Hands-on with Power Functions 2.0 elements

[dr_spock]

Could you ask them (TLG)  if they are going to publish their PU BT protocol specs like they did with their PF IR protocol?

 

[Enantiomeer]

9 hours ago, technic_addict said:

Very limited battery pack options with only two connections which are not stackable.

The connectors appear fairly simple. If TLG doesn't release a splitter/stacker for it I'm sure somebody else will (e.g. Vengit).

The fact that the cables contains 6 wires is to me actually more interesting. I'm sure that somebody will figure out a way to use the app to control minstorms sensors/motors (I'm hoping TLG will do this for us, however I think that is an unrealistic wish considering the fact that the connector is not the same as for mindstorms).

[Bublehead]

I went and looked at the reverse engineering they are doing on Boost and wedo on github.  The pinout is reversible voltage on pins 1 & 2 to drive a motor fwd and rev, pin 3 is ground, pin 4 is Vcc, pins 5 & 6 are ID and data bits to identify what is plugged into the port and then data encoded to transmit motor position, or sensor data. At least we can rule out multiple motors ganged together with y cables if this holds true.  I think it is going to be one motor/sensor per port only, and the unit for trains is the small, AAA, two port brick, and we will see a second brick/BB that is a 4 port AA version that will work with the new controller for two channels but needs app support and tablet/smartphone to access the other 2 ports.  At least that is my hope as well as my guess. I don’t think we will see more than 4 ports though ? 

[allanp]

Looks great for trains, but it's very likely that this won't be what we get for technic. For Technic I am hopeful for separate battery box and receivers, and a battery box that holds AAs, not AAAs. Having a battery box for every two motors, especially when you can't have more than one motor per port, would be a big step backwards. A moc like sheepos land rover would require 4 battery boxes, that's 24 batteries!!! So yeah, think what is needed is an AA battery box with 2 outputs for two receivers with 4 outputs each, so one battery box can power up to 8  motors. Alternatively have an AA battery box with 8 output ports, they are fairly small so should  fit on an AA battery box no problem. Or at a bare minimum 4, but 8 would be better. A great upgrade to that would be an 11.1v rechargable li-ion battery pack.

Edited June 1, 2018 by allanp

[JopieK]

7 hours ago, dr_spock said:

Could you ask them (TLG)  if they are going to publish their PU BT protocol specs like they did with their PF IR protocol?

 

It is BLE (Bluetooth low energy): https://github.com/bricklife/BoostRemote

 

[Mr Hobbles]

9 hours ago, dr_spock said:

Could you ask them (TLG)  if they are going to publish their PU BT protocol specs like they did with their PF IR protocol?

 

There's no need. :) People have already reverse engineered it via sniffing.

Lego Power Functions 2.0 / Powered Up are exactly the same tech as Lego Boost and Lego WeDo 2.0. The connectors are the same and all the motors and sensors are recognised by all the hubs (But restricted by the capabilities of their respective iOS/Android apps).

Projects:
https://github.com/JorgePe/pyb00st/ (Python)
https://github.com/hobbyquaker/node-movehub (Node.js)

Current support includes the Smart Hub, non-interactive motor, color/distance sensor, and tilt sensor from WeDo 2.0, and the Move Hub, interactive motor, and color/distance/diode sensor from Boost, along with the tilt sensor and motors built into the Move Hub (basically everything Boost and WeDo to date).

One interesting tidbit is that the Smart Hub and Move Hub advertise themselves under the same peripheral id, and therefore functionality is the same, but ports C and D only exist on the Move Hub (The built in motors). If you try to send those commands to the Smart Hub, nothing breaks, but nothing happens.

So to make the new train tech compatible, two things need to happen: 1. Ensure the new Hub advertises itself under the same peripheral id, and 2. Figure out what the id of the new train motor is so that it can be talked to.

EDIT: As @JopieK already noted, there are also third party remote apps out there.

Edited June 1, 2018 by Mr Hobbles