42099 - 4x4 X-treme Off-Roader

[kbalage]

4 minutes ago, AVCampos said:

And, in the meanwhile, BrickController 2 and BuWizz appear to already work with the Control+ hub, so there's no excuse for AFOLs to MOC to their hearts' content.

Except that they don't support proper servo control yet unfortunately.

42099 is again a victim of its look, if it looks like a crawler then everyone expects crawler performance. TLG missed the perfect opportunity of providing the laziest but still ingenious B model instructions officially - simply swap the gears and tadaaa, you've got a crawler :) 

[Jim]

21 minutes ago, AVCampos said:

When (not if) I get one, I'll build it with the transmission gears swapped right off the bat, so that the motors get geared down instead of up. Off-road capability is more important to me than speed. That could invert some of the results in the video.

I will probably do the same.

I am confident we will get lots of cool functionalities in the different apps, but I am disappointed about the performance.

[johnnym]

2 hours ago, kbalage said:

[...] No one is forced to jump on the Powered Up wagon immediately, Power Functions is still here and very much usable.

Apropos (though not sure if this was asked already): has anyone built/modded the 42099 with Power Functions yet?

[Maaboo the Witch]

6 minutes ago, kbalage said:

Except that they don't support proper servo control yet unfortunately.

42099 is again a victim of its look, if it looks like a crawler then everyone expects crawler performance. TLG missed the perfect opportunity of providing the laziest but still ingenious B model instructions officially - simply swap the gears and tadaaa, you've got a crawler :) 

I don't see why they couldn't go down the 9398 route and at least build a different body for the B-model. Surely the 9398 truck-style option would have been possible here?

[aol000xw]

It would be nice to be able to enable a "No warranties" mode in the app to bypass the motor protections. Kind of like overclocking CPUs and GPUs..

[Jim]

Just now, aol000xw said:

It would be nice to be able to enable a "No warranties" mode in the app to bypass the motor protections. Kind of like overclocking CPUs and GPUs..

Exactly what I was thinking about 

Since performance being an issue, MODding the 42077 with C+ would be a cool idea.

[kbalage]

Just now, aol000xw said:

It would be nice to be able to enable a "No warranties" mode in the app to bypass the motor protections. Kind of like overclocking CPUs and GPUs..

For 42099 the protection kicks in relatively earls because of the gearing. If you swap the gears for the crawler mode then there's no obstacle that would trigger the protection sooner than it does for 9398. Btw if we directly compare when the protection kicks in for PU XL and PF XL then the PU hub shuts the motor down somewhat sooner but the difference is not that significant. You can check it here (comparing that towards the end of the video):

 

[andythenorth]

39 minutes ago, Jim said:

I don't think it's a matter of "being good at it". It is a choice they have made and they probably had a perfectly good reason for it. But AFOLs tend to focus on MOCs instead of bringing a product to the market. I'd say; be patient, good things will come.

I think if they'd been doing this for 20 years, we'd have seen a fully-fledged MOC-controlling tool available at launch.  But there has to be a version 1 of everything eh? 

[Philo]

9 minutes ago, aol000xw said:

It would be nice to be able to enable a "No warranties" mode in the app to bypass the motor protections. Kind of like overclocking CPUs and GPUs..

Not sure it's purely a firmware issue: my own tests of pup small motors show that their internal resettable fuses trip sooner than those of their pf counterparts.

[Bubbha]

I think tlg wants to make happy the larger number of people and they nail it. Kids and casual have a good toy with a decent speed to play with, off roader oriented can swap two gears and be satisfied, and AFOL's finally have the new cv joints and planetary hubs they dreamed for years.

For me is a must have(for pieces). 

[syclone]

The editing of that video is insane, was very enjoyable to watch)) Too bad child safety results in less powerful system for AFOLs.

 

Edited August 2, 2019 by syclone

[1gor]

8 hours ago, Bubbha said:

I think tlg wants to make happy the larger number of people and they nail it. Kids and casual have a good toy with a decent speed to play with, off roader oriented can swap two gears and be satisfied, and AFOL's finally have the new cv joints and planetary hubs they dreamed for years.

For me is a must have(for pieces). 

You have a point...if I remember, there was mentioned using rechargable box in future, so perhaps unused port on hub could be used for recharging so you do not have to take (smart not wheels) hub out...

[TeamThrifty]

8 hours ago, andythenorth said:

But there has to be a version 1 of everything eh?

Correct.. and as a V1 i think this is great. The flexibility of the platform means potential for rapid development.. its a platform for growth, so by V3 or V5 it could be pretty special.

[SNIPE]

wow this is confusing, so:

Powered up, boost, wedo and spike prime = power functions 2.0

powered up = control plus

control plus = power functions 2.0.

Is this right assuming were all just talking of the connector only here.

Edited August 2, 2019 by SNIPE

[kbalage]

@SNIPE Powered Up is the product family (can be PF 2.0) including "City" Powered Up, Boost, Spike Prime, "Technic" Powered Up, WeDo 2.0, even the DUPLO train. Control+ is the set specific app for Technic. The Powered Up app includes the set specific controls for the trains and the Batmobile but that includes the free programming interface and will be the central "hub" to control all Powered Up components. Here's a summary about it if you're interested.

[allanp]

So there could be a control+ + programmable and customisable app in future! C++ is the future folks!

[ShowsOn]

19 hours ago, kbalage said:

Except that they don't support proper servo control yet unfortunately.

42099 is again a victim of its look, if it looks like a crawler then everyone expects crawler performance. TLG missed the perfect opportunity of providing the laziest but still ingenious B model instructions officially - simply swap the gears and tadaaa, you've got a crawler :) 

Surely a great way to introduce Control+ would've been to included an automated gear box to enable motorised shifting between high and low torque settings.

[Jim]

3 hours ago, allanp said:

So there could be a control+ + programmable and customisable app in future! C++ is the future folks!

Hehe. C+ was already confusing for me, but C++ would be worse. What's next? The C# app? 

[Ngoc Nguyen]

1 hour ago, Jim said:

Hehe. C+ was already confusing for me, but C++ would be worse. What's next? The C# app? 

I was just about to use that joke 

[Jockos]

Having purchased it today, I'm really thinking about building a dune buggy after playing with the main model, with the same motor setup. I suppose I'm not the only one who wants to build something out of it

[m3eu]

Not impressed by the C+ system yet. All this non-compatible (not even backwards compatible) Lego control options frustrates...wait and see what the next Mindstorms will utilise!?.

Some of the new parts in the 42099 are usefull though. Just checked Bricks and Pieces, but those parts are not listed yet. So will turn to BL.

[TeamThrifty]

7 hours ago, Jim said:

Hehe. C+ was already confusing for me, but C++ would be worse. What's next? The C# app? 

C++ is supported on raspberry pi... back to my internet of things + lego dream!!

C# is where I spend most of my working days.. and can work with bluetooth devices via the windows.devices.bluetooth namespace.. once it get round to it, if no one else has started one, i'll start a thread for it as i'm sure there are others on here with dev knowledge. Maybe able to get something working from a windows environment..

[AVCampos]

16 minutes ago, TeamThrifty said:

i'm sure there are others on here with dev knowledge.

 

[Jurss]

On 8/2/2019 at 2:50 PM, kbalage said:

If you swap the gears for the crawler mode

I'm building it now and, as I understand, in fact there are three modes possible,

1. Default - "fast" but poor climbing performance

2. Switch gears in one place (close to motors or in another place) - some mediocre mode - still some speed, but better climbing performance

3. Switch gears in both places - almost no speed but really good climbing perfomance.

because of two possible places where by default is upgear

 

[kbalage]

@Jurss if you swap one set of gears that's a good balance between speed and climbing abilities. Swapping both sets will make it very slow and you won't really be able to use the power as it will tip over sooner than running out of power (or the differentials will ruin the game).