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In lugnet.lego, David Laswell wrote:
> Letting me think up an option that you passed right over...
As Ross mentioned, I was focused more on the "future" of trains, and if it's
going to be done in LEGO, it looks like it will be done without conductive
track.
> With the legacy converter cables, you could power the
> _track_ with an NXT.
Absolutely, but you could do better. Run a single loop off a single output, and
either pulse the power to it (this is how Steve and I do the GBC trains on
standard 9V now, emulating PWM at a software level), or hook up a NXT motor to
it as well, unloaded (that would require special split power cables I think) to
function as a rotation sensor for feedback. You also *might* be able to run it
as a "normal" motor in an unregulated mode - to be honest, I've not played with
this. Now each NXT can run *three* loops; NXT ports can pour out current. So
with three slave NXTs under the command of a single NXT master, you could
selectively power at least nine loops or track segments. Very cool!
...but it depends on conductive track, which is going away.
> run the NXT off the Li-Poly pack with an AC adapter
> hooked up
There may be a problem here, in that the AC power supplied through the Li-ion
limits the motor ports (in other words, you can draw more current from the three
ports together than the wall transformer can supply in a steady-state
situation).
> But being able to incorporate some portion of this concept into the next
> generation of trains would go a long ways towards getting the trainheads to
> support the changeover, if grudgingly.
Well, like I said, the NXT can talk to both the IR Hobby train and the PF system
(which it looks like will be in the future trains) via the IRLink, so the
communication and control is already availible, just via IR.
--
Brian Davis
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: The Future of Trains
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| (...) Fair enough, but clearly the idea has sparked some interest, so I'm sure I'll see it get put into use at some point. (...) The ports may be able to pour out power, as you say, but I'd say it's equally well established that large trains with (...) (17 years ago, 7-Oct-07, to lugnet.lego, lugnet.robotics.nxt)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: The Future of Trains
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| (...) Oh, for shame, Brian. Letting me think up an option that you passed right over (and a really cool one at that). With the legacy converter cables, you could power the _track_ with an NXT. Hook the track up as if it was a motor, using the (...) (17 years ago, 6-Oct-07, to lugnet.lego, lugnet.robotics.nxt)
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Active threads in NXT programmable brick
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