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Show HN: I hacked my son’s Duplo train to go faster using my voice

benjamin-dals-hughes.gitbook.io

31–38 of 38 posts

Re: Show HN: I hacked my son’s Duplo train to go faster using my voice

#31
post #30
post #14

Great job! Now apply it to a roller coaster

Lego had https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/roller-coaster-10261 which wouldn't be hard to combine power functions' bluetooth with.

I have that set - and it’s fantastic. It comes with instructions to integrate a motor into the mechanism to bring the roller coaster cars to the top of the first hill.

Gravity does the rest - the cars aren’t powered.

Re: Show HN: I hacked my son’s Duplo train to go faster using my voice

#32
post #19

> hacked > using open source library that has all required apis

Hacker news isn't about Security hacking, it's about hacker culture, or as someone on Wikipedia puts it [1]

> The act of engaging in activities (such as programming or other media) in a spirit of playfulness and exploration is termed hacking.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_culture

Re: Show HN: I hacked my son’s Duplo train to go faster using my voice

#35
post #30
post #14

Great job! Now apply it to a roller coaster

Lego had https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/roller-coaster-10261 which wouldn't be hard to combine power functions' bluetooth with.

There is no LEGO-branded BlueTooth controller for Power Functions. Only infrared. (Some third party controllers exists though).

However LEGO Power Functions is replaced by LEGO Powered Up which is BlueTooth controlled. The same system controls products branded LEGO Technic, LEGO Boost, LEGO Ideas, LEGO Robot Inventor...

Re: Show HN: I hacked my son’s Duplo train to go faster using my voice

#36
I was in the same situation and ended up writing a browser based controller for the Duplo train using the Web Bluetooth API. It works best on mobiles in portrait mode and you can find it here: https://legotrain.netlify.app/

The source is a single HTML file that also contains the JS. Just view source and modify if you're interested in taking this further. What's cool is that the protocol allows you to receive readings from the train and not just send commands. Also, it allows you to drive the train faster than you can via the official mobile app.

Re: Show HN: I hacked my son’s Duplo train to go faster using my voice

#37
post #36

I was in the same situation and ended up writing a browser based controller for the Duplo train using the Web Bluetooth API. It works best on mobiles in portrait mode and you can find it here: https://legotrain.netlify.app/ The source is a single HTML file that also contains the JS. Just view source and modify if you're interested in taking this further. What's cool is that the protocol allows you to receive readings…

Uhh this is super nice. I did not even know there was a Web Bluetooth api. That's dope. Then I can drop all of the nodejs stuff and also run it from the phone that's a lot nicer. Thanks for the share!

Re: Show HN: I hacked my son’s Duplo train to go faster using my voice

#38
post #36

I was in the same situation and ended up writing a browser based controller for the Duplo train using the Web Bluetooth API. It works best on mobiles in portrait mode and you can find it here: https://legotrain.netlify.app/ The source is a single HTML file that also contains the JS. Just view source and modify if you're interested in taking this further. What's cool is that the protocol allows you to receive readings…

Again thanks for the comment. I updated the repo and created this site: https://benna100.github.io/duplo-train-voice-control/
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