57
votes
Accepted
Can LEGO City Powered Up trains be automated?
I've been exploring this recently, and I wanted to share my experiences in the hopes that they are useful to others. There are a few ways this can be accomplished. Some are possible out of the box, ...
- 41.8k
35
votes
Accepted
How does the motorized lighthouse rotate continuously without tangling the wire powering the light?
This required a clever design and one novel element.
The power for the light comes from the very bottom of the model where a battery box is stowed inside the mountain:
The wire leaves the mountain ...
- 41.8k
33
votes
Accepted
How can I motorize the Hogwarts Express (76423)
There are number of ways to accomplish this. The locomotive traditionally provides the power for a train, so that is a natural place to start. Unfortunately, this locomotive is difficult to motorize ...
- 41.8k
24
votes
Can the Orient Express be motorized to run on standard track?
This train will run on standard track without modification. The gauge of the brick-built track is no different from the standard City track.
There are a number of ways that this set could be motorized....
- 41.8k
19
votes
Is there an API for the Duplo 10874 train set?
There is now official documentation for the Bluetooth protocol used by the Powered Up product line:
https://github.com/LEGO/lego-ble-wireless-protocol-docs
The community has created some tools to ...
- 41.8k
17
votes
Accepted
Multiple Powered Up trains on 1 Bluetooth controller?
Each train needs the following two components:
Hub
Train motor
I'll assume you purchased a second set of these to convert your 9V train with, since you're asking how to control both trains using the ...
- 3,018
15
votes
Accepted
What electronics are inside the LEGO Powered Up hub?
The bulk of the space inside the Powered Up hub is consumed by the housing for the 6 AAA batteries. A small portion of the top of the hub contains the main printed circuit board. Here's how it looks ...
- 41.8k
13
votes
Accepted
Alternative to LEGO CONTROL+ app
There is an alternative app called BrickController 2. This open source software is available for both Android as well as iOS. This application is actively developed and its maintainer can be reached ...
- 23.4k
12
votes
Accepted
What is inside the LEGO Powered Up M motor?
Let's take a look. The first step to disassembling the motor is removing the small Philips screw on the bottom:
Now there are a pair of gray tabs in the back white section that we need to release. I ...
- 41.8k
12
votes
Accepted
What is inside the Technic Powered Up XL motor?
I was curious about this, and TLG was willing to provide me with one of these motors, so I opened it up. I was able to get the outer shell off by cutting down the 4 tabs on the outside. This motor ...
- 41.8k
11
votes
Accepted
Where can I find documentation on the LEGO Wireless Protocol for Powered Up devices?
LEGO calls this communication protocol the "LEGO Wireless Protocol" (LWP). The documentation is publicly available at https://lego.github.io/lego-ble-wireless-protocol-docs/.
There is also a GitHub ...
- 9,778
10
votes
Accepted
Are there Powered Up compatible connectors available?
There do not appear to be any compatible connectors available currently. You can obviously splice cables from the official components, but that's expensive and makes those components unusable.
I hope ...
- 41.8k
10
votes
Accepted
What internal electronics does LEGO Boost use?
Here's what the main board in the Move Hub looks like from the top:
And bottom:
The Move Hub includes the following hardware:
Motors
The two built in motors are fairly standard DC motors. They ...
- 41.8k
10
votes
Options for powering Winter Holiday Train
If you want to “turn on and forget” you might want to look into obtaining a circle of old 9V track (metal rails produced by LEGO until 2007) and a power supply, plus a 9V train motor. It will not be ...
- 17k
10
votes
Accepted
Difference between the "Simple Medium Linear Motor" (45303) and the "Medium Linear Motor" (88008) Powered Up motors
The main difference is that the 88008 Medium Linear Motor includes a rotation encoder with 1° resolution. Otherwise it weighs a bit more (34g vs 43g), is a bit slower (380 rpm vs 255 rpm) but also ...
- 17.3k
10
votes
Accepted
What's inside the non-Bluetooth Powered Up hub?
We can begin to explore this part by carefully removing the top cover to reveal the PCB:
On the left, we can see a current-limiting thermistor (MF-MSMF075). On the right, we have a pair of Powered Up ...
- 41.8k
10
votes
Accepted
Lego colors that the powered up color sensors can detect
Official Sources
The LEGO Shop page for the Color & Distance Sensor (88007) says:
Detect 6 colors and objects within 5 to 10 cm range with this robot toy accessory for kids.
Since this one is ...
- 9,778
9
votes
Accepted
Is it possible to non-destructively open the SPIKE Prime smart hub?
No, but the damage can be limited and is not externally visible.
I don't know the technical name, but each of the 4 corners are held in place with these fasteners:
Using a tool of the same diameter (...
- 9,778
9
votes
Accepted
How to dump the micropython filesystem from the SPIKE Prime (and Mindstorms v4)?
Using rshell I've managed to dump the micropython filesystem of my hub after updating it to v1.0.03.0034-c3879ab.
rshell
connect serial /dev/ttyACM0 115200
rsync -a /pyboard ~/spikefw
Note: These ...
- 398
9
votes
Is there any difference in the power, wheel, and track technology between 2018 trains and 2022 trains?
Most of essential bits are the same and used in all 4 sets:
Train motor
Straight track
Track switch
Driving wheels attached to motor
The only difference is in wheel used for cars. Instead of using ...
- 23.4k
8
votes
Is there an API for the Duplo 10874 train set?
Official docs:
https://lego.github.io/lego-ble-wireless-protocol-docs/
https://github.com/LEGO/lego-ble-wireless-protocol-docs
Discussion:
https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/...
- 181
8
votes
60197 Passenger Train control problem
I thought I’d update you on the situation for anyone else in a similar position.
I got in touch with Lego via email, it took a while for them to get back due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which is totally ...
- 143
8
votes
Accepted
How deep can the axle go in the Powered Up L motor?
That is only 1 stud deep.
So an axle of 5L always sticks out 4 studs
- 8,083
8
votes
Accepted
Is the LEGO train motor 88011 waterproof?
LEGO's electric or electronic parts are usually not waterproof, with a small subset that was explicitly designed for such use in a few nautical-themed sets between 2004 and 2007. These motors feature ...
- 17.3k
8
votes
What is inside the SPIKE Essential battery?
This battery was glued when assembled, and it can only be opened destructively. The best way seems to be cutting with a knife around the seam to break all of the tabs that are glued in place.
Here's ...
- 41.8k
7
votes
Hacking the Bluetooth motor in the motorized LEGO® DC Super Heroes 76112 App-Controlled Batmobile
There's a node.js library that can connect to the Move Hub and control attached peripherals:
https://github.com/nathankellenicki/node-poweredup
This should allow you to write scripts and programs ...
- 41.8k
7
votes
Accepted
Can the Powered Up app be used to directly control the Boost Move Hub?
As of the Powered Up app version 3.0, this is possible.
Old answer:
As of August 2018, this is not possible. However, TLG has stated that they plan to add more compatibility to the Powered Up system,...
- 41.8k
7
votes
Are there additional motors and/or sensors that can be used to extend LEGO Boost?
I've tried attaching one of the Powered up motors from the batmobile set (76112) This motor looks identical to me as the WeDo motor (although brickset and bricklink don't list them as identical at the ...
- 11.1k
7
votes
Accepted
Which resistor value is used for which motor in Power Functions 2.0?
M Motor (Powered Up/WeDo 2.0)
The M motor has a 2.2kΩ resistor between pins 5 and 6. Pin 6 is connected directly to pin 3.
LED Lights
I don't own any lights yet, but according to this post, they ...
- 41.8k
7
votes
Are there Powered Up compatible connectors available?
Appears you can purchase them on AliExpress, here's some of the vendors I found:
here
here
here
"10Pcs/lot Programming Series Robots Model Building Blocks Education Steam Connector Cabe Parts For ...
- 171
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible