42100 Liebherr R 9800 hands-on review [VIDEO]

[doug72]

2 hours ago, kbalage said:

There's no exit in the Control+ or Powered Up apps, even if you turn off the screen of the device the connection to the hub remains active. Your son told you half of the solution - if you double click the Home button then you'll see a grid or carousel view of your apps that are running, you need to tap and "slide out" the Control+ app off the screen in order to close it. Here are some visual instructions for the different generations and iOS versions.

Tanks for your advice but no joy.
Tried that again but after double click do not see a grid showing apps that are active.  All I see is home screen with active apps along bottom of the screen.
The home button often does not respond. IiPad needs surfacing but local Apple store shut due CV19.

1st push takes back to the home screen, 2nd click does nothing, if try swipe upwards again nothing happens.
Re-load Control+ app - same as above.
Now found that if press and hold green button on each hub for 10 secs they blink white & then close down.

As an old time marine engineer I am am used to tactile controls ie, levers, dials, hand wheels etc.

Recently two US Navy ships had collisions which were blamed on touch screen controls and US Navy has reverted to tactile bridge controls again.

For now I give up trying to get this  model to function

 

Edited April 13, 2020 by Doug72

[Gimmick]

17 minutes ago, Doug72 said:

Tanks for your advice but no joy.
Tried that again but after double click do not see a grid showing apps that are active.  All I see is home screen with active apps along bottom of the screen.

 

If the button is broken, maybe it's easier to deactivate Bluetooth on the pad? If the hubs disconnect they turn off.

Yes, I prefer tactile controls, too. But I also see the problem if you have to design one or multiple remotes for models with 1-8 motors ;)

48 minutes ago, Doug72 said:

For now I give up trying to get this  model to function

Besides the broken button on the ipad, what kind of problems do you have with the model?

[doug72]

2 minutes ago, Gimmick said:

If the button is broken, maybe it's easier to deactivate Bluetooth on the pad? If the hubs disconnect they turn off.

Yes, I prefer tactile controls, too. But I also see the problem if you have to design one or multiple remotes for models with 1-8 motors ;)

Besides the broken button on the ipad, what kind of problems do you have with the model?

No problems with the actual model or building it.  
Found much easier to use the alternative control screen which shows an image of the main boom, dipper arm and bucket plus a graduated dial to rotate the upper housing, but means manual control using a stylus.
That way can do multiple movements by click & drag the orange circles on the image.

I leaning maybe towards installing PF  with 3 x XL and 4 x L motors and use PF controllers, with a battery box in each section with 4 PF IR receivers & 4 PF Tx's

I have only just recently managed to program an EV3 for GBC Train use !!

[Sariel]

On 4/12/2020 at 3:53 PM, konryd said:

Since the thread got bumped, I got back to read this statement. You seem quite confident in this: is it because you know you won't move, you want to select your own subjects for models or some other reason?

I've had a lot of contact with the LEGO company over the years, visited the HQ a bunch of times, talked to the key staff, even participated in the recruitment process for a Creator designer. To sum up the general impression: nobody cares if you want to work at LEGO. Or if you're fit for it. The actual hiring is only done by the HR people and nobody else, meaning 99% of the company, isn't interested in discussing job opportunities. It's a similar experience one gets with the Google staff: sure, they know you'd love to work for them, but unless they happen to work at HR, they don't care. Which is understandable, because they have their jobs which don't involve recruiting people. I must have met a 100 LEGO employees by now, and trust me, "Would you like to work for us?" never pops up in a conversation. Maybe if you're crazily talented, like Mike Psiaki. Maybe. But in general, no. If there's an actual job opening and you apply through the official channels, sure, you can participate in the recruitment process (easily 6 months long in my experience), but the openings happen rarely and you'll be treated like any other person (which is only fair). Being an AFOL isn't a perk for recruiters, not by a long mile. And yes, the designer's job comes with a lot of caveats. Moving to Billund, which is a really tiny town with really nothing going on in it is just one. You're also not allowed to run a YouTube channel or to build MOCs (C-models for the official sets may pass if you're lucky). Basically anything you put together during working hours is automatically company property, and yes, you have zero freedom in choosing what to build. I know for a fact that for example the 42069 set's designer would love to put it on regular wheels, but no, the decision was made above his head. Having seen a designer's job up close, I now suspect that most AFOLs would be severely disappointed in it.

Edited April 14, 2020 by Sariel

[Bartybum]

3 hours ago, Sariel said:

you have zero freedom in choosing what to build. I know for a fact that for example the 42069 set's designer would love to put it on regular wheels, but no, the decision was made above his head. Having seen a designer's job up close, I now suspect that most AFOLs would be severely disappointed in it.

Oh lord that sounds horrible. I wonder how long that's been the case, and if it's the reason that so many 1H Technic sets look like the most dispassionate things ever.

Speaking of designers, do you have any videos/knowledge as to what behind-the-scenes stuff a set designer's job entails? I've always wondered whether the "we're paid to play with Lego" image PR like to push is true

Edited April 14, 2020 by Bartybum

[Gimmick]

1 hour ago, Sariel said:

You're also not allowed to run a YouTube channel or to build MOCs (C-models for the official sets may pass if you're lucky). Basically anything you put together during working hours is automatically company property, and yes, you have zero freedom in choosing what to build. I know for a fact that for example the 42069 set's designer would love to put it on regular wheels, but no, the decision was made above his head. Having seen a designer's job up close, I now suspect that most AFOLs would be severely disappointed in it.

Milan/Grohl666 has a YT channel, so it seems to be ok for B-ZZ models and motorized builds (all MOCs on his channel were made a few years ago I think).

It's basically like every other job. It's also not my decision what "products" we develop (I have to develop), but technical details leave enough room for personal development/creativity - a job can be done in many different ways, even if the type of wheels/color scheme is not your own decision. :)

1 hour ago, Bartybum said:

Oh lord that sounds horrible. I wonder how long that's been the case, and if it's the reason that so many 1H Technic sets just look like the most dispassionate things ever.

Speaking of designers, do you have any videos/knowledge as to what behind-the-scenes stuff a set designer's job entails? I've always wondered whether the "we're paid to play with Lego" image PR like to push is true

Some questions are related to his work.

General impression:

Next Model is XY -> collect ideas -> build different concepts -> talk about each concept -> build final model -> repeat ;)

Edited April 14, 2020 by Gimmick

[Sariel]

As far as I know, it's actually more like "we're paid to have no influence what we're doing, we spend entire days re-iterating the same design over and over until it's dumbed down enough to meet the budget and be successful with the focus group of small kids, and we're stuck in a country that doesn't really like immigrants with little job security". I'm sure that job at LEGO pays well, but remember that Denmark has insanely high living costs, crazy taxes, and I've heard concerns from people with 10+ years of employment at LEGO about being let go at any moment. I've also heard that an entire project can get scrapped simply because the kids from the focus group decide it looks too similar to some other set they've already seen. But hey, I'm sure there are some upsides.

Just now, Gimmick said:

Milan/Grohl666 has a YT channel, so it seems to be ok for B-ZZ models and motorized builds (all MOCs on his channel were made a few years ago I think).

Ever since Milan joined the LEGO Group, he has not been allowed to publish anything other than modifications of the official sets. I mean, you can build as many MOCs as you want, you just can't publish any of them. I was explicitly told that if I got that Creator designer job, I would have to suspend my YT channel indefinitely.

Edited April 14, 2020 by Sariel

[Gimmick]

4 minutes ago, Sariel said:

But hey, I'm sure there are some upsides.

I'm pretty sure there are upsides and it's neither "playing with Lego all day" nor "designer-slavery".

Most often: Don't turn your hobby into a job.

[Bartybum]

3 hours ago, Sariel said:

I was explicitly told that if I got that Creator designer job, I would have to suspend my YT channel indefinitely.

Lmao that’s the touchiest crap ever, f that. Clearly the brass wants yes men

Edited April 14, 2020 by Bartybum

[Bartybum]

3 hours ago, Sariel said:

Ever since Milan joined the LEGO Group, he has not been allowed to publish anything other than modifications of the official sets. I mean, you can build as many MOCs as you want, you just can't publish any of them. I was explicitly told that if I got that Creator designer job, I would have to suspend my YT channel indefinitely.

Damn that’s hostile... you’d think they’d adopt a more positive relationship. What’s the bet this is a symptom of their obsession with the bootlego market?

Edited April 14, 2020 by Bartybum

[howitzer]

I'd venture to guess that public MOCing is forbidden because the designers get to know about all the newest themes, parts, building techniques and so on, so they might accidentally let something slip if they could publish their MOCs. TLG is nowdays obviously very concerned about leaks on the new sets so this kind of limitation for their employees is only to be expected.

Beyond that, I'm sure it's just another engineering job. They will always have their constraints for whatever product is being designed, and naturally you only design exactly what the higher-ups tell you to.

And yeah, don't turn your hobby into a job.

[Zerobricks]

6 hours ago, Sariel said:

As far as I know, it's actually more like "we're paid to have no influence what we're doing, we spend entire days re-iterating the same design over and over until it's dumbed down enough to meet the budget and be successful with the focus group of small kids, and we're stuck in a country that doesn't really like immigrants with little job security". I'm sure that job at LEGO pays well, but remember that Denmark has insanely high living costs, crazy taxes, and I've heard concerns from people with 10+ years of employment at LEGO about being let go at any moment. I've also heard that an entire project can get scrapped simply because the kids from the focus group decide it looks too similar to some other set they've already seen. But hey, I'm sure there are some upsides.

Ever since Milan joined the LEGO Group, he has not been allowed to publish anything other than modifications of the official sets. I mean, you can build as many MOCs as you want, you just can't publish any of them. I was explicitly told that if I got that Creator designer job, I would have to suspend my YT channel indefinitely. 

Might be off topic, but I find this info very enlightening. Maybe you could make a new topic to talk more in detail?

[Sariel]

12 hours ago, Zerobricks said:

Might be off topic, but I find this info very enlightening. Maybe you could make a new topic to talk more in detail?

I'd rather not. I've probably already said more than I should. This is all off-the-record talk and I've signed a bunch of NDA's.

[Bartybum]

15 hours ago, howitzer said:

I'd venture to guess that public MOCing is forbidden because the designers get to know about all the newest themes, parts, building techniques and so on, so they might accidentally let something slip if they could publish their MOCs.

I wouldn't be sure about that. I doubt any of that stuff would affect MOCing at home since I highly doubt they'd be allowed to take prototype pieces home.

[allanp]

This is why I try to temper my critisisms with at least some praise. Whatever I dislike about a set, it's usually in overall direction (too little mechanical authenticity mostly), I don't think is the fault of the designers but more so from higher up. Take 42100 for example, it's not my cup of tea but I must say that it looks to be very well engineered. 

[Bartybum]

36 minutes ago, allanp said:

This is why I try to temper my critisisms with at least some praise. Whatever I dislike about a set, it's usually in overall direction (too little mechanical authenticity mostly), I don't think is the fault of the designers but more so from higher up. Take 42100 for example, it's not my cup of tea but I must say that it looks to be very well engineered. 

Yeah agreed. When you have someone designing something as complex as 42082, then rolling out a stinker like 42108 you know there have to be commands coming from the brass.