It came with a round glass door that looks like it could probably be a trap door and a plain black head and a grumpy face head. Also there is a black hood or helmet thing and a red one that cover the whole face but those are the only distinctive pieces. The whole set is mostly gray and black with a few red pieces.

Welcome Mesha! Could you please take a picture of the set and add it to your question? LEGO has made thousands of sets and your description is not enough to distinguish clearly which set you have.

As Phil mentioned, it's hard to give a definitive answer without a picture to help, but based on your description, it sounds like you may have at least part of Death Star Final Dual (75093):

This set is the only one I'm aware of that:

Is mostly gray with a little red
Includes a non-printed black minifig head
Includes a black hood element
Includes a red element that covers the entire face
Includes large round transparent elements

bows in reverence


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Lego Digital Designer: Having Gears Interact with Toothed Bar
I just started using LDD, and I have been trying out a few things that I couldn't do with the limitations of my Lego collection.  One thing that has me caught up is that I can't seem to get the technic gears to interact with the Toothed Bar piece.  I know this is possible in real life, but I was wondering if it is possible to do on the computer.
In the project I have, I want the lever to be turned and the platform attached to the Toothed Bars to go up or down.  Right now, only the gears on the axle spin when rotated.

The LEGO Digital Designer software does not have the ability to simulate the interaction of gears.
There is a similar software program called SR 3D Builder that does have this capability.

Thank you for the suggestion, I'll have to check out that program.

None of the links there work: download, user manuals, forum. Is there any other location to download it from?

The author of SR 3D Builder passed away in 2014, so the software and website has not been maintained since then. https://forums.ldraw.org/thread-15315-post-15315.html#pid15315

@David You can download it from here http://www.download82.com/get/download/windows/sr-3d-builder/

LDD is a design solution for static models. It is not a functional simulation tool. The gears turn with the crank handle if they are associated to the same group, but that is only because the gears, the axle and the handle share the same rotation point. The toothed bar does not share that same rotation point (and is likely not part of your "group" that contains the handle, axle and gears) and hence does not turn. If you made it part of the group, it would rotate around the center of the axle, which is not the effect you are looking for.

I have seen some videos where people get systems of gears to work, but that does not work when I try it either.  Is there specific mode that I need to use to get something like that to work


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Good "freeware" mosaic creator
I need to know of a decent "freeware" program that can take an image and turn it into a full color mosaic. It also needs to have a part count/listing.

PictoBrick is a good one. It works with real LEGO colors and parts and will give you a parts-list: http://www.pictobrick.de/en/pictobrick.shtml

Bricklink Studio has a built-in mosaic generator with a lot of options for tweaking.

The software also has a mode to generate instructions and supports direct integration with BrickLink’s catalog, marketplace, and gallery so you can order parts easily. Parts generated can be optimised for price, there is also support for various colour pallets and brick types (plates, tiles, bricks etc.)


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Use legacy RCX sensors with EV3
In NXT-G, there was a "Legacy" Block pack which had blocks to allow for the use of RCX motors/sensors with the NXT, as long as you had a converter cable. However, the EV3 software does not have this, and it currently does not appear to have support for converter cables due to the lack of special programming blocks you can download.
What I basically need to do is connect two touch sensors to the same port, so that the EV3 brick would get input if either one is pressed. I have a pair each of RCX, NXT and EV3 touch sensors. I also have three of the NXT-RCX converter wires. Unfortunately, none of the sensors are working with the converter cables, and I cannot use this or this method because I'm preparing for a competition which doesn't allow modification of lego parts.
I came across this thread from the lego site from 2013 regarding this issue, but it offers no solution. I've even tried using the raw sensor blocks with the touch sensors, but they don't give me any output.
I am also only allowed to use the EV3-G programming interface.
Does anyone know how I can use these split cables with the EV3 brick?

Unfortunately, you cannot use the LEGO 8528 (NXT to RCX adapter) cable with sensors on the EV3. You can use it with motors though.
This is because the adapter cable only connects to pins 1 and 2 on the MINDSTORMS (RJ12) connector. On the NXT input (sensor) ports, pin 2 is GND.

On the EV3, however, pin 2 on the input port is no longer GND. It is used to tell the difference between NXT sensors and EV3 sensors.

Without a proper ground (GND), the sensors will not work correctly. This is why the videos for modifying the cables use pin 3, which is GND on the EV3.
Furthermore, for those not restricted by the rules of a competition that can make their own cable, you also need to know that the EV3 firmware lacks the ability to send power pulses needed by "active" RCX sensors. From the NXT hardware developer kit:

So, don't expect the RCX Light sensor or the RCX Rotation sensor to work with the EV3 even if you make your own cable because it lacks this feature.

As a side note, RXC motors will work with the LEGO 8528 cable and the EV3 because pins 1 and 2 on the output ports are for motor + and -. They work exactly the same as Power Functions motors as described here.

Thanks for all this info! I'm going to try and create a custom block now even though I've never tried to do so before. Also, I'm going to check the block for the sound sensor out since that is an analog sensor, and it just might work.

Also, where did you get those diagrams from?

The diagrams are from the EV3 and NXT Hardware Development Kits available on the LEGO MINDSTORMS download page. http://www.lego.com/en-us/mindstorms/downloads

Creating your own block won't help. The problem lies with the automatic sensor detection in the firmware. If the sensor is not detected as an analog sensor (Touch, Light or Sound) in the Port View, then you will not be able to read the sensor value no matter which block you use.


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How to connect chain links in LDD to make tank tracks
I need help trying to connect chain links (in LDD) around a set of idlers and drive wheels. This is to be used on a tank design, and therefore is not using actual chain. It is using "Chain Link m=1" connectors, as well as there being 2 drive wheels to mount on. I have tried many different ways, but none of them worked.
Here's a picture of the tank and its threads

Can you explain what hasn't worked?

I tried extending the cross axle far enough so that I could add a technic piece. This piece was said to have the piece needed to join the links together. But that didnt work. I dont know the exact name of the piece though.

Are you talking about a  real physical model that doesn't fit, or are you asking how to select the piece you want in a 3D modeling application? If it's the former a photo or two would help.

Im trying to connect them in LDD

LDD does have some problem in making tracks that fit onto a bogey set. I think there may be some videos out there that might deal with this issue.

This issue is one of LDD's most prominent shortcomings. Unlike other CAD software, the simplifications that LDD makes in exchange for ease-of-use restrict some creations from being assembled with any degree of ease. However, the treads in this model are possible to apply, although I cannot say how easy it would be to get them the way you would want.
A quick search from more experienced LDDers on YouTube turns up that the process is very redundant and tedious. Each link must be adjusted individually, and when needed, certain gears must be turned to accept the chain. However, getting the initial link on the system requires a crafty Technic device used to mount a five-hole tread to a bar suspended just above the gear in question. From this five-hole link, the smaller links can be added, as shown in this video.
I tried the process myself and while it is painfully difficult, the end result is achievable. Here is a photo with the Technic system in place, and another after I removed it and added the correct link.
Of course, I had to try this in real life where dexterity is on my side. I ran up the exact construction as I see it in your provided picture and have determined that the perimeter of this design falls just over an even multiple of links. Twenty-five links are just barely too short to connect at the ends, and twenty six is much too baggy to stay seated on the gear teeth.
For another example of adding treads in LDD, you may also want to see this time-lapse video. Hope this helps and happy building.


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Raw sensor question?
What is raw sensor and what is on port 3?
Is this code only for robot to go completely straight without errors?

PID stands for Proportional-Integral-Derivative - which is an industry standard way of controlling processes and minimizing the deviation from a setpoint. It assigns 3 factors (K_p, K_i and K_d) to three calculated variables all based on the measured process, in this case the deviation from the ideal sensor value coming from the color sensor connected to port 3.
Those three calculated variables contain the proportional deviation (i.e. just the difference between the ideal value and the measured value), the integral of the error (sort of like the sum of all errors over time) and the derivate (the change in the error value over time). The final adjustment the motors need to do is calculated based on those three deviations (P, I and D) to get to a "turn" amount, which is then passed on to the motor to execute.
You can read all about the PID control implemented here in the link in the left top corner of your diagram, which is this: http://inpharmix.com/jps/PID_Controller_For_Lego_Mindstorms_Robots.html. It actually explains the concept pretty well and is relatively easy to follow, as it is targeted towards FLL students (i.e. 9-14 year old kids).
The author of the article also explains why he uses the sensor in RAW mode:

Using raw light values (0 to 1023 scale), instead of uncalibrated
  light values, might increase the dynamic range of the light sensors.
  For our example light values black would be 400 and white 500. The
  offset would be 450 with a range of +/-50 instead of +/-5. The raw
  light values is available from a data port on the light sensor block.
  If you calibrate your light sensor under your lighting conditions and
  use the calibrated values then white will be about 100 and black will
  be about 0. This is another way to increase the proportional range of
  the light sensor. In both the raw and calibrated modes the light
  values probably are not accurate in the last digit but hopefully the
  values are somewhat more precise than using a light value range of
  just 10 or so.

In short: the range of values coming from the default light sensor is more coarse (0-100) than when using the sensor in raw mode (0-1023), so you get better control over the motor output as there are more light levels to play with.

Thank you so much. How to use PID to make robot go just straight. With out light sensor, with encoder. Sorry for being noob

PID principle stays the same. I assume with encoder you mean the encoder on the motor that tells you the rotation it performed? You'd measure that, compare it with the ideal value, and feed that into the PID loop as above. You will need to tweak your K_p, K_i and K_d variables though, see the inpharmix article on how to do this.


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Getting a PC to recognize Lego Mindstorms as Controller Input
It is quite obvious that you can make a controller out of Lego Mindstorms, but I am curious as to how you can go about connecting this controller to your PC, and getting it to recognize it as controller input.

By "controller input", do you mean an HID input like a mouse or gamepad? Or do you mean something else?

Yes, a gamepad or a joystick.  Just want Windows to say its an HID.

You will not be able to do this with the official LEGO firmware, but it will be possible with ev3dev or possibly another 3rd-party OS for EV3.
Search the web for "linux bluetooth hid emulation". There are plenty of examples. I haven't tried any of them, so I can't recommend any specific one here.
I can recommend using the python programming language with ev3dev though, as it is the easiest way to get started if you are not an experienced programmer. Searching for "linux bluetooth hid emulation gamepad python" turned up this python program, which looks promising.


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Tips for getting enough bricks to make a MOC with unified style
In the past, I made MOC's out of my LEGO Star Wars sets.  At this point in my life, I don't really want to take those apart for pieces and I'd much rather have them on display.  Recently, I have been buying sets on-sale at Walmart that from the City and Creator lines, (sets which I won't have the urge to assemble and display like Star Wars).
Now, I have a decent pile of pieces, but I'm having trouble making anything with a unified color palette and style.  I would like to make detailed real life buildings and buildings/scenes from Star Wars, but I can't seem to find sets that are not overly expensive and aren't Star Wars that contain pieces (mainly bricks) that I need.  I'm a bit apprehensive of buying LEGO lots online because the sellers rarely show what you'll actually be receiving, and the thrift store near me hardly has any toys, let alone LEGO.
Are there any sets that have a good price per piece or any other suggestions to help fill out my brick selection? (I've looked at BrickLink, but I don't want to buy individual bricks since I don't know what I am building)
This is what I have gotten so far:

10698 LEGO Classic Large Creative Brick Box
10696 LEGO Classic Medium Creative Brick Box
10692 LEGO Classic Creative Bricks
60047 LEGO City Police Station Building Set
60117 LEGO City Van & Caravan
60081 LEGO City Pickup Tow Truck
60107 LEGO City Fire Fire Ladder Truck
60118 LEGO City Garbage Truck
60119 LEGO City Ferry

Edit: I'm not really asking how to get bricks cheaply, more or less I was trying to see how I could get pieces that matched a specific style. I feel like the answers both do a good job giving both shopping and building tips for this problem.

Possible duplicate of What's the most cost effective and efficient way to buy bricks?

I was wondering if there were any newer sets people have found or places that might be trying to get rid of overstock.  Some of the sets listed in that thread are discontinued and I can't find them anywhere for a decent price.

Hi Sam, welcome. Your question is mostly answered in this post: http://bricks.stackexchange.com/questions/220/whats-the-most-cost-effective-and-efficient-way-to-buy-bricks . Also, any advice on which sets to buy would be considered Shopping advice, which is out of scope as answers would be time-sensitive (reading this back in 2-3 years from now would give you a list of sets that are no longer available at retail). Your strategy of buying sets for pieces is a good one - look at larger sets that have the key colors you are looking for, then part those out. Any excess bricks can be sold on BL.

how many bricks are generally in a pound? I am having a hard time trying to visualize that.

Walmart will likely sell another big LEGO box on Black Friday (actually, on Thanksgiving Thursday itself) which is a good way to get bricks for cheap. Last year it was 1500 pieces for $30. Still won't give you many of the same pieces, those boxes tend to have max 10-12 of the same pieces. Best bet is to find a set with a lot of the color you want, then buy many of them. E.g., WM was clearancing the all-grey Imperial Assault Carrier 75106 for $30-$60 recently - lots of grey bricks.

A 2x4 brick weighs 2.3gr - assuming that's an average brick in your lot, you do the math (a pound is 454gr :) ).

In my opinion, City sets are not very good for pieces, as they have too many ready-made pieces and not enough basic, versatile pieces for me.

Buying random LEGO sets hoping that it will have parts that will fit with what you want to build is an expensive process that can leave you with a huge number of unwanted pieces, and still not have what you want.
Having said that, it is still a good idea to buy some sets that have a good number of pieces and/or building styles that you like and fit your project. For example, if you are planning to build a Star Wars scene, narrow down what scene you would like to build, and see if LEGO has already done any sets from that setting.
LEGO actually considers all their sets as "seeds" that will hopefully inspire LEGO fans to expand on further. So, you buy that Star Wars set that fits your idea, then you start to expand on it. LEGO designers probably already worked out some of the most iconic features of that setting, so all you need to do is expand on them.
If you have a good number of parts, but they are in a rainbow of colors, you can still work on the project you want, but focus on the shapes and techniques rather than the colors. Once you are happy with the design, you can swap out the wrong colored pieces with the correct ones by purchasing them on BrickLink or at LEGO's Pick-A-Brick section.
It is sometimes difficult however to ignore a bunch of bright colors when all you want to build is a mostly gray space-station. So you can combine building with the bricks you have, and virtual building in LEGO Digital Designer. Once you are done, you can count exactly how many bricks you need to buy in which color.
In general I found that even if you are on a smaller budget or lacking space, it is a good idea to have a fairly large stack of bricks in one neutral color (grays, tans and white are the best in my experience), so you can model pretty much anything without being distracted by a rainbow of colors. This way you can work out the shape, size and design of pretty much anything, and then later switch out the pieces with the correct colors. This technique also significantly reduces the cost of projects, because you don't end up buying sets and pieces you don't want.
However if you are completely against shopping on BrickLink or at Pick-A-Brick, there are some sets that might work with your Star Wars project. I'm particularly thinking of the LEGO Minecraft sets because they contain large quantities of basic pieces in earth-tone colors (tans, browns, greens, grays, blues, white and black). They are pretty much the same as the LEGO Classic Brick Boxes that you purchased already, but with earthy tones. They are very useful for creating more realistic landscapes, buildings, etc.

I really like the idea of building off of official sets. I had assumed that was taboo in the MOC community, but I guess not.  There is this great YouTube channel called BrickBrosUK that has alternative builds for recent sets that has given me some ideas.

Nice! Looks like you are on your way and found some good resources. Happy building! :)

I never really thought about how good the Minecraft sets were in terms of parts!

While I wholeheartedly agree with all of TheBrickBlogger's advice here I would add a few suggestions:

The LEGO Architecture Studio has 1200 bricks that are mostly white with a few transparent parts.

That is a huge number and variety of bricks all in the same color.  They chose white because it is the classic color for architectural models, but it became the classic color because it blends nicely with almost everything.  Since it isn't a bright color it won't clash with whatever you're trying to do as long as it isn't Bat Man.  You have a lot of city elements already which use white alot so this should fit nicely.
Use your bright bricks for structural elements.  Many LEGO sets include red and blue bricks that you never see when the model is completed.  Having these be a nice contrasting color makes their instruction books easier to follow, but it also helps you by using your available bricks more efficiently.
If you're trying to build things that go with your starwars models check out the new Death Star.  In addition to some great minifigs you'll have tons of grey bricks to build anything with.

I had no clue that set even existed, thanks for sharing it. Also, I've been using the colorful bricks for structure as you said along with mega blocks; I know, blasphemy.

Yeah, this is a great suggestion. A very nice set with a great variety of basic parts.


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How can I determine the value of an out of production set on the aftermarket?
I have a number of early 70's or earlier LEGO sets.
One is set 40 and the other is train number 171.
I'm trying to find a value and some additional information for these sets. I have searched a little but haven't found anything substantial on the image hunt.
Both sets are with their box.

There are several sources you can use to determine the value of a set. Just remember that:

Just because it sold once for a certain amount, yours will not necessarily sell for the same amount. Tons of factors come into play, including completeness, box quality but also demand, location and luck (especially with vintage sets).
Just because it sold once before, doesn't mean the set is in demand or will sell anytime soon. Especially with very old sets like yours, there isn't a lot of demand. Vintage LEGO is nice to have, but sets from those days are significantly less sophisticated than recent sets.
For LEGO: older doesn't necessarily mean more expensive. A lot of really old sets actually sell for remarkably little money.

In no particular order, here are the most common reference sources for determining set values:
Bricklink
The most comprehensive source of set values when dealing with items that collectors will buy. Your everyday buyer won't typically use this venue, but in case of vintage sets, collectors do frequent BL. It's Price Guide feature is powerful, but only contains data on the last 6 months.
Set 40 has not been sold the last 6 months on BL, so there is no Price Guide. It does have 5 current listings world-wide.
Set 171 has also not seen any sales in the last 6 months on BL, but it currently has 17 listings world-wide.
EBay
EBay shows a history of sold listings for any given search term. Since EBay is also used by the casual shopper, this gives you a broader overview, however, especially for highly collector items that don't have a broad audience, like your vintage sets, people might shun EBay due to high fees.
Looking at set 40 sold listings on EBay, there have been 2 in the last while, both international sales in Europe.
Set 171 has been sold 3 times, two at around $50 and one at around $100 (USD).
BrickPicker
Brickpicker is an investment guide for LEGO. This site focuses on managing a portfolio of LEGO sets as if they were stocks. They keep important statistics (mainly compiled from EBay) on every set produced by the LEGO group. Sales statistics are nicely split out by country/region, which can be helpful.
Set 40 is listed here.
Set 171 is listed here. As you can see, neither of these sets have a lot of sales data due to their age and low sales frequency.
There are other sites such as camelcamelcamel.com which tracks sales of toys on Amazon.com, but the above 3 are the key ones I would use.


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How can I generate a list of missing parts for incomplete sets?
Does anybody know if there is a website where I can record my incomplete LEGO sets?
That way I could generate a list of parts I would require in order to complete them.
I currently use Brickset, however that only allows the user to record completed sets.

Rebrickable.com offers this service. First add the complete set to you list, then view it on the set page like this http://rebrickable.com/sets/42029-1/customized-pick-up-truck-technic-2014 At the bottom of the first panel you'll have an option to "Add to my parts list" from then you go through the list of parts and remove the ones you are missing.

Not a website per se, but look at BrickStock. This software runs on PC, Mac and Linux (via WINE) and is free to use (Registration and payment is only needed to use the Seller features of the tool). It allows you to download set inventories from BrickLink and creation your own inventories.
Here is how I would use BrickStock in your scenario:

Download the inventory for the set you are looking at.
Get the last 6 month average sale prices (Ctrl-A Ctrl-G) to help weeding out alternates (See step 3)
After removing CounterParts (marked as CP) and alternates (marked with identical numbers, e.g. 1 and 1, 2 and 2 etc., remove one of the two entries (typically remove the less common part i.e. the one with the higher selling price)), and optionally all the parts marked as "Extra", set all parts to Status "Exclude".
Then, go through your incomplete set inventory and for every part you have, set the entry in BrickStock back to "Include".
When done, you have a list of "Exclude" items which are the pieces you still need. Alternatively you can change the logic and make the default "Include" and mark all the parts you have as "Exclude".

You can save Inventories to file, and have multiple set inventories open at the same time.


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How do I find a set in a bunch of jumbled up pieces
So my mum bought a LEGO set on eBay a while ago and it didn't come with instructions or a box so we didn't know how to build it but since then it has been jumbled up with a whole bunch of other pieces so I don't know what's in the set and what isn't.  Also, I think it's the from Belville range (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belville_(Lego)).

Welcome to LEGO Answers.  These questions are much more likely to get answered if you can upload a picture.  The more unusual pieces are more likely to help narrow it down.  http://brickset.com/sets/theme-belville

Start by looking for some rarer pieces. Not regular 4x2 bricks, but maybe a slide or a odd-shaped wall piece. Under each brick will be a four or 5 digit number. Go to BrickSet.com and search for that number, hopefully it will find the piece you are looking at and list colours that piece is available in and the sets it comes in (e.g. http://brickset.com/parts/design-6187). From there you just look up and down the list until you see a set that contains the other pieces you have, or search for another part and see if there are sets from the first list that appear on the second list. The trick is to find a part that is sufficiently rare.


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Need help identifying bricks from this list of images to buy them off Bricklink
List of images is here: http://www.mediafire.com/?n9w4cxlatlvuh8g
Final build here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/25163007@N07/14560116177

That's a pretty large build. I would suggest that you go through and study the BrickLink Catalog, identify as many pieces as you can, and if you are stuck, come back and ask people to identify the ones you have trouble finding. I think people would be more inclined to help you this way, rather than having to do all the work for you.
Here is the entire layout of the BrickLink Catalog, which is a great place to start: http://www.bricklink.com/catalogTree.asp?itemType=P
Another good way to begin a search, if you can't find something you are looking for, is to start with the Color Guide. Certain colors (like the Dark Blue in the aircraft you want to build) are fairly new, so there are not that many parts in that color, and it is easier to find them in the Color Guide rather than in the main catalog. Here is the link: http://www.bricklink.com/catalogColors.asp?utm_content=subnav
Again, if you are stuck with something, feel free to ask, but you should be able to find most of the parts yourself.


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How do I increase axle speed using gears
How do I increase speed of my output axle 24 times using 8, 16, 32, and 64 tooth gears using LEGO Mindstorms components? I checked Sariel's website but it was no help.

This is binary arithmetic at heart, you have powers of two tooth counts in your question (but you can't get those from Lego) and since 24 isn't a power of two it's going to take a non-trivial mechanism to get it. You could use a brick-built differential, for example... except where do the gears come from.

You can't do this with the gears you've listed, but I'm not sure that you've listed the proper gears. I don’t believe that 32 or 64 tooth gears exist. I at least don't have any.
You can do this by combining common 8, 16, and 24 tooth gears. The following gives 3:1 × 2:1 × 2:1 × 2:1 = 24:1.

You cannot increase the output speed by 24 times using a classical gear system, and the gear teeth you specified, because 24 is not a product you can make from 2, 4, 8, 0.5, 0.25, 0.125.
You CAN, however make a CVT, which takes two input speeds and divides them to give an output.

jncration is correct.
Sometimes the gears on axles helps.


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help identify a LEGO set from bags

Please can you help me identify from what LEGO set these parts bags came?

Pretty sure it's the 9450 Epic Dragon Battle.

it has both the Black Bionicle Foot Piraka Clawed in black and the Brick, Round 2 x 2 with Grille in white as well as other notable parts.


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How do I rename an EV3 project?
I can rename the program in the Home Edition software but I just can't rename a project. Please tell me how to do it. Thanks!

As far as I know (I use Education Edition but the menu on the Home Edition looks the same), all you need to do to rename a Project is to go to the File menu and use the "Save As" functionality to save your work under a different name. This will automatically rename the Project (as displayed on the Project tab) on your programming screen.

You can also change the "Project Title" on the Project Properties page.


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EV3, menu with the buttons?
I've been trying to make a menu that when you press the < button on the block it will start and > button to stop.
The menu will also only occur at the start, it will not be ongoing. I've attempted to use the Switch block but it always goes to the default case and I can't make it into 2 options, i.e. "begin" and "stop" the program.
Any help would be much appropriated.

Welcome Rean. Please add a printout of your best try (the one with the Switch block) and if possible, provide more details as to where in this program you have an issue.

The brick buttons are a bit tricky.
In pseudocode:

Wait for "<" button to be pressed and released
Run a program that leaves the motors running.
Wait for ">" button to be pressed
Stop the motors

The tricky parts:

which mode of the wait for block
which button to watch
button being pressed vs bumped
ignoring the extra section of the wait for block

And finally there is the possibility that the desire was to provide an option to stop the program at any time while it was running, not just at the end of the program to stop running motors.  That is a much different problem for which this example only hints at a solution.


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Looking for instruction manual for brick set #1845 (20th Anniversary Jackpot)
I've done a ton of searching and am unable to find the instructions for lego set #1845  (20th Anniversary Jackpot). I found a ton of sites that list out all of the parts, but none of them seem to have a reference to the actual instructions. I'm wondering if anyone knows of a site that has the manual for this set (for free).
Here are a bunch of links that don't have a link to the manual.

https://oldlego.com/encyclopedia/items/1845-20th-anniversary-jac_1250.php
https://store-mp.librick.com/item/view?id=i_1845-1
https://www.toysperiod.com/lego-set-reference/universal-building-set/basic-set/lego-1845-20th-anniversary-jackpot-blue-bucket/
http://www.peeron.com/inv/sets/1845-1
http://bricks.argz.com/set/1845-1
https://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemInv.asp?S=1845-1
http://brickset.com/sets/1845-1/20th-Anniversary-Jackpot-Bucket
https://rebrickable.com/sets/1845-1/20th-anniversary-jackpot-bucket-basic-set-1993
http://en.brickimedia.org/wiki/1845_20th_Anniversary_Jackpot_Bucket

Are you sure there are instructions? It looks like a loose set of bricks with no specific model to build

I don't think that the book utilized all of the bricks in the set, but there were definitely instructions that used at least some of the bricks.

Although the part number on the instruction book is not the same as the one in my question, it appears that the instructions are exactly the same for both sets.
http://lego.brickinstructions.com/en/lego_instructions/set/1880/rb

I've looked at letsbuilditagain.com, lego.brickinstructions.com and worldbricks.com (you didn't list these sites) and none of them have this set in their catalog, even though they cover many sets from 1993. Bricklink has these instructions starting at $0.75 plus shipping - since it's a booklet this shouldn't set you back more than $3-4 to get a copy.


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Toys R Us - Frankenstein (Oct 29, 2016)
Anyone have a copy of the instructions for the Toys R Us - Frankenstein figure that they gave away on Saturday, Oct. 29, 2016? I attempted to visit the store but the line was wrapped and they ran out. Was hoping to get a copy of the instructions and build requirement to build on my own.
Thanks!

You might also enjoy this youtube of one going together.

Got these from a helpful friend over at BrickPicker.com:

Thanks for the upload! And sharing the site, I will have to check them out.


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How can I find the unique parts in the 71040 Disney Castle?
We've been having fun putting together the 71040 Disney Castle.  But we keep wondering: which parts are in this set that haven't been in any other set with these particular colors?
I've seen this information presented in other Designer Videos, but for the Disney Castle Designer Video they're spending their time playing with Mickie and teleporting from Denmark to Anaheim, CA so the unique parts are barely mentioned.  For instance, they don't talk about the 19121 Fence which is new to this set in white:

I also have found bricklink's part list for it but I don't see how to filter that down to unique parts.  Is there an easy way to cull this from bricklink or another LEGO set database?

According to the review from Rebrickable these are the parts in new colors:

Aside from the Minifigs, there are no new part designs. There are plenty of parts appearing in new colors though.

Dark Blue 3943b - Cone 4 x 4 x 2
Dark Blue 44375a - Dish 6 x 6 Inverted
Dark Blue 3685 - Slope 75° 2 x 2 x 3 Double Convex
Dark Blue 98560 - Slope 75° 2 x 2 x 3 - Solid Studs
Dark Bluish Gray 99301 - Slope 33° 3 x 3 Double Concave
White 18838 - Brick Arch 1 x 12 x 3 Raised Arch with 5 Cross Supports
White 20310 - Brick Special 1 x 1 with Scroll with Open Stud
White 19121 - Fence Ornamented 1 x 4 x 2 with 4 Studs

I can see two ways of getting this information, depending on your technical skills and programming knowledge:

Go item by item in your BL parts list and check in how many sets the item is by clicking on the link for the item. If you want to know not only the uniqueness of an item but also the uniqueness of the item in a specific color, the color drop-down above the image is a great source of info. This will be labor intensive, but you can easily skip many parts as they are very common.
Download the inventory as an XML file and write a program which extracts the uniqueness information from Bricklink itself. Bricklink has an API which you can use to get information about a part. Especially interesting is the superset request, which is documented here: http://apidev.bricklink.com/redmine/projects/bricklink-api/wiki/CatalogMethod#Get-Supersets.

I think that if you are not planning to reuse this process, you're probably better off with option 1 where you eliminate the items you know for sure are not unique, and then go through the tens of items left that might be unique to verify uniqueness.
Good luck!

I'm definitely looking for a reusable method.  I'll work on coding #2.

Here is another way to get your answer: Brickset.com!
If you go to the product page for set 71040, you can see several tab labels you can click on. One of them is labeled "Parts".

In the Parts screen, Brickset shows all the parts that are in LEGO's official inventory, and cross-checks this with its parts database to tell you, by part, in how many sets each part is.

So to get your answer, just browse this list and find the ones that are unique to this set!


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Need help identifying 2011 Lego bag #3, Friends mini-doll legs with dark green pants with brown shoes and dark red bricks?
Trying to figure out what set this bag #3 from a 2011 set is from, unable to upload picture due to size limit.  Bag has a figure that is not like traditional LEGO figures, green pants, bends at the legs, brown shoes with feet that look like a real persons legs, then shoes, hair is brown and looks like a hedgehog piece of hair, with pointy ears, body is green with a gold belt and a tattoo on left arm.  Several silver pillars and purple and pink in bag.

The minifig is a Friends doll, to be precise, it's Farran Leafshade from the Elves theme.

He appears in two sets in those green pants. Given that you mention the bag you have has #3 printed on it, and the 41076 Farran and the Crystal Hollow set has only 2 bags in it, I believe you have part of set  41075 The Elves' Treetop Hideaway in your possession.

As an FYI: The 2011 printed on the bag indicates the year the bag design was copyrighted - it has no correlation with the year the set was made (which was 2015 for the set in question).

Wow, awesome, thanks so much.  And thanks for the tip about the bag!!

You're welcome. Please use Stack Exchange's system of upvoting and marking an answer as accepted if you believe my answer is correct and adds value to your question. Thanks!


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Running Power Functions Train Without IR Receiver/Remote
I recently bought 10254 Winter Holiday Train and wanted to get it running around the provided circle of track. I was wondering if there is any way to do this without incorporating the IR receiver and speed remote? My understanding is that if I were to simply connect a battery box to the motor and switch it on it would run too fast and de-rail.
I suppose my question is ultimately; is there a way to limit the speed without using the speed remote? The train will only ever go around a perfect circle of track so I have no desire to alter the speed for straights/corners. I don't have a huge knowledge of electronics but can use a soldering iron and am willing to get my hands dirty.
I also understand that the rechargeable battery box has a variable speed output (which does sound ideal) but was wondering if there is a cheaper option?

There is a fairly easy and cheap way to do this since you don't want real variable speed control. As you noted, connecting the AAA battery box directly to the PF train motor technically works, but the motor runs too fast.
The default AAA battery box provides 9v from 6 AAA cells. Lowering this voltage will lower the speed of your motor. If you'd like to get your hands dirty, you can modify the AAA battery box or buy a battery box that supplies another voltage and connect this up to the C0 and C1 lines of your motor.
However, the simplest solution I can think of is to purchase (or possibly build) AAA dummy batteries and use a few of these in the AAA battery box in conjunction with regular batteries. These look like AAA batteries, but are actually just metal conductors internally. By using a number of these in the battery box, you can have it provide 1.5v, 3v, 4.5v, 6v, 7.5v, or 9v.
Philo has a nice breakdown of speed vs voltage for PF train motors:
3V = 135 rpm (2 AAA batteries, 4 dummies)
4.5V = 468  rpm (3 AAA batteries, 3 dummies)
6V = 792 rpm (4 AAA batteries, 2 dummies)
7.5V = 1107 rpm (5 AAA batteries, 1 dummies)
9V = 1458 rpm (6 AAA batteries, 0 dummies)

You can make adjustments in 1.5 volt increments by adding or removing batteries from your setup to hopefully find a speed that works for you.
It's a bit more complicated/expensive to get proper variable speed control, but if you just want a constant speed that is slower than the default PF full speed, this is the simplest method I can think of.

This is exactly the kind of solution I was after, I've found some very cheap dummy batteries online, thanks so much for your help!

LEGO train motors get powered using a 9V cable. Philo (who also visits this site) has an excellent site with all the features and characteristics about the PowerFunctions motor system, which includes trains. This site is located at http://philohome.com/tech.htm.
The speed of the train is regulated using PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) on the inside two wires (C0 and C1) of the power functions connector. If you feel adventurous, you can cut a PF cable and put electronics in between (an Arduino perhaps) to give the train a constant speed (perhaps read the speed from a pot-meter, this is how the rechargeable battery box works).
For reference, I've done something similar in my RFID controlled train, see my video on Flickr. Just a word of warning, unless you know what you're doing you're probably spending a lot of time on this and just forking out $50 for the rechargeable battery (plus either $30 for LEGO's adapter or $10 for a generic adapter (assuming you can regulate the voltage and the polarity of the pin)) might be the easiest and most cost-effective option.

Thanks very much for your suggestion, I loved your video, looks so fun!

Easy solution.  Use 3 dead batteries, 3 new batteries.  Achieved perfect speed.
Dead batteries are easy to find in kids toys :)

That's not a bad solution - you may want to mark the "known" dead ones to help you replace the real ones when they go flat ;)


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Lego Mindstorms RCX RIS 2.0 IR tower Windows 10 64-bit driver
I found this question:
Lego Mindstorms RCX RIS 2.0 IR tower Windows 7 / Windows XP driver
and I wanted to ask if someone found a solution.
But due to my lack of reputation I couldn't create a comment asking ... further
my system differs to the original post.
Kind regards

Possible duplicate of Lego Mindstorms RCX RIS 2.0 IR tower Windows 7 / Windows XP driver

Hi Thomas, and welcome to LEGO Answers. One of the answers to that linked question does also mention running on Windows 10 64bit, sadly it's a little under specified how Philipp managed to get this running. The fundamental problem is that this tower is now 16 years old, and at the time 64bit architectures were fairly rare in a family home - so the drivers were never produced for that.

As many of the RIS 2.0 questions here suggest, you may be better off finding a different way of talking to that pedigree of brick.
Virtual machines and other operating systems running other software are your best choices at this time. Running old, unsigned 32-bit drivers on Windows 10 presents a nearly impossible set of hurdles just to push a few bytes to a brick.
I maintain a fork of NQC, for example, and I'm pretty sure I'll never try to get the USB tower part of that updated for Windows 64-bit.
Another option is to find a classic serial tower and use a USB to serial dongle. I've had some success on that on OS X and earlier Windows releases.

Robotic Invention System 2.0
Hello.
I found this blog as I just upgraded my Mac with an Intel processor to one with an M1 processor.
I was running RIS 2.0 and Mindstorms NXT on Windows XP through Parallels.
Unfortunately, the new version of Parallels for the M1 processor no longer supports installing Windows XP.
But I just found a solution that worked for me.
UTM is similar to Parallels and you have two options: make a virtual machine with Windows or emulate it.
I took the option to emulate it and was able to install and run perfectly RIS 2.0, the Ultimate Builders Set, and NXT versions 1 and 2.
Requirements:

Install UTM on the Mac. Here is the link:
https://mac.getutm.app

Have a CD with Windows XP and make an ISO (CD image). (You can search the internet for how to make an ISO from a CD or DVD.

You also need to make an ISO of each Software you want to install: RIS 2.0, NXT, etc.

Download the “capsule” for Windows XP from the following link and follow the installation instructions: https://mac.getutm.app/gallery/windows-xp

Once Windows XP is installed and you run it through UTM, you will see a gray symbol in the upper right part of the Windows window, like a CD.

You click on it and it is as if you “loaded” the CD, in this case, the RIS 2.0 ISO.

You have to select it from the folder where you have saved it.

Once you load it, the installation menu will come out automatically.

If this doesn't happen, go to My Computer, all within Windows XP, and select drive D, which is actually a virtual CD drive that loaded the RIS 2.0 ISO. You double click to start the installation.

Everything should install without problems.

The IR transmission tower MUST NOT BE CONNECTED UNTIL THE SOFTWARE HAS BEEN PROPERLY INSTALLED.

Once the program requests it, you connect the IR tower.

IMPORTANT. When the tower is connected, Windows has to recognize and install it. When you get the option to install it, you have to tell it that it will use the software that is on the virtual CD. (Sometimes the RIS install window is on top of the Windows window to install the tower. You'll have to find it by temporarily minimizing the RIS install window.) If Windows doesn't install it, the software won't recognize it.

If you do this correctly, the RIS 2.0 software will recognize the tower and you will no longer have a problem.

If you have the Mindstorms NXT ISO, the installation is even easier because you don't have to install the tower.

I think using a Raspberry Pi device might work well in this situation.
Here is a tutorial on how to install Windows 98 on a Raspberry Pi.
https://magpi.raspberrypi.org/articles/run-windows-98-on-raspberry-pi-with-dosbox-x
Then install the old IR software onto that.
Plug IR Tower in and it could work.
I found this tutorial, too.
https://minordiscoveries.wordpress.com/2014/01/20/using-nqc-on-a-raspberry-pi-to-program-a-lego-mindstorms-rcx-brick/


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What set do I have? 2 grey 6x6 circle plates, dark grey, dark red, and dark blue pieces
I found a bag of LEGO pieces without any instructions. I'm trying to find out what set I have.

bag of logos Did you mean a bag of legos?

@A.L Technically all bricks should have the Lego Logo on them so he may have been right... in a way.

THese parts are from 76019-1: Starblaster Showdown based on

Plate 1X4 W. 2 Knobs
Plate 6X6 Round With Tube Snap
Right Plate 2X4 W/Angle


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Average price per weight of new bricks in sets purchased for retail price?
What would be a reasonable estimate for the price per pound of pieces purchased for the retail price in sets?  If the weight of a good sample of sets (not including the packaging or instructions) were known then a range of prices could be calculated.
The only number I can come up with now is to take the average price per new brick divided the weight of a brick- if a 2x4 brick were representative (I suspect it weighs more than average), then the price per pound would be around $0.10/2.5g * 453.6 g/lb = $18/lb, or using 2x2 as an average weight maybe around $40 per pound.  The numbers are interesting to compare to used bulk prices, or the cost of new bricks from pick-a-brick/brick wall cups (the cost of those is well documented elsewhere).

The short answer is that for retail sets, anything under $20 USD per pound of actual parts is a great value. $50 USD per pound appears to be fairly common overall.

I calculated this based on the actual part weights of all parts in a set. I only explored recent Classic, Creator, and City sets as these tend to be a good value and use System bricks almost exclusively. I used recommended retail price and didn't account for sales or other deals that can be found on retail sets.
Here's a graph of recent Classic, Creator, and City sets showing that $50 USD is a reasonable median price per pound:

The best value are the Classic bulk brick boxes, and the worst value per pound are the City minifig sets.


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A wired data logging brick
I need a data logging brick where I can wire an input to the file name. Is this possible? and if so how would I do this?

It is possible, but I'm not sure this is the data logging brick you expected.
The File Access Block provides the option to wire the filename.  Click on the upper right corner of the block and a dropdown will appear, select "Wired".
For example:

If you really need a data logging block where the file name is determined by the input, I'm afraid that this is not possible.
The normal data logging block has a constant as file name:

Maybe you can use a switch for different file names? But this can get out of hand very quickly for many different file names.
Maybe you can give us some more hints.

Oh yes, @dfrevert is right. It is possible with the normal file block. But not with the data logging block.


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Significance of the switch from Legoland to Lego System?
In former times, Lego boxes used to feature a diagonal Legoland label in one corner. (See, for instance, the box of the Space Police I capital ship, set 6986.)
Later on (if I recall correctly, starting in 1992), the Legoland label disappeared, and instead a large SYSTEM label appeared on boxes (for instance, on the first Octan gas transit vehicle, set 6594](http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/6594_Gas_Transit)).
In both cases, my guess is that Legoland and System denote the "world of minifigs", as opposed to Duplo, Fabuland, or Technic - but I was never sure about this.
Looking at boxes nowadays, such a mark has completely disappeared, and boxes just indicate their theme (such as City, as on the prisoner transporter, set 60043).
Hence, my question is: What was the significance of these labels, was there any difference in scope between Legoland and SYSTEM, and why were they changed/discontinued?

One word: Marketing.

LEGOLAND
Presumably the decision to discontinue the 'Legoland' series may have been to avoid confusion with the LEGOLAND theme parks.
The original LEGOLAND in Denmark has been open since 1968 and since the opening of the second park LEGOLAND park in Windsor there have been eight new LEGOLAND parks and many LEGOLAND Discovery Centres.
The planning, design, site preparation and the design and construction of models for LEGOLAND Windsor began in 1992. The same year the LEGO product line disappeared, this however may be a coincidence but it would make sense to avoid confusion between the product line and theme park. The theme parks would also include a product line using the branding 'LEGOLAND' for merchandise such as clothing, books, souvenirs and even some sets based on the parks themselves.
Below you can see two 'LEGOLAND' sets. The set on the left was from the original LEGOLAND series and on the right is a promotional set released for the LEGOLAND parks.

LEGO System
The LEGO® Book1 refers to the LEGO System theme.

1954 was a year in which Godtfred KirkChristiansen (GKC) did a lot of
  thinking about the future of the LEGO Group. Returning from a toy fair
  in Britain, he got talking to a colleague who pointed out that there
  was no system in the toy industry. That was all the inspiration GKC
  needed. He decided to create a structured system of products.
  Reviewing all the toys made by the company, he saw the LEGO brick was
  the best choice for this project.

1 Page 18. Lipkowitz, Daniel. The LEGO book. London: Dorling Kindersley, 2012.
The first LEGO System set was actually Town Plan No.


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How do I find information about discontinued LEGO sets?
I have some older LEGO sets that have been discontinued for a while.
I am trying to find information like # of pieces and some other info.
Looking them up on the LEGO website didn't work. Is there anywhere else that I could find info?

Welcome William. Please check out either Brickset or BrickLink to find this information. Both websites have a big database containing tons of information on LEGO sets and LEGO parts. BrickLink is more comprehensive, but a little bit more difficult to navigate.

Thanks! That answers it. The websites have exactly what I want!


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Cargo Train Deluxe (7898) not running
I was working with the main locomotive of set 7898. I put brand new batteries in both the controller and locomotive but for some reason every time I press the button to turn on the train, the red light comes on and I press the button to make the train to go and nothing happens.
Any idea what the issue could be or how I can fix this?

Please check the possible duplicate answer. If your answer isn't found there, please edit your question with details to help us troubleshoot it.

I believe that the answer you referenced is for PF trains and the issue here is with an RC train.

While the referenced duplicate is for Power Functions, the steps to diagnose the issue are fairly similar - ensure that you have good line of sight between the controller and the receivers on the sides of the engine, check the motors still work in the wheel units with a direct connection to some batteries, etc. The set is about 10 years old, so some wear and tear may be expected.


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To sort or not to sort
My son is 9 and slightly ahead of the Lego curve. We have both a large number of freestyle Legos and sets of various sizes. When we open a new set, I always immediately empty all the pieces and sort by color.
With the last set my son opened, the 824-piece Volcano Exploration Base, he poured all the pieces onto a beige surface, one bag at a time, but we did not sort. Some pieces took him a while to find, but overall it took him about the same amount of time with about the same error rate as a set we sorted of equivalent size.
So, my question is, moving forward, as we wind up with larger and larger sets, will his method continue to be about the same efficacy, or will he just get overwhelmed?
What I don't know is if the larger sets also have numbered bags for various portions of the whole such that one could open a few hundred pieces from a single bag which then goes on to make a particular structure.

In general terms the time time to find a part goes up with the number of parts. But you also need to find more parts. So the time to assemble a set with N parts is actually (find one part in a pile of N parts) times (find N parts), or N-squared. Keeping N small wins once N gets larger. And there are sets with more than 2000 parts (5000, I think)

All large sets released in the last few years come in numbered bags. The bags are sorted by logical sections as they appear in the instruction manuals. So for example there will be several bags numbered as #1, several bags numbered as #2, etc.
The intention is that you open all the bags numbered as #1, build that section, then open the bags numbers as #2, etc. This makes building a lot easier, faster, error-free, and a lot less messy.
In very large sets each section usually takes about an hour to build, and the whole set can take 2-5 hours to put together. While some LEGO fans do building marathons and put together sets in one sitting, for most people stretching out the building experience to several days is less stressful and more practical.
Also, note that numbered bags usually allow several people to work simultaneously as, the numbered bags tend to represent chunks of the set that later get assembled. This makes the building process faster. So for example your son would be building the first floor of a structure, while you can work on the second floor.
Another way people work together on large sets is for one person to be the sorter, and the other the assembler. In your case, this may mean that you find the parts for each step of the process, and maybe even build some of the small assemblies, then you hand them to your son who will attach them to the set.
All in all I would say that numbered bags are your friends. The larger the set, the more you will appreciate their practicality. There are still old-school LEGO fans from the pre-sorted bags period, who build differently. They may dump all the pieces from all bags into one pile, or open all the bags and pre-sort pieces by type or color. But for most people, building the way LEGO suggest is the best way to tackle large sets.

Even in the numbered bags, as you say, is this amenable to "dump and find" because the piece number is below a few hundred?

Yeah, the piece number in the numbered bags are pretty manageable, even for very large sets, and they are also somewhat pre-sorted. Usually one bag has the really big pieces, another bag would have the tiny pieces, etc. So what I do is to dump the content of the same numbered bags in separate piles. If you have a few trays or other shallow containers, they can be very useful. So for example if you have 3 bags labeled #4, you dump the content of each on a separate tray. Usually there are no more than 3-4 bags under one number, so you will have that many piles.

I do the same, but I have a few bowls or varying size to dump the bags into. Sometimes I break out the muffin baking tin for the bags with a lot of small pieces. Then I sort them while my son builds. Often we take turns between pulling the pieces for a step and building that step.

Had an argument with my wife the other day about how to sort. My idea was to do it by colour, but then I realized she was right (obviously) and sorting by type is more practical. Windows and doors go together, thin plates, large plates, wheels, etc.
That said, with the kids we never sort a box just opened. As Mr Shiny and New and Bernd Wilke do, we open the bags by numbers and use plastic containers to avoid losses. Sorting everything first would, in my view, take away a lot of the excitement.

A personal preference on my part for color. Really, it's the second time we build something because now we have several hundred unsorted pieces. We're not good at taking apart in order.

For new sets I prefer to open each bag at the time I use it. The bags are small enough to need no further sorting.
In general I like to have my pieces sorted by function and size (no color sorting) as in a pile of red pieces the smaller pieces are more difficult to find than the red pieces in the pile of (equal) small pieces.

I use small square plastic food containers, about 4" sq and 2" deep, one for each plastic bag that comes in the box. If a bag has more bags inside, they each go into a container. If one bag has a lot of large identical pieces, such as doors or door frames, I'll take those out.  Otherwise, a bag corresponds to one little tray. If a set has numbered steps, then I only empty the baggies for the current step; the other bags stay sealed until needed.
This gives me a couple advantages:

It's quick.
Each tray is shallow enough to pick parts
The bags in the sets are usually organized so that all or most of a certain kind of piece is in one bag, which makes them easy to find.
Pieces don't fall all over the place or get lost.
If I need to stop, put the build away, then resume later, it's easy to do so.

I think this minimal system is enough to make any kind of pre-sorting unneeded. Rarely has a kit overwhelmed the little boxes (the huge Ghostbusters HQ set did, but it's an outlier).
I also sort my lego before putting a set away. My collection is sorted into flat art-supply boxes, by colour and type. Pre-sorting to that degree takes quite a bit of time. I don't think that time is well-spent when building the set for the first time, even if the sorting wouldn't need to be as thorough for building as it is for storing.


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DIY EV3 from schematics
LEGO offers schematics for the EV3 brick in their hardware developer kit accessible from the bottom of the EV3 downloads page. (Files 1 and 2 in the zip)
Do these schematics contain enough information to theoretically build an EV3 from scratch?

Where can I find the schematic for the EV brick - is this still accessible online?

@VIBHISHMS https://www.lego.com/en-us/themes/mindstorms/downloads under "Advanced Users – Developer Kits (PC/MAC)" -> "EV3 Hardware Developer Kit" is a 6-page PDF of the schematics (https://www.lego.com/cdn/cs/set/assets/blt86e79bb287a0d0b1/Appendix_LEGO_MINDSTORMS_EV3_programmable_brick_main_hardware_schematics.pdf)

Yes!
Based on 3 years of extensive study of the internal workings of the EV3 as part of the ev3dev project, I can confidently say that if you build that schematic, you will get something that very closely resembles a mass-produced EV3.
There are some minor differences though. The HW Version Identification shown on page 3 of the schematic (0101 [binary] == 5 [decimal]) does not match the actual mass-produced hardware (1000 [binary] == 8 [decimal]), so it leads me to believe that the schematic that LEGO has shared is not the final revision, but rather a slightly older revision.
There is also a PIC microcontroller (U28) and MFi authentication chip (U29) on the actual EV3 that is not on the schematic. The firmware source code seems to indicate that this is used for the iPhone/iPad/iPod Bluetooth mode somehow. So, this feature will be missing from your clone EV3.
I have also just noticed that the "3 SEC delay" circuit on page 3 is not populated on the actual EV3. This is further evidence that the publicly available schematic is not the final revision.
One challenge you will face in building your own EV3 is that there is no PCB layout provided by LEGO, so you will have to do this yourself.
You will also have to find a replacement display. The LCD does not appear to be generally available. (I broke one and looked for a replacement several years ago. I ended up replacing it with a color TFT instead.)

Also, while we are on the subject, there is a BeagleBone cape called the FatcatLab EVB. There is an open source schematic for this as well. If you are really going to build your own EV3-like circuit board, it may be more appealing to copy this one because it has a faster processor and more memory.

Wow! So is the Ev3 technically open source hardware (just the electronics) and software?

The software is explicitly open source (mostly GPLv2 licensed). However, I have not seen any explicit mention of any copyright or restrictions related to copying the hardware schematics. It would be prudent to contact LEGO about this before selling any product that copied portions the schematics. But yes, in a broad sense of the definition, you can say that it is technically open source hardware.

Oh man, I really want that FatCatLab EVB! Too bad there does not seem to be a way to get hold of the developers.


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Help me plan and acquire pieces for my Star Wars MOC?
I wish to build a large LEGO Star Wars MOC.  The basic idea I had was a well-fortified Droid factory, protected by a combination of droids, Sith, bounty hunters and Manalorians.  And on the other side of this battle field: a Republic base built into the cliff side.
My issues are :

Planning a MOC of the size
getting hold of enough minifigures in a economic way
building large amounts of scenery cheaply

Any help will be appreciated greatly.

Do you have any budget or size limitations?

I want it to be a long term project over the next 5 years so budget isnt really a problem,but size wise it going to be about 8 base plates by 4 base plates

Here are some good pointers for building large scale projects:

Duplo is your friend. If you have duplo, or have the opportunity to buy duplo for cheap, it can be extremely useful. You can use it to easily build up the insides of landscape areas, without making everything obscenely dense. This will help with budget and weight.
Build the base nice and strong. Make sure all of your baseplates are attached well to each other, and that you have a permanent building surface. My greatest recommendation would be to buy a sheet of plywood, and build on top of that. This way, if you ever need to move the model, you can pick it up in one piece. You can also make the model so that it splits in certain areas so that it is easy to move around. That is up to you, but make sure you are able to move things around and/or repair things easily.
For scenery that you need to replicate, allocate an exact number of parts for each of those pieces of scenery, and simply alter how you build it each time. It will speed up the process of building as well as add variety to the model.
Details come last. That being said, have an idea of what details you may want to incorporate as you are building some of the superstructures. This way, you can integrate things better in the future, and the model won't appear so haphazard.
Used pieces are an alternative method of coloration. Buying used pieces means that many of them will have slightly different tones of coloration as a result of age. When building in a large scale, this actually adds a really nice touch of realism to a model so that you have a much more diverse gradient of colors.
Don't be afraid to use unorthodox building methods. When you're in a large scale, things can look very different since everything will be seen at once. When building, be sure to periodically take a step back from your work to see how a detail actually fits into the scene.

Hopefully this will help get your project off the ground!


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Need help identifying a couple of Lego sets, grey tank with 4 short legs, and ship with long wings with lime green tiles
Do you recognize either of the below Lego sets?
We received them as a hand-me-down gift with no instructions.
Thanks for any help!

Top set is indeed 75013 as per @lego-related username's answer.
Bottom set is 75024 HH-87 Starhopper.

Top set is number 75013, Umbaran MHC (Mobile Heavy Cannon). I think the previous owner modified the cannon, because the actual set looks vastly different up there. I don't recognize the bottom set, but it looks like some star wars set.

The second set is 75024-1: HH-87 Starhopper


text:
Which head piece would be the cheapest?
I would like to fill a vase with LEGO heads to decorate my living room so I am looking for the best option to buy bulk heads.
I have been looking at Bricklink but I can't find a good way to tell. I want 200 (not sure about the number for the moment) yellow heads, don't mind what the face painted looks like but I want to find the cheapest option.
Has anybody got any clue on the best way to do that?

Not really suited as a permanent answer, so posting as a comment. This vendor on EBay sells lots of 50 heads for $20.99, with free shipping on orders over $50: http://www.ebay.com/itm/LEGO-Minifigure-Heads-Assorted-Faces-City-Town-Alien-Skull-Yellow-Bulk-Lot-/331103363748. You might want to message him and see if he can give you an all-yellow head lot for (e.g. 200 for $75 or something like that).

Also not a permanent answer, so I will just comment. BrickLink is really good for finding individual parts, but it is not so good for bulk ordering. As Phil mentioned, it would be better to look for bulk head lots on eBay. If you do want to shop on BrickLink, I would suggest that you post on the BrickLink forum about your project, and let sellers make you offers. Common heads should really not be more than 10 cents a piece (this applies to the US).

Thanks for this hint, I have tried to write some code to get data from Bricklink and it appears, if you don't mind about the new/used status of the head, there are option to get them for ~15 cents in Europe, I have not been able to find better option on ebay there at the moment, I will post on this thread when my search is over.

Do they all have to be the same head print or the same? Also have you considered cheating and filling up the centre of the vase with padding so that you need fewer heads?

One way to do this on Bricklink is to run an advanced search over the "Minifig, Head" category. Here's an example showing all yellow parts in this category with a minimum lot size of 200 sorted by price, lowest first.
This shows you the cheapest stores to order 200 of the same yellow head from. If you want a little variety, I'm sure those sellers have other heads available as well.