Hi. I just bought my first Powered Up train so I'm just starting my Lego train journey. This was a very informative and fun tutorial to watch! Thank you for putting this together.
You can power a small shutter with your 9v battery city hub as a "circuit cube alternative". I think your European subscribers would be happy, seeing how circuit cubes are really expensive to ship to Europe
How many motor can the Power Hub provide a good level of power without triggering any protection system? Basically, have you ever measured the maximum current output of the PH and the input of each motor? I'd like to build a Multiple Unit train and I'd like to save money by using one Power Hub only and since I need to go through an incline, I was hoping to power 3 or 4 motors in parallel. I cannot find useful information online so I am wondering if you have ever taken any measurements.
It may limit the power output just to have 2 motors on the same port. The motors will use a lot more power trying to pull a train up an incline. In my TrixBrix haul video where I bought their bridge set and then a followup video where I used magnets to help keep the train together I used 2 hubs and 4 motors (using PyBricks to control them with a single controller). This is the setup I would recommend. Inclines add so much resistance I don't think more motors from a single hub would help much
Ah yes I have been following some of your videos and they have a lot of useful information. I'd like to convert the Power Hub to get power from the rails so to not worry about the battery Ah. The train would be a passenger EMU of 4, 5 cars, with centre car with the power pickup and power hub; the motors will be at the second bogie of the driving vehicles. I will try if two bogies will have enough power to push the train up, especially due to limited length and having always a motor in the back pushing up. Being an EMU, I will join the vehicles permanently, no magnets. Anyway, thank you for the info! Worst case I'd go with two Power Hubs to add an extra 1, 2 motors.
9v has the most simplicity, PF has the most universal plugs, and PU has the best remote. Why can’t we combine all three to make the ultimate train system?
Suggestion for creating these adapters and or similar ones and so on. One option for having the splices and all enclosed and yet Lego compatible and not as messy and or stiff. Might be able to use one of the bricks from the middle of a power functions light or possibly even the powered up lights best would be to get one that's not working or otherwise that could be used as the middle section and have everything encased Within. Will probably be enough room for the width of the powered up cable and also power functions. Also suggestion to make adapters that take two 9-volt connectors I'm going to one powered functions connector to have power for the constant 9-volt power and also control lines. More than likely this was mentioned in another video but I have not watched all of the battery-powered bricks videos as of yet! Also with the right combinations of 9-volt parts and power functions others have also mentioned doing things using dual motors and the fact about reversing one of them. And of course we're usingAnd of course using the power functions train motors. And trying to shoe horn in a polarity switch can get quite awkward. And take up way too much room and make things just harder to need be. If you have the 9 volt components in enough of the power functions extensions give me a lot more compact then power functions polarity switch method You might have a bit of extra wire however probably easier to deal with than the bulk of the other method! I did sort of a redesign of a 4.5 volt sets locomotive can't remember the exact name of the set it was the one with the blue battery box with the door stickers on their. Had the yellow car and red locomotive I believe it was one of the cargo trains but can't remember the exact set the name door number. Built this locomotive to pay homage to it. But use the 9-volt train motor. Combination of power functions and 9- volt parts. Interior illumination all four headlamps illuminated with two sets of power functions LEDs. Note no rear lighting. However. Had a red flashing beacon on the locomotive courtesy of the 9-volt single vertical light brick. Into your cabin illumination provided by the right angle 9 volt lighting brick. Also the locomotive provided power for all the other cars for the lighting. Unfortunately you do not have enough of the shutters anymore for the original design however substituted the Grill profile bricks for this Walmart looking pretty good. Doors and such were from the original set although the stickers long gone as in rubbed away any details if it was still there even. Also one of the more interesting cars I built for the strange what is the Caboose. Again one power functions LED. And use of the Lego 9 volt fiber optic system lights to functions the flashing beacon on the roof of the Capriola on the Caboose and also a blinking light at the rear of the Caboose as well. In addition to lighting a desk lamp in the Caboose Cupid! There are two of the Lego fiber optic system Optical fibers going to to lights at the rear of the Caboose just in red. And also a similarly done sort of outdoor light above the fake rear door. Also to keep the light from shining through the red bricks which are actually the horseshoes for the Lego garage door tracks the one by two. The black capes to mask the light this worked pretty well and still kept things 100% Lego it's a good option to keep things from shining through in my opinion. By the way to rotation for the fiber optics light unit was provided by the Lego 9 volt micro motor. Frankly it's louder than the train motor or at least more noticeable! Needless to say something like this is difficult to do because of all the cables needed it's a bit complex when trying to decide all this into something to sort of Disguise all the electrical and the optical components but I was pretty pleased with the results The locomotive was the hardest part for maintaining the cable routing since shoehorning cables where you can and keeping them from sprawling everywhere hiding them as much as possible This will be for a future Christmas train! By the way there is one thing with sound on the train layout something else of Interest. In terms of sound no it's not at one of the sound breaks or anything Diesel horn being done mechanically geared up power functions motor and using a gear rack upside down and a bit of downward tension with a rubber band and yes beneficial rubber band. This is operated by a Lego build push button on the control box. Being used as a generator to alarm remote control of another power functions motor. And at the other end of this there is a semaphore signal that's illuminated by another Power functions LED. The building next to it where all the magic happens! The second light on the Lego Power functions LED. Illuminates part of the structure that is cordoned off to give the illusion of a hallway. And the outdoor light next to the door is also illuminated courtesy of a Lego fiber optic cable. The little hallway area is only by distilled light from the power functions LED. This building is also where the diesel horn mechanism is! And the what looks like a throttle is actually operating the symbol for motor the motor in the building for December 4 there's a linkage to a 9-volt polarity switch arrange in social media is to be an on-off switch only and is triggered when the symbol for is in the clear position and the light is green. And when going through yellow and to read is off interrupting power to the track note also building also acts as a junction box for everything else talk about complex but very rewarding and unexpected especially the mechanical diesel horn
First off, great video and tutorial -- Thank You very much. I have some knowledge about 120v/220v work as it's applied to house wiring and I've done some low voltage lighting work, as well. I also used to dabble in some DC motor wiring as a hobby, but that was long ago. So, I'm in no way an electrical expert. However, I do have some comments/questions from a hobbyist perspective. For anyone that doesn't have a soldering iron or the necessary experience, what I see in the simple wiring connections you're making, it seems that simply using heat shrink tubing over the twisted wire would be perfectly durable enough for the wires being shorted and this might also be a solution for the rest of the other connections, as well. If a more durable connection is desired for the pass-through wiring, you could crimp the wires together with Dry B Wire Connectors. This would take the place of both the soldering and the heat shrink. If you have (or buy) the right one, you could do both the wire stripping and the crimping with the same tool. Also, I'm I bit confused on the mention of reverse polarity that you mention, but don't go into much detail. I understand the concept of using the hub in order to use dual motors and/or lighting, but how or why would I want one motor to go in one direction and the other motor to go in the opposite direction if I simply want to push the engine forward or backwards with both motors. Perhaps you or someone else with more knowledge than I have can shed some light on that for me.
I thought that might be the case. However, why couldn't they both run in the same direction? Is there an advantage in running one of the motors backwards as opposed running both of them in the same direction?@@jamesmorgan3623
Lots of ways to splice wires, after doing electronic projects my entire life solder is the only thing I trust 😅. The motors must run in opposite directions since they are mounted facing away from each other. This is so the wires can go through the baseplate to the hub. Otherwise you'd have to have a hole in the back of the locomotive for the wire to go through
Got it, thanks much. Makes perfect sense if you are going to use one of LEGO's train baseplates. I've been exploring designing and building train MOCs using standard plates instead of LEGO's designated train baseplates. mainly because they're getting really expensive due to their scarcity. I've seen various videos (TH-cam, etc.) by others that are designing their trains using standard baseplates instead of using a train baseplate. I believe that alternate wiring solutions may certainly be available using alternate baseplate design that would allow a dual motor setup to run in the same direction without having to drill any holes. Although, perhaps with a bit longer wiring connections involved. I hear you on the soldering. Just thought that I'd offer my 2 cents worth for those that aren't very comfortable with soldering or have the proper setup/hobby space other than the kitchen table. 😀 @@BatteryPoweredBricks
This video is so helpful!!! Thank you! Question: For the "ID wires are shorted" is there different 'shortings' for the different motors Lego has? like for M, L, XL Motors? Is there a list? Going to streamline some GBC modules, thanks again!
You can check out Philohome dot com for a breakdown of the PU wiring. If you wanted the motor to have speed steps like a train motor the same wiring would be used. If you wanted them to only be powered when the button on the controller is pressed you'd use a 2.2k ohm resistor. The size (M, L, XL) wouldn't matter either way
Have you done this with the new powered up cables? Like split them into female adapters ? Is that possible? Also what's your take on "overseas" Lego? Is it safe for my nephew?
The female ends of the cable tend to be much more expensive and many just don't work very well, otherwise I probably would have used them. "Overseas Lego" can mean a lot of things, some companies are much better than others. As for what is safe for children I don't wouldn't really know, I don't have any children myself
Hey man I tried this and nothing is happening with my dual motors. Is there a wiring diagram available? Am I correct in believing that if I take a multimeter and check all four pins stud sides of one connector there should be no continuity?
There are links in the description to where I found the information on Eurobricks. I know there was at least one diagram I used from that. It's easy to make a mistake and do things backwards. If the PU plug is unplugged there should be no continuity between the pins on the PF connectors. If there is you have a short
Thanks for this video I’ll check out the other links too. I’ve used the same BNTechGO cable, and the dreaded heat shrink, to extend my Switch motors and Sensors for BAP and BrickRail. Hadn’t thought about doing this for all my spare PF Train motors. Are they recognised by PyBricks correctly? Cheers 😊
As long as the ID wires are shorted like shown in the diagram any PU hub will see them as train motors. I'm using the same (with a few upgrades) PyBricks script I've used for the last year and it works just the same as PU motors. I may adjust the acceleration curve since they act a bit differently than PU motors
The problem is finding good PU sockets. The plugs used in this video are easy to find. The sockets are much more expensive and tend to be unreliable even if you do buy the high dollar ones from what I've heard from others
This is great. These after market modification unlock so much potential
For sure! And about 1/10th of the cost of buying a premade one online 😅
Hi. I just bought my first Powered Up train so I'm just starting my Lego train journey. This was a very informative and fun tutorial to watch! Thank you for putting this together.
I feel you on the heat-shrink dilemma 🤣 Great presentation and tutorial, thanks!
Love it. Whilst im not running anything on PF (or much PuP at the moment) its nice to know that its all compatible with a few mods.
This is awesome! Nicely done.
You can power a small shutter with your 9v battery city hub as a "circuit cube alternative". I think your European subscribers would be happy, seeing how circuit cubes are really expensive to ship to Europe
Nice Adapter Cable!
How many motor can the Power Hub provide a good level of power without triggering any protection system?
Basically, have you ever measured the maximum current output of the PH and the input of each motor?
I'd like to build a Multiple Unit train and I'd like to save money by using one Power Hub only and since I need to go through an incline, I was hoping to power 3 or 4 motors in parallel.
I cannot find useful information online so I am wondering if you have ever taken any measurements.
It may limit the power output just to have 2 motors on the same port. The motors will use a lot more power trying to pull a train up an incline. In my TrixBrix haul video where I bought their bridge set and then a followup video where I used magnets to help keep the train together I used 2 hubs and 4 motors (using PyBricks to control them with a single controller). This is the setup I would recommend. Inclines add so much resistance I don't think more motors from a single hub would help much
Ah yes I have been following some of your videos and they have a lot of useful information.
I'd like to convert the Power Hub to get power from the rails so to not worry about the battery Ah.
The train would be a passenger EMU of 4, 5 cars, with centre car with the power pickup and power hub; the motors will be at the second bogie of the driving vehicles.
I will try if two bogies will have enough power to push the train up, especially due to limited length and having always a motor in the back pushing up. Being an EMU, I will join the vehicles permanently, no magnets.
Anyway, thank you for the info! Worst case I'd go with two Power Hubs to add an extra 1, 2 motors.
Love it- thanks for the great info!
9v has the most simplicity, PF has the most universal plugs, and PU has the best remote. Why can’t we combine all three to make the ultimate train system?
Thanks alot. Now i can build the connecting cables by myself and dont need to buy the overpriced ones.
Love it keep up the good work
Suggestion for creating these adapters and or similar ones and so on.
One option for having the splices and all enclosed and yet Lego compatible and not as messy and or stiff.
Might be able to use one of the bricks from the middle of a power functions light or possibly even the powered up lights best would be to get one that's not working or otherwise that could be used as the middle section and have everything encased Within.
Will probably be enough room for the width of the powered up cable and also power functions.
Also suggestion to make adapters that take two 9-volt connectors I'm going to one powered functions connector to have power for the constant 9-volt power and also control lines.
More than likely this was mentioned in another video but I have not watched all of the battery-powered bricks videos as of yet!
Also with the right combinations of 9-volt parts and power functions others have also mentioned doing things using dual motors and the fact about reversing one of them.
And of course we're usingAnd of course using the power functions train motors.
And trying to shoe horn in a polarity switch can get quite awkward.
And take up way too much room and make things just harder to need be.
If you have the 9 volt components in enough of the power functions extensions give me a lot more compact then power functions polarity switch method
You might have a bit of extra wire however probably easier to deal with than the bulk of the other method!
I did sort of a redesign of a 4.5 volt sets locomotive can't remember the exact name of the set it was the one with the blue battery box with the door stickers on their.
Had the yellow car and red locomotive I believe it was one of the cargo trains but can't remember the exact set the name door number.
Built this locomotive to pay homage to it.
But use the 9-volt train motor.
Combination of power functions and 9- volt parts.
Interior illumination all four headlamps illuminated with two sets of power functions LEDs.
Note no rear lighting.
However.
Had a red flashing beacon on the locomotive courtesy of the 9-volt single vertical light brick.
Into your cabin illumination provided by the right angle 9 volt lighting brick.
Also the locomotive provided power for all the other cars for the lighting.
Unfortunately you do not have enough of the shutters anymore for the original design however substituted the Grill profile bricks for this Walmart looking pretty good.
Doors and such were from the original set although the stickers long gone as in rubbed away any details if it was still there even.
Also one of the more interesting cars I built for the strange what is the Caboose.
Again one power functions LED.
And use of the Lego 9 volt fiber optic system lights to functions the flashing beacon on the roof of the Capriola on the Caboose and also a blinking light at the rear of the Caboose as well.
In addition to lighting a desk lamp in the Caboose Cupid!
There are two of the Lego fiber optic system Optical fibers going to to lights at the rear of the Caboose just in red.
And also a similarly done sort of outdoor light above the fake rear door.
Also to keep the light from shining through the red bricks which are actually the horseshoes for the Lego garage door tracks the one by two.
The black capes to mask the light this worked pretty well and still kept things 100% Lego it's a good option to keep things from shining through in my opinion.
By the way to rotation for the fiber optics light unit was provided by the Lego 9 volt micro motor.
Frankly it's louder than the train motor or at least more noticeable!
Needless to say something like this is difficult to do because of all the cables needed it's a bit complex when trying to decide all this into something to sort of Disguise all the electrical and the optical components but I was pretty pleased with the results
The locomotive was the hardest part for maintaining the cable routing since shoehorning cables where you can and keeping them from sprawling everywhere hiding them as much as possible
This will be for a future Christmas train!
By the way there is one thing with sound on the train layout something else of Interest.
In terms of sound no it's not at one of the sound breaks or anything
Diesel horn being done mechanically geared up power functions motor and using a gear rack upside down and a bit of downward tension with a rubber band and yes beneficial rubber band.
This is operated by a Lego build push button on the control box.
Being used as a generator to alarm remote control of another power functions motor.
And at the other end of this there is a semaphore signal that's illuminated by another Power functions LED.
The building next to it where all the magic happens!
The second light on the Lego Power functions LED.
Illuminates part of the structure that is cordoned off to give the illusion of a hallway.
And the outdoor light next to the door is also illuminated courtesy of a Lego fiber optic cable.
The little hallway area is only by distilled light from the power functions LED.
This building is also where the diesel horn mechanism is!
And the what looks like a throttle is actually operating the symbol for motor the motor in the building for December 4 there's a linkage to a 9-volt polarity switch arrange in social media is to be an on-off switch only and is triggered when the symbol for is in the clear position and the light is green.
And when going through yellow and to read is off interrupting power to the track note also building also acts as a junction box for everything else talk about complex but very rewarding and unexpected especially the mechanical diesel horn
Yet another reason I prefer PF over PU. The stackable connectors were the best design lego had
Yeah I do miss the stackable connectors, and 9v could be rotated to change the polarity
You could possibly make the new hun rechargeable with that broken hub
It's a possibility. For now the 9v battery itself is rechargeable.
First off, great video and tutorial -- Thank You very much. I have some knowledge about 120v/220v work as it's applied to house wiring and I've done some low voltage lighting work, as well. I also used to dabble in some DC motor wiring as a hobby, but that was long ago. So, I'm in no way an electrical expert. However, I do have some comments/questions from a hobbyist perspective. For anyone that doesn't have a soldering iron or the necessary experience, what I see in the simple wiring connections you're making, it seems that simply using heat shrink tubing over the twisted wire would be perfectly durable enough for the wires being shorted and this might also be a solution for the rest of the other connections, as well. If a more durable connection is desired for the pass-through wiring, you could crimp the wires together with Dry B Wire Connectors. This would take the place of both the soldering and the heat shrink. If you have (or buy) the right one, you could do both the wire stripping and the crimping with the same tool. Also, I'm I bit confused on the mention of reverse polarity that you mention, but don't go into much detail. I understand the concept of using the hub in order to use dual motors and/or lighting, but how or why would I want one motor to go in one direction and the other motor to go in the opposite direction if I simply want to push the engine forward or backwards with both motors. Perhaps you or someone else with more knowledge than I have can shed some light on that for me.
The front and back motors are pointing in the opposite directions, so one of them needs to run backwards.
I thought that might be the case. However, why couldn't they both run in the same direction? Is there an advantage in running one of the motors backwards as opposed running both of them in the same direction?@@jamesmorgan3623
Lots of ways to splice wires, after doing electronic projects my entire life solder is the only thing I trust 😅. The motors must run in opposite directions since they are mounted facing away from each other. This is so the wires can go through the baseplate to the hub. Otherwise you'd have to have a hole in the back of the locomotive for the wire to go through
Got it, thanks much. Makes perfect sense if you are going to use one of LEGO's train baseplates. I've been exploring designing and building train MOCs using standard plates instead of LEGO's designated train baseplates. mainly because they're getting really expensive due to their scarcity. I've seen various videos (TH-cam, etc.) by others that are designing their trains using standard baseplates instead of using a train baseplate. I believe that alternate wiring solutions may certainly be available using alternate baseplate design that would allow a dual motor setup to run in the same direction without having to drill any holes. Although, perhaps with a bit longer wiring connections involved. I hear you on the soldering. Just thought that I'd offer my 2 cents worth for those that aren't very comfortable with soldering or have the proper setup/hobby space other than the kitchen table. 😀 @@BatteryPoweredBricks
This video is so helpful!!! Thank you! Question:
For the "ID wires are shorted" is there different 'shortings' for the different motors Lego has? like for M, L, XL Motors? Is there a list? Going to streamline some GBC modules, thanks again!
You can check out Philohome dot com for a breakdown of the PU wiring. If you wanted the motor to have speed steps like a train motor the same wiring would be used. If you wanted them to only be powered when the button on the controller is pressed you'd use a 2.2k ohm resistor. The size (M, L, XL) wouldn't matter either way
@BatteryPoweredBricks ty! That's exactly what i needed for info!
Have you done this with the new powered up cables? Like split them into female adapters ? Is that possible? Also what's your take on "overseas" Lego? Is it safe for my nephew?
The female ends of the cable tend to be much more expensive and many just don't work very well, otherwise I probably would have used them. "Overseas Lego" can mean a lot of things, some companies are much better than others. As for what is safe for children I don't wouldn't really know, I don't have any children myself
Hey man I tried this and nothing is happening with my dual motors. Is there a wiring diagram available? Am I correct in believing that if I take a multimeter and check all four pins stud sides of one connector there should be no continuity?
There are links in the description to where I found the information on Eurobricks. I know there was at least one diagram I used from that. It's easy to make a mistake and do things backwards. If the PU plug is unplugged there should be no continuity between the pins on the PF connectors. If there is you have a short
Awesome thanks, will this adapter work on regular firmware? Or do I need to update to pybricks ?
19:31 at my last job, I found that using a cigarette lighter works a bit easier in these situations.
Thanks for this video I’ll check out the other links too. I’ve used the same BNTechGO cable, and the dreaded heat shrink, to extend my Switch motors and Sensors for BAP and BrickRail. Hadn’t thought about doing this for all my spare PF Train motors. Are they recognised by PyBricks correctly? Cheers 😊
As long as the ID wires are shorted like shown in the diagram any PU hub will see them as train motors. I'm using the same (with a few upgrades) PyBricks script I've used for the last year and it works just the same as PU motors. I may adjust the acceleration curve since they act a bit differently than PU motors
@@BatteryPoweredBricks ok thanks, may as well use up those spare PF motors 😎
make a lego flight test for lego planes
I wonder if man can make this cable but for PU motors.
The problem is finding good PU sockets. The plugs used in this video are easy to find. The sockets are much more expensive and tend to be unreliable even if you do buy the high dollar ones from what I've heard from others
Yeah if Lego doesn't want to keep their powered up motors in stock (discontinued) then I will be doing this.
They shouldn't be discontinued for a while but they really haven't done a good job at keeping them in stock. That goes for all of the PU components