Brick Ideas I am playing with

I ran across these translucent blue domes several times and over time acquired a few.  Not knowing what exactly I would do with them.  As the wall and plateau come into  focus, these seem like the perfect part to build some kink of control function.

These are the three that I have.  One on the left is 8x8 and the other two are 6x6.  The two on the left use the new ratchet hinge connection while the one on the right is the old multi position grip.

Just another view that shows that shows the connection point.

Here I have built a basic model of what the 8x8 might look like with parts that I have.

Another view from the side.  The picture below is a new space gun I am working on.  I am thinking of connecting translucent hoses to the side rings of the 8x8 and running these hoses to the space gun.  If I can get a small LED to light up the hose, that would be perfect.

Here is the 6x6 in its basic form.  This one I would like to motorize and attach space guns on either side.  This way it spins around while firing.

Another idea is to use this as a cockpit of a space transport that moves groups of Blacktron II Minifigs around.  Also moves them in and out of the Launch Port portion of the Planetary Base.

 

Brick Days Omaha 2022 Final Day

Today was the final day. This was a very positive experience and we thoroughly enjoyed our time here. Probably should have taken pictures on how I originally packed things.   Would have made it easier to tear down and pack.  This is one of the items on my to do list when we get back home.  Here are some final pictures of my Planetary Space Base.

Here are some more pictures of the MOCs on display.

Godzilla was a big hit with the grand children.

Next stop is Bricks By The Bay in June 23-26 2022 at the Santa Clara Convention Center.

Brick Days Omaha 2022 Day 2

Day 2 was the first public day.  Attendance was very good and we had a steady stream of visitors all day.

Here is a picture of the hall

Here are some pictures of what was on display.

The highlight of the day was the light show for the builders.  After dinner, they turned of the lights in the hall for 30 minutes.  Quite a few of the MOCs had lighting of some kind, but a few had complete lighting systems, including ours.  Unfortunately the camera did not do justice to what was on display.

Brick Days Omaha 2022 Day 1

 Day ONE was mostly about setting up.  There were several DRAFT plays and an informal talk on Trains.  Finally towards the evening were several raffles for free goodies.

Always there are problems.  

• The Space Port script needed updating.  It was only setup to run the antennas and not the lighting.  This was due to the wiring connection not being updated.  I had done this earlier.
• The Vertical Generator space guns and their LEDs are not functioning.  I suspect the wiring was damaged as the cliff was attached.  This is something that needs investigating when we are here.
• The Space Gun is resting and causing the program to stop.  I suspect this is because one of the smaller gun turrets is jamming and causing a power drop.  Something I can look into tomorrow.
•  Minor issue, but I had to track down and ask for chairs.  It appears most people brought their own, so this was not a high priority for the organizers.  They did have a lot to do.
  

Here is a sequence of pictures as the Planetary Space Base assembles.

Aboce is the current center section.  This used to have the the tall control tower on it, but that has been moved.

This is the Vertical Power Generator section.

This shows the Vertical Power Generator attached to the center section.

Here is the Main Defence section being tested.

The Horizontal Power Generator attached to the center section.

And a wider view showing both Generators and the center section.

The next two pictures show the MOC assembled.

 

Here is a quick video of the entire setup completely assembled.

Working or Blogging?

 A very good question.  I would like to blog 4 to 5 times a week, but it never seems to happen.  There is always too much to do and never enough time to do it.

I have been working on cleaning up the code some more for the train PCBs.  By creating conditional compiles on the type of board, the amount of code that needs to be maintained has been reduced by almost half.  This is a good thing, since making updates and adding new features is much faster now.   The biggest change was to implement the Switch-Case structure using STATES in a cooperative multi-tasking model that is implemented in Harmony PIC32 code.  The next big change was to implement structures instead of random variables everywhere.  Again this is the standard in the Harmony implementations.  With PIC18s and limited RAM, you have be careful about instantiating these structures multiple times or you run out of memory quickly.  Judicious use makes the code much easier to maintain.  But this did not come for free.  It has taken time to work out these changes and then get them to work across the four PCBs the code runs on.

On thing that changed dramatically was the MiWi implementation.  I have been using the last non-libary version of the MiWi framework for PIC18.  Each PCB had its own implementation that may or may not be correct.  One configuration item I know I got wrong was correctly setting the coordinator device vs end device role.  This led to all kinds of issues on startup and trying to initialize the app sitting on top of the MiWi framework.  Sometimes it would come up and other times it would just spin.  So here is what I did.

First I created a module with a basic interface that starts and runs the MiWi framework.  Using multiple implementation examples, I condensed this down to several functions calls that handle this within the Switch-Case model.  These are:

MiWi _CreateNetwork is used by the coordinator device to create the network

MiWi_JoinNetwork is used by the end device to join an existing network

MiWi_AppTasks is used by both devices to service the MiWi framework through its various states, depending on the type of device.

There is a built in 10 second delay in joining an existing network, this gives time for the coordinator device to boot up.  This assumes that all devices power on at the same time, which is true in my train layout.  There are also two other support functions.

MiWi_ChannelScan is used by either device to scan all the channels and report the results.  This is a wrapper for the framework implementation.

MiWi_CountConnections is used by the coordinator to count the current number of connections.  I use this to determine if all the end devices have connected and then begin the application processes.

There are two states that are enumerated and one structure that contains all the information about the MiWi Network status and connections.

If you want to see the code, it can be download from the MyMakerTools website.

Latest PCBs

Here are the two latest PCBs.  The top board in white solder mask is the MiWi-Bluetooth Bridge.  This is used to control the Turnout & Signal PCB and the LED Controller PCB.  The bottom PCB in yellow solder mask (I know it looks orange, but I have two PCBs done at different times with the same color).  This is the LED Controller PCB.

The MiWi-BT Bridge uses two interfaces, USB HID and Bluetooth, to control the layout.  I had done a brief discussion of it in this post.

In this picture I have both the MiWi and RN4020 BT Click modules installed.  The modifications on the RN4020 Click module allow for RN4020 firmware upgrades.  I have had  good luck with this board and the MiWi side.  I have used it to control the existing Turnout & Signal control PCBs that are installed in the layout.  I built two of these.  One is installed on the layout so I can make progress on the layout itself.  The other I will use to continue the development of the MiWi interface with USB HID and to develop the BT side.  Once  that is done, I can update the Bridge PCB in the layout.

I have had limited success so far working on the BT side.  Integrating the BT code I have from other projects is consuming more time than I thought.  Mostly because I am updating the code to be more universal for future projects.  While this work is impeding progress now, I am sure it will pay dividends on future projects.

 

The LED controller is very similar to the Turnout & Signal PCB.  I had done a brief discussion of it in this post.  Basically this controls 12 LED channels.  Eight of the channels are connected to a PCA9624 from NXP.  (Here is a link for more information.)  The other 4 LED channels are controlled by the PIC18F27J53.  

The PCA9624 allows for individual PWM control and up to 100mA of sink current.  This should provide the capability for varying types of lighting effects on each channel, besides the normal ON/OFF.  This is controlled through an I2C bus, which I will need to get up and running.  I do have multiple examples of this from previous projects.  I do plan on updating this also to a more universal format.

The pin configuration allowed for each of the 4 PIC connections to be controlled by a separate PWM controller in the PIC.  Again this provides the flexibility for lighting effects.

Finally there is an I2C EEPROM for storing configuration.  I intend to have the capability to have a default lighting setup.  Otherwise when configuring the LED channels, one parameter will be whether or not this a power on configuration.  

 

LEGO Fix Obtained

 

It has been a while since there was a chance to buy bulk LEGO by sifting through a Brick Pile.  The two places I obtained bricks before have not offered this since Jan 2020.  However, a 3rd party LEGO store in the Bay Area had a sale over the weekend with lots of variety.  These pictures show what I got.  I only had two hours, so I did not get as much as I would like.  But it definitely scratched and itch that has been there for a while.  

Mostly what I got was items for the continued work on the cliff area behind the Planetary Space Base.  But there were other items that I needed for the Walker project I am working on also.

 

Plus there were several partially assembled items that were interesting, as shown here.

 

All in all, a good time was had and I may have to go back again.