Raspberry Pi Controlled Lego Train with Build HAT

While working on a previous project, Katie spotted a motor compatible with model trains, and then remembered that the Duplo trains she and her children played with used a color sensor as part of their control system. With that idea in mind and a Raspberry Pi, a Pi Build HAT, and the Lego train motor 88011 in hand, Katie modifies the Lego Hogwarts Express Train (set 75955) to run autonomously based on sensing colored Lego tiles! bit.ly/3cvJYNl
element14 presents episode 465: Lego Raspberry Pi HQ Camera bit.ly/32XnEVI
element14 presents episode 543: Lego Spike Prime Weather Station with Raspberry Pi bit.ly/3uiKQtW
Engage with the element14 presents team on the element14 Community - suggest builds, find project files, and see behind the scenes video: bit.ly/3tmdewv
Visit the element14 Community for more great activities and free hardware: bit.ly/3q6YMpu
Tech Spotlights: bit.ly/3qPrDhM
RoadTest and Reviews: bit.ly/3pV5Bux
Project14: bit.ly/31wbnJY
#0:00 Welcome to element14 presents
#0:21 Overview
#1:14 The Idea
#3:56 The Parts
#5:38 Testing and Code!
#9:25 Build the Train!
#11:17 Modifying the Lego
#16:36 Running the Train!
#18:37 Give your Feedback
#raspberrypi #raspberrypiprojects #lego #modeltrains #modeltrainsets #harrypotter #hogwartsexpress

[@philhutchinson7849]

Thats so cool, it really adds to the Harry Potter Lego Train set. Adds a lot of automation it needed.

[@Hacker-at-Large]

There’s a lot of history connecting nerds and model railroading. The Tech Model Railroad Club (TMRC) was started in 1946 at MIT.

[@hifromkatie]

It seems to be 2 topics which share a large section of their fan base. My sons just getting into model railways, so we've started going to local exhibitions

[@danielv3228]

Neat train. My dad and a friend in the 50/60's made it into popular mechanics with a voice activated train they built in high school. It was based on syllables. "Stop" "Backward" "Go Forward" was said and the model train did just that. This was a very fun update to that and a nice reminder.

[@hifromkatie]

Voice activated sounds awesome, glad it was a nice reminder for you.

[@Workshopshed]

Fantastic project. Love the use of coloured tiles.

[@lorrainbow]

Great video! Also, how did I never know about the Duplo train?! #want

[@hifromkatie]

I believe the electronic one has been a fairly recent addition to the line up.

[@CMM1215]

Wonderful build! Can imagine this being so much fun!!

[@justovision]

Awesome! Having some state logic like "If I see a slow down after a reverse ignore it and if I see a stop after a reverse reverse again" would be fun.

[@GreatScawt]

Incredible build! And so well explained. Really great job.

[@prestonknodelliii838]

You have a lot more patience and attention to detail than I do. Nice build.

[@tseckwr3783]

Keep up the good work.

[@DAVIDGREGORYKERR]

You could use glue to lock all the bricks together to stop anyone from disassembling the train.

[@pratikbhatt9638]

A very very cool Project 👏

[@Vancha112]

Have to watch this later, thanks!

[@trafficface]

With projects like this I’ll never finish my other 50 projects this is so cool!!

[@GeorgeGraves]

Love it!

[@danieladams1501]

Brillant !

[@a531016]

Awesome build!

[@BLX187]

Fun lil build. would be nice to see this on a bigger scale with multiple trains running

[@hifromkatie]

That would be awesome. It's made me think, you could have tiles with markings on to detect location on the track so they would know where they were, and inform the other trains of their location when going on to single track lines etc

[@georgef7754]

Superb.

[@ctheroux]

Hi, great project. Brings back the kid in me. Thanks

[@jugnu361]

great work

[@PaulGrayUK]

Great project, more so as can get the kids involved building the train, then overnight you can add the magic.

[@hifromkatie]

Fun for all the family!

[@maxcipolla2198]

WOOW !!!!!!

[@Twoloosebricks]

planning on making this but with arduino instead of pi. looks interesting all the same.

[@ericvenneker]

My son has this train, now we only need a pi, build hat and a lego motor! Thank you for this great idea!

[@hifromkatie]

You should definitely go for it if you've already got the train!

[@ericvenneker]

@@hifromkatie we will definitely do it but first I have to get my 199x Lego tgv with rails from storage, otherwise the train will be difficult to control 🤭

[@hifromkatie]

@@ericvenneker Good plan!

[@dsdmtom]

How did you guess that I was just about to start on this project myself? Thank you for your awesome ideas!

[@hifromkatie]

Hope it's helpful :) Would be great to see what you do

[@awo1fman]

That's awesome! It should be much more reliable than mechanical switches and is much simpler and easier than having to use an app. At the same time it's incredibly flexible and can easily and instantly be "reprogrammed" just by dropping tiles anywhere along the track. Well done!

[@hifromkatie]

Yes, I love how quickly it can be changed, the kids can do it themselves super easily too

[@lovemadeinjapan]

Do you know if you can program the 2040 on the HAT itself? I don't want the ballast and sluginesh of a Debian OS with this. Let us control the microcontroller itself. Way more efficient.

[@urrgamestreaming3657]

...🤣 W0W U ROCK, NEW SUBSCRIBER

[@jyvben1520]

waiting for lego jet engines to power the millennium falcon ... or anti gravity , might be doable with magnetic levitation to simulate flying ... Scranton did a paper airplane ejection system ...

[@hifromkatie]

a levitating millennium falcon would be cool, we've got a Lego Millennium falcon here (well 2, in different sizes)

[@romiolover6852]

Hi pi pico will do the job.

[@hifromkatie]

You could do it with the pico, it wouldn't be a direct swap though, without the build hat you'd need an alternative motor driver, and cut the Lego connector off the motor to wire it in directly. You'd also need to rewrite the program to run on a microcontroller rather than the pi as well

[@electronicsfactsanalysis]

Please background music Please link