Which motors have speed control with standard PF BT remotes?

[The_Cook]

Apologies if this is answered elsewhere but I couldn't invoke to right search terms to find it if it is.

I've got a number of Powered Up Hubs and Handsets from the modern train systems such as 60197 Passenger Train. The bogies supplied with the set Motor no 4 have speed control so the trains can go faster or slower. Do any of the other technic motors with the appropriate LPF2 connector have similar speed control? I've got both a PUP Medium and a Boost External and they both appear to be just On/Off.

Conversely is there something I can do with the hub so that it speed controls the motors?

 

The context is that I'm in the process of building up some Steam Locomotives so the bogie motors aren't suitable but I'd still like speed control.

Edited March 30, 2023 by The_Cook
added context

[Lok24]

1 hour ago, The_Cook said:

Do any of the other technic motors with the appropriate LPF2 connector have similar speed control?

Only the mentioned train motor and the 45303 can be regulated with the handsets.

All others offer "on and off" only with handsets.

Use pybricks, a smart device, a microcontroller or modify the cables.

[ejayb]

Even for the train motor, it's worth switching to PyBricks for the lack of electrical whine.

[dr_spock]

Or make an adapter to go between the PU hub and motor to fool the hub that it has the train motor connected to it.

 

[The_Cook]

It looks like PyBricks is the way to go. It's not a search term I would have happened upon by chance, so thanks to all for the responses.

I have two of the WeDo 2.0 Medium motor 21980 and as far as I can tell they're on/off.

 

[Lok24]

Yes, true, I mixed that up with the tacho function, sorry.

[Toastie]

I don't want to sound smart at all here, but the difference between speed setting and power setting is:

Power = apply the 0 to 100 steps of PWM (0 = off, 100 = on, in between = PWM)

Speed = Ask for maintaining a certain speed, 0 to 100, which is accomplished by applying more/less power, when speed you asked for is lower/higher than what you asked for.

The speed feature needs a tacho motor to function, that is a motor which has a rotation sensor, so that the hub can check for actual rpms and the correct for reaching asked-for rpms by adjusting power (= changing the PWM ratio) applied to the motor.

Make sure that you have a tacho motor to set speed. The train motor cannot do that, it just accepts power settings and does what a motor without brain (=tacho) can do.

All the best,
Thorsten 

[The_Cook]

Good point Thorsten. All I'm trying to do is mimic the functionality of the Bogie motors in a standard motor. I've no idea whether that's working on power or speed, I'm guessing the former as it's simpler but more informed people might know otherwise.

After some fiddling I got PyBricks uploaded onto the hub. There was one piece of user-interface where it wasn't obvious that I needed to click on "Lego Bootloader" to actually start the pairing process, I somewhat assumed that would just be happening. Python ins't my preferred language of choice, I'm an old-skool embedded C/C++ and ARM assembler programmer, but I can make it work as it's all fairly simple button press adjusts variable, variable sets motor power coding to begin with.