When did LEGO decide that it was okay to put a stud into a Technic hole?

2006
LEGO's official position on this technique was explained at Brickfest 2006. Jamie Berard, then a relatively new designer in Billund gave an excellent presentation on why certain techniques are considered "illegal" in official sets. The basics message is that building techniques should:

not stress the bricks
be suitable for the target audience of the set

He described in some detail the ways that Technic beams and regular system bricks can and cannot be combined in official sets. The main problem areas occur because:

Technic holes don't exactly line up with the studs on the sides of system bricks
the holes in Technic beams are slightly smaller than the ones in system bricks

The implications are:

Although system brick studs can be inserted in the holes in Technic beams, this should be avoided where it would be difficult for children to take apart. Jamie gives an example where a brick has a single stud inserted into a beam, and describes it as "technically legal" (but not recommended). This is the situation in your example.
Where the combination of Technic and system bricks results in an assembly where components interfere with each other, this can stress the parts. However, this is not the case in the example you cited.

According to these rules, then, the example you give is not illegal. Clearly, it can be a problem under some circumstances, but is acceptable under others.
Unfortunately, none of this actually answers your original question, as there remain two possibilities:

Your assertion that "at one point, LEGO didn't really support putting a stud into a Technic hole, stating that it caused too much stress on the bricks" may not be correct. The misapprehension may have arisen because Lego emphasized the illegal uses of the technique, but down-played legal ones. In that case, we may assume that set designers simply chose not to use the technique (or were unaware that they could because they, too, were misguided).

The alternative explanation is that LEGO did make a sweeping statement to this effect, but later realized that it needed clarification. In which case, Jamie's presentation in 2006 seems to be the first clear public statement of the more detailed rules (of course, internal designers might well have been aware of the policy tweak much earlier, but still chosen not to use the technique). If there was such a policy adjustment, this would establish why the technique was not used until recently.

Without the text of LEGO's earlier communications on the subject, it is difficult to know which explanation is the correct one. Either way, I'd urge you to look at the slides for Jamie's presentation. It is available online in powerpoint format and as a pdf. Apart from being an interesting read in their own right, they also make it clear that this single stud-in-a-hole has been legal since at least 2006.


Is there a database of images of LEGO pieces without a background?

I was unable to find any sites with a decent database of images in the file format you are looking for.  I don't know what your experience is with image formats or what type of related editing software you may have access to that could help you obtain them yourself.
 If the list of parts isn't extensive then manually converting them is an option if you have the knowledge and software.  There are a lot of sites like Rebrickable & Brickset that have an excellent database of parts with neutral backgrounds that would make a crop & conversion fairly easy.  If there is a pre-existing database available that someone else answers with, I too will benefit from your question.

I did find this site that has online functionality and has the tool you need to convert pictures.  I tried it out first to make sure it worked and it certainly does.
https://www194.lunapic.com/editor/

Here is an example of the trial I did with a picture from Brickset. Hovering over them should show you the different file extensions. (Win 8.1 w/Chrome it's on lower left corner of window) You can't really tell the difference unless you click on the pictures and/or save them.

As a last resort you could add them (part# & color) to your question. I would be willing to convert them for you, just not sure how to get them to you as this Q & A format would be inappropriate.


What are some 3rd party mini-figure gun makers that distribute in Canada?

I have never paid customs fees on orders from BrickForge or BrickArms. The key is to ship via the US Postal Service. Shipping via couriers like UPS usually results in customs brokerage fees which is what drives up the cost.


For the molds: An injection mold is made for a specific injection molding machine. I very much doubt Lego is still using the same machines as they did 20 years ago. So to keep the molds, they would have to keep the old machines, including the service teams and infrastructure.

Also, machine parts are rarely made out of stainless steel, some old Lego ones clearly weren't. Stainless steel is just too bad at conducting heat, which is needed in an injection molding machine. In order to keep the molds for 20 years, they would have to keep them in shape, which means additional effort.

With regard to play value, and here it is becoming subjective, the monorail never added up. Monorail trains are only 4 wide structurally, while trains are 6 wide. Making monorail 6 wide would end up in a very unstable situation when manipulating the inside / load whatever. A robust, universal toy, they weren't.


How can the "Bar Holder with Clip" part be used?

One possible solution might be to use one of the new 1x1 round plates with open studs and a Bar with Clip


Have Multiple Inputs to Programming Block

You can do this with parallel programs and a logic variable. You will need 3 loops, one for each sensor and one for the motor. In the sensor loops, wait for the touch sensor to be pressed and then set a logic variable to true. In the motor loop, have a switch block that tests the logic variable. If it is true, reverse and turn around and then set the logic variable to false. If the logic variable is already false, just go forward.


The first photo on this page shows the model Andrew Lipson made.

The photo is taken under a such angle in respect that the different parts line up in the photo, to get the desired effect.

"Waterfall" used a combination of specifically angled photographs, coupled with some post processing to remove the overlapping elements:

  OK, let's come clean. We actually resorted to photographic manipulation for this one. [...] The final image was constructed by very carefully overlaying portions of the left image with the corresponding portions from the right. Yes, it's dirty. We couldn't see how else to do it. Sorry.


How can I identify Lego sets from a box of parts?

Your best shot is to identify an individual piece and look it up on Peeron, BrickLink or BrickSet. Since these all carry set inventories, you'll be able to find lists of sets in which the parts can be found. Try to start with more unique parts, chances are they are in a few models only.

Once you're sure you've found a model for which you've all the parts, build it using the instructions from LEGO.com or for older models instruction scans PICSL.

If identifying LEGO parts proves too difficult for some of them, ask experts.


What is the name of this 2x2 curved piece with a lip?

This is part number 30602. Brickset refers to it as "Front 2x2 Sport" and on Bricklink it is "Slope, Curved 2 x 2 Lip, No Studs".

The top is curved, so it doesn't have a clean angle like some slopes do and it's name doesn't include an angle measures in degrees.


What are some helpful techniques for applying stickers?

For a rectangular sticker on a rectangular surface, I usually try to center it between two sides and align it along the top.  This does cause the problem of centering the sticker up and down.

If I really care about the proper alignment, I use the end of a small knife blade to place the stickers properly.  Just stick a corner of the sticker to the tip of the blade, align and stick.  This has the added advantage that when you begin to place the sticker, the knife is still underneath and will allow you to remove it and try again if you miss.


You probably want Lego Digital Designer:

http://ldd.lego.com/

Once you have the .lxf file open, you'll want to select View -> Building Guide Mode from the menu. This should give you step by step building instructions.


What are all the different ways that LEGO pieces join together?

Currently in use:

Stud and "antistud" (diameter 4.6mm)
Longer studs (Minifig torso)
Minifig legs
Minifig neck and head / accessory (eg backpack) - also compatible with studs
Clip and bar (in a way, similar to stud, but with diameter 3.2mm)
Wheels (3.2mm axles)
Flower connector (similar, but even smaller, present in a surprising number of parts, including spider and Technic chain link)
Technic hole and pin (compatible with studs)
Technic axle and axle hole
Turntable
Click hinges
Ball joint sockets
Brick hinges (I'd wager this one is the next one to disappear)
9v/RC track connection
PF electrical plug
NXT electrical plug
Train magnets, embedded
Pneumatic hoses to pneumatic elements and bar elements
Sliding door in grooves
Visors on helmets

Decommissioned:

Flat hinges
12v track clip
4.5V/12v electrical plugs
9V electrical plugs
Train magnets, free (connects to flowers too...)
Tube plate hinge (with red tube)
Wheels (metal pin, as in blue era train wheels)
Wheels (Plastic pin, as in grey era train wheels)
ZNAP
Homemaker arm joints


How are the Star Wars Action Battle effects implemented?

In many ways, this subtheme is a new implementation of fairly old idea.

The specialized elements in these sets are the cannons and the arrows that are fired out of them. These elements were first introduced in the Competition subtheme in the late 90s. Here one example set (8233 Blue Thunder vs. The Stinger):

The cannons are a single part that implements a simple spring-loaded firing mechanism triggered by toggling the axle on the back end.

The arrow is a specialized part that fits into the canon and includes a rubberized tip:

While the cannon and arrow elements are fairly non-standard (though by no means rare having appeared in around 100 sets over the years), the other mechanisms involved simply make good use of common System and Technic elements.

For example, here's how the mechanisms that launch the Speeder Bike and Ewok in that set are implemented:

There aren't any particularly special elements involved. The design simply makes clever use of standard parts to transfer the energy from the impact point on the target to other areas of the build causing it to launch various parts off in interesting ways.


Need help identifying this star wars set

The parts are from the 8016 LEGO Star Wars Hyena Droid Bomber from 2009.


What Lego part(s) would hurt the most to step on?

I think this one would be in the top 5:
Tile, Modified 2 x 2 with Pin (part 2460)


Direct/system command for reading the display buffer of EV3 bricks?

I think you should be able to do this. The screen is represented by a framebuffer device. In Linux, everything is a file, so even the framebuffer is a file, namely /dev/fb0.

So, you should be able to read the display by reading the /dev/fb0 file using something like this:

EDIT: Using direct commands didn't work out so well, so here is a sample using system commands.

Getting file content
--------------------

Used to upload datalog files - file handle is only closed when reaching EOF
and file is not open for writing

BEGIN_GETFILE:

  Bytes send to the brick:

  xxxxxxxx0196xxxxxxx
  bbbbmmmmttssllllnnn...

  bbbb = Bytes in massage, mmmm = message counter, tt = type of command,
  ss = system command, llll = max bytes to read, nnnn.... = path

  Bytes send to the PC:

  xxxxxxxx039600xxxxxxxx00xxx
  bbbbmmmmttssrrllllllllhhppp...

  bbbb = bytes ion massage, mmmm = message counter, tt = type of command,
  ss = system command, rr = return status, llllllll = File size, hh = Handle,
  ppp... = payload

CONTINUE_GETFILE:

  Bytes send to the brick:

  0700xxxx019700xxxx
  bbbbmmmmttsshhllll

  bbbb = bytes in massage, mmmm = message counter, tt = type of command,
  ss = system command, hh = handle, llll = max bytes to read

  Bytes send to the PC:

  xxxxxxxx039700xxxxxxxx00xxx
  bbbbmmmmttssrrllllllllhhppp...

  bbbb = bytes in message, mmmm = message counter, tt = type of command,
  ss = system command, rr = return status, llllllll = File size,
  hh = Handle, ppp... = payload

Opcodes come from here System commands come from here. The size returned may be 0 since this is not a real file, but the framebuffer size is 7680 bytes (comes from here, i.e. (178+2)/3*128). Also, the maximum number of bytes allowable for max bytes to read depends on the connection type (USB, Bluetooth or Wi-Fi). 1000 should be a safe number.

Now, hopefully you have the data, but you still need to decode it. The framebuffer has an unusual format where there are 3 pixels per byte (see datasheet).

Assuming you have packed all of the data read into a single 7680 byte array you can use nested for loops to convert the data to whatever image format you like. For simplicity, I am going to use a .pbm. Just doing this in pseudo code...

// framebuffer data - 60 bytes/row * 128 rows
buffer[60*128]

// write the PBM header
write_line("P1")
write_line("178 128")
for (row = 0; row < 128; row++) {
    // last byte in each row only has 1 pixel, so only loop first 59 bytes
    for (offset = 0; offset < 59; offset++) {
        var b = buffer[row * 60 + offset];
        // 3 pixels per byte

        // bit 7 (or 6) is pixel 0
        write((b & 128) ? "1 " : "0 ")
        // bit 4 (or 3) is pixel 1
        write((b & 16) ? "1 " : "0 ")
        // bit 1 (or 0) is pixel 2
        write((b & 2) ? "1 " : "0 ")
    }
    // the last pixel
    b = buffer[row * 60 + offset]
    write_line((b & 128) ? "1" : "0")
}


What is the difference between train motors 88002 and 10153?

5300 and 10153 are from the former 9V train system and drew power from the metal tracks. They were controlled using a transformer attached to the tracks.

88002 runs on battery power from an onboard battery box. Trains with this kind of motor can run at a set speed, or can be controlled by adding IR remote controllers.

Regarding compatibility, the 5300 and 10153 require powered 9V track. They will not run on the new plastic tracks. The 88002 is the same gauge as these 9V motors, so it will fit and run on the 9V tracks.

LEGO is no longer making 9V train components.


How do I add a light to the Red Cargo Train?

These light fit in a regular Technic hole, and thus have the same diameter as a stud.

I would recommend fitting them in the so-called "Erling" brick; after all, one of its regular (aka "boring") names is "Brick, 1 x 1 with headlight":

.

The only problem you'll have is that the light extends quite a bit at the back, but you can easily solve that by using a panel of some sort, for example:


Do all Technic bushes (3713) have the LEGO label on them?

Technic bushes didn't always have LEGO stamped on them.

I don't remember exactly when I first noticed this, but some years back they started stamping LEGO onto a bunch of different pieces that didn't previously have it.

I suspect they did this because people were knocking off more and more of their pieces.


Is this black two-sided clip an original part made by LEGO?

The black one is a playmobil part, used to link fort wall part together. I think the cup is playmobil too.


Since you'll be working at a scale you may prefer to use graph paper. You can print your own if you don't have any, this will make it easier. Use a ruler, pencil and a rubber to draw your microfigure.

A microfigure is roughly 2/7 legs, 2/7 torso and 3/7 head high, It should also be 3 squares wide. You may find the diagram below makes it easier to visualise:

At this stage the most important thing to concentrate on is symmetry.

  Symmetry is common in nature, human beings and even more so with Lego.
  Bricks wouldn't be as compatible as they are now if they didn't have a
  sense of symmetry.

For now, concentrate on the vertical symmetry (top-to-bottom). In my sketch I've drawn out the three boxes first and added a few rough outlines within the guidelines. These guidelines can be erased later when you have finished.

If you can draw Microfigures, you can draw Minifigures. All it takes is a change of scale.


Bricklink search for chrome pieces

Gold 2x4

Duplo: Chrome 2X4


These parts are from:
42089: Power Boat

Keypart : 62360 - Trans-Black Windscreen 3 x 6 x 1 Curved


What are these "rail-style" LEGO pieces?

The rails with the "small teeth" are
Part No: 3230a ,  Train, Track Tapered Rail Curved Inside
Part No: 3229a Name: Train, Track Tapered Rail Curved Outside
Part No: 3228a Name: Train, Track Tapered Rail Straight 16L


Lego bricks can withstand a fairly high pressure before they deform, but Lego creations tend to deform more easily at the various connection points. Therefore it's possible to build a relatively easily deformed bridge using long pieces, such as technic beams. You could build a bridge that deforms easily and then show how it flexes under the various weights.

As for using a real strain gauge, that might be overkill, but if your bridge is fairly bendy you could probably compensate for whatever structural rigidity you'll get from the guage itself. Also I'd go with putting the gauge on a separate, flexible piece (such as paper or plastic) and just pin it to the bridge using normal lego parts. Presumably you don't need super-accurate measurements for this demo?

Lego also has some springs and shock absorbers which can possibly be used to help with your design. Either use them to make the bridge flexible, or use the compression of the shock absorber as your measurement of how deformed the bridge is.


I know for a fact (from reading the EV3 schematics), the only way to turn on an EV3 is by pressing the center button.

Here are some ideas to work around this issue:

Create another robot that presses the power button.
Create a mechanical device that causes the center button to be pressed all of the time, then create a mechanism to switch battery power.
Solder wires in parallel with the center button and attach this to a device, such as a relay, that can operate the center button electrically.


Connecting a webcam to NXT and streaming a video

The only camera capable of connecting directly to the NXT is the Vision Subsystem for NXT or EV3:

With modified firmware, it is possible to send images from the cam to the NXT to the computer. But trying to stream video via this technique is impractical since each frame takes about 30 seconds to send to the computer. If you had a connection over USB, it would probably operate faster, but still not fast enough to effectively stream video.

If your goal is for the images to reach the computer, though, why does it need to pass through the NXT first? Why not use a webcam that sends the video directly to the computer? It would be much faster. There's software to support controlling NXT robots and receiving video from the webcam, such as iCommand. Or alternatively, you could have one window streaming video, and have the NXT software or BricxcC open in another window for controlling your robot.


What is the best way to make a staircase?

Building a staircase out of bricks is easy enough, but uses a lot of brick pieces, as zovits already answered. If you want to achieve something faster, with fewer pieces, you could look into the spiral-staircase-piece

or the regular staircase piece.

The spiral staircase piece combines with some plate+pin pieces (bottom, top) and some posts. You can connect as many posts together as you want using a pin.

The advantage of using the spiral staircase is mainly the simplicity of it; it's not that versatile a piece, but it works for its purpose and does have a nice round edge. Plus the stairs can be rotated, which allows for a "hidden staircase" feature.

The advantage of using the regular staircase piece is that it is very sturdy and it takes up very little space. You can build a similar staircase using the inverted slope and some 1x4 plates but it isn't as strong (and it's slightly taller).


Which LEGO set is best suited to build robots?

Your question is not so clear, but it seems like you want to build robots and you want Technic pieces. Then Lego Mindstorms is the product you should buy. While not formally part of the Technic range, it contains only Technic elements in addition to the special electronic Mindstorms parts.

You can also take a look at Lego BOOST, a lightweight variant of Mindstorms, but that is not as much oriented around Technic pieces.

If you don't want the electronics, then you could consider the Bucket Excavator which contains a large number of elements for a fair price. Alternatively maybe you should also look at Meccano.


How can I power an NXT motor without the NXT brick?

I think the simplest way is to use an NXT Converter Cable (Available from Bricklink).
This has an NXT connector on one end and the standard 9v connector on the other. You can connect the 9v connector to any 9v battery box, (e.g. Battery Box with Switch (9V)) and, depending on the polarity, power the NXT motor forward or backward.

Now, the issues:

The speed of the motor is determined by the strength of your
batteries. With new batteries the motor will run at full speed and
you have no ability to vary this speed. Off/forward/backward are your
only options.
There is no way to receive feedback from the motor, so no way to
control the number of rotations as you can when connected to an NXT.


Is it possible to make inverted slopes with solid studs

Because of the way ABS plastic injection molding works, it is important that parts have a uniform thickness throughout, and don't just have a large section completely filled with solid plastic. This page explains a little about that:

  As the plastic solidifies in the mold, it freezes from the outside (near the mold surface) toward the inside. In thick sections, this results in inward pulling stresses (due to contraction) that can cause sink marks in the outer surfaces of the part. In addition, because thinner sections will freeze faster than thicker sections, there is also the possibility of stresses building up between thick and thin sections, resulting in part warpage.

The reason that the stud is open is because that area of the part couldn't be reached from the bottom as usual due to the closed slope underneath. The constraint of uniform thickness forces either the top or bottom of a stud to be open. This is the same basic reason that the studs on Technic beams are open as well.


Received 2 LEGO bags with no instructions

Both are from Jungle Tree House (41059)

First polypag is identified by Container, Barrel Half Large with Axle Hole in Medium Lavender and Sand Green Mini Doll Friends Hips and Skirt

Second polybag has combination of Tile, Modified 4 x 4 with Studs on Edge in Dark Pink and Brick, Modified 1 x 2 Log in Lavender color.

Instructions can be downloaded from LEGO Service web page.


Any issues with this non-standard gear combination of 12t gears?

In your setup, the space between both axles is about 11.31mm (1 stud brick = 8mm).

On the central part of the gear (the band where teeth protude), the pitch diameter is 11.9mm (outer diameter of 13.8mm, root diameter of 10mm). Hence the gears would not mesh if mounted in the same plane (because 11.9 > 11.31).

However, if you consider the beveled part of the gear to be like a smaller spur gear, its outer diameter is about 12mm (possibly smaller) and the root diameter is at most 8mm (more likely 7.9mm). The gears mesh because (12+10)/2 < 11.31 and (13.8+8)/2 < 11.31.

You can check the measures with a caliper.

What might be a problem is that in this setup, gears will be forced to rotate at the same speed while having different pitch diameters depending on the part of the gear, so the gears are likely to wear down faster.
Now, the bevel gears are made of a softer plastic which whistands deformations better than other gears so it might just do.


How much would it cost to buy one of every retail LEGO set released in a year?

Brickset allows you to export a search as .CSV and appears to include prices for all regularly available sets - this does exclude promotional sets (i.e. in-store, newspaper vouchers, magazine gifts, partner stores, or VIP/special offers) and educational sets (only available through specialist educational retailers), or pick-a-brick/model options.

Running a quick SUM() over the price columns results in the following totals for 2015 and 2016 as examples - which gives you to total for the sets that were released in those teritories - if you want you can play around with the data yourself to merge the different sets, as well as apply either an average or premium amount (based on the number of bricks) for the promotional sets:

| Year | # Sets |    UK £   |    US $   |   CAN $   |   EUR €   |
|------|--------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------|
| 2015 |    771 | 12,607.44 | 16,117.06 | 18,364.45 | 14,140.92 |
| 2016 |    828 | 13,531.21 | 16,915.18 | 19,718.39 | 15,886.59 |

As you can see the total number of sets is variable (2011 had only 584 sets for example) so the total price will vary each year.


Any (small) Lego Technic parts not in whole units?

I assume you mean L when you say units?

Well anyhow, unless I'm misunderstanding, I would try these: https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=6575

You can stack 3 of them up to get 1 and a half L

If you mean 3L long instead of 3L wide, this should still work because it has axle holes which is 1.5L apart, it also has axle holes that are 3L apart.

Search youtube/eurobricks for 'technic mini engine' / 'technic micro engine' for some ideas.


How to dump the micropython filesystem from the SPIKE Prime (and Mindstorms v4)?

Using rshell I've managed dump the micropython filesystem of my hub after updating it to v1.0.03.0034-c3879ab.
rshell
connect serial /dev/ttyACM0 115200
rsync -a /pyboard ~/spikefw

Note: These commands are for linux.
(I also managed to partially dump the initial version on the hub v0.5.01.0000-42a938e, but ran into issues with binary files as I was using ampy at the time.)
I've not found any online resources for the micropython filesystem or the firmware of the SPIKE Prime hub.
Interestingly it seems the the initial version I have v0.5.01.0000-42a938e is comprised of the micropython source code (*.py files) whereas the updated version v1.0.03.0034-c3879ab only contains pre-compiled micropython bytecode (*.mpy)
The license file included with the micropython code, and the headers in the files, state that the code is licensed under the MIT license, so I've uploaded it to my github please feel free to PR more versions.


Mindstorm EV3 no longer recognises SD card

From the leJOS forum posts, I think your best bet is to try another SD card and use the officially recommended SD card creator tools to format and populate your new card.


I don't have the Death Star, and haven't kept up with the latest figure development trends, so I can't be sure about this, but:

Lego frequently updates parts. The new parts are sometimes considered new, and the old parts retired, but often the new parts are considered equivalent to the old parts. Lego then uses these new parts arbitrarily, wherever is most convenient. This leads, sometimes, to a set containing a mix of old and new parts, depending on the sources of those parts during manufacturing. So if, say, they replaced a certain piece with another, nearly identical piece, any set you buy during the transition period could conceivably contain both, if the parts bags in your set came from two different parts of the factory.

If Lego updated the Solo and Kenobi head designs, for use all across the Star Wars line, those head designs may show up in new copies of older sets. Similarly, if there is still stock left of older designs, those designs may also appear in newer sets. When Lego considers the parts to be equivalent, there is no guarantee of which you'll get during the transition.


Where to get additional part library graphics for BlueBrick layout designer

Eurobricks LEGO forum has an index for additional Sets and Parts that can be added to Bluebrick. The sets that you listed above have not been recreated in Bluebrick so if you wish to use them, you need to recreate them yourself. This should be relatively easy if you find LDraw files of the sets you are looking for.

In case you wish to add new files to Bluebrick, please check the manual of Bluebrick by pressing F1 in the program. The online documentation is currently offline so I cannot directly link you to the info.


How to convert a bar into an axle or pin - Using the Axel Hub with Four Bars

Here are couple of ideas. You could use pins:

Or axles with studs on the end:

Or axle connectors and axles:


What are the inspirational resources for building with Duplo?

LEGO does have some interesting and inspirational videos and ideas on their DUPLO website: http://duplo.lego.com/en-us/videos/

One issue with DUPLO is that it is mainly considered as LEGO for babies so all the ideas you will get on LEGO's website will be geared towards small children. However there are adult LEGO fans who also use DUPLO in their creations. Some simply incorporate DUPLO as a support-system for larger LEGO dioramas (like for building up a hill) - a method also used by LEGO's own model builders.

There are also a few adult LEGO fans who use DUPLO for building wonderful creations. One of my favorites is this LEGO DUPLO castle: http://www.flickr.com/photos/joachim_s_mueller/350719605/
Based on it, I also built a DUPLO castle myself: http://www.flickr.com/photos/akunthita/sets/72157617926473583/

In general, flickr.com is a good place to look for DUPLO creations, but again; remember that most will be geared towards small children, so you will have to comb through a lot of rainbow colored towers before you find a really good LEGO DUPLO creation.

Here is an article on how DUPLO and LEGO are compatible and can be used together: http://thebrickblogger.com/2010/12/lego-duplo/


Can LEGO Duplo and Lego Junior sets compatible? Can the pieces be mixed together from the different sets?

LEGO Junior elements have the same connections as the standard LEGO System elements and for the most part are the same pieces - it's just the building techniques are usually simpler and there may be more large elements in the set.

As such, they are as compatible as ordinary LEGO which is to say:

DUPLO blocks can be built on top of LEGO blocks and LEGO plates, and LEGO blocks can be built on top of DUPLO blocks, plates don't really have the depth to cover the DUPLO studs.

On top of that, LEGO and DUPLO elements are scaled proportionally, so one 2x2 DUPLO block is the same size as eight 2x2 LEGO blocks arranged in two layers of four.


Are there SNOT models with instructions for beginners?

Chris McVeigh has some nice LEGO projects on his website that use SNOT techniques.  Many of the projects have PDF instruction guides.

I stumbled on his work after seeing his LEGO ornaments a few years back.  Now that the Christmas season is beginning, a few of those ornaments would be a fun way to introduce this technique to your daughter!


From the page you linked to we can see that the NXC OnFwd method has the following parameters:

void OnFwd (byte outputs, char pwr)

The power or speed parameter is listed as a char type, and looking around elsewhere on the site we find the definition of the char to be:

  In NXC the char type is a signed 8-bit value. This type can store values from SCHAR_MIN to SCHAR_MAX.

This means it can hold an integer value between -128 and 127.

It cannot take any decimal values.

I assume that a char was used over an int as they only need to support values between -100 and 100 in this method.


All four of these parts are standard and available in those colours. The issue is that the design of the character is not based on any printed bricks so you would have to create your own decals.

Part
ID
Colour

Brick 2 x 2
3003
Orange

Slope 45 2 x 2
3039
Orange

Hips and Legs
970c00
Light Bluish Gray

Tile 1 x 2
3069b
Yellow


Has the building technique of Technic pins in a brick cylinder been used in an official set?

I'm not aware of this being used in any official sets, but I'm happy to be proven wrong. I can say that LEGO considers this to be an "illegal" connection. The Technic pins need room to spring back out and be "in click", or they can be permanently damaged by prolonged assembly. LEGO would not allow this connection to be used in a current set.

A Technic pin not "in click" was used back in 2002 in the Audi TT and led to part damage as well as this sort of connection being banned from sets:


Yet Another Model to Identify, Dark Grey Motorcycles?


Large blue windscreen with shuttle decal

This is a Windscreen 8 x 6 x 3 Wedge with Space Port Pattern on Top and Sides (Stickers) - Set 6453.


I have seen this happen with parts originating from older Lego part molds (dies) (like the 16L studded Technic beams in the 42009 Mk2 crane truck). My take is that the molds have been scratched during a maintenance operation but that the mold damage is still within tolerance for Lego.

Creating a new mold (die) is very expensive.


What is the rarest LEGO set ever produced?

This question is nearly impossible to answer with all the variables.  You might consider refining your question to a more realistic scope by eliminating sets like "Inside Tour Exclusives", Comic Con Exclusives, single minifigures like the gold C-3PO, or employee exclusives.

While probably not the "rarest" set out there, the 5004590 "Bat Pod" is annoyingly rare.  Sure you could piece one together, but getting one with the box and instructions is pricey.
(https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?S=5004590-1#T=S&O)

Some of the old HO scale cars in certain colors are extremely rare. I would think that many of the old piece packs/boxes are probably hard to find and/or buy.

Related: What is the rarest LEGO production element (colour/shape combination)?


Brick Wall psychology: PAB cup filling strategy?

You aren't crazy. In my experience, the PaB wall ends up having only a handful of parts that I'm really interested in, so I end up getting a lot of certain parts.

I find myself walking back and forth adding the same parts that I know I already have a bunch of just because nothing else looks particularly interesting to me.

Several years ago, I filled up a small PaB cup and ended up with 62 of those trans-clear panels, so you're at least doing better than me. :)

In terms of strategy, I've found it helpful to check the inventories in advance and decide if it's going to be worth having a cup full of those parts. At this point, I usually don't fill up a cup unless there is a part that I don't mind having a whole lot of (e.g. 1x2 bricks in a rarer color that I like). If I fill up a cup it tends to look more like this now:


I don't have this part, so I can't directly give you the photos that you are looking for, but there is at least one teardown video floating around that we can use to see what is inside the BuWizz 2.0 module.

Power

The module contains 2x 850mAh LiPo batteries:

PCB

The top of the PCB looks something like this:

I wasn't able to find an image showing the back of the PCB

Components

System on a chip

From the above images, we can see that the main microprocessor is a Cypress PSoC 4200 series. Looking at the datasheet, we see that is a BLE-enabled system on a chip running at 48MHz with 128KiB of flash.

Motor driver

There are at least 4 DRV8833 chips present on the PCB. This chip is a dual H-bridge. The datasheet for the part indicates that each channel can handle 1.5A RMS/DC or 2A peak. The specs for the BuWizz indicate:

  Performance

  Max continuous current per channel: 4 A
  Max instantaneous current per channel: 6.5 A
  Max continuous power per channel: 36 W (HIGH speed mode)
  Max instantaneous power per channel: 55 W (HIGH speed mode)
  Max total power: 45 W

  Speed Modes

  SLOW: 5.2 V
  NORMAL: 7.2 V
  FAST: 9.2 V
  LUDICROUS: 11.2 V

I'm not sure how 4A per channel is achieved safely using the DRV8833. Given that 4 dual H-bridges are included, it is safe to assume that each chip is driving each output using both H-bridges in parallel, but according the the datasheet, this still only gets us to 3A RMS/DC per channel.

My hunch is that they are simply driving these parts harder than intended. We can see that they are using them at 11.2 volts, while the datasheet recommends a max operating voltage of 10.8 volts. It's worth noting that the max quoted continuous power per channel (36W) is very close to what you would get from a parallel configuration running at 11.2V (11.2V * 3A = 33.6W).

The BuWizz has carved out a niche for itself by going well beyond recommend operating power (the LEGO PF battery box tops out at 9V * .8A = 7.2W or less than a quarter of the BuWizz), so I wouldn't be surprised if they are running the motor drivers a bit hot.


What is the purpose of the 8 tooth timing gear?

When looking at Blakbird's Technicopedia page for this Technic set, this part is indeed used as a rotary encoder in combination with the bar code scanner.
See the last entry on the page.


The LEGO 4 Juniors figures (also called Jack Stone figures) are significantly different from regular LEGO minifigures. They are much larger, and are not intended to be taken apart like regular LEGO minifigures. They are closer to the LEGO DUPLO figures in this regard with non-removable head, torso, arms, legs, etc.

Having said that, if you remove the head with a hobby knife (yes, you have to cut through the plastic), the rest of the body can be taken apart into smaller components. Take a look at the picture below to see what a disassembled Jack Stone figure looks like. Source: http://thebrickblogger.com/2011/02/lego-4-juniors-minifig-customization/


This 2x4 plate belongs to the

housing of an old 4.5V train motor.

There are some scratches on the edge of your plate, most likely from an attempt to pry it off with a screwdriver.


Extra pieces in a lot, not sure what to do with them

Yes there is. However, it requires two pieces of knowledge:

You need to understand how BrickLink or BrickSet categorize the 10,000+ types of LEGO bricks in existence. This means knowing the difference between a Brick, a Plate and a Tile, understanding the various Modified versions of these basic types etc.
You need to be able to identify pieces in your stash of bricks that are special or not commonly used. The best candidates are bricks with stickers, as stickers are often special to just one set.

Once you have identified one or more unique pieces, look them up and see which sets they came in. Look through the inventory of those sets to confirm you have most of the other pieces in that set as well, and voila: you have found your set.
Next, go to www.lego.com and download the instruction manual for that set, then build the set to verify its completeness.

Note: if one of the stickered pieces contains a car license plate, or any other sticker with a 4 or 5 digit number on it, chances are that that is the set number. Then just validate that other pieces from this set are also in your pile of bricks.


Can you build accurate models using 100% LEGO elements by following Megablocks instructions?

Not necessarily.

It really depends on what you mean by "accurate."  Most (probably 90% or more) of Mega Bloks elements have identical, or at least functionally identical, LEGO elements.  However, there are a number of Mega Bloks elements that you can only approximate with LEGO elements.  For example, Mega Bloks hinges rotate around the center of mass through 100+ degrees center at the vertical, whereas LEGO hinges rotate through 90 degrees from horizontal to vertical.  Also, Mega Bloks has a SNOT piece with studs on both sides that LEGO unfortunately does not have.

If you are willing to slightly modify the instructions and accept a slightly different model, then yeah, you can reproduce anything made by Mega Bloks using LEGO elements.  But if you want the models to be 100% accurate, then no, not all Mega Bloks sets can thusly be reproduced.


Was there ever a LEGO store in Miami International Airport?

I couldn't find any mention of a full LEGO store in MIA on the web.  Looking at the other logos that are recognizable I would guess that they don't represent full stores, but products available in the existing stores.  I doubt Jack Daniels and Johnny Walker have free-standing stores in the airport.  I don't see any sign that Jack Daniels has any free-standing stores.

There is a Mindworks Toys in MIA which probably sells LEGO sets.  I'd guess that's the source of the logo for this sign.


The first piece is: Minifigure, Weapon Gun, Blaster 1 x 2 x 2/3 with Studs on Sides and Handle

Part # 15071


You're probably the only one who can answer that question, but here are a few thoughts anyway.

If you're interested in mechanic complexity and how machines work, Technic is indeed a good way to go. And as you hint, it can evolve into robotics, whether with a NXT or with anything else you fancy.

If you're after building complexity, I wouldn't recommend the architecture sets. The few I build weren't very challenging, and I find their price a bit on the heavy side. The bigger ones (21005 - Fallingwater or 21010 - Robie House may be more challenging, though.

However, sets with a high number of parts will usually mean the build is more complex. For example, 10214 - Tower Bridge has 4287 parts, and if you compare its price with the 2276-parts Architecture Robie House, you'll find it much more interesting.

Similarly, the various modular buildings also have high parts counts and are fun to build and display afterwards; plus, they go well together when you get the chance to have more than one.

As an aside, notice the "display" aspect I mention is important too - what do you want to do with the set you'll end up buying? If you're after replay value (creating new things constantly, the Creator theme has great sets with good play value, which are reasonably priced.

On the other hand, if you're concerned about your set keeping some value, or if you're a fan, license sets may be a good choice, especially Star Wars which also has some very big and complex sets.

Last, keep in mind LEGO also give age ranges for its sets. They're estimates, but a set marked 16+ is likely to be more challenging to you, so you'll want to look for these. You can easily browse the sets by age on the online LEGO shop, and even set limits for price and number of parts.

In any case, whatever you end up buying, don't hesitate to come back and share your own experience.


What LEGO set do these numbered bags of pieces come from?

These bags don't seem to belong to any specific LEGO set.

First, they are filled very sparsely. Normally LEGO bags are filled with more elements than that depicted here.

Secondly, in bag #3 we clearly see a Plate 6X6 W. Bow in medium lilac:

And a Right Plate 3X8 W/Angle in bright yellow:

But these two parts have never been sold in the same set. These contain the lilac plate, and these the yellow plate.

So the only remaining possibilities are, in order of descending probability:

The bags have been opened and the contents changed (possibly resealed later)
These are not genuine LEGO products (but the bags do have "The LEGO Group" printed on them)
Someone at a LEGO factory has made a grave mistake


Clicking Brick Syndrome after using Raspberry Pi

I successfully did a CPR on the NXT CPU, which was 'bricked' by the 'clicking brick syndrome' after updating the firmware of the NXT 2.0 to 1.31

The USB connection was lost and the PC (Win7 64bit) installed an incorrect driver for the NXT USB connection. If found the solution here:
 https://www.reddit.com/r/FTC/comments/1vvwq9/for_those_who_have_or_have_had_a_clicking_nxt/

After I installed the correct NXT drivers and when I connected the (clicking) NXT I had no connection to the internet and it was recognized as NXT again. I could install the (latest) firmware via the original NXT software. After that I can use the EV3 software as well with my NXT (USB only, no bluetooth)

Hope this helps!


Identify rug pieces in this library scene

It's hard to tell for sure, but I believe that it is Bar Holder with Clip (11090).

The size and shape look about right to me, and it is widely available in those colors.


How many different colours of LEGO bricks are there?

The official LEGO color chart at Peeron has 111 colors listed. There are 14 listed as "transparent" (or "tr"), so - 97.

The Peeron guide also lists CMYK, RGB, HTML Hex Codes (displayed as the sample), and Pantone numbers for each.


Can anyone identify this strangely shaped piece (1970s?)

It's a "Vehicle, Tipper End Flat with Pins". It was used in trains (but not only trains) a long time ago (1969-1982), and I actually have a couple from a train I owned as a kid.


Burning oil is the easier of the two, since the basic flame elements

can connect into a realistically looking stream of liquid fire:

Depicting individual arrows is a lot harder due to the absence of a single arrow piece (aside from the proportionally way oversized harpoon piece), and adding a flame piece is even harder. Your best bet would probably be adding a flame piece, any of the several sizes available to a shield:

Or use a flame piece with a shaft as a combined arrow and flame:

But if 3rd party pieces are not out of question, you can get some convincing results, in this case with Brickarms arrows:


Perhaps you need to add some hysteresis in your sensor loops. Each loop waits for a condition to be met, but then repeats infinity as long as that condition is met. Hysteresis means waiting for another condition to indicate that the sensor has returned to the original state and usually includes a deadband (meaning the positive trigger is not the same as the negative trigger) to filter out noise.

For example, wait for the color sensor to detect black again before repeating the loop with a deadband of 10%:


Is it possible to create your own wheel?

You can always brick-build a wheel.  The curved slope pieces can closely approximate a circle.

For example, 12 4x1 curved slopes gives a circle with a radius of 160 LDUs (8 studs).

For more information on brick-built wheels, I suggest you refer to the "Brick Built LEGO Wheels Book":

http://www.ultimate-design.org/2014/05/unofficial-free-brick-built-lego-wheels.html


EV3 screen stuck at starting after inserting MicroSD card

This could be due to a bad SD card or due to bad flashing software. For example, there was a broken version of the Etcher software in early 2019 that caused the same symptoms [1].


Since no one answered here, I will post an update on what I have done so far. I will update it in the future if that makes sense.

At this point I've recovered the collection to my apartment in Israel. I've started sorting the collection, mostly because after reflection I decided to reframe it as something actually fun to do, as opposed to a chore or something in order to make money (it would probably not be worth the value of my time). After I sort the collection I am considering rebuilding some or perhaps all of my old sets, see what condition they're in and whether and how many pieces are missing.

If there are any rare or valuable sets I may consider selling a few them. That said I have already seen firsthand how much my daughter is enjoying the collection, and it seems I will hold on to most or maybe even all of it. But I won't make a decision for sure until I am done sorting.

I asked this collection on Facebook and received a number of alternative suggestions that were not among those I considered initially:

Donating some or all of the collection to organizations that work with kids
Creating art with it
Opening a LEGO rental business :)
Giving some or all of it away to friends with kids

I will consider some form of hybrid options between these.

I mention these here in case they will help someone else with similar challenges.


Lego Mindstorm NXT cannot connect via bluetooth

I assume you've tried this, but hopefully it will help someone. Make sure that your computer has been added to the brick's trusted devices and your brick has been added to your computer's trusted devices. I haven't got the link to work with "anonymous" devices before; you need to go through the process of entering the PIN.


Is it possible to run more than two remote control trains on one track?

Each remote has 2 separate controls (one for "red" and one for "blue"), and 1 channel setting (choice of channel 1,2,3 or 4). Each train has an IR receiver which has 1 channel setting (again choice of channel 1,2,3 or 4) and two connections, one coded "red" and one coded "blue". From what you describe, you have two trains set both to the same channel (I'm assuming channel 1) but for one train you connected the motor to the "red" connector and for the second train you connected the motor to the "blue" connector. Doing so you can control both trains independently from the same remote, also set to use channel 1 (one with the left control, one with the right control). For the third train, set the channel on the IR receiver on the train to channel 2, and then take another remote and set it to channel 2 as well. Take note of which connector on the IR receiver you used to connect the motor to (the "red" or the "blue" one) and then use that color control on the remote to control the third train.

Alternatively, you can use a separate remote for each train, and assign each remote a different channel (e.g. 1, 2 and 3) and each train IR receiver also a different channel, matching to the channels you chose for the remote (e.g. 1,2 and 3).


For physical manuals, I personally like to use clear presentation sheet protectors similar to the ones that @BradC mentioned. Regarding organization, I place the ones that I refer to frequently in some binders, sorted by theme, while sets that I don't use as much go into a set of hanging file folders.

If you don't mind electronic storage, you could download all of your manuals, either from Lego's site (for sets since 2002), or from other fan sites as noted in this Squidoo page:

  Still no joy? Let's try another site. Go to Worldbricks, choose
  Instructions Number and pick a number range from the dropdown list at
  the top of the screen, or Instructions Theme and pick a starting
  letter from the dropdown list.

  Without knowing the number or name, you can still find the set.
  Several sites provide databases of lego sets which you can search by
  theme, or using a single word you remember from the set name, or even
  just something related. Try LUGNET or Peeron, which will link you to
  instructions once you find the set.

Electronic viewing keeps my manuals in pretty good condition - I minimize touching and only pull them out when I build now, while if I just want to browse, I can fire up my computer.


Is the LEGO Mindstorms EV3 brick waterproof?

No, the LEGO Mindstorms EV3 is NOT waterproof. Any electronic product that is capable of being immersed in water will clearly state in the packaging/manual the level of water protection provided. This may be in the form of an IP Code:

  Ingress Protection Marking, classifies and rates the degree of
  protection provided against the intrusion (including body parts such
  as hands and fingers), dust, accidental contact, and water by
  mechanical casings and electrical enclosures.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_Code

However, it is possible to contain the EV3 brick within a waterproof case, there are already many cases available suited to Smartphones, Tablets, Cameras and other Digital devices.

If your remotely operated underwater vehicle requires some form of propulsion (perhaps from a propeller powered by a EV3 motor) then you may required to make some alterations to the case. Any physical alteration will compromise the waterproofing and safety of the protective case. Do so at your own risk.


There is a new project called Train Poster v2 which is making a new poster with all trains from the 1960's until today. It is still a work in progress as of 2016.


What is the official maximum PAB part limit?

On the U.S. Website, it says that there is not a limit. Are you in, say, Great Britain or elsewhere in Europe? If so, maybe different regions have different limits due to availability and population.


How do I unlock the surprise for advent calendar?

Found it! Here is the link for the December 4th surprise:

https://web.archive.org/web/20170505135238/https://www.lego.com/en-us/friends/activities/downloads/2017-christmas-bi-1


These look like "Blue-Box" , a construction toy from Singapore
From inverso.pt

Blue Box basic elements with a 2X4 LEGO brick on the right

The inside of a "Blue-Box" construction set


This looks like
Plate, Modified 2 x 8 with Door Rail in yellow.

It's not easy to find because you would think it's a 1x8 plate modified rather than a 2x8.

Additional link: Plate, Modified 2 x 8 with Door Rail at rebrickable.


How to debug gears in the Bucket Wheel Excavator?

First of all, let's get some basic questions out of the way:

Do any of the functions work correctly in any directions? If only some functions fail to work, then we can narrow the search to those.
Is this clicking sound present with all functions? If only some functions click, then they must be the culprits.

The surefire way would be to follow the "chain" of mechanical parts from the motor along the gears and axles. As far as I can remember the gearbox is not that complicated or hidden that it would be easier to dismantle and rebuild than to peek inside (maybe after removing some of the decorative panels). So turn on the motor and see if the gears and axles leading to the selected function are moving. Of course if the selected function is working correctly, you can assume that specific chain is complete and correct, so no need to analyze.

Or just operate all functions for a while each and any gear that did not move during this time must be disconnected from the motor.

Another way would be to locate the source of the clicking sound and seeing if that area is built up according to the instructions, as it would be the prime suspect. My model has once experienced a problem with the three parallel grey universal joints connecting the top and bottom halves (which are assembled quite late in the process) where the insert of one of the joints came loose and was turning in its sleeve without transferring any motion but producing a clicking sound. So maybe check that too.


Is the NXT forward compatible with EV3 sensors and motors?

Short answer: you can use EV3 motors with NXT, but you can't use EV3 sensors on NXT. NXT sensors and motors work with EV3.

Detailed answer: read Laurens Valk paper.


Which is better for youngsters to learn - LEGO Mindstorms for LabVIEW or Scratch?

I have used Scratch and I did use Lego Mindstorms. I would prefer Scratch because its easier to learn the codes and there is way more coding blocks. Just that its a bit harder to connect your robot to Scratch so just follow their instructions carefully. Hope this helped.


I was experiencing similar problem with my Windows PC and EV3 brick.

Restart bluetooth on both, PC/Mac and EV3.

Do NOT pair from the brick.
Begin pairing from the EV3 Mindstorm App on your PC/Mac.

It should pair and work as expected.


Why are 2/3 height bricks with studs on the side 2 studs deep?

In the case of 87609, the piece was first used in 2010 as part of the grill/bumper assembly for vehicles that were the standard 6 studs wide. Its length would appear to be a result of its original purpose. Its width also allows for attaching two rows of detail:

99206 showed up first in 2012. Its design allows for a more compact construction in situations like this:

If the piece were only 1x2, it would have to attach to another part above or below it. The extension lets you attach it flush from behind.


Question about a Lego Compatible brand with "B L" logo

My guess is:

bestlock construction bricks, a inferior lego clone brand

Best-lock

logo should be this

the only grey and orange set i found

Space ship

couldn't find the instructions


Light sensors are mainly affected by three independent variables:

Distance between the sensor and the surface
Color of the surface
Amount of ambient light

What this means is, in order to measure one of these things, the other two variables must be held constant. So, in order to measure color, the distance must be constant and the ambient light should be constant.

You can maintain a constant distance between the sensor and the floor by attaching the sensor, pointing downward, to a fixed point on the robot. Simple enough. In my experience the sensor should be about 1cm from the floor for best results.

You can maintain a constant ambient light by avoiding shadows or bright lights. If this isn't possible, you can build a shroud over the sensor to block out external light. You should also recalibrate the sensor at program startup to account for ambient light.

After doing the previous two things, you can measure the reflected light from the surface by shining one of the colored LEDs and taking a sample. Using only 1 LED should be sufficient to detect differences in grayscale, but to actually measure "color" you can quickly cycle between the Red, Green, and Blue LEDs, taking samples with each, to get a crude estimate of the RGB components of the surface.


Why doesn't lego make many 2x2x4 Pieces?

I can't find any evidence that a 2x2x4 piece has ever existed. Bricklink identifies a 2x2x3 brick, and there are many sellers around the world that will happily sell you 16 dark stone grey pieces for pennies/piece.


Kind of.

From the LEGO Group's Corporate Responsibility report:

  Guideline for weapons and conflict in LEGO experiences

  A large number of LEGO minifigures use weapons, and are – assumedly – regularly being charged by each others’ weapons as part of children’s role play. In the LEGO Group, we acknowledge that conflict in play is especially prevalent among 4-9-year-old boys.
  An inner drive and a need to experiment with their own aggressive feelings in order to learn about other people’s aggressions exist in most children. This in turn enables them to handle and recognize conflict in non-play scenarios. As such, the LEGO Group sees
  conflict play as perfectly acceptable, and an integral part of children’s development.

  We also acknowledge children’s well-proven ability to tell play from reality. however, to make sure to maintain the right balance between play and conflict, we have adhered to a set of unwritten rules for several years. In 2010, we have formalized these rules in a guideline for the use of conflict and weapons in LEGO products. The basic aim is to avoid realistic weapons and military equipment that children may recognize from hot spots around the world and to refrain from showing violent or frightening situations when communicating about LEGO products. At the same time, the purpose is for the LEGO brand not to be associated with issues that glorify conflicts and unethical or harmful behavior.

Page 26 of the 2010 report.


Please identify the set or sets, grey 6 x 6 circle and dark red and white curve with vent

The build on the left is from 60002 - Fire Truck - it's the turntable/mount for the ladder:

Based on containing the "Plate 6x6 round", and "Bottom W.Turntable 4x4"

The build on the right is from 60147 - Fishing Boat - it's one of the engines:

It's currently the only set with "Plate W. Bows 2X3½" in New Dark Red.


Which brands (fictional and non-fictional) have appeared in the Town/City theme?

I can't believe that nobody else else has posted the most important real company that appears within the LEGO City theme... the LEGO company itself!

There is a good list of promotional sets on Brickipedia, that includes the set theme. Many of the town / city sets include logos or brand names of real-world companies.

Other sets that include real-world brands (some of which don't count as Town / City, according to the Brikipedia themes list) include:

Esso appeared on some very early sets.
DB (Deutsche Bahn) appears on various trains, including 7725.
Sports sets such as, 3432 which has NBA logos on the player's chests, or 65221 that included a Spalding basketball.
1656 Viking Line cruise ship.
Interfrigo, set 147.


Current LEGO Digital Designer download is missing a lot of parts

Unfortunately LDD has been actively deprecated for quite a number of years and LEGO officially noted they would not be updating the parts set and would, in fact, be removing some parts quite a few years ago.

The only solution is to use one of the alternatives such as any of the options that use the LDraw libraries. One of the more popular right now (for good reason IHO) is Stud.io, which as of the completion of the BrickLink acquisition will be owned by TLG.


How do I get Batman out of DC Comics Super Heroes Character Encyclopaedia without damaging the book?

You simply open the front cover and you can take out the minifigs from the back. It won't damage the book at all.


The material deformation you are seeing is called ‘plasticity’.  It happens when a material under stress is deformed and doesn’t return to its original shape (this would be called elasticity).  In many cases (and it is the case with LEGO ABS plastic), this deformation weakens the material (as mentioned by Kramii).

To fix this part you have to deform it again thus breaking it even more.   Here are two things you could do:

Force it back into shape and put small amount of Krazy Glue in the cracked areas. Hopefully this will fill the gaps and give some strength back to the gear.
You could sacrifice an axle and glue (Krazy Glue) it permanently.  This would strengthen the gear a lot but condemn it to only be used with that axle.

I have a bunch of those small gears, I wish I could just give you one.


Good EV3 iBook for programming or building

First answer is google: FLL EV3 PDF
EV3 and PDF are obvious. FLL is short for FIRST Lego League, which may or may not be for "playing field style robots".
Clinics for coaches and kids at HighTechKids.org use FLL Programming 101 as a starting point.
The EV3 is new enough, that some of the best programming advice for FLL is directed at the NXT.


Is it possible to add block to the on-brick "NXT Program" menu?

There is a piece of software called ICON (archived copy) which runs on the NXT and allows you to create programs on the NXT with many more commands than the built-in NXT programmer.


This is a Minitalia brick - Lego produced different bricks for a while in the seventies for Italy (per Gary Istok's latest information: because the original LEGO was deemed too expensive). Minitalia bricks have weaker plastic (which shows on the studs on your brick) and don't use the Tube system underneath the brick, but an older patent which has the X marks. The gripping power of the X marks is less good, but you will find that the X marks actually allow for half-stud offsets, which you cannot do with the tube bricks :). All this is detailed in Gary's wonderful book/DVD


It can be programmed, but it requires specialized equipment

Here is one connected to a circuitboard

The external board is wired straight to the internal board. It plays the "doorbell then dog bark" sound from the brick in set 5771 - Hillside House.

Searching the number on the chip (39VF020) reveals it's a simple flash memory chip.

The board (AMA9AA) brings up pages from a Chinese company, Alpha Microelectronics, thatseems to specialize in voice/sound synthesizing hardware. There are references to software called EZSpeech and FlashWriter. There are download links for the software on their website, but they are password protected.

(by mpfirnhaber on Eurobricks)

This not LEGO related hobby store can make them with custom sounds
TopdragonHK


The NXT actually uses IEEE 794 32-bit floating point number format in little endian byte order. I like using this site for conversions.

So, to decode your messages:

  TX: 00 09 00 05 60 EA 00 00 00

Byte 0: 0x00 - response required

Byte 1: 0x09 - write message command

Byte 2: 0x00 - Mailbox 1

Byte 3: 0x05 - Message size of 5 bytes

Bytes 4-7: 0x60 0xEA 0x00 0x00 - since this is little endian, reverse the bytes, 0x0000EA60, which plugged into the conversion site gives us 8.4078E-41

Byte 8: 0x00 - null terminator

Then you add 1.0 on the NXT and return the result.

  RX: 02 13 00 00 05 00 00 80 3F 00 ... (zeroes)

Byte 0: 0x02 - return packet

Byte 1: 0x13 - message read command

Byte 2: 0x00 - success

Byte 3: 0x00 - Mailbox 1

Byte 4: 0x05 - message size of 5 bytes

Bytes 5-8: 0x00 0x00 0x80 0x3F - again, little endian, so reversing bytes gives 0x3F800000 and plugging in to the calculator gives 1.0

Bytes 9-63: 0x00... - padding

So, it looks like the NXT is doing exactly what you actually told it (8.4078E-41 + 1.0 = 1.0) rather than what you thought you told it (60000 + 1 = 60001).

Plugging 60000.0 into the calculator, it looks like your message should be

TX: 00 09 00 05 00 60 6a 47 00


Which program do I use to program my rcx 1.0 or 1.5

You really have two major choices:

Try to acquire, install, and run the official Lego software for the RCX.
Use some third-party tool to develop programs that can be uploaded and run on the brick.

(1) is getting harder and harder to do on modern computers. Personally, I would not bother trying.

(2) means choosing some third-party tooling. The other answer that refers to BricxCC falls into this category. (You should check out the "RCX" section at that link for more information.) Many of the third-party tools for the RCX brick are pretty much no longer under active development.

But this does not mean that they don't work, or aren't useful.

Some decisions you need to make are: do you need an IDE? Are you comfortable at the command line? What platform will you be hosting the development tools on? Do you want to use the default firmware, or use a third-party that replaces the default firmware?

For example, there is a tool called NQC which is a C-like language and brick API with a facility for uploading compiled brick programs and firmwares to all RCX bricks. It can also set the clock, launch specific programs stored on the brick, and even use the brick as a datalogger. It requires an RCX 1.0, 1.5 or 2.x compatible firmware.

LeJOS is a tiny Java compiler and runtime that needs its own firmware which it loads onto the brick. I think people have figured out how to use Eclipse as an IDE for LeJOS.

Full disclosure: I maintain my own fork for NQC on GitHub, and I'm pretty sure it is the only fork under semi-active development. If you need official firmwares for the RCX brick, I've included them in this project as a convenience. Remember that you can use any compatible firmware on a 1.0 or 1.5 brick. That is, if you want a 2.x brick, just install the 2.x firmware.


What is the writing on this sticky note tile?

First trace of that piece is in LEGO Olivia's Exploration Car Set 41116. It featured stickied on an astronomy-oriented map.

Probably a bullet point list, and the second word might be Mars ?. No idea about the first one

It was also released in other sets at around the same time, one of those is Emma Creative Workshop 41115-1

In that case the sticky note is in a girly room/workshop, and it could conceivably be a list of two character names, Ian and Marc, as @V2Blast said in the commands. These sets are part of the Heartlake stuff of LEGO Friends, I don't know if there are two characters with these names.

And, in the end, it's probably left vague deliberately, after all it's LEGO, where we are supposed to create new stuff from their bricks, not be constrained by the sticky note's words. As an examples this sticky notes brick is also used in a LEGO Ideas (Old Fishing Store), where it is on top of the cash register, and it's clearly not used for what's written on the note (Ian, Marc or Mars), just as a generic sticky note.


In my understanding of the question, you want to take an existing LEGO velociraptor and repaint it, but you are afraid that doing a custom paint job will rub off quickly.

There is no easy solution for this, but here are a few tips:

You could send an email to the guys at minifigs.me and see if they would be willing to help you with this, either as a one-off job (but it will cost you) or as an offering they wish to add to their collection. Their contact form is [here].(http://minifigs.me/make-me-a-minifig/contact/)
You could try and do this yourself. Removing the existing print from
a raptor fig should be relatively easy (this article at
Eurobricks
recommends Brasso and a paper towel/rag/cotton ball) even though
that is very mildly abrasive and hence might leave some minor
scratches. Brickjournal ran a series
of articles back in 2008 about minifig customization - I found this
online
copy that explains how to give LEGO pieces a new paint color - they
recommend acrylic paint. I also found this link describing how to prime & paint LEGO minifigures. They recommend priming and sealing on top of an acrylic paint job.
To get the finer details, consider using a Sharpie pen.

Net - Customizing your velociraptor is definitely possible, but there is no "ready-to-go" customization service for this yet. Doing it yourself can be done, but it is not easy nor quick to do this, especially not if you're doing it the first time. Definitely not a job for kids.


Can you identify the parts for this red wizard?

Hair :

Part # 16691pb01

Minifigure, Hair Long with Nougat Headband Pattern

Head :

Part # 3626cpb0931

Minifigure, Head Dual Sided Black Eyebrows, Cheek Lines, Chin Dimple, Determined / Bared Teeth with Red Eyes Pattern (Superman) - Hollow Stud

Gem:

Part # 30153

Rock 1 x 1 Jewel 24 Facet
in Transred


Motorized speedboat from Technic Catamaran alternate model?

With a few Power Functions elements and a pair of propellers, I was able to build a motorized boat similar to the alternate model.

1x: 8881 Power Functions Battery Box
2x: 8883 Power Functions M-Motor
1x: 8884 Power Functions IR Receiver
1x: 8885 Power Functions IR Remote Control
2x: 30332 Propeller 3 Blade 9 Diameter

See it in action!
click to watch the video
Pictures
floating, side view
floating, front view
Close-up pictures on how it's built
propeller motor closeup
center structure closeup
Conclusion
Overall it works pretty well, and the hulls are surprisingly resistant to water leaking inside of them. The only major issue is that direct sunlight can interfere with the IR receiver at a distance. As an alternative, the IR receiver and remote could be substituted with something third-party like an S-Brick (uses Bluetooth). I didn't have any of the smaller and lighter LEGO Powered UP controller and motors, but with some redesigning that could also be an option (also Bluetooth).
I also hope that someday LEGO will make some propellers which are a better size/shape for use with water, and maybe this boat could go a little faster!


Options for sorting old and new versions of colors

I too think you answered yourself partially.

You don't want 6 separate containers for these colors, which seems sensible; but on the other hand you admit yourself you mix some other colors when they are easily distinguished. Which I fully agree on: the first sort you should make is by part type anyway, and only afterward, if you have too much of a part, you may want to split the heap by colors - but not necessarily all colors, since your goal there is just to split a big heap to keep it manageable.

So how do you decide which colors to put together? Again, you hinted at it yourself: colors that are too similar are best separated. So you'll for example have a container with black, yellow and red parts (guess which country I'm from ;-)), and another with dark blue, orange and white.

Another possible option is if there is one color which is predominant: if I have, for example, 1000 1x2 blue bricks, while I have only 500 of 1x2 bricks of all other colors combined, then maybe setting the blue apart make sense. And even then, the best is probably to set 900-950 aside, even in a ziploc bag, and put the remainder with the other colors. The ziplog bag will probably stay unopened until I get a project which requires a massive amount of 1x2 blue bricks. (Actually, it's a real example, I did exactly that, and ended up using the blues for a smooth river)

So what does this leave you with the old/new color issue? Simple: you make two containers, labeled "old" (with Light Grey, Dark Grey, and Brown) and "new" (Light Bluish Grey, Dark Bluish Grey, Reddish Brown). That way, you have no problem knowing if it's old or new, and mixing these three colors shouldn't be a problem.


What set are these large quarter circle curved bricks from?

Few pieces to be certain, but I believe it's from the set Maula's Ice Mammoth Stomper (70145):

https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?S=70145-1


How to build ar Z6 (TR-8R) riot control baton for 75114 (First Order Stormtrooper)?

You could use the Chima sword:

Perhaps with the gun/torch as a handle:


How does the LEGO Super Mario figure know which power up is attached?

The Mario element has six switches on the front:

The inside of the pants in the power-up sets include six plastic ridges that can be either high or low. They interact with the switches on Mario's torso in much the same way as the cuts on a key interact with a particular lock. The torso reads the pattern on the buttons to determine the power-up state. Here's an example showing the six ridges on the regular pants from the starter set and the ridges on Cat Mario:

The switches expect the following states for each of the pants elements (bits are read from left to right when looking at Mario):

Bit Pattern
Power-up

000000
None

001100
Propeller

010001
Cat

010010
Fire

100001
Normal

100010
Builder

Power-ups can be emulated by holding in the correct buttons. The play experience won't be great, but this could be used to see what a power-up does if you don't own it.
There's more detail on exactly what is read and presented via the Bluetooth interface on Shinichiro Oba's Github.
It's worth noting that the included hats are for decoration only. They have no impact on behavior, and there is no mechanism for them to be detected or identified.


Custom EV3 Block: "Unable to compile..." ("string subsection")

A temporary fix I found that works: using the provided "gray blobs", there is one named "PBRStringAtIndex" (or something like that) which will indeed compile (EV3 only). This does not address the similar "write at index" issue, and the output is a "byte" (presumably ASCII), not text.

(I will update this answer as I find out more.)


Can't link variable inside a switch when creating a new block

To get technical, this thing (pictured below) is a "parameter", not a "variable".

"Variables" look like this:

You can use a data wire to write the parameter value to a variable before the switch block and then read the variable inside of the nested switch blocks. Something like this...


As a buyer on BrickLink you place your order to the seller, who then must acknowledge your request and quote you a full price (including any taxes, shipping costs, or other fees; most buyers will lists these additional cost details on their individual seller page) if you don't like the price they quote, you can walk away.  If you agree then you need to give them the money.

Most of the payments on BrickLink are processed through PayPal, which for all of its many faults, consistently sides with buyers over sellers in cases of disputes, so you can not only dispute any problems using BrickLink's resolution tools, but also with PayPal to get your money back.

BrickLink also has a feedback and reputation system you can use to check a sellers previous sales; so you can see if the buyer has any negative feedback or problem orders, but also it can show you how much volume they are processing.  Someone making a lot of sales is likely to take the process very seriously.  BrickLink tends to take non responsive sellers NRS or non paying buyers NPB very seriously, if you receive 3 of these complaints your buying or selling privileges will be permanently revoked, so someone with a large positive BrickLink reputation, likely isn't having these problems.  BrickLink has a whole section on Problem Resolution you could read through if you are concerned in how the different processes work.

Also, if you are concerned about buying from another country, BrickLink allows you to filter sellers based on country.  Buying from only your country will likely limit what is available, but it can make the process simpler in terms of shipping, customs, and different currencies.


These are from
42098: Car Transporter

Key parts

24116 - Technic, Panel Curved 3 x 5 x 3 in Blue and Light Gray

15458 - Technic, Panel Plate 3 x 11 x 1 in Dark Azure


Train level crossing using 2021 road plates

It occurred to me that you could use 8-stud-long tiles, tilted ~3 degrees, resting on plates at different heights.
Side view from a quick LeoCAD mock-up:

Since clipping the tile to plates at different heights might stress the tile, I suggest to place it resting on top of tiles at different heights.

Edit: After several iterations, I think the ramp should be better made out of 2x4 tiles, resting on top of tiles at the railtrack side, and free-standing at the roadplate side, like so:

That's trivially built with 1x4 tiles, 4x8 plates and 1x8 plates.
There are variations of this kind of ramp, depending on the parts available. For example, the following uses 15068 2x2 Slope, curved instead of tiles. I'm assuming the slope would help the ramp to slide in place a bit better, plus the 2x2 plates help the ramp to not slide alongside the track:

Note, in the image above, how the tiniest bit of yellow plate is visible to the right of the blue slope - that means the assembly is so slightly over 8 studs long (when tilted), which makes it pretty much impossible to use hinges for the ramp.

A similar anti-slide arrangement can be made roadside. I suggest using 32028 1x2 plate with door rail, on both sides of a 1x10 plate, with tiles on top, like so:

I guess that could be easily replaced with "1x1 plate with teeth".


It's hard to answer this definitively without a picture identifying the exact parts you have, but this sounds a lot like the set Rocket Base (358-1) from 1973:

That was one of the first space themed sets. The round parts are similar to what you've described. It looks like an obvious tribute to the Apollo program, though it isn't licensed or branded that way.


How do I know when current sets will retire?

The LEGO Shop online website has a page where you can see which sets are marked as 'Retiring Soon'.

 USA - LEGO Shop

 UK - LEGO Shop


Examples of LEGO Rubber Bands Used For Friction Enclosure?

I personally would steer clear of a "cookie jar" setup.  The very suggestion of it's inherent qualities suggests something that wasn't meant to transport, but rather sit on a solid counter.  The rubber bands aspect seems potentially problematic as well.  Finding one that perfectly fits could prove difficult, and their elasticity would likely try to pinch in-between the tolerances of the bricks.  A rubber O-ring, being thicker and firmer, would be better suited for this task.  Personally I would opt for simple proven concepts that don't require guesswork and avoid potentially temperamental solutions.  If you did manage to figure out a working snug fit, you then would need a big gaudy handle sticking out to remove it with.

That being said, I threw together an example of a proven method for a removable door.  It would also incorporate your original idea of wanting a snap for peace of mind.

It's just a very basic design to prove a concept, one that's easy to improve upon.  One nice thing about this design is that you don't need a handle to open it, it un-clicks with just the friction of your fingers.

If you really want a cookie jar style lid I would incorporate a few studs onto a tiled edge, similar to how Modular sections are held together.  I would suggest the lid have an inner lip to increase stability.  Again, proven methods.


Can I store LEGO in negative (minus) Celsius?

Generally yes, as long as:

there are no electronics inside (like Power Functions, Mindstorms, etc.)
the temperature stays below freezing
you allow plenty of time in dry environment to thaw out

No, if the temperature rides up and down and you want to keep the box and paper booklet intact - it will draw moisture with each thaw cycle.

No if electronics, especially with integrated lithium batteries, are involved (but even without batteries it's not good to freeze electronic components).

LEGO is made of ABS and sometimes some other general purpose plastics. They become brittle when cold, but go back to normal once temperature returns to room levels.


Does my child need a smart device to control LEGO Powered Up train sets?

No, a smart device is not required to control train sets 60197 and 60198. These include a standalone Powered Up remote control:

This provides much of the same functionality as a smart device. From the FAQ:

  The LEGO® Powered Up remote control works a lot like how you would use your smart device (mobile phone or tablet for example) to control any other electronic device via Bluetooth technology. If you connect the remote control to the Smarthub in the train, you can control the speed or stop the train.

However, there are some features that are only available from a smart device:

  The app does provide you with additional features, such as sounds, and the ability to see how fast the train is travelling from 0-10 increments.


NXT screen either flickering or blank, what do I do?

Here are the two easiest options:

Replace it. Contact LEGO, and tell them of your problem. I've
hear many success stories from people who did this, and LEGO
replacing it for free. For one person, it took a week to arrive, but
for another, three days. Note that if you want to keep your old NXT,
you'll have to have the receipt. If you don't have the receipt, then
you'll have to send them your deffective NXT. Also, if you did not
buy your NXT directly from LEGO, (i.e. Ebay) they will not replace
it for free, but rather ask that you pay them to repair it.
Repair it. If you have a soldering kit, then get it out, and follow
the instructions in this video. It worked for me the first try.


Is there a web service showing me the LEGO set with the most parts?

Brickset has a data mining page which sorts sets by certain factors including new sets, unreleased sets, most minifigures in a set, best/worst price ratio and best British pound to American dollar exchange rates.

The sets with the most pieces can be found here. As of December 2018, the set with the most parts is the Star Wars 75192 Millennium Falcon, with 7541 pieces.


What is this light and sound LEGO brick?

That is actually two parts 30351 Electric, Light & Sound Rocket Engine and 30353 Battery Box Cover. That sound and light brick was made in 1999 and only ever came in two sets.

If you look through the assortment you got you might find the Rocket Engine Nozzle that goes with it.

Image from Brick Instructions.


Without pictures it would be extremely hard to tell, especially since both dark and light gray are very common colors. However you might be able to identify some of the dark-blue color pieces to see which set the bag is from. Dark-blue is a much less common color than the grays, so it would be quicker to identify what you have. The fact that it is a #7 bag seems to indicate that it is coming from a larger set.

What I would do is look at the dark-blue pieces and find one that is NOT a common piece (so anything that is NOT a plate, tile or brick). Then go to the BrickLink color-guide for dark-blue pieces, and find the one you have. From there you will see which sets the part comes in. Identify another 3-5 less common pieces, and you should be able to see which set the bag is from. Here is the list to all the elements that come in dark-blue: http://www.bricklink.com/catalogList.asp?catType=P&colorPart=63&v=3


How can I open part #53500 and replace the battery?

I found this Youtube video
Piraka eye replacement
and this article on bzpower.com
How to Replace the Battery in Piraka Eyes

The battery used is a CR927 3V Lithium Battery placed + side up.
First, take a tiny flat-head screwdriver and place the tip of it within one of the two inward crevasses on the backside of the piece, and slide the head of the screwdriver up to the round circular portion of the piece which holds the battery. Once this is done hook the tip of the screw driver inwards and carefully pull up, the outward plastic of the second half may bend as you are doing this, however from my experience it is unlikely to be predominately bent in any major way or snap, but it's probably best not to bend it too much. Once the bottom portion of the piece has been separated you may continue to remove it, or just let it open enough for the old battery to be able to fall out and so you can place the new one in, + side up like the old one.
Once the new battery is in place snap the two halves of the piece back together, during this the battery may jostle around a bit, but just as long as you have a steady hand it's unlikely to misalign greatly, let alone fall out. Also during the process of snapping it back together the connection between the battery and metal prongs may activate, giving you a glimpse of the light emitted from the piece now. Once you have the two halves together into one with the new battery in-place, you can now test the light capability of the piece, and if all went well you can now use it properly again.


Can we program Nxt2 in C++ under Visual studio 2010?

I think that all you might need is the Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio. The examples that I could find all refer to C#, VB.Net, or the included VPL languages but there isn't any reason you wouldn't be able to reference the same objects from managed C++.

It does look like there might not be a full set of services for all of the more recent parts judging from some of the comments in one of the examples that I saw, but the author of that article does have a few other notes elsewhere.

After installing and playing around with it a bit myself, I did find a link to the MSDN documentation for using NXT with MRDS that you can look through before you get started. (I wasn't able to give much of it a try yet because I'm out of batteries with my NXT brick.)

Beyond that a Google search for "mrds nxt" found the following likely useful items:

CodeProject example (C#) with a link to a previous article on the same site.
An MSDN tutorial.
A whole slew of examples on CodePlex


Help needed on identifying parts and assemblies, yellow Technic pieces and teal lobster?

The right assembly is from set 8225 - Road Rally V from 1995.

The middle assembly is likely a MOC, there is no set that I can find which includes this build with the 2 1x4x2 Fence pieces with only 2 studs in either Dark Gray or Dark Bluish Gray.

The crab-like item on the left is from set 8268 - Scorpion Attack, also from 1995.


LEGO Mindstorms EV3 crashes on OS X El Capitan

Check if you have Silverlight plugin on your mac:

Access your hard drive
Double-click the hard drive icon on your desktop
Find the plugin
Navigate to your Internet Plug-Ins directory: /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/

If installed:

Remove the plugin
Drag any of the following into your trash bin:

Silverlight.plugin

Then dowload and install the Silverlight plugin from here:

https://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/

If not ok remove and reinstall Mindstorms software.


Why do some minifigs have grey hands and some yellow?

Hand colors other than yellow are generally used to either match skin tone in licensed themes, or to represent some sort of gloves. The police officer you mentioned is probably "wearing" some sort of motorcycle or driving glove:

When minifigs were first introduced in the late 70s, the only ones to have non-yellow hands were the space minifigs:


Rebrickable has inventory of elements included with this book. This website has also an options to add these elements to wanted list for Bricklink as well as BrickOw. Each element has links to both websites (Bricklink and BrickOwl) so use the one you prefer to acquire elements you actually need.
Once you know the element you need you could also buy them directly from LEGO via "Bricks & Pieces" found on LEGO Support page. Although it is a bit slightly more complicated since book doesn't have a set number and you have to look up each element individually.


AFAIK those "bead glues" work on a completely different principle where the sheen on the individual beads is a water-activated glue and so the finished piece needs to be sprayed with just clean water to adhere the beads together.

There are a number of "weak glues" known which could be worth a try:

thick sugar syrup (naturally water soluble, thus removable)
a mixture of baking flour and water (similarly water soluble)
from this answer comes a recommendation for the "Spray and Play" glue, which can be found for sale online but whose website has since gone rogue. Probably due to the negative feedback received on Amazon.

Of course, for any of the above I'd recommend trying with a few pairs of expendable bricks, whose total cost might be lower than any one of your prized collectibles.

Another avenue would be to increase the clutch power to prevent the separation of the pieces. For example you could place thin pieces of paper, saran wrap or tinfoil between the LEGO pieces that need to be held together. The additional material will prevent the pieces from returning to their original shapes, this tension will make accidental separation harder. And if you get the size of the insert small enough and the placement precise enough, nothing will stick out from between the bricks and so the insert will not degrade the display value.


Why are different ID informations printed in the inside of the same sort of bricks?

On newer pieces (maybe also the newest of the ones you show), there's a number identifying the mold and one identifying the position in the mold, allowing LEGO to trace a problem all the way back and examine the mold if a high number of errors seem to come the same mold.


Can Lego soccer (football) parts be used for anything other than soccer?

The green parts are great to make a green smooth field, which is kinda obvious. Landscaping is one usage, and if you find it too uniform, don't forget you can cover some areas with additionnal hills or whatever. The Technic hole in there can come handy as you can easily attach something in it. Since it'll rotate freely, your added decoration can even be placed at an angle. Trees come to mind too: you can attach them to the Technic hole too, and maybe fill the green curved area with brown 1x1 round plates to symbolize earth.

The fact that it's green isn't always the most important aspect; sometimes you'll just need a big horizontal flat surface just for its flatness. I've used some of these parts (tan ones) to create a flat layer udner a SNOT river (basically a wall of blue bricks on the side). Doing that with 2x2 tiles would have been cumbersome, and more importantly I could use parts which I usually have no use for. In my specific case, the fact that they can be attached on duplo bricks was a plus.

The minifig stands aren't that much useful, but the spring in them means you can hope to build interesting mechanisms, especially projectile ones. Have a look at the instructions of set 7020 — Army of Vikings with Heavy Artillery Wagon, the designer of that set did an excellent missile launcher with it.

Don't get me started on what to do with the soccer balls.


Made a big program in EV3's programming software for AI creation and it went from slow to not loading

The answer is EV3's software allows putting many blocks into 1 myblock to be a program in a program. It's fast as slim silk sleek now.

How could it be that no-one nor tech support nor reps knew the answer!?

There is no limit now.


I assume you are talking about Lego Digital Designer since you mention "extend theme". Also assuming the design ID is correct (6163991) according to your screenshot and also the brickset database, searching for it in LDD in the search bar with updated bricks database and indeed in extended mode does not produce any results. I think it safe to conclude that the element is not present in the LDD bricks database. This happens, perhaps this will be corrected in a following database update but those only happen very sporadically anymore. Could be that the design ID is incorrect, which could be figured out by using the "Replace parts" service of lego, but this service isn't available this time of the year.


9398 4x4 Crawler front wheels rotate in the opposite direction to the rear wheel

Likely you'll have the differential gears oriented wrong in the front or back section.

The differential gear is this piece:

Please check the instructions carefully and see if the orientation of this piece in the instruction book matches your build.


LEGO part counts on boxes without treads

The "realest" of the real part count for any piece is always located somewhere in the back of the instruction booklet piece manifest.

Look at middle row last piece bottom, where it says we're gonna need 108x 6014648.

Wow, this thing looks cool!  Have fun!!

Source:
LEGO instructions - Technic - 42069 - Extreme Adventure (Model 1) by LEGO instructions - Fan - Site.


That's 18649 - Plate, Modified 1 x 2 with Handles on Ends


Welcome. You can sell these easily on EBay, just mention in the description that the sets will be shipped assembled. Two things to keep in mind:

Since most shipping costs are calculated by box dimensions, your shipping costs will likely be higher than when you ship the sets broken down.
Please make sure these sets are NOT glued ... you do not have to mention this in your listing, but absolutely should if they are (even if they are only partially glued).

I have personally bought both assembled used sets as well as disassembled ones, and have no preference. I always disassemble and wash before I reassemble. The only issue I faced was when I bought a set and it turned out to be partially glued, which was not mentioned in the listing. That was an easy SNAD case (Significantly Not As Described) and a full refund from the seller.


Which of the LEGO Mindstorms 9797 (NXT Education base set) Software is compatible with Windows 10

You're in luck; All versions of the NXT software, including drivers, is compatible with 64-bit Windows 10. While in my experience it wasn't necessary, you can preemptively avoid installation problems by right-clicking "Setup.exe" and clicking Properties -> Compatibility -> Run in compatibility mode for: -> Windows XP SP3 . In the same panel you should select "Run as Administrator" to avoid permission problems.

While the EV3 software is backward-compatible with the NXT, the NXT software is a much better option. Certain NXT options are not available using the EV3 software (like bluetooth support). And in my experience, the NXT software is just more stable anyway.


Eurobricks has a very large list of official LEGO sets recreated in LDD by community members. I found it extremely useful. Look through the list and search for sets by set number and/or name: https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/41226-key-topic-official-lego-sets-made-in-ldd/


Trying to ID a piece, picture included. 1x4 pillar

That is a
6070327: Stick Ø3.2 2Mm W/Knob And Tube


The figure holding the lightsaber is composed of the head and hair of Anakin Skywalker from the Clone Wars series:

the torso of Luke Skywalker as a Jedi Knight:

and a pair of dark gray legs on medium gray hips:

The clone figure has the torso of a shock trooper from Ep 3.:

But I couldn't find the helmet.


Here are some examples that caught my attention in the last years:

Cambridge scientists are using LEGO Mindstorms in their lab instead of a professional robot, saving them large amounts of money.
The Kno tablet development team is using a LEGO rig to perform automated stress tests on their devices.
University of Southhampton is using LEGO bricks as the structural frame for a cheaper supercomputer (warning: they use the word legos).
Building custom encasing for electronics like this monster three-motherboard PC.
For automatic milling and sculpting, there are also plenty of examples of LEGO CNC machines. They can be used to prototype parts, make molds, etc. Here's one.
A loom machine to produce usable weaved cloths — pictures, video.
Pheromone Labs is using LEGO Mindstorms 2.0 to perform automated tests of a tablet app — link, video.
Low-cost nanoscope at UCL (news, main page)
Handling insect specimens (link)
UV-Vis spectrometer (Link)
Braille Printer (Link)


Problem with running two XL motors motors

As others have said, it's difficult know what is going without seeing your design. I would expect what you have described to work, but it is possible that your design is overloading the over current protection in the battery box.

PF battery boxes are designed to provide 800mA. Any more than this, and they have protection built in to cut power and prevent damage.

LEGO indicated that the XL motors draw 300mA under normal conditions, and Philo has the stalled current listed at 1800mA. A single stalled XL motor can overload the battery box, and two of them working hard can easily as well. See this answer for more information.

As a quick check, if you disconnect the motors from your car so that they can just run free, are they able to both run as expected? This should work fine and draw only 160mA if everything is connected and working properly. If not, one of your components must be performing abnormally or not be connected properly. As others have said, a photo would help us diagnose connection or build issues.


What element is this a piece of, and how can I repair it?

It's difficult to tell exactly what part this fragment came from, but it looks like it is part of a broken Technic gear or pulley. It looks like it probably came from 3736:

Your fragment looks like it was probably once one half of the center axle hole of that part.

In terms of repair, I suppose you could try to glue this back together, but given that the part was likely bent as well as broken, this is unlikely to work well. Luckily, this part is common, abundant, and cheap, so it's trivial to replace via Bricklink if you are so inclined.

If this part broke under relatively normal conditions, you could also request a replacement via LEGO customer service. I've done this in the past for parts that have broken while building, and TLG has been happy to ship me replacements at no cost.