How Can I paint my LEGO Bricks? Possible Duplicate:
  How do I change the color of a brick?

Is there a way that I can paint a white LEGO brick?  I would prefer paints that will not come off easily.

Years ago for one of my projects. I used some acrylic paint to match something with the rest of the building. It can be done. But removing the paint is going to be a pain in the tail feathers. The parts never did look right after that. So I advise against it.


Advanced coloured lines following robot I am trying to build a coloured lines following robot, and I would like to know what kind of sensors do I use for my robot to differentiate and detect several different coloured lines?

If you are using the EV3 Sensors you should use the EV3 Color Sensor which can detect 8 colors (colorless, black, blue, green, yellow, red, white and brown). If you are using the NXT I would recommend the HiTechnic Color Sensor or HiTechnic Color Sensor V2... I hope I could help.


EV3 won't run a certain loop I'm trying to make a program where an EV3 is IR controlled but if button 9 (toggle) is pressed it goes in autonomous mode. However, my EV3 will not run a certain loop in the program.

It looks like this:

The big one won't run; no matter what I put in it.

A program should have only one "Start" block (the green play button).
Your 3 segments of code are not linked together, you need to drag a "beam" from the exit of one loop to the block that should execute after the loop exits.
You need to link the action of pressing the button to an exit condition for your loops. You are using infinite loops. The only way to escape an infinite loop is a Loop Interrupt block. Click on the infinity symbol on the loop blocks for more options.


Is a N2 or CO2 paintball tank a viable power source for a LEGO pneumatic Engine? I would like to know how a LEGO pneumatic engine would perform when powered with a nitro (N2, HPA) or CO2 tank. I have seen a few RC cars powered with air (from soda bottles), so I am wondering if it would be advisable to power such an vehicle with a much more powerful but also heavyer paintball tank.

There are few pneumatic engines designs, like this Lego Pneumatic Engine switchless LPE-V4-DIHC or this Lego 1500 rpm V8 or this (defective) LEGO V8 pneumatic.

I am not building one yet. But I am very... very curious about how effective such an engine would be when powered with a paintball tank... for how long would it be able to run? Has someone already tried that?

There have been RC cars with LPE engines but all I have seen was powered with soda bottles. I am planing an RC car of my own and I'm going with a simple electric solution but, an LPE would be sweet if it worked for more than a few minutes.

Precisions: I would like to know how long such an engine could run with a 45/4500 N2 tank for example.

@Joubarc found that such engines can run with a max of 90psi. The inline-4 on that page runs at max speed with a 4bar (58psi) intake (like most other LPE I saw). It means that we can expect slightly higher pressure requirements if the engine is delivering power to a system.

N2 tanks are simply filed with air which is cheap (when you have a compressor ;) With the example of a 45/4500psi tank how long could the car run?

Also comes the question of the weight, with a carbon fiber tank weighting over 0.8kg is it really a good idea?

Would CO2 be a viable solution? With a maximum of 6bar should I expect condensation in the pistons? Would it really be a problem to consider?

Simply put do you know if this would work. If not, have you heard of any example that was successful or an epic fail?

Edit: I received an answer from LPEpower:

  I have no experience with long term running engines using co2 tanks, but the engines do run fine with them. Perhaps you could warm up the co2 coming out of the cartridge a bit, to prevent condensation. The real danger in my opinion is the low temperatures that the expanding co2 gas creates. Those are not good for the rubber seals. So if you'd manage to heat up the gas using a coil wire wrapped around the intake tube, connected to some batteries, you could prevent that from happening.

I guess I should probably forget about the CO2 and invest in some HPA gear.

Apprently, it is possible to generate up to 37psi with LEGO pneumatics parts only.

LEGO penumatics can withstand more, however. Engines similar to the one you want to build can work with a recommended pressure intake of 90psi; a maximal (but not recommended) of 120psi is mentionned.

So I think it all boils down to the pressure your N2 or CO2 tanks can generate, under 100psi should be OK. If not, I suppose there could be some way to get it down to that level.

As for using N2 or CO2 instead of air, I don't think there is much reason for concern, since both are faily harmless and present in air anyway.


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

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

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


In what ways are LEGO and Megabloks incompatible? I know that the basic bricks of LEGO and Megabloks fit together, but was wondering if other elements do too.

Such as:

Plates
Rods (Ones Minifigures can hold, not Technic)
Right angle (such as Erling)
Duplo bricks

The problem is that while in general MegaBloks bricks fit with LEGO bricks, the quality control on the MB bricks seems to be much lower*, so the bricks/studs and holes are not always the same size.

As an example, I recently acquired a MB HALO Covenant Banshee ship for my son, and can safely show that:

The holes in studs do not readily accept rods (in this case a "wand" element from a Harry Potter set, but identical to the lightsaber pieces, etc.) - they are generally too small, however I could just force it into the front of the "hollow frying pan" type piece that Harry's holding. Conversely the handle is thinner than the wand, so it fits into the hollow MB studs fairly well, but is very loose in the LEGO cone.

With Erling bricks your mileage may vary but shound be ok, however you'd be better off with the newer 1x1 brick with knob(s), as then there's no ridge to fit within.

Plates and Tiles seem to fit fairly well - although generally the grip will be looser if you put LEGO elements on top of MB ones - the studs seem slightly smaller.

DUPLO Bricks seem to fit as well as they do with LEGO bricks:

*I state that the quality control seems to be lower as in this set for example, there are supposed to be 4 1x1 Round Plates (you can just see a transparent blue one behind Harry). Of the 10 or 12 that were supplied(!), none of them were tight enough to stay on the angular brick you can see on the wing edge (the one that just about stays on the other side falls off this one).


Where did "LL 928" and "LL 929" come from? Just finished putting Benny's Spaceship set together, and the Number printed on the side is "LL 929" which appears to be an increment from a much older set the Galaxy Explorer, which had "LL 928".

My question is whether there is any known source for this ID? Is it just something random that someone came up with or does it actually refer to something (real or made-up)?

928 was the original set number of the Galaxy Explorer - so the numbering of that one is following the LEGO tradition of using  the set number.
As Joubarc points out, at that time the sets were branded LegoLand, which is where the LL comes from (in recent years LEGO often uses the Designer's initials).

I'd say that as Benny is a rather well used Classic Spaceman and his Spaceship is clearly a throw back to that style, his ship is numbered in homage to the Galaxy Explorer.


Please help identify the LEGO set from picture Got this from a bulk partly assembled.


Are there any great LEGO designers that are well-known? I know that many designers work for LEGO but I was wondering if there was some 'Star Designers' that we should know by name.  Of course, I would also like to know what they are famous for.

As there are more and more LEGO fans who become designers, some of them are already well known from the community and are very dedicated to fans, going to events and the like. They are actually just regular people and always have an amused look if you treat them like they have ascended to godhood status or something.

A few of them in no particular order:

Pierre Normandin

Pierre works on CITY and is known among others for 10129 Maersk Train and 3677 Red Cargo Train.
Mark Stafford

Mark works on most fantasy themes and keeps a list of his sets, also on brickset
Melody Caddick

We owe Mel some exlusive sets, including 3300003 LEGO Brand Retail Store, 3300001 Brickley and some (if not all, I'm not sure) Master Builder Academy sets. Mel also finalised the design of the first ever LEGO cuusoo set: 21101 Hayabusa
Megan Rothrock

Megan worked for the ill-fated LEGO Universe MMORPG, but doesn't work for LEGO any longer. She focuses on LEGO fan events and is now publishing her own book.
Jamie Berard, as cited in another answer
Markus Kossman

Markus is responsible for some huge Technic sets, including [8421 Mobile Crane] and the first Power Functions sets, 8275 Motorized Bulldozer

As you can see, LEGO now has online profiles for Technic and Creator designers (maybe others, but I didn't see any), and of course the LEGO Designer Videos Youtube channel.

Also, LEGO has also issued sets designed by fans, which is the closest you can be of being a designer without being actually one. Note that some of the names on that list did eventually become full-fledged designers themselves.

To end, a little piece of trivia: the license plates on some vehicles usually bear the initials of the designer of the set. Have fun hunting them...


How do I unlock the daily surprises? I got a lego star wars 2012 advent calendar (9509), and on the back it say "unlock a surprise every day", and it says to go to legostarwars.com, and there's a code on the back of the advent calendar flap, but when I go to legostarwars.com, it redirects(?) me to a lego star wars III clone wars game experience, and I don't know where to enter the code. Where am I supposed to enter the code?

That is not the URL you're looking for ;)

Apparently you need to enter the codes on the LEGO.com Star Wars Advent Calendar page.


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

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

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


How to flash a LEGO Mindstorms brick and program it in another language I have a basic LEGO Mindstorms kit which I wanted to use for testing a very simple object-avoidance project.

I am trying to find a relatively simple way to flash the brick and upload scripts to it for executing, preferably something simple like Python or C++. I've been looking around the Internet for a few weeks now and have found almost nothing.

I see some instructions how to flash the brick with some generic firmware, but no more information how to get to the point of programming it the way I need. I see the most popular source for programming the NXT in Python is NXT-Python. However, there is 1) no documentation 2) outstanding bugs on the ultrasonic sensor that has not been addressed since 2015 and 3) only executes the program on the PC and sends command to the brick, rather than uploading the program to the brick.

I see that NXT is usually programmed in the language NXC, which fortunately has an extensive documentation in PDF form. However, this language (based in C) seems like an entire beast of its own, and idk if I would have the time or patience to master an entirely new language just to program for this one small project. Furthermore, the GUI for NXC seems to be only for windows, but I'm using Ubuntu.

NXC seems to be translatable from Python using the PyNXC library. However, it also doesn't seem to have any documentation except a couple of examples, and otherwise just pointing to the NXC tutorials.

Anything I am missing here, or is that the entire length and breadth of programming the NXT? I have a feeling there has got to be something more straight forward, as other people online talk about programming the NXT in python as if it was easy.

Thanks

I've had great success with Bricx Command Center or BricxCC (as mentioned in this post) on my NXT using NXC (which is easy to pick-up when you already have a C/C++ foundation like you've mentioned).

Installation, using the supplied drivers and connecting via USB is a breeze :)

Hope this helps!


How to receive response from direct_command_reply from EV3 using Python? I've established and tested a Bluetooth connection (by playing a tone) between EV3 and Mac running Yosemite with Python 2.7.11.

I used file write as in bt.write(tone) in Python to play the tone with the "tone" variable having the direct command.  Now, I'm trying to read a .rtf text file that is on the brick using Python.

I'm using a direct command for this.  I have created a byte stream for the direct command using opFile (with open_read, read_value and close) all packaged into one direct command (DIRECT_COMMAND_REPLY).

Now, since I'm using Python file write to write this direct command to the Bluetooth serial port, how do I get the value returned (the text value in the .rtf file) by the direct command?

Python file write does not have a return value. Please help on how I can get the reply from the direct command with Python.

Reading files is better done by system commands. Here is a class EV3, that sends direct commands and system commands. The program sends a direct command (does nothing) and uses the system commands BEGIN_UPLOAD and CONTINUE_UPLOAD to read file /bin/usb-devices from the EV3 device:

#!/usr/bin/env python3

import socket
import struct
import time

class EV3():
    def __init__(self, host: str):
        self._sock = socket.socket(
            socket.AF_BLUETOOTH,
            socket.SOCK_STREAM,
            socket.BTPROTO_RFCOMM
        )
        self._sock.connect((host, 1))

    def __del__(self):
        self._sock.close()

    def send_direct_cmd(self, ops: bytes, local_mem: int=0, global_mem: int=0) -> bytes:
        dir_cmd = b''.join([
            struct.pack('<h', len(ops) + 5),
            struct.pack('<h', 42),
            DIRECT_COMMAND_REPLY,
            struct.pack('<h', local_mem*1024 + global_mem),
            ops
        ])
        self._sock.send(dir_cmd)
        self.printHex('Sent', dir_cmd)
        reply = self._sock.recv(5 + global_mem)
        self.printHex('Recv', reply)
        return reply

    def send_system_cmd(self, cmd: bytes) -> bytes:
        sys_cmd = b''.join([
            struct.pack('<h', len(cmd) + 3),
            struct.pack('<h', 42),
            SYSTEM_COMMAND_REPLY,
            cmd
        ])
        self._sock.send(sys_cmd)
        self.printHex('Sent', sys_cmd)
        time.sleep(0.1)
        return self._sock.recv(1024)

    def printHex (self, desc: str, hex: bytes) -> None:
        """Print a hex-String in human readable form"""
        print(desc + ' 0x|' + ':'.join('{:02X}'.format(byte) for byte in hex) + '|')

DIRECT_COMMAND_REPLY = b'\x00'
SYSTEM_COMMAND_REPLY = b'\x01'
opNop                = b'\x01'
BEGIN_UPLOAD = b'\x94'
CONTINUE_UPLOAD = b'\x95'

# direct command
my_ev3 = EV3('00:16:53:42:2B:99')
ops = opNop
my_ev3.send_direct_cmd(ops)

# system commands
path = '/bin/usb-devices'
cmd = b''.join([
    BEGIN_UPLOAD,
    struct.pack('<H', 1012),      # SIZE
    str.encode(path) + b'\x00'    # NAME
])
reply = my_ev3.send_system_cmd(cmd)
(size, handle) = struct.unpack('<IB', reply[7:12])
part_size = min(1012, size)
fmt = str(part_size) + 's'
data = struct.unpack(fmt, reply[12:])[0]
rest = size - part_size
while rest > 0:
    part_size = min(1016, rest)
    cmd = b''.join([
        CONTINUE_UPLOAD,
        struct.pack('<BH', handle, part_size)
    ])
    reply = my_ev3.send_system_cmd(cmd)
    fmt = 'B' + str(part_size) + 's'
    (handle, part) = struct.unpack(fmt, reply[7:])
    data += part
    rest -= part_size
print(data.decode("utf8"))

You find additional details in
Lesson 11. Or look in github. I hope, this helps!


How well do LEGO assemblies hold water? Water is commonly represented with blue pieces, but what if I tried adding real water to a setup?

For example, I create a simple blue base with a rectangle making a sort of pool. If I fill that rectangle, would the water be held inside the pool?

Example 2, make a river using taller pieces as the bank and run water over it.

I already saw that LEGO bricks can float so maybe adding a nifty crocodile into a moat or something.

In my experience, this doesn't work very well. The gaps between LEGO bricks are too wide to hold water. The water will be contained for a short amount of time, but it will eventually leak out through the cracks.

Here's an experiment showing how your first example works. Notice the water leaking out the crack in the bottom right:

The leak continues to grow:

I haven't personally tested this with running water, but I can only imagine that this would increase the rate that water will leak out.

If you're interested in building some sort of running water feature, you may want to take a look at this answer that suggests waterproofing the bricks using liquid latex after assembly.


Does the Mindstorms EV3 software work on macOS Sierra? I guess this is a continuation of these two questions:

Does the Mindstorms EV3 software run on OS X El Capitan?

Is the LEGO Midstorms EV3 software compatible with OS X yosemite?

macOS Sierra was just released, and I want to upgrade. Will there be issues with the software, or will it work properly?

My Mac: Retina MBP 13", Early 2015

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


How do the Infrared Towers work? I've seen a few Mindstorms "infrared transmission towers" listed on Brick Owl, Bricklink and other sites. However, I cannot find any good documentation that how they work, how they are used by users, or why they exist.
Can someone shed some "light" on this for me?

IR Transmitter Tower exist in both USB version as well as Serial cable version.
Page 7 of instructions for one of the sets (3804) that was using USB version has following explanation:

Transcription:

The IR Tower establishes a wireless link between your computer and the
RCX. With the IR Tower, programs can be downloaded from computer to
RCX. These programs can then be executed (run) by the RCX.
The IR Tower uses infrared signals to send messages.
For communication to occur, the RCX and IR Tower must be able to see each other. Even through 4-6 inches (10-12 cm) works best for downloading, in optimal lightning conditions, communication is still possible at distances up to 90 feet (30 meters) away.
To Download firmware to your RCX:
Make sure your tower is plugged in and your RCX is turned on. Run the Robotics Invention System™ software and click the Settings button on the Main Menu. Click the button for downloading firmware.
Downloading takes approximately 4 minutes. The Software Watch counts as the firmware is downloading and will beep when it is done, do not switch off or move your RCX while downloading.
For more informations about setting up your RCX to work with your PC go to Settings.

And it also contains (rather obvious) picture of supposed use:


Please help me identify the Lego set This partial build was put together symmetrically. Both sides are moveable.

This is the rear part of 70009-1: Worriz's Combat Lair:


Inverting voltage to PF motor I often use separate PF motor for each driven wheel. Sometimes the most interesting design of mechanism requires opposite polarity of power supply to motors. Is there any simple non-destructive way to invert voltage to one of motors?

Have you looked into the Power Functions Control Switch at all:

This allows you to switch the direction of a motor.


What minifigure has a textured lab coat? With body on legs it will not fully sit down. From a tote of LEGO parts my kids played with in jr high or high school. They graduated in 2008.

That's not a piece made by LEGO. It's most likely made by a compatible brand.


Classic 9V battery box current limiter? Recently I disassembled a classic 4760c01 Electric 9V Battery Box Small Complete Assembly to see what was inside.

Battery Box:

Disassembled:

In the switch component, we find what appears to be a current limiter:

It slides right out if you use a pin or something to push it out.

Here is a closeup on it with one of the other pieces:

It's a small metallic looking disk with a black edge and some divots on the faces, and no identifying or informational markings.

Based on usage experience, I believe it limits the current to less than what a 9V battery can actually output, but I don't know for sure or how much that limit is. I've search around, but wasn't able to find any information on the current limiters in the battery boxes before the one from 2006.

Does anyone know what the current limit of this old battery box is? Or know a way to discover what the limit is?

The short answer is about 150mA.

Electrical Characteristics

From the limited testing that I've done, the component you pointed out appears to be a positive temperature coefficient thermistor. Here's how Wikipedia describes their use as current limiters:

  When first connected to a voltage source, a large current
  corresponding to the low, cold, resistance flows, but as the
  thermistor self-heats, the current is reduced until a limiting current
  (and corresponding peak device temperature) is reached. The
  current-limiting effect can replace fuses.

I only have a basic multimeter and a few fixed voltages handy at the moment, so I'm not able to derive the precise characteristics of this device. I was able to measure the following:

Open circuit resistance is 4 ohms
Short circuit current at 12V is ~50ma.
Short circuit current at 10V is ~50ma.
Short circuit current at 8.3V is ~60ma.
Short circuit current at 5V is ~100ma.
Short circuit current at 3.3V is ~120ma.

The tolerances on these parts are pretty loose, but for mine the maximum it can supply consistently in series with a motor is about 150mA. If I keep current above this for long, the thermistor begins to heat and total current decreases due to the limiting.

It might seem odd that the max constant current I was able to sustain is greater than the short circuit current, but this is due to the fact that this component is effectively limiting the amount of power it dissipates, and not the amount of current it passes. Power is the product of current and voltage, so because some voltage is dropped by the load, it is able to handle a current higher when loaded than it is able to when shorted.

Physical example

As a point of reference if milliamps aren't very familiar to you, in my testing I was able to cause the clutch gear (60c01) to slip indefinitely on 43362c01 with the thermistor in series.

This drew about 100mA for me. So, you can drive most of the lighter 9v parts just fine. The current limiting will kick in at about half the stalled current for most of the motors. Larger PF motors, and especially the RC buggy motor, will not be able to reach their full potential with the overload protection in place on this battery box.


Please identify the set or sets, grey 6 x 6 circle and dark red and white curve with vent I have these two assemblies which I have no idea if they are from the same set or not. The black square on the round assembly can spin.  Any ideas?

Thanks a lot

The build on the left is from 60002 - Fire Truck - it's the turntable/mount for the ladder:

Based on containing the "Plate 6x6 round", and "Bottom W.Turntable 4x4"

The build on the right is from 60147 - Fishing Boat - it's one of the engines:

It's currently the only set with "Plate W. Bows 2X3½" in New Dark Red.


LEGO EV3 on Chromebooks not recognizing NXT bricks I teach two LEGO robotics classes in middle school and in one of my classes I am using EV3 and in the other NXT.  I was able to have these classes because of the Chromebook app, but the problem I am having is the EV3 Chromebook app is not recognizing the NXT's.  Everywhere I read said they were compatible.  Is there something I am missing?

NXTs require a special USB driver, which is only available for Windows and Mac, so programming NXTs with official LEGO software will only work with those platforms. (EV3's use a generic USB HID driver.)

Furthermore, using NXTs via Bluetooth is not supported in any of the official LEGO EV3 software products.


EV3 motor control proportional to another motor when more than two motors From what I understand, in EV3-g you can use "move steering" or "move tank" blocks to regulate two motors proportionally to each other as they have a built-in PID controller to do that.
If one motor falls behind, the faster motor will be slowed down and vice versa...

My question is how to realize this with 3 or more motors?
E.g.: I have motor A which I want to run at full speed.
Motor B which I want to run at 30% of the speed of motor A.
Motor C which I want to run at 50% of the speed of motor A.
I also want that if any motor is slowed down (e.g. because of friction), this is compensated by slowing the other motors down.

Will I need to code extensive PID loops myself?
Does anyone have any references or examples in that case?
Or is there a simpler way ?

The application I have in mind is an omni platform. This is a robot that has three wheels on axes that are 120 degrees separated. By correctly setting the speeds of the three motors, one should be able to get the robot to drive in any direction without it having to turn (although it can turn in place if needed).

I've implemented 3-motor triangular holonomic drive with NXT-G but not ev3-g so I can help with strategy but not tactics.

To accelerate in any direction you need to constantly re-calculate the power levels for each of the 3 independent motors.  By constantly I mean some reasonable number of times per second - 4, or something like that.  EV3 is considerably more powerful than NXT-G but you won't want to tax it too much with this, if the 'bot does anything else at the same time.

The built-in PID stuff won't help with this at all - in fact, you'll want to do everything you can to ensure only your code is controlling the power levels of each motor, that nothing else is affecting them.  Anything that's smoothing out the power level or similar should be disabled as best as you can.

Trigonometry is what you need - Arctan() to be specific.  I have the math jotted down on paper somewhere but odds aren't good I'll find it anytime soon.  If I can, I'll extract the logic from existing NXT-G programs and update this answer sometime.

inputs:  desired bot direction, desired power level, motor angle (0, 120,240)

output:  power level goal for that motor

You might wrap that all up in a PID loop to get 'actual' numbers closer and closer to 'desired' numbers.

Hope this is helpful.  Happy to field any follow-on questions you might have.  I'll update this answer with additional details if I'm able to pull them from the actual code, or if I find the notebook where I wrote down the math, about a decade ago.


How can I get the EV3 to control an ordinary motor with PWM? Looking at the hardware developer pdf, it looked like the EV3 should output a PWM signal with a duty cycle corresponding to power level. It does, but only for 100ms and only on pin 1.

Is that how the signal should look or is it because the EV3 know there's no motor attached?

I'd like to do this all in hardware if that's at all possible.

The hardware solution is to simulate the motor circuit on pins 5 and 6.

There is a YouTube video by TechnicRobot that shows one way to do this.

I'm not sure I understand completely the logic behind this wiring. Personally, I would just connect pin 6 to pin 3 directly and connect pin 5 to pin 3 using a 3.3k resistor so that it exactly matches one of the 4 possible states of an EV3 Large motor.

When you do this, the EV3 will detect your motor as an EV3 Large Motor. However, you shouldn't use the Large Motor blocks in the EV3 software. Since this hardware hack won't provide a position feedback signal, those blocks won't work correctly. Instead, use the Unregulated Motor block (one of the blue "advanced" blocks) to control the PWM duty cycle.

To get a PWM signal on pin 2, simply run the motor in reverse. It is not possible to get a PWM signal on both pin 1 and pin 2 at the same time using the official LEGO firmware.

For anyone looking for a software solution rather than a hardware solution, there are some similar questions that should be helpful:

Using the unregulated motor block and conversion cable to light LEDs
How to use Power Functions with Mindstorms EV3?


When did Lego stop putting small catalogs into boxes? In former times, all Lego sets used to come with a small catalog. This was either just a single leaflet with an overview of several themes (with a focus on new sets or subthemes), found in smaller sets, or a small booklet like a smaller version of the main catalog, just restricted to "minifig size" sets (when buying one of those minifig sized sets) and usually without any product descriptions (just set numbers), included in larger sets.
Personal nostalgia anecdote: These catalogs were significant to me as a child because they would often grant the first glimpse at new sets of the upcoming year during the first few weeks of January before toy stores would get the first main catalogs.
Recently, I noticed that current sets do not include this kind of catalogs anymore. When did TLC change this habit?

To be fair, it is hard to tell and depending on definition you may even tell TLG has never stopped doing so. But it depends on the series.
Bricklink has a lot of catalogs in their item data base. Single leaflet catalogs are called "Mini" and small booklet ones are called "Medium". Catalogs you can find in store are called "Large".
While Bricklink's database can be considered the largest in terms of catalogs they have, for some reason they didn't record if any of these catalogs come in sets. So it is hard to say when/if did TLG stop including Mini and Medium catalogs. Looking at the data recorded in Bricklink I would assume 1999-2001 are the years when TLG stopped putting "Medium" catalogs into System/City/Technic sets. It also depends which series you are interested in, since Duplo kept getting their "Medium" catalogs for much longer. However you can also find that some of recently introduced Dots sets may have had catalog of "Mini" type in their 2020 range.


Determine assembly steps from LXF file I’d like to build a MOC of a Technic vehicle that was posted online using the provided LXF file of the completed model.

I was able to open the LXF file with both Bricksmith and Stud.io, but, as far as I can tell, it is not broken down into a sequence of assembly steps. In other words, both programs shows just the completed model.

I’d like to know either: (A) how to view the intended/embedded step-by-step instructions, assuming they exist, and/or (B) if there is a common/best practice for manually determining an assembly order when all you have is a completed model in an LXF file.

FYI, the model I want to build is the awesome looking Chili Crawler by PunkTacoNYC. It can be seen on YouTube, and the LXF file is available here.

The LXF file contains the complete model as created with Lego Digital Designer (the Lego CAD tool from The Lego Company). The model usually doesn't require to have building steps as they are (always) automatically generated from the model.

For normal, non-Technic models, Lego Digital Designer (LDD) is able to create automated building instrutions. My experience with LDD and Technic models / MOCs is that you have good support for designing the completed model, but that for the generation of building instructions you're better off with other tools.

You can translate an existing LXF file into an LDraw model (file extension: .ldr), but for some exotic (read: Technic) parts, the translation of LDD parts and LDraw parts is either incomplete or has problems with part orientation. This means that you may have to do manual edits to your model in order to have an (almost) complete translation into LDraw file format. See e.g. this site for details.

One advantage of the LDraw format, is that you can define "building steps" and sub assemblies in the design, which makes the generation of complex building instructions easier.

A tool for creating building instructions from a LDraw model, is LPub3D. Otherwise I'd suggest using a Lego CAD tool such as LDCad.


Advanced LEGO set for my 5 yr 2 months old child My Son is considerably talented in LEGO building. Till now, he has completed over 30 LEGO sets all by himself which includes this year completion sets - 42054, 42064, 42072, 42073, 31010, 3367 And 70625. His very first LEGO set was built when he was three years old - 40220.

Now looking for more challenging sets for him. Any suggestions?

As far as building experience, LEGO Technic sets are considered the most challenging. Looking at your list, it appears that your son already built some pretty large LEGO Technic sets, so if he enjoys the challenge, you can purchase him more of the larger Technic sets. Also, note that most large LEGO Technic sets will have alternate instructions, or the models can be combined with other sets. Additional instructions are available on the LEGO Technic website.

Compared to LEGO Technic, pretty much all other sets are going to be simpler, however some of the larger regular sets can still provide a good challenge. I would suggest browsing the paper catalog or LEGO's online shop together, and see what strikes his fancy. He might be into a particular theme to not just build but also play out stories. Or he may like vehicles, trains, motorized sets, or robotics.

Also, encourage him to free-build. There are alternate instructions available for many LEGO sets both online and in book form, or he can just build from his own imagination. That's really the next level for a talented LEGO fan; designing and building their own models.

You might also want to check if there is a LEGO club near you for young LEGO fans. They are usually well structured and focus on robotics and other educational aspects of LEGO, which may be a good fit for your child.


What is the purpose of the discontinuity in the DUPLO train bridge rack? DUPLO bridge elements include racks to allow the powered trains to be able to make the climb. An example of this is element 35138:

I noticed that the gear rack on this element is not continuous at the peak of the bridge. Here's what the rack looks like at that point:

It seems to me that a continuous gear rack would be the obvious design choice. What is gained by including this gap?

I could imagine that this design was chosen to take care of slight angular missalignment of the tracks at the peak of the bridge (the two parts are not exactly in a straight line but slightly bent at the joint). I cannot confirm whether this is possible, because I don't own these parts, but I think for easy assembly and disassembly they have to have a little bit of wiggle room.

The problem in this situation could arise when the train passes the joint, the tracks are not in a straight line, the gear rack reaches directly up until the end of the two tracks on both sides and the solid axle in the train forces the two gear parts on both wheels to be aligned to each other, but the gear rack on the tracks would shift, forcing one side to raise up, putting the wheel teeth on top of the gear rack teeth.

This is only a good guess, but I could imagine in combination with a heavy train this could lead to the train not moving any further because the wheels are again and again slipping out of the gear rack.

The chosen design prevents this because the teeth only need to grab on one side while the other side has a some time to align to the "new direction" again.


Please help identify this set with red, black, and lime colors? Can someone tell me what it is so I can get instructions for it. All pieces are shown. I removed a couple I hope can help identify it

Based on the printed Atlantis part, this looks like Neptune Carrier (8075-1).


How should I connect two LEGO cylinders with pistons to measure the movement caused by sea waves? As part of a school project I need to make a model of a snake electricity generator.
I would like to build this with LEGO elements, and for that, I need to measure the movements of the cylinders relative to each other by mean of the piston connecting them.

I have an extensive LEGO collection, but I have difficulties imagining the best configuration so that the piston has the maximum moving range.
In addition, the system needs to be floating, as the movement of the cylinders is caused by waves at the surface of the water.

It's difficult to suggest parts without knowing what sets are in your collection.  Here are some thoughts to help with assembling this project.

Notice that the snake consists of the following pattern:
float tube -> pump section -> float tube
The float tubes are the elements that keep the heavier pump sections afloat.  You'll need something similar to recreate this with Legos.  You could put balloons inside of the float sections instead of making the Lego portion watertight.
The float tube / pump section pattern is connected at right angles for each subsequent section.  This is the key in allowing the snake to flex in three dimensions (X, Y, Z).  There are a number of parts that you could use attached to the outside of cylinders to create this connection.
The arms driving the pistons are encased in a flex conduit that is larger than the arm itself.  It's hard to see in that diagram, but the arm driving the pump never bends.  Said another way, the arm only moves in one dimension - back and forth.  I don't know of any Lego parts that would allow for this configuration.  A technics rod plus a flex conduit would look pretty close to what you need.  But the Lego pieces with holes are generally sized to allow the rod with a pretty close fit.  And you need something with a sloppy fit in this case.
Measuring the motion is going to be challenging.  My first attempt would be to put a spring loaded slider against the piston along with a ruler next to the slider.  You could then measure the motion assuming you find a solution to the fit issue from #3 above.  If you wanted to convert that motion to an electrical measurement, you'll need some sort of transducer.  A mindstorms motor might do the job, but I have no idea about how to program and monitor for that type of a thing.
Finally, decide upon what aspect you want to measure to indicate the motion.  The edges of the tubes are actually moving in two planes of motion.  As the edge moves away from the piston, it rises up a little bit to accommodate the pivot point.


Lego Digital Designer: Having Gears Interact with Toothed Bar I just started using LDD, and I have been trying out a few things that I couldn't do with the limitations of my Lego collection.  One thing that has me caught up is that I can't seem to get the technic gears to interact with the Toothed Bar piece.  I know this is possible in real life, but I was wondering if it is possible to do on the computer.

In the project I have, I want the lever to be turned and the platform attached to the Toothed Bars to go up or down.  Right now, only the gears on the axle spin when rotated.

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


I have received a set with a piece which isn't a part of it and I cannot identify it I feel like I have seen this piece before, yet I also feel like it may not be a Lego piece. I am not sure! I have searched for Bricklink to no avail and it has no number or Lego number on.


How can I make micro-scale water? This is totally boring:

How can I add some variance to it that helps to distinguish a rippling lake from a raging ocean from a fast-moving river, while keeping a look that's appropriate for micro-scale landscapes?

The 1x1x2/3 slopes would be ideal for making waves, etc.:

 and  or the 1x2 options.

Along with some blue tiles you could make some great waves:

Obviously, if you don't want them breaking, keep the white fronts blue.

Also, if you have some Navy blue tiles you can create currents of colder water - if you've ever watched large bodies of water you'll notice they have strips of different shades running through them.

Stick to tiles on the plate rather than the 2/3s height for lakes, or for some good ripples use the Round Dish 2x2 Inverted:


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

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

It seems like maybe there was an Health and Safety issue with the flying ones, or maybe kids were getting them lost on the roof or in the next door neighbor's yards or something. But surely that's part of what makes them so fun!

My question is: Why did Lego stop the Ninjago Spinjitzu Flyer and switch to the Ninjago Spinjitzu Spinner?

The flyers were released in 2015, 2 years is an average production run for LEGO sets. Note that spinners have been released before, in 2011 and 2012 with expansion packs like cards and weapons.

I think the most likely reason that the flyers were discontinued is that LEGO did not see enough marketing potential in a second wave.

As to being more "fun", that is entirely subjective. These flying plastic rings were around in my childhood as well and I hated them.
To me they seem now old fashioned compared to the myriads of flying drone toys that are available today.

Update: Apparently, it was a bit premature to state that the flyers line of ninjago had ended: https://brickset.com/sets/theme-Ninjago/subtheme-Dragon-Masters


Can you interchange System and Technic LEGO? My grandson would like to motorize his LEGO builds. Does the Technic motor pack only work with Technic LEGO or can he mix it with the regular sets that he already has?

What should he start out with?

I assume by the Technic motor pack you mean this:

The straightforward answer is in my opinion "no", the pack does not contain enough pieces, nor do System sets contain enough unless they were explicitly designed to have moving parts and allow motorization (e.g. the carousel or other LEGO expert fairground sets)

You need "some" LEGO Technic to allow for moving parts. The LEGO Technic itself is then in many ways compatible with System Lego.

The amount of Lego Technic your grandson will need depends too much on what he wants to achieve to give a generic answer.


Buying another kit instead of 8293-1: Motor Set? I want to get some motors but don't know if it is a better idea to buy 8293-1: Motor Set or try obtain motors from some other sets. Is there any kit challenging 8293?

You have several alternatives, and you can combine several approaches if you've got the cash:

You can buy individual Power Functions parts from a LEGO shop or from various other vendors. The advantage is that you'll get the specific parts that you're interested in. The down-side is that it'll probably cost you more than buying a set like 8293.
You can buy a bundle from eBay. Several vendors make up their own kits that are similar to 8293 but with a slightly different mix of components.
You can buy a set that contains Power Functions. This tends to be fairly cost-effective if you're interested in the parts that the set contains, but with the disadvantage of a larger initial outlay. Of course, you could re-sell anything you don't want if you're prepared to put in some effort. The other advantage of buying a kit is that you'll probably learn some new techniques during construction.

If you go for (3), some of your options are:

8110 Mercedes-Benz Unimog U 400
9397 Logging Truck
9398 4X4 Crawler
41999 4x4 Crawler Exclusive Edition

Personally, if had the cash, I'd go for a 41999 (assuming it is still available). It includes a great selection of Power Functions components including remote control and IR receiver, a lot of generally useful parts, several exclusive parts (perfect for eBay?) and... well, it's just very cool.


Were there ever any smaller sets, marketed as being combined to create a large official set? I recall a children's magazine running an article about how to take a few smaller sets to create a big space ship, but I am not sure if that was official.

Did LEGO ever create some smaller sets, but market them in a way to convince buyers to buy several other sets, so that they could be combined to create a single large set from those?

Some of the LEGO Star Wars Mini Building sets contained additional parts that could be combined to make an additional model.

For example, the additional parts from sets 4484, 4485, 4486 and 4487 could be combined to build a TIE Bomber.

This additional model could be built at the same time as the primary model; the primary model and additional models didn't share parts.

You could buy special packs that contained all 4 sets.


How to speed up the disassembly of large LEGO technic sets? Is there any ways to help speed up the disassembly process for big LEGO Technic set such as the 42043 Mercedes-Benz Arocs?

"Reverse Construction"
Most Technic models are built in a modular fashion. This particular model (42043 Mercedes-Benz Arocs) is no different, from the instructions you can tell it has been built in the following order: Engine/Chasis, Cab, Wheels, Truck Bed and finally the Crane.
Large sets often use red pins to join together major components. Therefore the best way to deconstruct a Technic set is to do exactly the opposite and work your way back through the instructions or at least the 'major components'.

Major components (for lack of a better term) are usually highlighted in the instructions and typically have their own numbered bags. Below you can see the truck bed.

The truck bed consists of a number of sub-components such as the truck outrigger.

Working backwards through the instructions you can either tackle the disassembly on a piece-by-piece basis or on each sub-component.
Use a Pin Pusher
Disassembling Technic models has always been a painful experience for me, particularly on my thumbs when removing the many, many pins and axles used.
I like to use a 'Pin Popper' to easily remove most pins. It's essentially a axle (Generally the longer the axle the better). I like to put a few Brick, 'Round 2 x 2 with Axle Hole' at one end to use as a handle and to stop the axle digging into the palm of my hand.

I have also started to use an alternative pin-pusher design to speed up the process.


Is it possible to make inverted slopes with solid studs Many(all?) of the inverted slope pieces have solid studs and hollow studs( e.g. 3665) and a void around the stud. This(void & hollow) looks very inelegant, is it really that difficult to make solid studs with finished surfaces on these pieces? What's the material/cost/grip/aesthetic trade-off?

If lego decided to fill the stud and void of 3665 (i.e solid piece except for anti-stud), what would be the downside (apart from plastic, which is trivial)

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

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

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


Made a big program in EV3's programming software for AI creation and it went from slow to not loading Made a big program in EV3's programming software for AI creation and it went from slow to not loading.

It just displays the loading bar in the middle of the page.

Even my lenovo windows 10 8GB RAM laptop won't load the program. I'm guessing I need more RAM? I knew big projects like 3D scenes and music needs 100s of GB of RAM.

The answer is EV3's software allows putting many blocks into 1 myblock to be a program in a program. It's fast as slim silk sleek now.

How could it be that no-one nor tech support nor reps knew the answer!?

There is no limit now.


Is there a rule of thumb for the decrease in value of complete sets without instructions? Assuming the set is complete, would the value for example be $5 or 10% less than market value if the instructions are missing?  Is there a general rule you'd look for when buying?

Thanks!

If it's a newer set, missing instructions will usually just knock a few dollars off the price, even for larger sets. There are usually enough adult fans buying sets for parts that it's easy to pickup cheap instructions on Bricklink. For example, instructions for the new Millennium Falcon can be purchased for less than a dollar in new condition on Bricklink.

However, instructions and boxes for rarer old sets often vastly impact the price. For example, instructions for the classic Airport Shuttle (6399) are currently going for $40 dollars used and $100 new.

Basically, for newer sets the difference in price should only be a few dollars. For older sets where instructions may have been lost or damaged, the difference can be much greater.


Preparations for outside display I am thinking of using LEGO to make some outside yard art, (large minifig scale castle) and wondered what I should do to prepare them for being outside in variable weather conditions (in the Seattle area).

I am aware that Legoland glues their displays, but have not found any other details on their technique.

Discoloring in the sun is not a big concern of mine, other than I will probably avoid too many white elements which tend to discolor more noticeably.

As it's ABS plastic I imagine water wouldn't be a problem, and I should just be able to wash them down if they get dirty.  What about snow/ice freezing temperatures?

Does anyone have any experience with outdoor displays?

I once talked with a Lego Builder at the Florida park. He told me they use a glue that actually melts the Lego blocks together. With that in mind, I searched and found this article (on Facebook). It says Lego Park Model Makers

  use a solvent based plastic weld. It heats the bricks up so the edges bind together. Obviously it has to be very strong to withstand weather conditions.

A quick search on that found this from Google shopping.

The article also talks about color fading and model life time (about 5 to 7 years), after which the model can either be rebuilt or cleaned:

  We clean them using a shot blasting technique. They are sprayed with a fine salt spray, which takes a very thin layer off the bricks, and then they are lacquered with a UV coating. This gives them another 3 years or so.

I hope the project goes well.


Part identification: 40 tooth gear from The LEGO Movie While watching clip of the LEGO Movie, I found a strange part:

Slightly earlier in the video, its part number is shown as 3649.

But it doesn't match the 40t gear I know nor the pictures on bricklink.

Is it an error from The LEGO Movie or a variant I don't know?

From this image, you can count the teeth well enough to determine there are actually 60 teeth, not 40:

This does not appear to be a real part.

It also appears you aren't the first to notice this. Jim Brickkeeper had created a ShapeWays model based on this movie piece which I found while searching for LEGO 60 tooth gears. It's no longer available, but it might be possible to contact them and see if there is another way to get it made.

According to Matthew Ashton this piece was planned for use in the set, but due to budget changes had to be cut, and has not yet been produced.

  For each project we are assigned a certain budget and a certain number of moulds we can create for new pieces. It was our intention with the Movie to make all Characters and Vehicles toys 100%, movie accurate. However in this case the directors really wanted the back wheel to be bigger, so we designed the piece for them, but then later had to make a compromise on one of the models as we didn't have the budget for all the tooling. Lord Business's design had become more complicated and required more moulds than orginally planned.we had to get him 100% correct, so we decided to alter the Super Cycle as we felt it would be less noticeable, at that point we weren't aware that it's part No. would be called out


How can I extract part id or design id from a photo? Is there any software/site that tells me which LEGO parts exist in a photo? I would love to get a csv of parts from a photo.

As far as I know, no such project or software or site exists. The closest one I could find is (was?) a thread in the Eurobircks forum, where exactly this topic came up. The members there tossed about various ideas, mentioning Akiyuki's brick sorter device (with the factors that made its job easier than the one you propose: uniformly lit background with known color, precision scale, only one piece at a time, a few hundred possible parts), some proof-of-concept code was written to test the capabilities of the OpenCV library, but then the interest faded and the topic was abandoned.

There are several problems in this proposition that are highly difficult (if not straight impossible) to overcome:

Lighting conditions

The optical recognition process depends heavily on sensing the difference in the brightness and color of adjacent points. If the lighting conditions are allowed to vary (that is, not requiring the use of a light box) then the differences between each color and the background can't be set in the program. One could still overcome this limitation if the image contains a piece of a known color, but then the calibration must be done for each image.

Overlap

If pieces are allowed to overlap then they can be easily mistaken for similar pieces, or if sufficient parts are overlapping then clear identification can become impossible. If you can only see a part of a Technic axle, you can't tell how much of it is under the 6x6 plate, so the lenght of the axle can't be determined. The same analogy works for many kinds of pieces (bricks, tiles, plates).

One point of view

If this system can work using only a single image (taken with an ordinary camera) then some pieces can become too similar to tell apart. For example, from straight up, a 2x2 brick and a 2x2 plate look exactly the same, just like a 2x2 brick and a 3x2 brick if both are standing on their end. Shadow analysis could help with this matter, but only if there are clear shadows cast from a known point in space related to the camera and the surface on which the pieces are laid out. So we have essentially arrived at the "very precisely controlled and known lighting and photographing setup", called light box, but also added a ton of processing logic and advanced mathematics. Not to mention the problem of dealing with shadows cast on other pieces, which can render shadow analysis moot or even obscure some pieces so they won't be recognized correctly or in extreme scenarios maybe not even seen.

Differences only visible from one side

This might not concern you, but in some cases pieces only differ from each other in a very small detail that can only be seen from a certain point of view. For example, if a minifig head was laying on its side, it is optically impossible to tell if it has a hole on the top or not.


Can you please help identify this light-green and gold set? Can you guys please help me identify this set, looks like some Ninjago set, but that is as far as I can get.

Set #70612 Green Ninja Mech Dragon.

The color, sand green, doesn't come up often in sets.  Cross search a very unique piece in this off color, to get a short list of potential hits, then zone in.


Trouble finding plastic storage bins for MOCs built on 48x48 stud (gray) baseplates - Ideas? I have a number of models built on gray baseplates that are that are proving to be difficult to store/transport. Lidded plastic bins would be ideal, but I'm having a lot of trouble finding bins with these criteria:

• Flat bottom (no ridges, wheels, etc)
• 15-16" square on the inside bottom, to hold the baseplate
• Approx 6" deep.
• With lid, preferably one that clips shut.

There's one hiccup: I'm in Canada, and Amazon/manufacturers don't seem to ship these items here. Any suggestions of particular bins, or where I could get the ones listed below would be great.

Some bins I have seen and considered, that may work if I can find them:

Lego Dacta X-Large Storage Box (#9920)
http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/9920_Yellow_Storage_Box_with_Lid
- Very hard to find, since they're quite old.

Iris Buckle-Up Box 33 QT BCB-SQ Clear
http://www.shopirisusa.com/buckle-up-box-33-qt-bcb-sq-clear.html
- Best non-Lego one I have seen so far, but I haven't figured out how to get it in Canada.

Really Useful Box 50L
Taller and longer than I'd like, but it could work.

The two solutions I've seen are to measure the size you want and visit places that sell a variety of storage bins so you can find one the right size. In Australia we have a variety of bins about the size of a milk crate or beer crate (about 12" by 9", from back in the day when those units were relevant). The modern plastic equivalents with solid walls and floor will hold a 48 square baseplate quite well, and are designed to stack.

A search for plastic storage container canada suggests that there are chain stores in Canada that sell things like this.

The other solution is to make (or have made) some wooden boxes. A woodworker will be able to cut 6mm or 9mm plywood up and make whatever size box you want and reinforce them a little so they can be stacked. Then you buy chunks of foam and cut them to suit your models. Or just make "bricks" in a range of sizes to pack around random models. The advantage of this is that you get boxes exactly the right size for your models. Using cut to shape foam rather than foam peanuts means that any small parts that fall off are easier to find.

When putting multiple models in one container I prefer to put each in a plastic bag, again so that any parts that come off are easy to find and are associated with a specific model. Opening a big box with several models in it and finding a layer of small parts in the bottom is disheartening not to mention tedious to fix.


What does DTC stand for? I was reading at the Brickipedia site about upcoming 2013 LEGO sets and found several in a list which were referred to as "DTC", as in "40055 DTC Seasonal Halloween 2013" found here.  What does the DTC stand for?

In this context, DTC means direct to consumer. These sets are typically only available directly from TLG either online or from LEGO retail stores.

Here's the original source and discussion for the DTC set that you mentioned and several others:

http://www.brickset.com/news/article/?ID=2900


Where can I find a 2x2 hinge on Bricklink? In this picture "The neglect of duty" by Je hyung Lee, he uses four 2x2 hinges in the roof section I can't find on Bricklink.

Does anybody have an idea what set this comes out and possibly a Bricklink link to it or another similar site?

This is not a LEGO part. It's closest LEGO cousin would be 3149:

3149-like hinges don't have a 2x2 version to the best of my knowledge. In addition, the part in the picture appears to be 12 ldu (1.5 plates) thick. This leads me to believe that it is actually a Tyco part.

Also, it looks like this has already been discussed on Eurobricks where the same conclusion was drawn. From that thread:


Help identifying piece - wheels on arched base I'm not familiar with this piece that showed up in an old bin of Legos from a second hand store.

The text of the copyright reads "2008 the LEGO group"

Is there anyone that can tell me a part number or set this might have come from?

this is: Part # 48394base

Bricklink:

Sports Promo Skateboard Base with Four Wheels from McDonald's Sports Set Number 7, Set 7921

Brickset

Set 7921-1: Skateboarder, Grey Vest


Missing instructions and box My mom bought this set at a garage sale, with no instructions and no box. There are some obvious identifying pieces but I don’t know what set they are from, or if I even have all the pieces I need. I also don’t know if the wheels that came with it are actually part of the set. Any help appreciated! (2011 on the bag)

The loose part are gray and red speeder from: 75012-1: BARC Speeder with Sidecar

based on:

Coupling Plate 2X2 in Medium Stone Grey

Roof Tile 2X1X2 in New Dark Red

Lt Suspension in Dark Stone Grey


I have bags 2 and 3 of the LEGO group 2011 but no instructions, can anyone identify these? I have bags 2 and 3 with the number 135149 on them but didn’t get instructions (found them at goodwill). They have red, brown and green, some gray and black bricks, with guns, a cowboy, an Indian, a cowgirl, a horse and others.

Looks like set 79108 Stagecoach Escape by matching the horse, saddle and the minifig head.


How can I get replacement Mindstorms NXT components? I recently have been trying to work with robotics, via the Mindstorms NXT kits. But as of lately it seems the physical components in the kit went missing (everything except the brick, cables, servos, wires, and sensors.) I was wondering if there was a way I could purchase a part kit, with out having to buy EVERYTHING all over again. Could someone please direct me as to where I should go, other than the pick part service at Lego.com as that is rather expensive.

I love robotics and have been studying in the field for many years, but want to get this lego bot up and running again.

I don't think there's a way to buy all non-electronics parts other than buying them all one-by-one, which doesn't seem to be a solution for you. Note that contacting the LEGO customer service may be an option, but I'm not sure how far they'll be willing to help (and as you said it probably won't be cheap).

The only other idea I can suggest is to work the opposite way: try to sell the electronic parts you still have; that way you can just buy a complete kit again.

I realize it's not really easy either, but there could be some people who have already so much regular LEGO parts that only electronics interest them, and they don't want to pay too much money by buying these separately. Or maybe someone has the kit and lost some of the electronic parts.

Of course, don't underestimate the use of having extra electronic parts - your robot can get much more interesting; and in particular, learning to program two different NXT bricks so that they communicate properly to achieve a common goal can be very educational. Also, considering a full kit is usually cheaper than buying all elements in there separately, I believe buying it again is a more interesting thing to do - although I understand the price can be a serious issue, especially if you want to buy the newer EV3 version.

There may be another thing you can try: as you probably know, LEGO has educational programs based on robotics kits, and it could be that a school/college in your area is using these. Try to contact them, and see if they would be willing to either sell you unused parts (maybe because they are upgrading to EV3) or to buy your electronic parts (if they lost or broke some). I'm not sure if you can contact LEGO Education to try to get a list of schools using mindstorms in your area, but it can't hurt to try.


Which set are these Mega Bloks pieces from? Please help me identify which Mega Bloks set or sets these bricks are from.  Any help is appreciated.

These pieces are from Mega Bloks "Warriors: Future Force" set# 9528 "U-240 Assault".
(Instructions: https://support.megabrands.com/media/playbooks/9528.pdf)

Even though the picture is low resolution, you can see the orange parts on the three barrel turret better:


What set does this Lego S.W.A.T van go to? I found this in my wife's closet when I was trying to look for my dress shoes. I want to know if this is worth anything and what set this goes to.
Sorry if it's dusty. There is also a little gun that goes to it, can anyone tell me what it is from?

That gun is actually pure Lego. It's a Tommy Gun.

Your truck, however, seems like a custom MOC made of random clone-brand parts due to the randomness and low quality of the build. I doubt that a clone-brand company would publish that truck as a set if it looked like that.
I am currently failing to identify this part on your truck, it doesn't match the color scheme. It proves that your truck is made of multiple clone-brand parts from multiple sets, and maybe even multiple companies! I can not find anything like it in the google image search:

The closest I can find is this part, and here's the site it's hosted on:

From the comments:
You have also said that it says Lego on the studs, but I'm just going to assume that only some of them do because of that clone-brand part I've pointed out. Lego does not and will not make SWAT content, and besides that, the truck is a rather low-quality build, so it's certainly not "from a set". Why randomly put a lattice tile on the roof like that anyway? Why do you need two sets of headlights? And why is there a 4x4 round plate on the roof when you can simply access from the back instead? It makes me conclude this is a MOC.


Can you identify these snowy icicles for me? Can someone identify the part number for the downard pointing icicles in this scene?:

If I can get the little groups of 3 snowballs on the roof too, that would be great.

Barb / Claw / Horn - Large Flexible

and

Plate, Modified 1 x 1 with Tooth Vertical

Ice Cream Scoops


How to locate objects, and move towards them, without pre-programming the path So I need to find objects in an enclosed area, I have access to the standard set of NXT sensors, i.e. ultrasonic/light.

However, the ultrasonic sensors seem to be very unreliable and erratic, in regards to finding objects accurately.

I cannot pre-program the path to the objects, so I'm trying to work out how is the best way to go about locating these objects?  The objects are small, and on the floor.

I was thinking a sort of swivel motion at the start, to find any objects using the ultrasonic, and then just moving a small distance at a time, then swivelling again etc.  Are there any other better ideas?

Also, there is a wall enclosing the area, would there be a way of programming the NXT to avoid it?

I'll be programming the NXT in NXC.  Can't afford LIDAR :(

If the ultrasonic cannot echo-locate the objects because they're too small, even with the sensor suspended very close to the floor, I suggest using a very sensitive feeler out front. It can be sticking forward like a jousting lance, and your robot can swivel back & forth while traveling to scan.

The trick to making it very sensitive is to:
(1) make it pivot at its base on the front of the robot with a smooth pin,
(2) make it long and lightweight (use long axles),
(3) mount two opposed touch sensors as close to the pivot point as possible, and
(4) pre-load the touch sensors such that minimal travel is necessary to trigger each one.

The same techniques can be applied with a large diameter roller out front (like a steam roller) to detect any bumps on the floor (if the objects are kind of flat).


How to fix the 4.3V output supply of a NXT 2.0? I have a Mindstorm NXT 2.0 from 2007 (PCB code: 62115.40H) at which the sensors except the simple "Touch sensor" are no longer working. Also the tacho-signal of the motors do no longer work. (The motors work but do not stop after e.g. 5 rotations)

By looking at the schematics of the slightly older NXT (1.0) I could figure out that the problem seems to be caused by a defect in the 4.3V output supply. So I opened the housing and measured at TP79 of my NXT 2.0 the voltage of IPOWERA, IPOWERB, IPOWERC, IPOWERD and POWERMA, POWERMA, POWERMC. The voltage was not having 4.3V while the 5V supply "VCC_RS485" from which the 4.3V output supply is generated was fine.

My problem: The circuit which generates the 4.3V output supply from VCC_RS485 was changed in the NXT-2.0, while I can only find the schematics of the older NXT (1.0). This made it for me impossible to find the defective component (since nothing looks obviously defective)

Does anybody know how to fix the 4.3V output supply of an NXT-2.0?
Or does anybody know where to find the schematics of the NXT-2.0?

Finally I've found a solution. It is not perfect since I wasn't able to find the schematics of the NXT-2.0 nor could I reverse engineer it. But this workaround seems to work pretty well.

This workaround works at the following conditions:

You have an NXT-2.0 (not a NXT-1)
The 4.3V voltage for the motors and sensors is no longer there (Voltage at C61 is zero.)
The 5.0V voltage VCC_RS485 has still 5.0V (Voltage at C57 is 5V)

As you can see in the image below I soldered a 1N4007 rectifier diode between the positive terminal of capacitor C57 and the positive terminal of C61. The cathode of the diode has to touch C61.
Ensure not to touch the test-point T41 close to C57 since this should have 3.3V on NXT-2.0 (while it had 5V on NXT-1).

A silicon rectifier diode causes usually  a ~0.7V drop. So it makes 4.3V from the correct 5V source. If you don't have an exact drop of 0.7V don't worry: The NXT motors work also with the Lego-EV3 and according to the spec. of the EV3 that brick sends even 5V directly to the motor-sensors. (So even a wire instead of the diode might work - but I used the diode to stay on the safe side)

To solder the diode you have to open the NXT and to disconnect the battery holder, which requires some desolder work.

Dependent on your skills this might be some tricky work. Please don't blame me if this kills your NXT totally. Only do it if your feeling qualified to do it and if you've understood the explanations above.


Identify a space LEGO set from incomplete model Could someone help me find out which sets these are from please?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/clouddrive/share/manpK0pmTJUynGo8X3P5iBqpYEEIdjnO9Ol2t3dhdNR?v=grid&ref_=cd_ph_share_link_copy

https://www.amazon.co.uk/clouddrive/share/0d8gUy7oMWYN3Z3XiOYGYe8XJojtyCSzWVYKeEC39hV?v=grid&ref_=cd_ph_share_link_copy

These are

6849-1: Satellite Patroller

6808-1: Galaxy Trekkor


What solutions are there to organising a LUGBULK order? I'm involved in a LUG that's made orders in each of the LUGBULK programs that have run.  Determining what goes into each order has proven to be a nightmare, with all sorts of email-spreadsheet-ad hoc solutions that led to various combinations of huge expended effort, errors, misunderstandings and recriminations.

Given rumours of the commencement of the 2013 LUGBULk program are floating around, now's a great time to find out how my LUG can do better this time. Is there a web site we can use, a program of some kind?  Should we just have one member decide what we'll order?  Some happy halfway between autocracy and democracy?

What solutions are there to organising a LUGBULK order?

For our Lug, we have assigned one person who is the contact for all things LUGBULK and is also responsible for the organization of everything. (He also happens to be the one who will spend the most).  We followed this general format to keep everything organized.

At the most recent club meeting, we agreed on those parts that the club needed for upcoming projects. These get the highest priority.
Once we received notice of LB2013, we asked all of the members to submit their information needed to register and to get an accurate count for Lego.  We gave our members 10 days to get this in.
Within 5 days, each member was allowed to submit up to 10 part requests in order of priority.  Each member is also required to submit the ElementID along with each part in order to make things easier.
The person in charge of LUGBULK for us merged everything together and removed any duplicates.  If we were over our maximum of 100 elements on the wishlist, things get removed that were likely to be declined, or that would be cheaper on BrickLink or PAB.
The wishlist is submitted to Lego.
Once the approved list and prices are returned to us, we create an excel sheet of available elements and add in columns for BrickLink color names and current BrickLink prices and send it to all members.
All members are required to send in their orders within 7 days.
The coordinator merges together the orders and sends to Lego.
Once the LUGBULK order is received (on a pallette :) ), the coordinator pays Lego directly, divvies up the orders (or we have a sort party to do it) and then each member pays the coordinator.


Please help identify this vintage (but non-Lego) brick! It's time to play the "what brick is this" game, and this time our contestant is definitely non-Lego, yet vintage.  This brick was in a small lot of early-60's Samsonite Lego bricks, and I am assuming it is nearly as old as those.

It appears to be CA plastic, has studs (but they are taller than Lego studs), and a stylized "S" logo of some sort in the center of the surface of the brick.  Inside are slots and sidebars, rather than tubes.  Here are some photos to help.

That is a Kawada Dia Block made in Japan. Entex and Sears imported those into the US in the 70’s and 80’s and repackaged them under such brands as Loc Bloc and Brix Blox. The “S” is actually a K on top of a D, which is the emblem for the Japanese toy company Kawada. Dia Blocks are still made and available in Japan today.


My Mindstorms Spik3r can't turn around When I use the button for turning it just goes backwards. Why does this happen? I've checked the instructions and didn't find anything.

According to this article, the turning is supposed to function via a

  wheel on the bottom that while the car moves forward stays straight but that once the car moves backward moves a little to the side and forces the car to turn.

If correctly built, it should look like this:

A bit later the article offers a few tips on troubleshooting, among which there is your issue as well:

  Problem: My Spik3r doesn’t turn

  This looks like a construction problem. Check the above photo to see how the flying wheel is supposed to look like.

Edit after an update to the question

The wheel marked with the red free-hand circle is meant to slide freely in forward motion (the head of Spik3r is seen at the bottom of the picture), as it is pivoting around the axle with the yellow half-bushes, and get stuck in reverse (as the blue pin catches on the black undercarriage), thereby braking that side of the Spik3r and causing the model to turn towards that side.

If this wheel gets stuck during reverse, then it is working as intended and should provide enough friction to turn the whole model.

If it does not get stuck, then it is due to a mistake in the build.

If it gets stuck but does not force the model to turn, then you might need to change the friction between the wheel and the ground it's running on (e.g. use it on a carpet or any other surface rougher than the polished hardwood shown in the background).


Is there a way to restart a program with EV3? I've got a program with a code lock, and I would like the program to restart when you enter the incorrect code. Does anyone know of a way to do that?

If I were you I'd use a loop inside the program. In this loop the prompt for entering the code would be displayed, then the user input would be read. Finally, the code would be checked and if correct, the proper action executed, otherwise a failure message would be shown and the execution would loop back to the start (display the prompt).


What is this piece that looks like a coat rack or armor stand? It appears to be a coatrack or armor stand. Only marking is LEGO inside the 2 studs on the arms.  The bottom is completely blank which is uncharacteristic of a LEGO piece.  It is 3 bricks tall with 2 arms with studs at 2 bricks high and a single stud on top.  On a 2x2 base.

That would be part 4289 Boat Mast 2 x 2 x 3 Inclined with Stud on Top and Two Sides

As the name implies, it is typically use for a boat mast on modern boat models.

It only ever came in black in one set, 4669 Turbo-Charged Police Boat.


What is the best way to transport a large quantity of LEGO bricks? I have a decently sized collection (thousands of bricks/hundreds of sets/a bunch of bins) from my childhood, but they're all at my parents' house. I live in the US and a couple states away from my parents (more than 1000 miles). What is the best way to package all of the bricks? What is the best way to move all of those packages? I ask because I'm thinking the weight of them all might make it tricky to transport. Hopefully someone out there has been in a similar situation.

When I moved house, I just sealed the gaps in a bunch of packing boxes with duct/packing tape, and put the storage bins in there - that way if anything did escape from the bins it wasn't going to get lost from the box.

I would say though that in general my collection wasn't organised in anyway, although there were a few built sets that survived fairly well.


How can I make product suggestions to TLG? I'm sure lots of is have had ideas for products, parts, sets, themes or services that we'd like LEGO to produce. What are the best ways of proposing them to TLG, and of persuading them to take on our ideas?

The options of which I am already aware:

For themes and individual sets, you can make a proposal at ideas.lego.com/, and if you get enough votes and TLG think your idea has sufficient commercial merit then it might be made into a set.
You could try to get with TLG and if you manage it, you might be able to influence them from within.

Is there anything else we can do?

There is the LEGO Ambassador program too: http://aboutus.lego.com/en-us/lego-group/programs-and-visits/lego-ambassador

  The mission of the LEGO Ambassadors is to work together with the LEGO Group in all areas which concern the worldwide LEGO community and be the voice of their respective LEGO User Group towards the LEGO Group.

This means you should contact a LEGO User Group (preferably one in your area) and try to raise your suggestion to the group's Ambassador.


Is there any software for designing and testing Technic mechanisms? I'm finding Technic parts can be challenging sometimes, and the costs can be high.

Is there any 3d design software that can help with designing before I decide to buy the parts?

I searched for more than a month and I found Lego Digital Designer (LDD) is the balance between simplicity and functionality.

You can learn LDD in a few hours. Very good videos available on youtube

LDD is not just 3d rendering tool. It understands the connectivity between technic beams and pegs. Very impressive.

The most impressive feature in LDD is that it can simulate the technic gears. Take a look at this video and see it for yourself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13wietMv0g8

These two videos will save lots of time:

Lego Digital Designer Tips and Tricks - 1/2

Lego Digital Designer Tips and Tricks - 2/2

Update:

This post helped me to import so many existing Lego lits in LDD. I learned a lot form existing designs. Also, I can find the part numbers that I am looking for, or just copy them from the model.

Can I import existing Lego kits into Lego Digital Designer?


Instructions for building this bird? Parrot from session at Legoland Windsor in 2013 I built this bird at Legoland Windsor in 2013. It was in an instructor-led session where a Lego expert showed us some SNOT techniques and we all made the same model.

I've had the model on my shelf at home and although it's nothing too special my kids have expressed an interest in making their own.

Does anyone recognise it (ignore the colours as we had a free choice) and know of any instructions? I'd rather not dismantle and reverse engineer it!

From memory, the instructions were shown using a projector and were slightly pixelated, like from a computer design app rather than the slick instructions in normal Lego sets. So this may be a MOC by the instructor rather than something published, but you never know.

I don't have a copy of the instructions, but I've recreated the model making some educated guesses:

Here are two highlights of the internal construction:
The first shows how the feet tie into the body.

The second shows the basic SNOT work to attach the sides to the model.

The full instructions are available here.


Representing pregnancy on LEGO minifigs without a dome So far for pregnancy I have tried a fetal carrier that I put on the minifig's back but this limits her movements. Specifically she can't bend too far in either direction and also she can't lay down the way she normally would (she would have to like bend her legs when she lays down or something to keep the fetus inside).

My minifigs don't have a hole in the belly where I can put a big white dome to illustrate pregnancy.

So what is the best way to show pregnancy without a pregnancy dome?

The best piece to represent a round belly is the "Plate, Round 2 x 2 with Rounded Bottom" (part 2654). The "dome" pieces are way too big. Connect the rounded bottom plate to the bottoms of two "Brick, Modified 1 x 1 with Headlight" bricks (part 4070), also known as the Erling brick. Use short legs to get the total height right.

Note that the pegs on the leg pieces are slightly larger than a normal stud, so they make for a very tight fit in the back of the Erling brick. They do fit with some force, and they are difficult to remove.

FYI, I experimented with a few iterations, including one using a 2x2 flat tile on a bracket, and this was the version that had my non-Lego fan wife exclaim, "Oh yeah, that looks good!"


Is there a way to re-tighten a minifigure's hip joint? When a minifigure is new, the joints where its legs joins its hips is relatively stiff. However, when a minifig gets old and has been used a lot, this joint can get very loose leaving its legs very floppy. Why does this happen? Is there a risk-free way to re-tighten this joint?

I would try pulling off the legs and dropping a tiny, tiny amount of plastic glue on the hinge, smooth it out and let it dry, then put the leg back on.  It should provide enough friction to the leg again so they aren't so loose.


Is there an .lxf file resource of production Lego sets? Is there an .lxf file resource site of production Lego sets? Specifically, I am looking for the Millennium Falcon 10179 lxf file, to load into Lego Digital Designer.

The Eurobricks forum has a topic dedicated to user created LDD files of existing LEGO sets.

There are currently four different versions of the #10179 Millennium Falcon made by different users:

yellost (23 August 2010)
bbqqq (12 November 2010)
Calabar (20 October 2012)
kcoon (16 December 2013)

There is also a topic for official LEGO sets re-created in ldraw.


Help separating a 6L stick with stop ring & 1x1 cone I have a 6L stick with stop ring & 1x1 cone stuck together. I've been trying to separate them without success. Any advice?

Immerse the stuck assembly in soapy water, swoosh them around a bit, then try again. That should do the trick. It is okay to wiggle the piece a bit from side to side to try to loosen it up. Even ABS plastic LEGO pieces are somewhat flexible and they won't break if you flex them a bit.

If nothing else works you may have to resort to plyers. Use the kind that doesn't have ridges, so damage to the plastic remains minimal. Also, use shop gloves or something similar to make sure you have a good grip on the end that you are holding with your hand.

If you do resort to using pliers, try putting a wide rubber band between the pliers and the pieces to further reduce the damage to your bricks.


Every time Robot is launched (without changing the code) it is not following the exact path I'm working on FLL mission and every time our team launches the robot (without changing the program, and we are making sure that it is starting from same location every time) it is not following the same turns and distance.

Any idea what is going wrong?

This is actually a fairly typical problem, with several possible causes.

The motors do not directly drive the axle, there is a gear train hiding inside the plastic casing.  That gear train can be deflected without turning the motor.

The software controlling the motor maintains a last known position so that several move blocks can be run in sequence and the over/under at the transition between blocks is taken into account.  This is typically a problem when the robot is picked up during an aborted run, and the program is rerun.  The robot acts like it remembers the previous run and twitches to the left or right when it is restarted.  There is a motor reset block to handle this problem.

Dirt/dust on the wheels can also cause issues, as can wheels not firmly positioned on the hubs.  This year we spent a whole session trying to get the robot to go straight and ended up trading wheel/hubs until we found a pair that worked fairly well.

Some wheel/hub combinations slip.  We spent a long time thinking some old yellow hub + shiny black wheels would work.  What a mistake.  The wheels didn't slip at first.  After a couple runs that smacked into the wall and they loosened and nothing, not rubber bands, not different hubs, not ...

The big message isn't to find a combination that goes straight.  Expect it to wander.


Can anyone identify this spinner with 1-5 and a skull? My son has just inherited a large box of Lego, we're hoping someone can help identify what set this might be from.

It's the center of set 2519 Skeleton Bowling:


How do I add the lms2012 library as a dependency within Visual Studio I'm following this question and am curious how I go about actually importing the following the necessary dependencies. I see this line:

#include "ev3sources/lms2012/c_com/source/c_com.h"

and have downloaded the entire lms2012 directory. Importing that into visual studio is proving more difficult than it would seem. I can add that single dependency by following the directions posted here by adding just the c_com header and executable, but then I'm missing the dependencies upon which it rests. How can I add this entire directory as a dependency?

Thanks!

[Update]

Thanks David for your recommendation to add just the dependencies I need. Which would those be for the following? Adding c_com.h then prompts me to add lms2012.h and then dirent.hand on and on. I just want the isolate the functionality below.

#include <unistd.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include "ev3sources/lms2012/c_com/source/c_com.h"

int main()
{

    // start motor on port A at speed 20
    unsigned const char start_motor[] {12, 0, 0, 0,
        DIRECT_COMMAND_NO_REPLY,
        0, 0,
        opOUTPUT_POWER, LC0(0), LC0(0x01), LC0(20),
        opOUTPUT_START, LC0(0), LC0(0x01)};

    // send above command to EV3 via Bluetooth
    int bt = open("/dev/tty.EV3-SerialPort", O_WRONLY);
    write(bt, start_motor, 14);
    close(bt);
}

lms2012 is the entire virtual machine that runs on the EV3. It is meant to be compiled using Eclipse on Linux. There is really no use trying to include the whole thing and build it in Visual Studio on Windows because it doesn't have the required Linux libraries.

If you are trying to develop your own remote control program, then just copy the relevant header files from lms2012 and include them in your source code. The data types and #defines from the header files are really all you need.


Fan door does not close completely - Air Race Jet After completing the Air Race Jet, I found that the upper fan door does not close completely (stopping short by about 1/2 inches) when I switch from VTOL to Flight mode.

The attachment points to the pulley pieces operating the door seem correct, and the engine nozzle and flaps move into their correct positions.

So I have not been able to see what is blocking it.  Any ideas on fixing this?

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

Yesterday I contacted LEGO customer service about my non-closing fan door problem, after disassembling about 30% of the model in a vain effort at finding the cause.  Their response was that there was nothing wrong and this was normal, even after I sent them Youtubes showing normal operation and a video of my issue.

So in addition to asking for any input on fixing my problem, I’d like to also ask anyone familiar with this kit if you agree that there is a problem.

Well, I decided to call customer service at LEGO, and a very helpful fellow confirmed the existence of the defect in my model — doubtless a mistake buried somewhere in the 1,151 parts, as I thought.  So back to my question - where should I look for the defect?

He suggested focusing on the area depicted below.  You’ll notice a yellow crossbar going through two gray support pieces.  With the doors shut, they should be flush against one another with none of the yellow showing, but in my model they have a gap when Flight mode quits, as shown.  If you manually push the doors (top or bottom) shut, they are flush.  So this area may be key, or (shudder) just an artifact of a mistake elsewhere.

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

JANGBRiCKS says:

  "It's one of those builds where you need to get everything exactly
  right the first time.  Penalty for making any sort of mistake is very
  very high and there are many things that are left incomplete for long
  periods time as you're building up the functions inside of this.

  The main build of all of the gears, and all of the levers, all of the beams,
  and everything that connect together, ultimately, very very late in the game,
  late in the process of building to form the functions that are all
  powered by a single motor."

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

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

  "artifact of a mistake elsewhere."

(Luv how you said that!)

So, in trusting you, I think your build is right instruction-wise, but our engineering insight could use a slight twist here and there.

So, in this Vertical Take-Off and Landing mode, we see:

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

For all of these features to work properly, you have to go back to your build, and manually turn each section, or gear torque completely to position "0" of VTOL mode.

So, if one or more is off, even slightly, it will affect the total length of deployment, and retraction of the others.

I can only imagine one of the features positioned too early hitting a physical wall, or space constraint, causing the other features not to fully complete their run.

You did mentioned the top gap, bottom gaps, and misaligned tail engine. Yes, they're all related to the VTOL feature so, if one is off, they're all gonna be off.

Try this out, and hit us back with your results.

My source videos:

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


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

A little bit of searching identifies baseplates as being from Mega Bloks Dragons. The line isn't well-documented, however, so I couldn't tell exactly what set these pieces came from, or if they are indeed only from one set.

[Phil B]: Added image from the above website for reference:


NXT2 motors limitation? We are extending famous Dave Parker's nxtprograms.com 2 Touch Remote
I have added 2 extra "threads" - one to control 3rd motor (which is a frontal "claw") and another one to use 4th touch sensor to reverse the robot. Please see screenshot enclosed. The issue we are experiencing is that the robot does not reverse when we press 4th touch sensor, although it does make sound. I am wondering if there's some kind of limitation - eg. you can't control same motors from different threads?

In the middle "thead" all of your motor blocks are "unlimited" or "stop". These blocks change the motor state and immediately continue to the next block. These are inside a loop that loops forever, so these blocks are running continuously in the loop. The motor blocks in the top thread may have an effect for a split second until the middle thread loops again and changes what the motor is doing.

I suggest writing to a variable in the top thread instead of using motor blocks. Then read from that variable in the middle thread. For example, you could use a numeric variable and give it a value of '1' for forwards and -1 for reverse. Then in the middle thread, use a multiply math block to multiply the desired motor speed by the variable to change the direction.

Or, for that matter, you could read the 4th touch sensor value in the middle thread and remove the top thread.


Need help identifying this Star Wars set from about 2005, white and dark red triangle ship? I need help identifying this Star Wars set. It was probably released about 2005. The complete kit is about 11 inches long:

It's a dusty 7143 from 2002, but the minifigure is not there.


What's the time on the LEGO clock tile? I am reasonably confident that this tile is meant to be 2:57:38,  but I am wondering if anyone knows why this time might have been chosen?

I also recognize the Disney clocks all have a different time (11:53).

[edit: changed to correct time- thanks henrik]

Addendum:
Why did I ask this question?
Earlier this year, the LEGO Xtra line included a sticker pack, and it included this clock face, scaled up for a 4x4 stud circle.

I found myself wondering if this sticker pack was a tribute to the 6000 ideas book. On re-exaiming the sticker sheet in the 6000 ideas book, the clock sticker is set at 08:00:20. It almost looks as if the 'newer tile' that we have been speculating about is similar, but switching around the positions of the large and small hands, and altering the position of the hand pointing towards the 8 slightly.

I love the idea of "School's out o'clock",suggested by some below, but could it have just been a transcription error by a graphic designer in the early 80's? Or indeed a 'correction'?

Or is it just a way of having the hands roughly equidistant apart on a clock face?

[Thanks@JohhnyB for assistance with Stack exchange etiquette]

This is Part# 4150px1.

Okay, I didn't call/write LEGO for answers. This is just speculative guesswork (and I should be ashamed).

First off, sorry, for not giving you time to explain the full relevance of the Disney clocks with regards to your question.  There are other clock patterns besides this pattern, and the "Just-Before-Midnight" Disney pattern.

So, I was trying to get your connection, until I thought about what you wrote, and what I thought in my mind.

You wrote the Disney clocks all have a different time (11:53).  I thought in my head "Just-Before-Midnight", because in many fairly tales, Midnight, is the magically important event.

So, it got me thinking: If I were a Danish LEGO designer, and I was making toys for school aged children, then what would be a magically important event to a grade schooler? If an adult's time could ever be important to a child, what time would that be?

Hmm, maybe the few minutes before 3:00pm, the time school lets out and for them, the real magic begins?

So, I'm guessing, 2:57:38pm might be the same "Just-Before-The-Magical-Event" subconsciously embedded in every grade school boy or girl's head, and some random LEGO designer had the insight to try and capture it.


Is it possible to change the language in the EV3 Education software? I have only 1 language in menu "Edit - Change language":

Is it possible to add another language packs to EV3?

I see that you have the Education version of the EV3 software. I would suggest checking with the LEGO Education support. It may be different from the retail version in this regard.

For the retail version:

From the MINDSTORMS Support page:

  3.3 What languages are the LEGO® MINDSTORMS® EV3 Home Edition Software available in?

  You can download the EV3 Software for free from LEGO.com/mindstorms in the following languages:

Chinese (Simplified)
Danish
Dutch
US English
French
German
Japanese
Korean
Russian
Spanish (ESSA)

These are available via the respective download pages. For example, the US English version is downloaded at http://www.lego.com/en-us/mindstorms/downloads/download-software. However, the installer is for the whole program. There are not "language packs" that contain just the languages.

To test, I installed the German version in addition to the English version and now I have two languages available on the Edit menu.