Train Stuff - Part ONE

 

Lets do some train things.  It has been a while since I worked on this.  This next step is adding lighting to multiple places.  In particular the signal towers, the train platforms, passenger train track area and the passenger station.

First up were the two signal towers where the train staff control train movement in the yards.

I added some figures to show it is busy.  

Then there is a light in the ceiling to light this area up.  The round dark brown tube is from my Lego collection and it forces the wire to stay in the corner.  Some common tape is used to hold the wires to the roof.  Then it goes down to the first floor.

On the first floor the  wires are combined with the two outside lamps shown here.  I have used one of my Brick PCBs to connect everything up and dropping resistors for the Lamps, since they don’t have any.  This is shown below. 

 

Here is the other one done the same way.

Next is the platforms.

 

Space Port - No Kids

 

For AFOL only display time, I redid the Space Port with a full on attack by the Flash Aliens.  

You can see the space ship trying to take off, what you can't see are two maintenance guys desperately trying to get the fuel hose removed.  Right behind the spaceship, a group of the Blacktron Empire's finest men are fighting one Flash Alien.

Then off to the left another Flash Alien has got two of the Empire's finest in its grasp, with one of them having lost his head.

 

 

 

 

Bulk Brick Buys

 

Over the summer I made several trips to buy bulk parts.  Right now I am not sure what is next for the space outpost.  One thing is a lot more detailing or "greebling".  This approach requires no more space or does it add to setup/tear down time.  The above picture shows one box that I started going through.

This actually came from a Lego store brick wall.  The brown bushes were expensive on Bricklink, so I got quite a few.  The olive green leaves are for landscaping.  The coral leaves are for another project that will include UV light that will make them glow.

This is group that has just been washed.

  

Here is a group that is drying on a towel before sorting.

 

Loose Ends #8

 

Here is the right side (standing behind), without the space port.  It may be hard to see, but above the power well on the plateau, there are two exhaust ports for the garbage collectors.  You get a better look in this blow up.

Below are some pictures of the detail in Maintenance Control and the Cyber Cafe.

 

Ore Processor - Part THREE

 I am including a few pictures that I took during the build.  This is not done yet.  The conveyor belt in the front does not always hold the crystals securely when operating.  So there is more work to do here.  I have been leery about running it full time at shows.  If the crystals fall off, then the conveyor belt could jam.  To get them out, requires to disassemble the front part.

 

I also want to add some mechanism at the end of the back conveyor belt to intimate that there is crushing going on.

 

 

 

Updating Android

So the last six weeks or so have been spent trying to update the Play Store to Android 15.  Every August this needs to happen.  While most updates are fairly mundane, for whatever reason this one was not.  

One reason was the compiler also made major changes in how it operates with Android.  Once I figured out what was happening there, then the debugger was having issues.  Part of this appears to be related to the latest version of OneUI on my S23.  

I was also operating under the constraint that the firmware in the hardware devices that out there, cannot be changed.  And there a lot of Bluetooth 4.2 devices, which is also a constraint.  In the latest versions, there is a lot more initialization/verification in the connection.  Plus it determines what version of the firmware is present and then loads the correct User Interface, based on this and what device is connected.

I also test with four devices with varying versions of Android, Samsung Tab A7, Samsung A53, Samsung A13 and a Samsung S23.  The Android version varies from 13 to 15.  

Well now that is done, I can move on to the next thing.