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(...) Note that for the strong of heart, this might still allow smaller trolleys... with some ABS shavings. But hacking the motor to allow RP and IR controlability seems a likely direction in any event. (...) Or even when you aren't. The biggest (...) (19 years ago, 12-Jan-06, to lugnet.trains, lugnet.dear-lego)
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(...) Also, for locomotices, the IR plate could be used on rolling stock pulled by a shorter loco (this is how most of the old 4.5v trains worked). Doesn't wor for trolleys though :( (...) Except the RCX will be obsolete in 6 months, and the NXT (...) (19 years ago, 12-Jan-06, to lugnet.trains, lugnet.dear-lego)
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(...) It'd be a nice nostalgic moment to see a battery tender version of the IR system, based on a short wheelbase. If you take a hacksaw to this one, your wheelbase is still going to be a minimum of 14 studs long, if you have the wheels right at (...) (19 years ago, 12-Jan-06, to lugnet.trains, lugnet.dear-lego, FTX)
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| | Re: Thoughts on Battery-powered IR-controlled trains
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(...) I'm saving up to buy an NXT - at Developer's Special, or full retail, I'll likely get one the first chance I get. But I'm not remotely thinking the RCX will be "obsolete" in 6 months. One, the NXT doesn't have IR... yet. It wouldn't surprise (...) (19 years ago, 12-Jan-06, to lugnet.trains, lugnet.dear-lego)
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| | Re: Thoughts on Battery-powered IR-controlled trains
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Also if the RCX is NOT directly powering the trains then the RCX 1.0 (with AC jack) isn't manditory. I would love to see the IR train be controled by the RCX. Is reverse engineering the IR codes for the IR train hard to do? Should I try to get the (...) (19 years ago, 13-Jan-06, to lugnet.trains, lugnet.dear-lego)
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| | Re: Thoughts on Battery-powered IR-controlled trains
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(...) The problem you're gonna find is that the RCX can only point in 1 direction at once. Unless you have many spaced around your layout, you're not gonna be able to control the trains at every point on the layout. That may not be a problem - if (...) (19 years ago, 13-Jan-06, to lugnet.trains, lugnet.dear-lego)
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| | Re: Thoughts on Battery-powered IR-controlled trains
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Ross Crawford wrote: [...] (...) RCX Obsolete in 6 months? I program my RCX 1.0 with a 7 year old Mac. Write now I am typing on a 5 year old Mac. Obsolescence is just a point of view :)* Chris *You are correct, I cannot use LEGO Factory on either of (...) (19 years ago, 13-Jan-06, to lugnet.trains)
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| | Re: Thoughts on Battery-powered IR-controlled trains
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(...) I cracked the Manas codes in ten minutes with a photodiode and an oscilloscope. Turned out they were very easy to transmit from the RCX. I suppose TLG could go to the trouble of inventing an entirely new scheme, but why? The only scary thing (...) (19 years ago, 13-Jan-06, to lugnet.trains, lugnet.dear-lego)
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| | Re: Thoughts on Battery-powered IR-controlled trains
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(...) how difficult do you think it's going to be to convert from IR to RC? this is one of the many things i wouldn't mind trying but i honestly hadn't thought of it before your post. another option is to somehow offset the frequency that the IR (...) (19 years ago, 13-Jan-06, to lugnet.trains, lugnet.dear-lego)
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| | Re: Thoughts on Battery-powered IR-controlled trains
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(...) Well, until I buy one and dig into it, I am not going to know how much space there is within the housing. I like RF 'cos it works out of line of sight. As far as different sub-carrier frequencies for IR, there are a number between 25KHz and (...) (19 years ago, 13-Jan-06, to lugnet.trains, lugnet.dear-lego)
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| | Re: Thoughts on Battery-powered IR-controlled trains
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(...) Surely the automated sections of the layout can be as complicated and widespread as you have RCXs? You only have one?, that just controls passing at a second station with control on the rest of the layout being down by you, manually (for (...) (19 years ago, 13-Jan-06, to lugnet.trains, lugnet.dear-lego)
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| | Re: Thoughts on Battery-powered IR-controlled trains
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(...) Who makes people believe that old stuff is obsolete as soon as a successor becomes available? To stay ontopic in this .trains area, I'm still using blue tracks and motors and remote controled points (yes blue points!). Still working (...) (19 years ago, 13-Jan-06, to lugnet.trains)
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| | Re: Thoughts on Battery-powered IR-controlled trains
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(...) Actualy, so can a remote. The IR signal from the RCX is fairly "bright" (i.e.- you don't need the RCX pointed right into the Manas IR receive units to function, it can be bounced off other objects). (...) We don't, although I suspect strongly (...) (19 years ago, 13-Jan-06, to lugnet.trains, lugnet.dear-lego)
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| | Re: Thoughts on Battery-powered IR-controlled trains
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(...) A lot of people are still building their collection, and don't want supplies to dwindle and the price of their hobby to go any higher than it already is. That is to say, I don't want my mains trains to be obsolete, but you Mindstorms lot can (...) (19 years ago, 13-Jan-06, to lugnet.trains)
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What about ripping out the IR and jumping right to Blue Tooth. This way the NXT can directly control 3 or 4 trains wirelessly (more if you use a hierarchy), as well as many laptops and smart phones! I know tha Blue Tooth is designed to be low power (...) (19 years ago, 13-Jan-06, to lugnet.trains, lugnet.dear-lego)
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| | Re: Thoughts on Battery-powered IR-controlled trains
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(...) Using the Manas as a practical example, because I can't imagine they're going to completely revamp the IR system... The signal from the Mana remotes works GREAT in a small room with white wall. You can point it in just about any direction and (...) (19 years ago, 13-Jan-06, to lugnet.trains)
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| | Addressable IR signal space?
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(...) I've got a question along these lines: Is there any "addressable space" left over in the messaging system for Manas? In other words, they've already got 3 "channels" implemented as different sets of codes for the Manas. Have they used up all (...) (19 years ago, 13-Jan-06, to lugnet.trains)
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| | Re: Thoughts on Battery-powered IR-controlled trains
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(...) Plus a remote is usually in the hands of the controller, so can be re-targetted as necessary - whereas an RCX controller would most likely be fixed to the layout somewhere, and disguised as an object of some kind on the layout. Otherwise you (...) (19 years ago, 13-Jan-06, to lugnet.trains, lugnet.dear-lego)
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| | Re: Thoughts on Battery-powered IR-controlled trains
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"Tony Hafner" <lego@NOSPAM.hafhead.com> wrote in message news:It1nyG.13w1@lugnet.com... [ ... snipped ... ] (...) [ ... snipped ... ] You definitely do not need to point it at the train the whole time. Mike -- Mike Walsh - mike_walsh at (...) (19 years ago, 13-Jan-06, to lugnet.trains)
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| | Re: Thoughts on Battery-powered IR-controlled trains
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(...) You've also got the problem that if they work like the volume control on a TV remote (which is likely) the signals are "speed up" and "slow down", not absolute speed values. Since you have no way of knowing whether the train received a (...) (19 years ago, 13-Jan-06, to lugnet.trains, lugnet.dear-lego)
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| | Re: Thoughts on Battery-powered IR-controlled trains
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(...) Agreed, and even if your RCXs can tell each other "I sent XX speed signals to the train" there's no guarantee it received them. I would be surprised if the control doesn't have a "stop" button though. ROSCO (19 years ago, 13-Jan-06, to lugnet.trains, lugnet.dear-lego)
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| | Re: Thoughts on Battery-powered IR-controlled trains
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what if the operating system was something like the rokenbok line? they have a central hub with hand controllers that use miniature 'walkie talkies' to control individual units. although, commands are only delivered while communication is maintained (...) (19 years ago, 14-Jan-06, to lugnet.trains, lugnet.dear-lego)
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