Expanding the Space Port MOC

After watching Lego Masters, I was inspired again to expand the Bricks By the Bay 2018 MOC I built, especially since Richard and Flynn are members of BayLUG.  As a reminder this is what it looked like in 2018

and the subset I took in 2019

As you can see the design is modular with angular connectors like these

 This how the curve was created.  The new plan is to reverse these connectors and instead of a concave overall design, it will be convex.  Then start to build a cliff terrain behind this.  In a complete fantasy world it would be a complete circle around a mountain.  Here is a sample of the cliff terrain from another MOC at one of the Bricks by the Bay.

There are some issues that need to be solved first.  One, building realistic terrain.  I have seen some good examples, so research is needed in this area.  Second, how to make it curve at the same rate as the modular portions.  finally, how to make it transportable, that is modular.  If I can't move it, not going to worth anything.

More as I dive into this also.

Introducing the COSMAC 2020 ELF

As explained in an earlier post, I have started a pure vanity build of an CDP1802 system, which does not fit what we normally do, but it is something I have wanted to do for a long time.

Some background: I have been fascinated with microcomputers since 1975 when the digital logic professor came back from a CA seminar with an 8008 system.  My career started in the Navy after graduation, but I wanted to keep up my EE knowledge so in 1977 I acquired an 1802 ELF.  That was followed by a complete rebuild into a system with 64K of memory, built in EEPROM programmer, multiply divide unit, composite video interface and much more.  It took me several years, since the navy kindly asked that I spend time overseas for long periods of time.   In those days the memory was composed of 1K x 1 SRAM chips that consumed 50mA each or 30mA for the low power version.  So I decided to build these in 8K wirewrap cards.  Designed an ingenious bus interface long before the ISA bus was around.  But an 8K card had 64 2102 chips on it plus some CD4000 glue logic.  The low power version consumed almost 2 AMPS.  To get to 64K was going to take 8 cards and 16A @ 5VDC.  So I found a large transformer, high current stud diodes and large capacitors to build a 30A @5VDC power supply.  Unfortunately I never took pictures of this monstrosity.  By the time I finished wire wrapping the first 8K memory card and managed to get it working, Hitachi, Sony and few others produced the HM6116 2K x 8 SRAM chips.  These consumed only about 40mA per chip and so 4 of these at 160mA replaced the entire 2102 at 2A.  By the time I installed some these, the HM6264 8K x 8 SRAM arrived and entire 2102 board was replaced with a single chip using 40mA.  The final incarnation is shown here with the main board removed from the custom case I built.

The design philosophy this project will follow is delineated here.
1.    Use as many LSI CDP1800 series parts as possible, at a minimum
    a.    CDP1802/1806 CPU
    b.    CDP1854 UART
    c.    CDP1855 Multiply/Divide Unit
    d.    CDP1869/1870 Video interface System (VIS)
    e.    CDP1871 Keyboard Interface
    f.    CDP1877 Priority Interrupt Controller (PIC)
    g.    CDP1879 Real Time Clock (RTC)
2.    All MSI type parts will be 74HC instead of the original CD4000 type ICs
3.    All glue logic will be contained in CPLDs to reduce space and increase flexibility
4.    Will use a PCB instead of wire wrap

Follow along as this project slowly progresses.

What We do

What we do and How we do it!

So what do we really do at MyMakerTools?  This is a question we get all the time and the answer is complicated. Our main objective is to help out Makers, electronic hobbyist, brick creators, etc.  Specifically those who want to build electronics and those who want to mechanize their Lego creations.  How do we do this, you ask.  Here is the multi part answer.

For those who are electronic Makers

USB Based Power Bricks

We make a series of USB based power systems.  Using USB power we can provide a series of voltages that can be used to power your electronic projects.

Here are two of the small power bricks that we make.  You plug one end into a USB power source (probably not a Laptop, but a charger, USB battery or wall source).  The one on the left will generate 1.8VDC, 2.5VDC, 3.3VDC and 5VDC.  These are the most common voltages used in electronic logic circuits today.  Generally you would have to buy 2 to 4 commercial power supplies to obtain this variety of voltages and at several hundred dollars.  Additionally you would be tied to the wall and not be able to take your creations out of the house.  The one on the right is the same type, except it only has three voltage outputs, 3.3VDC, 5VDC and 12VDC. 

This picture is a typical example of how it is used.  The power brick will plug into the breadboard directly and then power your prototype designs.

 Power Monitor

                                        

Next we make a Power Monitor, shown here.  Well what is a power monitor?      This a USB based device that is used to observe the voltage and current your prototype designs are using.   As you can see in the picture there is a connector on the top.  This is where one of the power bricks from earlier is plugged in.  The opposite end then contains the voltages that were there before (1.8VDC, 2.5VDC, 3.3VDC and 5VDC in the picture below).  The Power Monitor comes in two flavors, USB only or USB/BT.  The picture below on the right shows an early test of the Power Monitor connected to a PC via USB and an Android Phone via BT.  Either way allows you to record the voltage and current on either the PC or the Phone.  Or the Power Monitor has internal memory that can record for several hours and download the data later.

LiON Battery Charger

Most electronic projects today run on battery and the battery of choice for long lasting is LiON batteries.  However charging them is not simple.   You should use a charger designed for these batteries.  We have a USB powered dual battery charger that will charge two batteries at once, depending on the USB power source.  A PC program sets the charge rate on each charging port (they can be different).  One use is when your project is outdoors and away from AC power.  Using a large battery that charges cell phones as the USB power source, you could have one LiON battery on the charger while you use another to power your project.   In this manner you project is not restricted to AC power.

 

Temperature Sensor  (T-DUST)

T-DUST is a small battery powered temperature sensor that is BT enabled.  You can monitor the temperature of a project box from your Android phone.  The APP will show you the current temperature, show a continuous graph over time of the temperature and record the temperature data for download to a text file.  Or the T-DUST device will record the temperature internally for up to a day (depending on the record interval), then download to the phone when needed.

For those who are Brick Builders

USB Based Power

For those brick builders and who use motors to bring motion to your MOCs, we have the ideal power source.  Built on our USB Power Bricks, you can use a USB Power Source (AC wall charger or cell phone battery charger) to power your MOCs.  This is instead of 6 AA batteries that will only last a short time.  This device will also power all of the accessories.  So now running a MOC for hours is no longer an exercise in how many AA batteries do you need.

Brick Controller

The next item we make is an intelligent brick controller.  The controller will control up to four motors and 4 LED lights sources.  It can be controlled by either USB or BT from an Android Phone.

It also has a very simple scripting language.  In simple terms, at each step you will tell the 

1. what to do with the motors forward, reverse or stop

2. what to do with theLEDs, on, off, flashing, pulsing or lightning effect

3. at the end of the script, stop or repeat

The script has one tenth of a second resolution.

Below is a short video of two MOCs one with two motors and 4 LED sources and the other with one motor and 4 LED sources controlled our Brick Controller.

Softwear

We provide a range of fabric products, below are some of the things we have provided.  Why, because the Maker/LEGO community is always looking for one of a kind and unique items.  These items fulfill that need.  We hand make each of these for the shows that we participate in.  We also take special requests, as long as you know your size.  We have also done custom pillow cases in the past.

A Brick Builder Quilt

Child Size Brick Builder Aloha Shirt

Maker with Monsters Aloha Shirt

Toddler Size Made in Seattle Aloha Shirt

In conclusion you can see we do many different things.  To wrap it up here is a picture of MyMakerTools at an event.

MyMakerTools Returns

Greetings

It has been an interesting 12 months.  Not to get into too much personal detail, it all started on 4/8/19.  That was the day my 90 yer old Father passed away unexpectedly and began a 5 month adventure to take care of 96 year old Mother, which ended with her moving to my brother's house in VA.  Along the way, my wife and I decided it was time to move on from CA and in 2020 we sold the house and moved to NV.  Then this little virus thing came along and slowed us down for the last few months, preventing me from completing the move.  Enough of the past 12 months.

Where are we headed.  The following projects are slowly restarting
1. Improved Brick Controller
2. Improved USB based power sources
3. We signed up for Bricks by the Bay in July, hopefully it will still happen.
4. New Lego builds as I attempt to expand the MOC from the 2018 Bricks by the Bay.
5. Vanity build of my COSMAC 1802 system from the early 1980s.

More on all of this will be coming in the near future.

Rebuilding Infrastructure

Well before I can get to this list, I needed to setup the software and hardware infrastructure we had developed in 30 years of living in one place.  While our clients in CA are still consuming some time, fortunately it is all virtual and not too demanding.  In the process of moving we decided to move into a place temporarily, while we determine exactly where and in what we want to settle into.  Once we found this place, it took me several weeks to get the computer infrastructure (network, servers, printers, build environments, billing, buying, inventory, etc etc) in place and working.  That was the initial limiting factor.

The hardware development/production is more challenging.  While I was careful about what went immediately to NV and what went to long term storage, I am sure some things ended up in the wrong POD.  With all of the closures and the reduction is space, acquiring the material to rebuild is requiring that I be inventive on how the development lab will be rebuilt.  I would also like it to be transferable to the final destination, where ever that is.

The softwear development/production setup was also challenging.  Reduced space was the main challenge along with making sure the needed material did not go to long term storage.  The virus thing did highlight that without prior knowledge of what is needed, it is difficult to plan.  Case in point, for the last few weeks we have been making masks for the local community first responders.  It would have been easier with elastic instead of ties, but all of the elastic was sent to long term storage.  Here is a sample of what we have been doing.

Bricks by the Bay 2020
Our original plan from over a year ago was to introduced a new Brick Controller at Bricks by the Bay 2019.  I don't want to reveal all the details right now, but there were some very useful added features.  However as explained in an earlier Blog post, that fell by the wayside and we just managed to attend.  We did quite well with what we had, but there were no new things.  In Jan and Feb at the last of the BayLUG meetings, (the remainder to date have been cancelled), I had a long talk with the Bricks by the Bay vendor coordinator. (Note: this was long before the virus came to dominate our lives.)  For the 2020 convention, the committee wanted to alter the mix of vendors.  There have been complaints in the past that there are too many minifigs and old/discontinued kits vendors.  So they were encouraging vendors with other offerings to attend this year.  We fit into that category quite nicely.  With the USB based power, a unique Brick Controller and our various softwear, we are very different from the normal minifig/discontinued Lego set vendor.

Will Bricks by the Bay happen.  While I am hoping for an early return to normalcy, given the current state of CA, I tend to say it won't happen.  What will the organizer do, not sure, but delaying a few months is probably not an option.  It will be sad if it doesn't happen, but we are prepared for it.

Bricks by the Bay - Second Day

This was the first public day. 

Some adjustments were needed in the demos as can be seen here.

There was a lot of traffic at the booth, which restricted my ability to search though the brick piles for needed bricks.  Multiple times there 7-9 year olds asking very hard questions on operation of the Brick Controller and how I constructed the demos.

Explaining to a very bright 7 year old how the Brick Controller worked

Busy Day

Did not get much time to eat so these were very helpful.

Finally here are some short videos from some of the train oriented MOCs

Bricks by the Bay - First Day

Bricks by the Bay - First Day

This was the second day of setup and the beginning of the convention as can be seen in the next three pictures showing the schedule.

But what do you really do at a Lego convention, besides by product from me.  You look at what everyone else has built and you look though brick piles for those pieces you need. At $10/pound, it is much cheaper than any of the one line sources.

Sold more controllers and USB power sources to vendors who wanted to have automated displays either at their booths or back at their brick and mortar stores.  Finished connecting all of the demos and remembered to bring the tablet for the interactive demo.

Talked to quite a few attendees on how MyMakerTools Brick Controller might help them motorize their projects as well as just power them.  Tomorrow the public shows up, so we will see what happens.


Here are some pictures from the first day.

Last minute fixes

I was very interested in this.  I want to build a large cliffscape for the space station and this will be useful as a guide.

Interesting bar scenee

Small Star Wars fighters

Japanese Swords

Tropical Paradise

City Skylines

B-36

B-29

Rupaul's Drag Race Winners

Brickheadz

Bionnicle Dragon

Door Scene from Monsters Inc

Part of the train layout

Bricks by the Bay - Setup

Well we rolled in at 5PM and setup for this year's Bricks by the Bay, Jul 12-14 at the Santa Clara Convention Center.  

The MOC area setup was well under way when we got there

Only missed a few things in the packout.  Fortunately we live close by, so it was no big deal.

Attendees were already setting up their MOCs

The view from our location

Since we did not have a MOC for display this year, I took three of the pieces from last year and used them.

Setting up connections for the MOC Demo display

Final Setup for MOC Demo

Setting up the interactive display, forgot to bring the tablet though

Even though it was only vendors and attendees with displays, sold one Brick Power 2 unit to a vendor with a motorized display.  He forgot to bring extra AA batteries and his battery pack was already low.  When he saw how the interactive display was powered, he bought one on the spot.

Tomorrow will be for attendees only, then Saturday and Sunday will be open to the Public.