Can additional MyBlock icons be added to the EV3 palette of icons available in the MyBlock builder? I'm a big believer in using MyBlocks when using EV3.  For FLL teams, every robot needs to move forward, backward, turn right, turn left, arm up, arm down.  Even before a robot is built, those MyBlocks can be created.  However, none of the icons on the available palette of icons seem suited to the task.

Is there a way to add icons to the palette?

The palette of icons for the parameters is much more useful, so for now, we'll ignore that palette.

Go to the directory

(for home edition) c:\Program Files (x86)\LEGO Software\LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 Home Edition\Resources\MyBlocks\images\
(for edu version) c:\Program Files (x86)\LEGO Software\LEGO MINDSTORMS Edu EV3\Resources\MyBlocks\images\

And create a group of 3 icons for each new icon:

PolyGroup_NNN_NAME_Diagram.png [size 34x34] - visible in the diagram
PolyGroup_NNN_NAME_Palette.png [size 25x25] - visible in the command palette
PolyGroup_NNN_NAME_Palette_MouseOver.png [size 25x25] - visible in the command palette while moving the mouse over the icon

Where

NNN is a next available number (98 icons already installed), so continue with 098
NAME - use some name

Restart the SW and open MyBlock builder, you will find the added icon.

It will not work, if you open your code on another EV3 installation without your modifications.


Yet Another Model to Identify, Dark Grey Motorcycles? I have looked and looked through Google images to find this one.  I'm also fairly certain that I don't have the major assembly connected to each other correctly.  But does someone know what the set number is for this one?


What is the best way to sell complete used LEGO sets? I have some used Star Wars LEGO sets (one is discontinued and has been for a while), some Marvel/DC LEGO sets, and some miscellaneous sets. What is the best way to sell these?

Are you sure that your sets are complete? You should verify that no pieces are lost, either by building the set or by checking LEGO's parts database (can do that on Brickset.com). If pieces are missing, you may want to order these.

On BrickPicker.com you find current market values of sets, so you know what asking price to set. That site collects eBay price data regularly. Then select marketplaces; eBay is used a lot by LEGO investors and it has an international audience of buyers. When it's time to ship your items you need to take care packaging the sets properly. To some buyers the condition of the box will be of great importance.

As you can see there's a lot of work involved with LEGO selling, and if you want to make serious profits you need to get economies of scale in your business, not just selling one or two sets.


Is this assembly legal? This question might be strongly opinion-based, but I also think it might be interesting.
I know there is a guide for Lego builders to decide if their build is legal or not. However, the cases of this guide focus on assemblies where the final configuration has some issues with friction or internal stress. But at the same time, there are assemblies, which do not deal with either of these, except at the moment when they are put together. Here is an example:

Is this considered to be legal or not? If not, what about this one:

The answer depends on your definition of "legal". In the strictest sense, it means "can be used in official LEGO sets", and in this case, this is definitely not legal, as the axle is not designed to bend that way, unlike the many various hinge and joint pieces.

On the other hand, "legal" might mean "does not cause damage to the pieces", and in this sense it is a borderline case, as you can see the end of the axle retaining its slightly bent shape, but it's nothing that couldn't be fixed with a little more force applied in the correct place and direction.

Whereas on the far end of the legality spectrum, the status of any technique or piece is subject of individual opinion or decision. You are certainly free to employ any combination of parts, use 3rd party parts, paint, glue or cut pieces to your heart's content and shouldn't fear any reprisal from the LEGO Police. Collections curated by others, events or competitions might (and often do) apply a restriction on at least a subset of these, so if you are not in the position to judge the legality, it's best to directly ask those who are.

EDIT based on Michael's comment:

Another criterion in the definition of legality is often "can be easily taken apart by a child", which this design is clearly not.


How many minifigs have actually flown in space? I want to know how many have been to space (they don't have to have returned.)

Actual Minifigures In Space
There have been a number of videos posted from the ISS mission, where we can clearly see one of the astronauts (Satoshi Furukawa) on the station holding a model with some minifigures:

On the Gallery Pages they list out "Working and living in space - This is the LEGO models shown in the videos"
In the shots there are there are at least 7, if not 8 minifigs (assuming that each hair and face is part of a complete minifig, rather than having the bodies reused for the shots):

This appears to be the first time actual articulated minifigs have officially gone to space.
A Romanian named Oaida Raul sent the Lego Shuttle [bs:3367] up on a weather balloon to "the edge of space" on 31 December 2011, but hasn't released actual figures of the altitude reached:

2001: A Brick Odyssey

Two Canadian Students sent a Minifigure up to the stratosphere in January 2012, high enough to see the curvature of the earth, which can be seen reported on the Toronto Star's pages:

Minifigure Statues
Before then the closest thing to a minifig officially sent to space are the three custom built aluminium Minifigure statues that went up on the JUNO space craft this year:

JUNO Spacecraft to Carry Three Figurines to Jupiter Orbit

The Roman god Jupiter, his wife Juno and Galileo Galilei
This wired article concludes:

This unique project has put a smile on many Nasa and Lego employees' faces and stirred up interest from other state space agencies, as well. Will LEGO minifigs take another trip in space soon? Time will tell. But until that day, keep an eye on the sky for the fastest moving toys in the universe.

LEGOSpace.com's insistence on not supporting deep-linking fails me, but if you go to the Education Blog and scroll to Thursday, August 04, 2011

LEGO® Minifigures on a mission to promote space research
Three LEGO® Minifigures leave earth on the Juno deep-space probe today on a five-year mission to Jupiter to broaden awareness of the importance of planetary research.

Pictures of Minifigures
Prior to these two missions, previous missions have been promoted as sending Minifigures to space when in fact what they actually contained were pictures of minifigures:

LEGO bricks and products have been on several space missions. The latest mission with NASA was in 2004 when two astronaut minifigures hitched a ride on the Spirit and  Opportunity Mars Exploration Rovers.

When in reality what happened was:

Today, Opportunity returned pictures from Mars of another three “LEGO Bricks” and Sandy Moondust, the second “astrobot” representation of a LEGO Minifigure.


Can't create block: "Use of a block which no longer exists" Unable to compile some documents for deployment:
Program.ev3p: Use of a block which no longer exists.
PutInRange.ev3p

The block I want to make. It will put a input value inside a given range.
When I try to upload i always get a error. I already deleted every thing and started new. And always it will give me a error. The Lego software looks very buggy to me. Am I the only one that has these problems ?

This is the MinValue block that gives the minimal value of two.

This is the MaxValue block that gives the maximal value of two.

And this are the blocks in my program, and there all there.

Try exporting(saving locally) the block that shows error. Then delete it from the program and import it from where you saved it


What Is The 3-stud Wide Red Cabinet Frame Piece In Picture? I would like to know the name and part number for the red frame piece in picture. The one that is holding the white cupboard door.

Hey Nancy!

Part# 4532 Container, Cupboard 2 x 3 x 2


How can I get replacement stickers for a new lego set? I recently bought a Lego Fire Boat (set number 60005) but for some reason, when I opened the box and shook out the contents (as I normally do) no sticker sheet fell out. I was wondering if you could help me out here, as this set is the jewel of my crown. I need them to create a (rather unusual) fire rescue MOC and film but I cannot do this without the stickers. If you can help me here, it'd be much appreciated. Thanks guys!

Ciaran

P.S. can you give me somesolutions?

LEGO Customer Service will be probably be happy to help you out. They've been happy to replace missing or broken parts for me in the past. They have an online service for requesting replacement parts here:

https://wwwsecure.lego.com/en-us/service/replacementparts

I don't think sticker sheets are listed in the inventories on that page though, so you'll have to add it manually using the "I can't find what I'm looking for" link at the bottom. Once the sheet is added to your cart, you just need to checkout and provide an address for shipping purposes.

If you have any problems, you can also contact customer service directly from this page:

https://wwwsecure.lego.com/service/contactus/


How can I create a visually appealing Castle wall from one colour? I have a bag of hundreds of classic light grey 2x4 bricks, and 2x1 bricks.

How can I use these to make some interesting castle walls?

Considering the very limited choice of bricks, I don't think you have much options.

The first is the obvious stacking of 1x2 bricks, which the added bonus that it can bend (slighly).

The second is the obvious stacking of 2x4 bricks, which is equally boring.

What I would suggest is to build windows in it, which you can easily achieve by mixing the two bricks. My LDraw PC is dead, so I'll need to explain this otherwise. Let's say that the wall depth is 2L, so basically from the front you'll see either bricks of 1 or 4. Let's represent these by "1" and "4444". What you can do is as follows:

  1444414444144441444414444144441444414444144441444414444
4444 4444 4444 4444 4444 4444 4444 4444 4444 4444 4444
4444 4444 4444 4444 4444 4444 4444 4444 4444 4444 4444
 1444414444144441444414444144441444414444144441444414444
4444144441444414444144441444414444144441444414444144441
  1444414444144441444414444144441444414444144441444414444

Notice that there is a window every 5 studs, which is exactly the same as you would have if you were using the castle wall panels.

For the top, you can have a layer of 2x4 bricks in the other direction, so that they go one stud further in front and in back. End with a parapet build of 1x2 bricks.


Can I identify the colour of objects 5mm in diamater with an EV3 Colour sensor? My plan was to make a simple robot to sort beads like this:. Its the Hama Medium size beads, they have a diameter of 5mm so they are fairly small. After some testing, reading and asking here I figured out that it would be impossible for me to get any color reading at all from objects that small with the default sensor setup (8 distinct colors).

Is there some trick I can use to get the sensor to see the beads and get at least some of the color?

You may try to use the color sensor in RGB mode using a 3rd party block found here: http://mindcuber.com/mindcub3r/mindcub3r.html#ColorSensorRGBBlock
With this block you get a set of three 0-255 values, one for each R G B color. It will still be tricky to correctly classify the color of your objects as the readings are noisy - you can try to set ranges to each RGB value with or w/o normalization - but at least you have some data to work with.


Does the LEGO company actively follow or copy clone bricks? What does The LEGO group do to follow clone brands?
Do they buy at least one of every set produced by The Other Guys?

I'm more interested about what the LEGO company does to keep up with what competitors are putting out, and whether or not they might decide to incorporate new elements in their own product line. We always consider that clone brands copy LEGO bricks, but does the opposite happen?

In my opinion, LEGO must follow clone brands very closely, and this for a number of reasons.

The first, which is obvious and has already been mentioned, is that they want to protect their own intellectual property. As such, they'll want to take legal action as soon as possible when one of their trademarks/copyrights is infringed.

The second one is actually also about intellectual property, although not their own. Indeed, while LEGO is usually considered as the leader in the field of interlocking bricks, it can indeed happen that a competitor creates something new, which LEGO might not have considered. That would be where you would suggest that LEGO should "keep up", but in reality most of the time it's exactly the contrary: since they may not infringe on the competitor's own intellectual property, they won't be able to imitate them.

So saying that design decisions can be made independently of what other manufacturers are doing is, in my own opinion, utterly false. I can't imagine a field of business where you can completely ignore what your competitors are doing, just because you believe you're ahead of them, and if you do, you're either very cocky, or very naive.

Note I'm talking about serious competitors like MegaBloks, not the one who just copy badly everything LEGO makes. MegaBloks, for example, does have interesting parts (for example, plates with studs on both sides, Plate 1 x 2 connector, male:male and Plate 2 x 2 connector, male:male). These parts are interesting and many LEGO builders would like to have them, but it's unlikely LEGO would be willing to produce them now that MegaBloks has. Of course, I'm no lawyer and I understand copyright law may be much more intricate than that (there are parts which both companies produce, for example), but I'm confident this is a valid concern in the design process.


Scroll screen in EV3 Home Edition program I'm using LEGO Mindstorms EV3 Home Edition program to program my robot. Typically a program becomes wider than the screen. However, no horizontal scrollbars appear on screen.

So how can I view and edit my entire program if there are no scrollbars? There is no vertical scrollbar, but for that I can use my mouse's scrollwheel.

Using the mouse, you can click on the gray arrows on the edges of the screen (indicated with red arrows below). You will need to close the Content Editor to be able to see the one on the right clearly.

Another option using the mouse is to use the "pan" tool. Click on the tool icon that looks like a hand (circled in red below). Then use it to click and drag anywhere in the work area.

You can also use the keyboard arrow keys. First click on any blank white space to make sure that no blocks are selected, then press the arrow keys to scroll.


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.

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!


Help identifying utensil looking round support piece with 2 bars Here is a picture of the piece (red brick below it is just for showing the size).

It has "© LEGO" and "8-01" written on it.

This piece is called Space binoculars or electrobinoculars and has part number 30304.


Is there a way to add a ultrasonic sensor on the ev3 COR3 robot? When I built the COR3 robot I started to have some fun programming it. But then I wanted to add a ultrasonic sensor on my robot but I can't seem to find a way to place it on my robot. If you can please help me where to put it I will attach a photo to show you more information and a link.
https://ev3lessons.com/RobotDesigns/instructions/COR3.pdf

The ultrasonic sensor is useful for navigation.  This robot design has a nice skirt and positioning the ultrasonic sensor should not interfere with that skirt.  Also the ultrasonic sensor is excellent at detecting right angles like the floor meeting a wall.  So, I'd recommend positioning the sensor on either a side (for following along a wall) or the back (to slow down just before reaching a wall when backing up).  It doesn't matter a lot whether the sensor is mounted vertically or horizontally.
So, given all that how do you mount it on the robot?  Pins and a couple beams or right angle beams.  You might also find an existing small pin that can be replaced with a deeper pin.  Maybe the better answer is lots of trial and error.


Please help identify Star Wars set - I have some very specific dark grey wings with brown paint Please see attached pic, I reckon these are part of a Star Wars ship. Can anyone help me identify the set?

These pieces are indeed Star Wars related, they are from 7957 - Sith Nightspeeder from 2011.


How can i use my iPhone to scan a barcode and send it to my EV3 brick? I'm trying to build a sorter that scans the barcode on the brick using an iPhone and sorts it accordingly to the barcode. I cannot use colours due to amount of things to sort.

You will have to write an application for your phone that can scan the codes and then send the information to the EV3 via bluetooth or wifi.

If you don't know how to write iOS apps, start here.

For scanning bar codes there seems to be good info here. It appears that bar code scanning is built into iOS 7. If you have an older version, the the zxing library sounds like a good choice.

For communicating to the EV3 over bluetooth, this has been asked before. However, I have yet to come across a good example.

You should be able to figure out the communication protocol for communicating with the EV3 from the LEGO firmware documentation, VM documentation and source code.


Where can I get replacement cables of this kind? What I'm looking for:

This is a 4,5V cable which is part of an old set I once had. I don't have any parts number, but I know this comes in different lengths.

Google told me about bricklink.com and I've searched there but didn't find it.
Help please?

This is an Electric, Wire 12V / 4.5V.

They can be found here:

Catalog: Parts - Electric, Wire & Connector

Just find the right length.


Securing vertical hinge In this construction, I want the vertical hinge to be in this location, centered in a 3 brick wide area. On top of it is two plates and layer of studs that match the 5:2 ratio, so in theory the hinge would be secure in this 3 brick wide gap. Is there a more elegant way of securing both sides of the hinge? I've looked at some bracket pieces but the issue is that they all have studs on top rather than stud-holes.

I would remove last two plates since they ruin the geometry here. And instead I can suggest using any modified brick with two studs facing towards hinged brick (white colored bricks). Technic, Pin Connector Round 2/3 L (seen in red) could then be used to attach studs on both sides. Orange plate below confirms all of this fit in required space.

A bit of background on the logic with my solution. With cases like this it is helpful when you measure everything in standard units. Here, brick height is 6 units, plate height is 2 units and stud is 5 units. From here you can clearly see you have a gap of 3 studs=15 units and your assembly is 14 units. The difference in 1 unit makes things more complicated. So my suggestion is to simplify it and make use of more common pieces.


Late 1970s hospital and helicopter building brick set I'm afraid I don't have a picture, but I am trying to identify a Christmas gift I fondly remember receiving as a child circa 1979.

It was a 3-foot box of building bricks and the front picture showed you could construct a hospital building and a helicopter.

The bricks inside were mostly white, with some of the smaller ones sporting a red cross and/or the word emergency in black on them. The majority of the bricks had six studs on top and six holes underneath - totally different from the LEGO, Betta Bilda etc blocks I have seen on this site and while searching online.

The bricks had slightly rounded edges rather than the hard, straight edges of bricks such as LEGO.

No figures or parts to make people were included, but there were little red door and window frames for the hospital. There was even a little round red boss to attach the helicopter's four rotor blades to.

As a child I simply called my blocks 'lego'... but I doubt very much that it was a LEGO set, having seen that LEGO pieces are different. Any ideas?

These blocks appear to match your description, would this be the type of brick you are talking about?


What set is this sealed bag of pink, purple, and white bricks from? I would like help identifying this bag of pink and purple LEGO bricks. It has three sets of eyes.

Based on the White Plate, Modified 2 x 2 with Bar Frame Octagonal, Reinforced, Completely Round Studs and the Dark Pink Brick, Modified 1 x 2 x 1 1/3 with Curved Top

This bag is part of 10696-1: Medium Creative Brick Box


What is the fastest way to estimate the number of pieces in a large collection? I have a relatively large LEGO collection and I would like to know roughly how many pieces I have; however, it would not be worth my time to count each piece individually. Is there a faster way to estimate the number of pieces? Is there is a way to tell by their weight?

What a tricky (bricky!) question.
Let's estimate...

By Weight

So, can one estimate the number of bricks in a bag or box by weight?

In fact, they do weigh bags and boxes over at the factory to make sure there aren't any parts missing. But of course they're just comparing expected weights.

That's why you can't simply weigh a big mix of unknown bricks to
calculate their number. There's no reference.

However, you can use a scale to estimate a number of bricks, if you have sorted them out individually.

If you keep your pieces in trays or drawers and you have a big bin of identical pieces (2x4's, 2x1's, ...), you can estimate them by weighing them.

Weigh them all, then divide by the weight of a single one.

Gets close. Speeds things up.

By Numbers

Anyway, try to narrow things down. To do so, collect as much data as possible.

Which sets do you own?
Look up the number of pieces per set.
Take into account if you bought an incomplete set. How much is missing?
Did you mailorder pieces?
Can you estimate the amount? Maybe check your orders/ accounts.
Did you buy a considerable number of bulk?

All this should already give you a rough number, considering the sets/mailorder/bulk ratio.

By Eye

Do you sort out your Lego into trays and drawers? You could count some of them, calculate an average amount and project it.
What about the relevance of certain parts? Do they count? Where there's lego technic, there's plenty of technic pins. You could simply leave out those piles of pins and separators or
weigh them. If they're sorted out, of course.

(Disclaimer: Do not take this last part too seriously...)

Or is it all in ONE BIG BIN?

Well, let's see.

How can one estimate the number of people in a crowd?

Take an aerial view, divide it into sections, count people in one frame and multiply by frames. As long as people are spread out evenly, you should get close enough.

Example: There are (maybe) 63 minifigs in this picture. Count all minifigs in one of the frames and multiply them by four for a rough answer.

How can one estimate the number of jellybeans in a jar?

Find out about jar and jellybeans, diameter, height, volume. Calculate. As long as you're not getting peckish, you should win big.

Now, how can one estimate the number of bricks of completely different shapes and sizes in ONE BIG BIN?

In theory, you would stirr everything to get one humongeous mass.
That is, you want bricks, pins, wheels, minifigs, separators all next
to each other, not in different layers with small parts at the bottom
of the bin. Next, pour it out and spread it evenly. Take a photo. Use the method
mentioned above.
Or, leave it in the bin. Take out one cup full of Lego,
count the parts, determine how many cups your bin holds and
extrapolate.

Conclusion: You're better off counting. While sorting out.


Remote control for a battery operated train I have a battery-operated Christmas train and would like to make it remote-controlled but don't know what I need to buy for a transmitter and receiver. Could someone please tell me?

Power Functions
I understand the train you have is Winter Holiday Train (10254). Luckily, LEGO has already has thought about it and have an option to power up this train. If you still have instructions check the last pages where you can find the list of elements you need (also pictured below) as well as 11 more steps you need to follow to get them installed.
In my opinion, 8879 controller pictured here is way much better than other Power Functions controllers, simply because you only need to set the speed once and train will keep running. Unlike the other types, where you have to keep pushing control toggle to keep your train moving. All of them can be found on Bricklink.

Powered Up
Since Power Functions elements are no longer sold by LEGO you have to look for other means of acquiring them new or used. However this system has been superseded by entirely new system called Powered Up. In some way it is even better for trains since you no longer need a place for bulky IR Receiver. You would need following elements to motorize your train with Powered Up:

Train Motor (set #88011 comes with train wheels, or as an individual element #bb0896c01)

Hub (#88009 | #bb0892c01)

Remote Control (#88010 | #bb0895c01)


Has anyone made LEGO fly? It may not be the ideal material. But has there ever been a LEGO model airplane with the ability to glide, under power maybe, or some other kind of successful lifting airship? Helicopter, blimp, kite, even rocket?  Sliding down a string doesn't  count. Has anyone produced any kind of limiting analysis for this problem?

Non powered/motorized flight has been achieved

Bamboo copter

Anna Vuurzoon made a Flying machine using only Lego parts which uses a ripcord to propel a three blade propeller on a stick (see http://www.mocpages.com/moc.php/288875). I was able to duplicate her results, so can validate it does work. It is really a modification of a bamboo copter. The 2015 Ninjago Lego Airjitzu series
( Lego #70739, 70740, 70741, 70742, 70743, 70744) are bamboo copters and work on the same basic concept as Anna Vuurzoon's flying machine.

Glider design

Daron Williams (via Drat Glider) and Milan "grohl" Reindl from Czech Republic have both reported making working/flying Lego gliders using mainly Technic cross-axles components.  Both gliders travelled between  20 to 30 feet with the Drat Glider with the bigger wingspan going a bit longer.  The wing cross section is more or less flat (one stud tall airfoil) and acting more like an air sail (paraglider) than an airfoil. Williams uses Lego Plastic sheets from the Mars Exploration Rover Set to cover the wing (wing cowling). Plastic sheets is the lightest wing covering that can be used but Lego does not make very large ones. Reindl uses plastic from garbage bag and tape to cover the wing on his glider - this allows for a bigger but heavier cowling. I have made my own Lego glider using the plastic from Lego store bags as my wing canvas using similar construction techniques as Williams and Reindl . My preliminary indoor flying test validate the results by Williams and Reindl.  Milan Reindl is now a Lego Group junior designer (you can see his profile on Lego Technic Designer Profile).

http://www.mocpages.com/moc.php/1769

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CQcCoZ9rcY

The Challenge:

Lego does not make a quality aerial propeller or water/hydrodaulic screw-prop with a fuel efficient power stroke. The aerial propeller design for an all-electric aircraft have already be optimized by the Radio control aircraft community and can be fitted to a Technic axle but modern aerial prop design need to run from 4000 to 10000 rpm and use poly lithuim batery packs and motors that run at higher current and voltage than the Lego power function components.

The Vuurzoon design takes a lot of torque/power to fly and uses the power that it is given inefficiently. The only thing going for the Vuurzoon prop design is that it has the most efficient rotor angle to create lift. The Vuurzoon design uses hand power instead of electrical power and thus avoids the low power limitation of Lego electrical motors and battery pack systems.  Lego motors without gearing don't go above 2000 rpm at their set voltage/current level and have a high weight to power ratio which is bad for flying. Going over an 8:1 gearing causes a Lego motor to lose so much power/torque that any propellers slow down due to wind resistance (even the most energy efficient  light weight two blade electrical propellers has this problem).  Lego motors can go a bit faster if pumped with higher current and higher voltage from a non standard non-lego power source (e.g. poly-Lithium +15V power pack) but many believe this will shorten the motor lifespan.  Lego Power Function electrical packs are also too heavy for flight  the lightest battery pack is a Li-ion rechargable pack which weights about 75 grams. The heaviest Lego battery pack is the AA battery pack with alkline batteries which weights 195 grams — which is enough to sink a two catamaran hull or a large single hulled lego boat.
Standard Lego bricks are too heavy for an heavier-than-air airframe. The lightest Lego parts that can be used as an air frame are the technic axles followed by the half width technic beams— both are only semi-ridge so some bracing is need if air frame rigidity is required. In order to get a battery pack light enough and with sufficient voltage levels to fly as part of the aircraft — Lego needs to have to Lithium polymer battery pack kicking out between 18vdc to 30vdc — at those voltage levels the mini hi RPM motors used on Quadcopters and helicopter toys can start to be posssible.

Analysis of other attempts

Lego Quadcopter

There are several efforts to use Lego to make the frame of a quadcopter and uses a non lego high speed lightweight motors, hi powered batteries, and electric propeller. The high speed  motors usually run at 3400 to 15000 rpm @ 13 to 30 vdc and are very light weight. In addition it is using a non lego Poly-Lithium power pack some output as high as 30vdc even with heavy current drains. Some are using a Arudino microprocessor like device for remote communication.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkrTJh0H1fs

http://robotsquare.com/2012/03/02/flying-lego/

http://tinkernology.blogspot.com/2010/08/lego-nxt-quadcopter-no-really.html

http://www.suasnews.com/2012/12/20276/drone-made-of-lego-takes-flight/

Lego NXT Blimp-Airship

A lighter than air Lego Airship which was made by The Lego Group for a European Lego show/convention — uses Lego education propellers (from the renewable energy kit) and standard Lego motors and power supply. Prototype (non-commerical, custom made) helium balloons are used to create a neutral buoyancy so that the propellers can create lift and push the airship forward.  The Lego airship (called the C5) was demonstrated in an auditorium/stadium with a very high ceiling (there is no wind of any kind that the Airship would have to overcome).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GefwcBUioAE


Why older bricks have greater clutch power? I have some pre-2000 (rough date to split the collection to old/new) System and Technic sets that are from different sources: some are from my childhood, while others have been acquired in "used" as well as "new" condition. They share a common property compared to newer sets - brick clutch power in older sets is a lot stronger. And this is something of a common observation in AFOL community.

Take Technic 8880 set for example. You can feel greater power is required to assemble and take apart Technic bricks compared to what would modern same parts needed. They are not damaged or bent, and still look the same as new part. I've also noticed, when handling the assembled model, you can hear many connection points squeak, which isn't a case with modern sets.

It is known TLG made a change from pre-colored plastic pellets to "base + colored dye" used in production these days. Newer bricks have slightly different properties too, like they doesn't yellow as much as old ones. So obviously, some changes were made to plastic formula, but it ss still ABS plastic (question is about opaque colored bricks).

So I wish to understand what's the reason behind this.

Was the clutch power always like that for bricks of that era?
Is it because of chemical nature where some elements within ABS plastic mixture cause clutch power to change?
Maybe some physical nature like temperature or humidity causing plastic to degrade/shrink over time?

Ideally I would like to see answers with facts, but keeping in mind TLG may be good at keeping their secrets I'm open to all the answers with some sort of proof of the statement.

This is a partial answer (or theory).
The moulds for most of the basic bricks have been changed over the years to use less plastic while (hopefully) retaining clutch.

2 x N bricks were given thinner walls with 'notches' for the studs. This may have slightly weakened clutch power.

1 x N bricks (and some plates) were given holes through the bottom tubes and had some supporting walls removed. Not sure how this might've affected clutch power though.

Photos taken from here.


LEGO Modulars Massive Inflation? What caused retired LEGO Modular sets to spike in value so much?

Any ideas or thoughts would be appreciated.

At certain times of the year (particularly at the start of the new year) LEGO release new sets and at the same time remove older sets from their inventory.

Also, in November and December in the run up to Christmas LEGO investors may take advantage of the increased demand by raising prices. Parents buying presents for their children would perhaps bid higher than usual as they are keen to get the right present and in time for Christmas.


PC To NXT Brick via Bluetooth We have a fully-working java program which can connect to another computer and can send messages from this(both sides run java and we used SPP Server and Client), however when trying to connect to the NXT Brick and send a message via Bluetooth we are able to pair with the brick and we can send a message but we have no idea if the NXT receives it.

When we tried to use Java SPPClient on the computer(we provide the ServerURL of NXT to java program) to send the message to NXT Brick running the RobotC, it doesn't work. On java side, the error is given:

  Failed to connect; [10064] A socket operation failed because the destination host was down.

Is the error we receive on Java.

Using RobotC the brick is waiting for a message to be sent and it is awaiting 3 integers to help the robot move.

Have you updated the firmware? That may be a problem but it also may be that there is an error connecting using Bluetooth. “Destination host was down” means that the coding platform could not connect to the NXT.


Is there a tool that generates my parts database? I have many LEGO sets (mostly Technic) and I would like to build a list of parts (including colours). Is there an online service that does that for me based on the set IDs?

Both BrickLink and Brickset maintains a database. Brickset pulls data directly from LEGO's servers, which means the data is not always accurate for older sets or brand new sets (when the parts are not uploaded to LEGO's servers yet). BrickLink's parts list is maintained and meticulously verified by volunteers, and it is the most accurate of all LEGO databases. This includes both old and new sets.

Go to BrickLink.com, click "Sets" on the Homepage, and type in the set number you are looking for. Click on "Item Consist Of", and it will give you a list of all the parts in the set, including parts names, IDs, colors, year of release, weight, etc.

While BrickLink is the largest online LEGO marketplace, and it is mainly meant for buying and selling LEGO, you can also use it as a database for the sets and parts you own. This is very useful if you have a large collection, and can come in handy for evaluation and insurance purposes, or if you ever decide to sell your collection (or parts of).

Brickset is also great for maintaining a database of your collection, but as mentioned above, it is not the most reliable as far as parts lists. The focus is mostly on collectors being able to catalogue the sets they own. In addition, Brickset gives you a full value of your collection based on original retail price (vs. the current market prices given by BrickLink), and has some other useful tools. I recommend using both sites, but if you only want to use one, I would suggest BrickLink. It will give you everything you need to catalog the parts you have.


MOC planning and design What tools do you use when planning and designing a new MOC? Pen and paper? Or there is something more advanced?

I had the insane idea to try LDD to design my MOC and it was a nightmare.
Since my MOC uses sets from castle fantasy, there are maybe 3D models ready to use for LDraw or other kind of software suitable for this task?

EDIT: I will go into further details to explain my issues better.

This is the list of sets I want to place in my MOC:

Fantasy Era:

7036 Dwarves' Mine
7094 King's Castle Siege
7079 Drawbridge Defense
10193 Medieval Market Village
7037 Tower Raid
7029 Skeleton Ship Attack
7048 Troll Warship
7097 Trolls' Mountain Fortress
A lot of smaller sets like 5614 The Good Wizard that do not take space.

Kingdoms:

6918 Blacksmith Attack
7187 Escape from Dragon's Prison
7188 King's Carriage Ambush
7189 Mill Village Raid
7946 King's Castle

I want to build a nice terrain where to place all those sets together. for example, a mountain where to place the Mine, and a hill to put the Blue Castle on top. The a river for the Drawbridge, a plain for the medieval village and the the mill, a coast for the harbor, a sea for the two ships, and another coast for the Troll fortress. I have yet to decide where to put the Red castle.

The whole MOC would require 10-14 big baseplates (my estimate). So planning the whole thing is very hard and I got lost with LDD very soon. To make things easier, it would help a lot if the software has the "size box" for the sets, so I have a way to understand how to place each set on the scene without having to build them from scratch, so I can concentrate on the terrain.

I have no clue on how to go forward on this, to design all the terrain and then get the component list (and it's cost) to build everything.

Some of the more popular programs used when designing MOCs are:

LEGO Digital Designer
MLCAD
SR 3D Builder

There are some other ones available but those three seem to be most preferred editors. They all have quite similar set of features but their user interfaces are very different. I encourage you to try each of them out. If you wish to find most extensible software, MLCAD seems to be rather old and stable platform to build upon.

I myself use pen & paper for concepts and ideas and LEGO Digital Designer for designing.


Container part identification Please help me identify the set this part belongs to, we are going through three tons of bricks and try to put the sets together again...

That looks like Container, X-Pod Barrel Section 10 x 10 x 3 1/3, which were used to store bricks for X-Pod sets.

Such container was available in Trans-Red in single set 4415, Auto Pod

And 4417, Aero Pod was the only set to use it Trans-Yellow


How to represent infinity in NXC? Is there anything like Java's Float.POSITIVE_INFINITY in NXC?
How else can one represent the positive infinity in NXC?

I don't believe that a constant or macro is available in NXC for positive infinity. C99 defines INFINITY in math.h, but the math module in NXC does not appear to include this.

NXC uses IEEE 754 floating point, so something like this should give you the raw value of infinity cast to a float:

int raw_infinity = 0x7f800000;
const float INFINITY = *(float*)&raw_infinity;

I don't have a way to test this currently, and I'm not sure how the underlying firmware and hardware handle special floating point values, so this may or may not actually meet your needs.


Gibberish Sound Effect I am now creating my first LEGO stop motion animation with sound effects.

I do not want to use a specific language for them speaking. Instead, I am using subtitles. For the talking sound effect, I would like to use the gibberish sound effect that is used in some LEGO-sponsored video games.

I have looked around the web for hours now trying to find this sound effect and, sadly, cannot find it anywhere. Does anybody know where I can find this sound effect?

Does anybody know how I can maybe recreate it?

There is no one gibberish sound effect for LEGO minifigures.

Traveler's Tales (the developer of many popular LEGO video games) creates its cutscenes with a mime/sound effect style similar to movies found on the LEGO website.  Rather than record character voices with words (as Warner Brothers did with The LEGO Movie) Traveler's Tales recorded voice actors to mimic gibberish murmuring, grunting, and other non-lexical sounds.

If you would like to emulate this filmmaking style, I suggest you use a microphone of your own and record the sounds yourself.  Have fun!


What files are required to run an ev3 program? I'm working on a project that aims to help beginning Lego Mindstorms programmers. I'm developing certain "modules" (moving straight, making a turn) for students to try, and I want to develop a program that can pull an .ev3 file, unzip the .ev3 to reveal its files, and analyze any of these files that are useful in determining "module" correctness. After unzipping a typical MyProgram.ev3 file, I find:

___CopyrightYear (txt)
___ProjectTitle (txt)
Activity.x3a (xml)
ActivityAssets.laz (I've read that this is a compressed folder, but I am unable to unzip this)
Program.ev3p (xml)
Project.lvprojx (xml)

Only one of these file (Program.ev3p) seems to contain information about the actual instructions of the EV3 program. Does the EV3 brick interpret this file to execute the program instructions? Is there any other program information in the mentioned files that I am missing?

The titles headed with underscores are unneeded. The title is not necessarily required, and the copyright is obviously useless to the machine.

However, none of the other files can be skipped or removed and still allow the program to work.

These others are written in XML, Extensible Markup Language, and are designed for use by both human and machine. The microcontroller needs all the information in these files.


How to program two NXT motors to run at the same time? I'm working on a project with multiple axis of movement… trying to get two motors to run at the same time in order to achieve a mix of two!

In NXT-G if you place a block after another block it will run in succession. To get two motors running at the same time you can place two motor blocks, one at the start and the other just above or below. Drag the sequence beam (the white Technic beam) to the second block to complete the circuit.

Don't forget to make sure the motor blocks are controlling separate ports and that both ports on the NXT brick are attached to motors.

You could just use one block to control the two ports but they would both have to be running in the same direction.


What is the longest 1×x brick ever released? Out of curiosity: How long can a 1×x brick be?

When there are differences, I can think of the following categories:

Longest brick ever included in a regular Lego set
Longest brick ever available through other channels
Longest brick produced ever and visible on exhibits or other occasions, but unavailable to the public

EDIT: I am only interested in bricks made by LEGO, clone brands do not count.

If you mean specifically Lego bricks, I'm pretty sure the 1x16 was/is the longest one made. Outside of the 1x? sized bricks, the longest plain shaped brick that I know of is part #30072 or #47122 at 24 studs long.  I don't know about other brands though.

Interesting related post:
What is the largest single LEGO piece?


How to get leJOS to run on macOS Sierra I am working with an eclipse plugin that requires it to run 32bit Java 6 on it and I do have Java 6 on my computer but when I run the program I get this error.

Error: This Java instance does not support a 32-bit JVM.
Please install the desired version.
Linking the file failed with exit status 1

The Java 6 I installed was from Apple's legacy Java 2015.
In the installation tutorial of leJOS it said that

  Note that even if you have a 64-bit system, leJOS will always chose to run java in 32 Bit mode by automatically passing the -d32 parameter to the java command whenever necessary.

If that is the case why doesn't my program run if I have Legacy Java 6 installed on my Mac? Can anyone get it to work on their mac on this version macOS?

I've managed to get leJOS working on macOS Sierra, minus Bluetooth support. Bluetooth support is officially broken and has been for a while. There also hasn't been a new release in years, so a fix likely won't come. Otherwise it still works, if you jump through some hoops.

Guide:

1. Fantom Driver:

First, you need to install the "Fantom driver". You can find on the Mindstorms download page.

Extract that ZIP, and you should have a installer package named MAC legodriver.pkg. Unfortunately, it may or may not install. Some people say it installs for them, but it doesn't install for me.

If it doesn't install, someone has created a script that can unpack the installer and get around the compatibility issues.

2. Legacy Java 6 with 32-bit support:

You need to install Apple's legacy Java 6 package with 32-bit support. Sierra isn't listed as supported, but it still works.

This legacy version of Java probably won't become the default if you have a new version installed, but that's fine, we will configure leJOS to use this version later.

(Incidentally, there were some plans to make it support 64-bit Java, but I wouldn't hold my breath.)

3. Download leJOS:

Download and extract leJOS for Mac as instructed here.

4. Setup environment:

You need to setup some environment variables as vaguely specified here. You will want to add something like the following to your .bash_profile, .profile, or other shell startup script, adjusting the NXJ_HOME to where you extracted leJOS.

# leJOS
export LEJOS_NXT_JAVA_HOME="/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6.0/Home"
export NXJ_HOME="/Users/<USER>/<PATH_TO>/LeJOS/leJOS_NXJ_0.9.1beta-3"
export PATH="$PATH:$NXJ_HOME/bin"

(The LEJOS_NXT_JAVA_HOME variable is how you tell leJOS to use the legacy Java version.)

5. Profit:

Now when you open a new shell, the leJOS commands should work.


A technology building set that is not LEGO Technic, K'NEX, or Meccano. Can you help me with the name? I remember a building/technology set from years ago and I'm trying to recall its name.
The parts were plastic and could be joined by slots down their sides. A stud on the end of other pieces fitted into the slot and could slide along.
The set also had pneumatic components.
Here is a sketch of my best memory of a typical brick.

Can you name it for me?

Based on your description, this sounds like Fischertechnik:


What is the difference between Shuttle Adventurer (10213) and Shuttle Expedition (10231) Beside the age 16+ designation for the Shuttle Adventurer vs the 14+ age designation on the Shuttle Expedition and some different photography they look identical except they don't sell the Shuttle Adventurer anymore on shop.lego.com. Is there any practical difference?

The LEGO Direct team's answer to this question is on brickset:

  Since its release in 2010, 10213 Shuttle Adventure
  has proven to be very popular!  Although the model was designed for a
  16+ target audience, our consumer call center has brought to our
  intention that many younger children have been building and playing
  with the model.  As a result, the Direct team has decided to look at
  the model once more to see what changes could be made in order to
  provide a better build and play experience for a slightly younger
  target audience.   10231 Shuttle Expedition may look similar to
  Shuttle Adventure in many ways, however its build is very different
  and offers several advantages.

  The fuel tank has been reinforced with supports to strengthen the assembly
  The landing gear is strengthened to function better across many different floor types
  The Cargo doors can now be more rigorously opened and closed
  The entire build has been reworked to limit opportunities for misplacing elements
  Astronauts now have wigs in addition to their helmets (1 male, 1 female).  Face prints are also different.
  The new set now has 1,230 elements
  New Satellite can be securely positioned on the new mechanical arm 10231 Shuttle


Can cherries connect to anything? Can the Cherry Piece connect to anything such as a hollow 1x1 round plate or a 1x1 round brick?

Yes, "Cherries / Cherry Pair" has 3.18mm connection also known as "bar". This type of connection is in system and is compatible with large variety of elements, including two you have mentioned.
Couple of examples:


How does LEGO decide the color of internal set pieces? While building many LEGO sets I have noticed that for internal pieces you cannot see when the set is finished; LEGO often chooses mis-matching colors.  For instance in the (amazing) Saturn 5 set most of the pieces are of the white, black, gray family.  However there are some green/blue internal pieces.  Doesn't match the rocket at all.  I have noticed the same thing with other sets as well where a random green internal pieces will show up.

Do they do this for a reason?  Are they using colors that don't sell well and trying to get rid of them?  Going for contrast to help you build?

Going for contrast to help you build?

This is probably the primary reason most of the time.

One Eurobricks user once said they asked a set designer about it, and they confirmed they do it to makes it easier to follow the instructions:

  I had an opportunity some time ago to talk to a designer at TLG, and he told me that they use other colors to make it easier to follow the instructions and build the model.


How To Plug Detected Light Values into Variables and Still be Usable in Programs in EV3-G I've seen teams, mostly in the world festival do this, and what they do is they program the robot so that when a brick button is pressed, the robot detects a value (usually RLI) and it is used later in the program. My program looks something like this so far.

Am I on the right track? Is this program correct? Or am I completely wrong?

The program runs OK, but the variable can't be used later in the program.

First guess: the wait for button command is bad practice.  Well, not the whole thing, just the use of the middle button.  The reason is that that button is also used to start the program.  The program may be jumping past the wait for and saving to "Midpoint" before humans notice that the program has started. Try any other brick button.


EV3 Education Edition software license I got a new EV3 education kit.

Can I install it on a several computers or does the license work on one computer only?

That depends on which version of the Education Software you purchased:

LEGO® MINDSTORMS® Education EV3 Software Single UserAs the name implies, this is only allowed to be installed on a single computer: "The single license version of the EV3 Software allows you to install and run the software on one computer."
LEGO® MINDSTORMS® Education EV3 Software Site LicenceThis version allows you to install the software on a number of computers within a single location: "The site license version of the EV3 Software is necessary when installing on more than one computer. It allows you to install and run the software on all computers located at the address of the purchasing institution."

If you're planning on installing this on more than three computers the Site License is the way to go.

Note that the Home Edition is a separate download, and would have it's own licensing, but appears to be freely available, and installable on as many computers as you like - details of some of the differences can be found in this answer to "What is different between the EV3 Home and Educational sets?".

In response to Alex's comment:

Without seeing the full wording of the license, it's hard to advise you correctly, however:

Usually you can reinstall software on the same computer after an OS reinstall - depending on the validation mechanism you may need to contact Customer Services to get it reset, but I doubt this will be the case with this.
Again, this is typically supported by most software licenses - it's often things like transferring ownership that are expressly excluded.


Is there any reason behind fancy bricks in invisible places? In set 60080 there is a blue bick with pretty fancy shape.  There are also hardly visible bricks in other places. Is there any reason? Why are these bricks used? Any official or semi-official explanation?

As far as I remember back when I was young, such pieces were rare, and (if included at all) were used in alternative models proposed on the back of the box. But this set has no such alternative models shown.

This piece is only two plates high, to have another piece in here you would need to stack two plates, which would

make the total pieces count rise, or more expensive
might be more difficult to tear down by hand
probably less sturdy (with a piece on it acting as a lever stacked plates could pry apart)

Sets designers are under constraints for both piece count, piece prices,
ease of setup/teardown and sturdyness so I guess this arrangement was decided.

Some examples of other sets with the same kind of piece for the same kind of purpose:

set 4435-1

set 60108-1

set 60148-1


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

Unfortunately, one click up is about 22.5 degrees, and horizontal is, of course, 0 degrees. Ideally, I need something almost exactly in the middle of the two degrees.

Are there any pieces or techniques that would let me do this?

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

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


Where can I download the EV3 education edition software for free? I have a site license but I'm not able to find the download for the software anywhere. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

According to an education Community Manager you should have received a link when you purchased the licence.

If you didn't receive one you should contact your reseller - it depends on which region you are in as to whether logging in to the LEGO education site would enable a direct link for you.


What is the name of the piece that is often used to switch gears? I have been trying to find this part on BrickLink and have searched every Technic category.  I have come up empty.

Could someone provide the name of this part so that I can find it on BrickLink?

That is Part 6641 - Technic Changeover Catch.

Also known as "Technic Transmission Changeover Catch".


What set does this assembly with plastic foils come from? I have this partial build, what set could it be from?

This is from 76039-1: Ant-Man Final Battle


The center button does not work on EV3 brick My son has the Lego Mindstorms EV3 brick. The brick turns on when he pushes the center button, but he can't use it in the menu. What's the problem?

It is somewhat common for the buttons on the EV3 to stop working. This is usually caused by the failure of the adhesive that holds the metal part of the button in place.

You can always contact LEGO customer support to see if they can help.

For the do-it-yourself person, it can be fixed fairly easily though. This is how I do it...

First, you will need to remove the cover from your EV3. This requires a Phillips screwdriver. Remove the 4 screws in the battery compartment and gently pull the top half of the plastic housing off.

The image below shows a couple buttons that I have already fixed and one button (the right button) where the adhesive has failed. You can see that the plastic covering is coming loose.

Use a sharp knife to cut away the plastic that has come loose. Since the adhesive is no longer sticky, it is not doing any good.

Use clear tape to fix the button back into place.

Then reassemble the EV3.


Take off a small 1x1 piece from bigger LEGO surface In general, what is the best approach to take off small pieces from a surface like the one in the picture?

How to proceed
What should I do if

I don't want to deal any damage to LEGO itself?
I want to take it off as soon as possible?
I want to do it in the simplest way possible?

Any part that has a stud on the surface can be fairly easily removed by using leverage from a different large part added to the top of it. This takes advantage of the inherent "clutch power" of the stud/anti-stud connection and the increased surface area of the larger part to concentrate the force used to remove the part in a lateral direction.
For example, by placing a 1x6 plate over the trans-yellow 1x1 plate and then pushing the 1x6 plate away from the trans-orange plate will likely pull the trans-yellow plate up fairly easily.
LEGO also produces a purpose built tool called the Brick Separator that uses both that technique as well as giving additional leverage by pushing the part with the under or over-hanging ledge on the top and bottom of the front of the tool.


What's the sight of the ultrasonic sensor according to the distance of the object? Hey I'm programming a sumobot for a first-year university Civil Engineering project. We should need the sight of the ultrasonic sensor according tot the distance of an object.
For example, the sensor can detect an object that is located 30 cm away 55° to the right of the sensor, but an object 50 cm away from the sensor can only be detected to 45° to the right of the sensor (approximately). Does anyone know the relationship (maybe a function?) between the sight and the distance? Thanks!

ETH Zurich faculty/students conducted some experiments on exactly this back in 2006.  The relevant parts of their results have been reproduced below.  For more information, visit their website: http://www.tik.ee.ethz.ch/mindstorms/sa_nxt/index.php?page=tests_us.

The chart below shows accuracy of the sensor at detecting a 14.5 cm x 9.5 cm x 6 cm block at various distances and angles from the sensor.

Distanz is Distance in CM, Winkel is Angle in degrees, and Relative Fehler is relative error.

According to the researchers:

  The results show that the ultrasonic sensor should always be placed in horizontal position, other positions decrease as well the field of vision as the sighting distance of the sensor. The sensor seems to be a bit 'blind' on the left eye, which can be explained by the fact that the left eye is actually the receiver of the ultrasonic wave while the right eye is the sender.


What are proven methods to sort/categorize a large number of parts? How would you recommend to sort your Lego parts? Finding a certain part in a box with parts of about 20 models takes ages.

Should I sort by color? Or by size? Another category?

I think the correct approach to this is to consider the whole process and not just the sorting part, although the short answer "sort by form" will still be valid.

The whole process is not limited to sorting, but in a more general way goes from the moment you decide to store a part away to the moment when you retrieve it to put it in a model.

As such, you have to keep in mind your ultimate goal: find the part you need for the model you're currently building. Most of the time, you'll have a specific part in a specific color in mind, and need to find it as fast as possible. But not always! Sometimes you don't care what color the part is in (invisible support structure), or maybe you can't see it (blind kids). In most cases, the form is at least as important as color, but sometimes it's just color you're after.

So what is sorting? Sorting is a way to do some of the finding work in advance so that when you need that particular part, you don't have to waste too much time. You'll also win serious time on the sorting since you do it for a lot of parts at the same time.

Let's assume you're after a specific part in a specific color, which will be most of the time. So that means your parts have to be sorted both by color and by form. That may prove too impractical for normal people, but keep in mind some serious builders do that.

So the trick is since you have two sorting criteria, you use one at the moment of building, and the other when storing or sorting parts (with discipline1, you'll sort when storing). Usually, you'll want to do as much tedious work when sorting, so you'll keep the color-sorting for when you're building. Color-sorting is the fastest, just think of a tub with all red bricks of all sorts and find 5 1x1 bricks in it, then picture the same task from a tub full of 1x1 bricks of all colors.

Again, this depends on what you'll end up doing with the bricks; if you want to build a lot of 2-studs-wide uniform walls for example, maybe a tub with one color of 2xn bricks makes more sense than separating the 2x2, 2x3 in different color tubs.

In any case, keep in mind the ideal way is to have each part in each color stored separately. If this is impractical, consider mixing parts which have as little in common as possible. If one container holds 1x3 and 1x4 bricks together, it will be more trouble to pick them apart than if you mix 1x1 and 2x3. Or, maybe you can mix 2L Technic axles with 1x2 slopes.

And the last thing to consider is how many of the part you have. If you have 2000 blue 1x1 bricks, and only a few dozens of other colors, don't mix them. Separate the blue ones and the others, or better, separate the blue ones but keep a few mixed with the others, so that the nearly-2000 blue-only 1x1 bricks can go to long-term storage. Similarly, make sure that rare parts for which you only have a few are easy to find, even if that means they have to have their own storage bin (maybe they can be mixed together, though).


How can I build a functional gearbox? I'm looking for a fully functional (manual) transmission / gearbox for my Technics motorized vehicle. How can I build this?

there are some lego-models that have a working gearbox built-in like the super street sensation (8448). just take a loot at the building instruction* to see how it works.

*page 18, 26, 72-81


Lego Set ID with lime green and grey pieces? I need your help to identify this set.

These are parts from

8192-1: Lime Racer

besed on the Slope, Curved 2 x 2 Lip, No Studs with 'RUN' and 'V8' Pattern Model Left (Sticker) - Set 8192

and parts from

7052-1: UFO Abduction

based on the Slope 33 3 x 2 with Alien Insignia Pattern (Sticker) - Set 7052


Why did LEGO stop selling sets for <1.5 year old (Primo etc)? LEGO used to make Primo sets and baby toys for 6 month+ babies.

As a parent of a young child the only option I have is Lego Duplo that isn't quite ready for her age.

Are used Lego Primo sets safe for children? I don't get why LEGO only sells toys for children older than 1.5 years. Why did they stop?

I can't comment on why Lego stopped selling Primo. But I can assure you that Duplo is fine for children. The smallest pieces are way too large to choke on, as far as I can tell. Small babies probably don't know how to put the pieces together very well, but that doesn't stop you from building a little house or car or something and letting them play with it.


Lego Duplo 10508 train does not pull up the bridge I tried new batteries, disassembled it, and greased it. The engine wheels seemed a bit sticky due to something sticky inside that got there at some point. I put some WD40 to make it work better and was hoping it will work fine. It goes up the bridge easily on its own. Then I tried with one empty platform, pulled up so so. Got stuff on the platform, and that's it - it stops in the middle with no gear sounds or etc.
Originally it is with 2 wagons/platforms and it does seem to reach the same place and gets stuck in the middle of the bridge going up, and does not get stuck elsewhere.
Should there be some kind of clutch, or does it switch off the engine due to Amps raising?
I found this with gear sounds and can't relate. I examined all gears after disassembling similarly like in the video, except I could not pull the wheels off - felt like it will break if I pull harder. I did not want to risk it too much.
I tried looking around for engine pinion issues and stuff, but can't relate anywhere to what I'm experiencing. I bought it used. It's a bit disappointing to pull it/push it uphill, but so far my son doesn't mind too much :)
However, having a DIY soul, I'm a bit sad and insulted with situation...
Update:
It's a pinion issue, after thinking it through, disassembled once more and the engine spins, with wheels and accordingly pinion - blocked so will go for a metal solution, like here.

Short answer: It's not a good train bridge and results are disappointing.
Longer answer:
We've tried two different Duplo trains (10874 Steam Train and 10875 Cargo Train) on the Duplo train bridge and they barely have enough power/traction to get over it even without any train cars attached. If you run a bare engine (no cover), it goes up fine. If you run the engine with a decorative cover (the "top" of the train), it will struggle. If you run it with train cars attached it seems like it's 50/50 whether it'll make it over.
You also could consider trying different types of batteries. Alkaline (non-rechargeable) batteries usually have higher voltage when they are new (but then drop off quickly), compared to rechargeable, which maintain a steady, but slightly lower voltage (reference).


What set is this brown (wall?) element from? While sorting out some old Lego finds, I stumbled across this piece:

I have absolutely no idea what this element could be for other than some kind of wall part, and even then I have never seen anything like it before. It is the same colour as some "wooden" elements I have,but I honestly have no clue.

Any information about the piece and any set(s) it was present in would be great.

It looks like this piece; Door 2 x 5 x 5 Swivel, Flat Base.

In this case it was part of LEGO Set 6089, Stone Tower Bridge.


What is the difference between Star Wars UCS and Master Builder Series? In the press release for Betrayal at Cloud City (75222) it was noted that this set was part of the Star Wars Master Build Series. What is this? Does this replace the Star Wars Ultimate Collector Series?

Both the Master Builder Series and UCS will continue. Here's the official distinction from the LEGO Star Wars team:

  The Master Builder Series models are large playsets and beside being complex builds they are characterized by having many play features and functions, interior details as well as a range of minifigures. Ultimate Collectors series will remain highly detailed display models providing complex builds with a focus on authenticity and both Ultimate Collectors Series and Master Builder Series will continue as a way to highlight the unique characteristic of each style of model.

It seems like this distinction should help address some of the confusion from fans that UCS sets such as Assault on Hoth (75098) feel very different than the typical large display models.


LEGO EV3 I2C Compatibility I'm having difficulties with communication between the EV3 and Arduino boards.  Does anyone know if the EV3 is really I2C compatible, or is it just close enough?

Background: I can get the EV3 to send and receive I2C with an Arduino Uno, but not with MKR1000 or Adafruit Huzzah boards.  This is both with and without pull-up resisters, and also trying different values of pull-up resistors.  When I scope the SDA line, it look reasonable when communicating with the Uno.  When communicating with the MKR1000, the low logic level only reaches 1.6 V (with the 4.7k resistors desoldered from MKR1000 board, but looks worse with the pull-ups).  With the Huzzah board, the SDA line looks great for about 4-5 bits, but then also raises the logic low level to about 2 V.  The clock line looks clean no matter what it is connected to.

LEGO doesn't really follow I2C standards, so "close enough" is a good description.

The EV3 hardware developer kit (available for download at http://mindstorms.lego.com) has this to say:

  4.1 I2C communication

  The EV3 platform supports the same level of I2C communication as MINDSTORMS NXT. This means that
  system support a maximum of 9600 bit/s and maximum 32 bytes communication buffers. All I2C
  communication is running within software drivers. External devices are required to include pull-up
  resistors on both pin 5 and 6 on 82K ohm. If multiple sensors are used on the same bus the total
  impedance needs to be adjusted accordingly.

Most off-the-shelf I2C devices use 10k pullup resistors (although it looks like it might be 4.7k in your case). These must be removed and replaced with 82k resistors to be compatible with MINDSTORMS.


How to make a RPG (Rocket Propelled Grenade) I don't know if this is of-topic or anything, but: I have a big scene with cops and stormtroopers fighting. And the cops need some stronger weapons than some sub-machine guns. So i was wondering if there were some people out there who had done anything similar. Does anyone have some RPG or anti-aircraft gun/big turret gun ideas?

Some of the Indiana Jones sets had some simple heavy weapon builds in them.

Set# 7625 had a belt fed/ammo-box mount style machine gun:

Set# 7626 had a RPG:


Is this LEGO an authentic original? I found this LEGO piece in a second-hand LEGO stock. I have never seen a brick like this, and I can't even find the LEGO write on it.

Is this LEGO brick original, maybe vintage or some kind of special edition or is it just fake?

This is a Minitalia brick - Lego produced different bricks for a while in the seventies for Italy (per Gary Istok's latest information: because the original LEGO was deemed too expensive). Minitalia bricks have weaker plastic (which shows on the studs on your brick) and don't use the Tube system underneath the brick, but an older patent which has the X marks. The gripping power of the X marks is less good, but you will find that the X marks actually allow for half-stud offsets, which you cannot do with the tube bricks :). All this is detailed in Gary's wonderful book/DVD


LEGO identification from white, grey, and blue pieces? I have these LEGO parts, can anyone help me identify this LEGO set?

I think this is part of 9525-1: Pre Vizsla's Mandalorian Fighter


LEGO ideas (with traditional bricks) I would like to find a large catalog of LEGO designs/ideas that can be built with "traditional" LEGO bricks (both normal and DUPLO).

I have found many nice designs in the web, but most of them require exotic pieces. I am interested more in a catalog of models (for inspiration) that do not require me buying a specific set or making a specific order to the LEGO shop.

I found this book: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0756686067/geekdad0b-20
 but I am wondering if a free resource exists somewhere ?

UPDATE:

I have just read this review of the book I linked above, apparently, it also suffers from the problem of requiring too many non-standard pieces:

  We thought this book would be great since my 5-year-old is just
  getting into LEGO bricks. Opened it up and realized that every project in
  this book looks like it requires non-standard, specialty LEGO kit
  pieces- and lots of them. I didn't see any projects in this book that
  you could build using standard LEGO pieces. Returned the book the next
  day.

LEGO has released a number of large brick buckets over the years. A few of these came with instructions and ideas for models that could be built with the contents. These include lots of ideas for animals, vehicles, and structures. Here are a few examples:

There are plenty of ideas available if you browse through the instructions for these sets. Here are some of the larger brick set with links to their instruction scans:

7825
7836
4104
4224
515
1615


If I were to make a LEGO fan how would I make it blow air on me? I was just wandering off into my imagination and then it hit me: I should make a LEGO fan?

I mean, how hard could it be?

It is actually very hard for me. No matter how much ratio I put on it, it would not blow air! Even when it does it always ends up blowing backwards. Please give me some tips.

A fan is just 1/4 of a drone, right? Check out this lego drone that actually flies, for inspiration. https://youtu.be/wUVvQk7XLd4

The blade part in question is 89509


Can you ID these storage bins? I've seen snapshots of official LEGO Group design studios in books published by DK and the like. They use neat, removable drawer inserts for sorting elements, but I haven't found them available anywhere online.

Does anyone know if these specific bins/drawer units can be purchased anywhere? Are they unique to the LEGO Group, or perhaps produced internally for internal use only?

Source of images: LEGO DC Universe Super Heroes Visual Dictionary, 2012, DK Publishing (New York)

According to Liam Nilsen from The LEGO Idea Studio, he believes the storage bins may have been produced in-house by LEGO and are not commercially available.

The online portfolio for GXN (the designers of the studio) mentions:

  Bespoke elements are accompanied by Open Desk furniture pieces, all
  fabricated by local makers and assembled on site.

I couldn't find the drawers on the Open Desk furniture site but it seems the parts containers are designed to fit snugly into the drawers.


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

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

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

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

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

I don't own the set but found some pictures of the assembled Set 1 and Set 2

It looks to me that you can reenact the scenes of the movie with this set, therefor you have the different sections of the room, where in the movie the action takes place. You can combine the different sections to create 1 corridor by placing them as shown on page 61, the bricks of question 1 & 4 can be used to connect them.

The towers are placed on the wall sections for example as: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=5727533

Pages 62 and further are indeed alternative builds, I don't know if this can be done with the parts of this set, but I thibk so.


What is the Mindstorms NXT Education kit? I am considering gifting some Mindstorms NXT 2.0 to school, because I think they would get great value from it.  I see that there is an "education kit", and I wondered if that's the way to go.

Does the "education" stuff have real advantages for schools?
Does it offer anything over and above the regular kit?

If anyone has any experience, I would love to hear.

There is an educational version. It is set number 9797.
The NXT 2.0 set is set 8547.
Both come with:

1 - NXT brick
3 - Motors
1 - Ultrasonic range sensor
2 - Touch sensors
1 - 20 cm cable
4 - 35 cm cable
2 - 50 cm cable

The NXT 2.0 has some things the education set does not:

1 - color sensor
1 - Test Mat
Software (The education software is sold separately! from the educational set)

The education set has some things the NXT2.0 set does not:

1 - Light sensor
1 - Sound Sensor
1 - Rechargeable battery module
1 - AC adapter for rechargeable battery module
3 - Converter cables suitable for use with original Mindstorms accessories or 9V Technic motors and light bricks
2 - 9V Technic light bricks
1 - Durable storage system

The two sets also come with different assortments of pieces, with the educational one contained fewer total pieces, with more that would integrate with original Mindstorms or Technic kits.
The education kit is designed to used in conjunction with an existing parts collection,
or with an Educational resource kit, basically bulk parts. Two such kits exist. Both come in a storage system much like the educational kit.
Set 9648 contains an assortment of traditional Technic style parts with a slight emphasis on the studless beams, but still containing many studded components.
Set 9695 is newer and has more parts, with a strong emphasis on studless design. Relatively few parts have studs.


Has the building technique of Technic pins in a brick cylinder been used in an official set? One of my favorite building techniques is to place a Technic pin into the anti-studs of a brick. This allows two bricks to attach bottom-to-bottom.

It's a pretty secure connection, but I'm not sure it was intended to be used this way. Has this building technique ever been used in an official LEGO set?

I'm not aware of this being used in any official sets, but I'm happy to be proven wrong. I can say that LEGO considers this to be an "illegal" connection. The Technic pins need room to spring back out and be "in click", or they can be permanently damaged by prolonged assembly. LEGO would not allow this connection to be used in a current set.

A Technic pin not "in click" was used back in 2002 in the Audi TT and led to part damage as well as this sort of connection being banned from sets:


How to use two NXT bricks for 3+ motors and 4+ sensors? I need to use multiple bricks in order to use more motors and sensors.  I need to read sensor values, and tell motors to move.

I've tried using bluetooth, however my attempts haven't been very successful.  I know you can pre-define motors/sensors, and then set parameters using remoteGetInputValues(), and the equivalent for motors.

Whilst playing around with this, I have noticed it doesn't work inside a loop, or inside it's own function?

Does anyone know of any tricks/hints/proper instructions on how to work it out?  I've tried looking everywhere for this.

The firmware is up to date, and I am programming in NXC.

Maybe you should look into using a multiplexer to add additional sensors to an NXT brick.

The Hitechnic Sensor Multiplexer lets you connect 4 sensors using only 1 of the NXT connection.

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


Value/Where to sell my old Lego collection I'm sure you've heard this asked a million times but I have no idea where and for what price I should be selling my old collection for.

Things I do know about what I have:

I'd assume they're "clean" (no dirt or wear, right?)
Weighs right around 85lbs for everything
Contained into two boxes, ~50lbs/~30lbs
A lot of figurines from various places, I'm unsure if they have value.
I have this thing and a train set: Train Switch
Some soccer field like set with parts, balls, and players.
Sets: 3826, 6211, 7621, 4956, 6206, 10176
There's more sets than I know of, those are only the ones I brought out and remembered.

Images of Lego
- the last two images are of RokenBlok, if you knew anywhere I could sell those as well it'd be a lot of help.

Where would you price this? I'm in no rush to sell it, but I'm going off to college so unless it was particular reason to fish a set out, I'd sell in bulk for reasonable prices. If you need any more information please ask.

Generally, I see LEGO collections like this sold by the pound.  I don't generally pay more than $8/lb (including shipping, if applicable) on large used lots, because they are rarely 100% clean, like-new condition LEGO bricks.  Most collections include poor quality pieces, as well as many non-LEGO brand and non-LEGO-compatible toys that have somehow been thrown in.

If you guarantee 100% clean, like-new condition LEGO pieces, the price would go up to maybe $12/pound.  However, in my experience, very few collections that have actually been played with will meet this standard.  Play wear isn't terrible, but it's definitely not like-new.

In the US, eBay is a common way to sell.  You might also try Craigslist to avoid the shipping hassle.

Some items are more valuable and are worth selling separately. In particular, train components and licensed minifigures (like Star Wars, Spiderman, Avengers, etc.) are probably worth the time and hassle.  Other minifigures (like town, space, western, etc) I would just include with the bulk lot, as separating those out and selling them individually will be a lot of work for minimal gain.

If you really want top dollar and are willing to put your time time, the best way is to probably start a BrickLink store, and sell all the parts individually.  This might be a great opportunity to start a side business.  It will, however, require you to inventory your entire collection, as well as manage the shipping, customer challenges, etc.

Good luck with selling your collection!


Brick Wall psychology: PAB cup filling strategy? Since I don't live next to a LEGO store I don't often have the opportunity to stand in front of a Pick A Brick Wall. Recently, I filled my large PAB cup for the second time. When I browsed the wall, I found several pieces that fit into my current (or near future) projects. I was aiming for small parts, since the price on Bricklink would be at least some cents each.

Here comes the question: I needed some trans-clear 1x2x2 panels. I took some, walked back and forth, put some more into the cup, and ended up with 43 (!) of them. But I was sure that I only had 10, maybe 15. Am I crazy? How can I so dramatically underestimate the number of those panels? Do you know in advance what to put into the cup? What is your PAB cup strategy?

The picture shows the filled cup.

And this is the pile of the mentioned panels:

You aren't crazy. In my experience, the PaB wall ends up having only a handful of parts that I'm really interested in, so I end up getting a lot of certain parts.

I find myself walking back and forth adding the same parts that I know I already have a bunch of just because nothing else looks particularly interesting to me.

Several years ago, I filled up a small PaB cup and ended up with 62 of those trans-clear panels, so you're at least doing better than me. :)

In terms of strategy, I've found it helpful to check the inventories in advance and decide if it's going to be worth having a cup full of those parts. At this point, I usually don't fill up a cup unless there is a part that I don't mind having a whole lot of (e.g. 1x2 bricks in a rarer color that I like). If I fill up a cup it tends to look more like this now:


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

There are partial reverse engineered schematics done by Mark Bellis here


Is there any application to keep an inventory of owned sets and pieces? I'm looking for a desktop application that keeps track of sets and pieces owned. Ideally something that would look up LEGO databases such as Peeron or others in order to add the pieces in a set automatically once on is added. Similarly, said app could tell you which sets you could build with your current pieces, much like Rebrickable.com, as mentioned in a previous question.

I know of no desktop applications that have functionality like Rebrickable, but an API has recently been released which would enable any applications to integrate with the site and display this kind of information. I know of one such application currently being developed but not ready for release yet.

disclaimer: I created Rebrickable.


Why is there such a small supply of dark red 1x4 bricks? I've recently been thinking of building in dark red because it looks so nice, but as I've been looking at how much it would cost to get the bricks, I found that 1x4 dark red bricks are almost non-existent.

I was considering buying a big set to get the parts, and the most obvious choice seems to be 10197 Fire Brigade. Unfortunately, while this set has a good number of dark red bricks, it is awkwardly missing the 1x4. It has 15 1x1, 42 1x2, 34 1x6, but not a single 1x4 brick. It seems like the designers would have had to go to extra effort to not use any 1x4 bricks.

I checked bricklink to see if I could get these bricks there, but at the time of writing this, there are fewer than 100 total 1x4 dark red bricks listed on Bricklink. Looking at the part info on peeron, it seems that this part in this color was only used in a few sets that were produced back in 2005.

So, why are there so few of this part? It seems like with large sets like 10197 making heavy use of dark red it would be worthwhile to produce this part, but it appears that TLG thinks differently.

I don't know if there are any particular issues with manufacturing 1 x 4 bricks in Dark Red, but I suspect not. Instead, to understand why dark red 1 x 4s are relatively rare, it is interesting to consider why other colours might be relatively popular.

Popular Colours

Younger children like strong primary colours + black and white. At the same time, older children rarely object to primary colours. For this reason, there is a bias in LEGO's colour selection towards the primary colours. For this reason, Red, Yellow, Blue, White and Black have been part of the LEGO spectrum for a long time. This means that there is already a large number of bricks in these colours in circulation. Indeed (at the time of writing) there are well over 1,000 1x4s in each of these colours available on BrickLink. Green bricks have not been around quite as long, but you would expect them to be popular with children for a similar reason. Indeed, there are a good number of these available, too (over 700 lots today).

Space, Star Wars, castle etc. have required lots of Greys, so these are available in larger quantities. As you would expect, these are also available in larger quantities (over 700 lots each for the modern greys, around 300 - 400 lots for the older greys).

You would expect newer, bright colours to be popular with children. In addition, Lego aimed at girls has resulted in increased quantities of pinks, purples and pastel shades. This would account for why Orange (600+ lots), Lime (500+), Dark Purple (250+),  Bright Pink (250+), Medium Blue (250+), Dark Pink (100+) and Purple (50+) are relatively popular, but less common than the primaries and the greys.

Transparent 1x4s used to be used as windscreens etc. in older models, so there are quite a few of these in circulation (200+ lots on Bricklink).

Less Common Colours

Earthy colours - browns, tans and - have been required for a variety of models, typically representing desert or other natural phenomena. Tan, for example, has been a feature of Pharoah's Quest, various Star Wars sets, etc. This is why there are relatively large quantities of Tan (600+), Reddish Brown (600+), Dark Green (200+), Brown (100+) and Dark Tan (50+) lots available.

The quantity of Maersk Blue (100+ lots) is a special case, in that the licensed models that require this colour also require 1x4s in larger quantities.

Rare Colours

Then there are the rarer colours for 1 x 4s, where there are less than 50 lots of each colour available on BrickLink at the moment. These include Light Yellow, Medium Orange, Light Purple, Pink and our friend Dark Red (+ a few others). I suspect that there are so few of these simply because TLG have had not identified a market for models that contain 1 x 4s in these colours.

Ultra-Rare Colours

For completeness, it is interesting that there are a few colours that are ultra-rare (<10 lots available) in 1 x 4 brick format: Magenta, Transparent Green and Chrome Gold, for example. Sometimes these ultra-rare bricks exist because they were used in a small number of sets that are themselves very rare, or because they were prototype bricks, because they were used in "special" models like the ones in theme-parks, or because the person listing them on BrickLink has misidentified their colour.

(The astute reader will notice that I've omitted Dark Blue, Sand Green and Sand Blue from this analysis, each of which has 200+ lots of 1 x 4s listed on BrickLink as of today. To be honest, I have not yet investigated their relative popularity compared to Dark Red. Suggestions would therefore be welcome.)

Conclusion

In conclusion, I suggest that the relative scarcity of Dark Red 1 x 4 bricks can be explained in terms of TLG's marketing strategy, both current and historic. TLG has always sold bricks in sets that are designed to appeal to children, and its marketing people appear to think that children are disinterested in a product that contains large numbers of Dark Red 1 x 4 bricks.


Please identify these sub assemblies I got these assemblies and I am trying to figure out if they are MOCs or part of a set or sets.  The little figure that has the clown inside has a part with a decal of "spirit of luis",  but this only appears in 7307 so it might be a MOC.  What about the rest.

The wing and red cockpit are from  9497-1: Republic Striker-class Starfighter


Where can I get 'classic' Lego heads from? The new heads with expressions are all well and good, but I for one prefer the expressionless 'classic' faces.

Are they available anywhere?

The well known, smiling, gender-neutral multifigure head can be bought on auction sites like Bricklink.

The classic faces are still in production now and are on the minifig or every set in the modular series. (The Grand Emporium alone has seven of these heads) As well as other modern classics like the carousel, winter toy shop and town plan.

Up to five of these heads can be found in most editions of the Vintage Minifigure Collection.


Why does LEGO now use studless technic designs? It seems to me that sometime between 1998 and 2006 (between the Mindstorms RCX and NXT), LEGO switched from using studded technic bricks (like this:)

to studdless beams (like this):

In my experience, people much more readily understand how to work with the older style of technic, and I was wondering if anyone has insights on why LEGO changed it.

The studless have SEVERAL advantages over the studded design especially when you want to include moving parts. Just the clearances between connections is important. Sariel sums it up in his book well. He says there are advantages to both systems (stud-full, for example, are more rigid) but the fact that the stud-less look more realistic and, of course, the clearances, make a huge difference. I think the change was NECESSARY to build more realistic models (realistic looking, arguably, but the new models are very mechanically clever in ways that would be impossible with the stud-full parts).

According to Jamie Berard, these advantages were a major part of the gradual migration, as was a flaw in the studded beam design-- the holes in studded technic bricks are placed slightly incorrectly according to the LEGO "System". That means for technic model designers, working with studded beams (and staying "In System") provides many difficult challenges.


Programming Mindstorms on a chromebook I know there is no official way to program NXT/EV3 on a Chromebook.

But a Chromebook can have Ubuntu installed via Crouton in developer mode.

So, is there a relatively painless way to program NXT/EV3 on Ubuntu?

Update Dec 2016

There is now an app for chromebooks on the chrome store:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/lego-mindstorms-education/jhnhfnolmcleankdkhfklakpchnccipg?hl=en-US

I have used it to program EV3 version of the bricks. It connects via bluetooth to the EV3 brick (I don't think USB is even supported).  The bluetooth connection can be buggy at times and I've found myself having to re-pair the brick.

The chrome app saves programs in a format (.ev3m format) which is not compatible with the Mac/Windows desktop versions of the programming app.   Attempts to load programs written on Mac/Windows (.ev3 format) will not load in the app.  Suffice to say transferring programs between a chromebook and the desktop version of the EV3 programming software is difficult and perhaps not possible. There may be a way to download the program from the chrome app onto the brick and then pull the software using the 'Memory Browser' tool into the desktop version but I haven't had time to look into it.

My chromebook has only 2 GB of RAM and the program sometimes struggles to load so I recommend at least 4 GB of RAM in your chromebook.

There is a pretty good Q/A article here:

https://education.lego.com/en-us/middle-school/explore/c/ev3-chromebook-faq


Can you identify this Star Wars LEGO set? Can anyone identify this Star Wars LEGO set:

Any help gratefully received. I think it's a Star Wars set.

The top and right parts are from the Ninjago Manta Ray Bomber.

The parts on the left are from the Star Wars Magazine Gift Y-Wing.

The panel at the bottom left is from Star Wars Death Star Final Duel (as per Syberion).


LEGO Large Shock Absorber alternatives Are there cheaper alternatives to Large Shock Absorber with Very Hard Spring (Part No. 15035 / 18405 / 95292 / 95292c01)?

As per the answer to your other question, please consider part 731c04 - Yellow Technic, Shock Absorber 6.5L, Complete Assembly - Hard Spring. Not only is it still in production compared to 95292c01, it also has a much wider range of availability and hence costs you less to procure as a piece on BrickLink ($2 vs $10).


EV3 brick freeze during run big program EV3 brick sometimes freezes while executing huge programs and do not react on buttons and bluetooth (connect, start/stop program). Only way to continue work is hard reset.
We discovered that freeze depends on medium motor blocking.
Is there any way to fix this?

Program:
http://puu.sh/iQuFg/678d3add5f.ev3

My kids have this exact same problem when a program reaches a certain size.  Parts of the program that previously worked just fine begin to systematically cause the brick to lock up.  We have found, as ridiculous as this sounds, the simple act of adding a variable read immediately before the motor block which seems to cause the brick to lock up will fix the problem.


Is it possible to obtain a replacement part for a collectible minifigure? My son's latest collectible minifigure purchase was missing its legs.  Is it possible to get a replacement set of legs?

LEGO will replace a part for free on their website, providing it was missing from purchase. Sadly replacement parts aren't available for Collectible Minifigures, but you can contact them to let them know.

Ensure the Minifigure packet has been fully emptied, it's quite easy to lose parts when you open the packet.