As a child growing up, we had a Lego Train (Systems 4563) going around the Christmas tree. I still remember the day my Dad built it, as we were a little bit too young for the 476 piece work of art. Although we had plenty of other Legos to play with, the train went away with the ornaments each year and still remains one of my favorite parts of Christmas. About a year or two ago, my parents bought myself, my brother and brother and law each a Lego Train (3677) for Christmas. Needless to say we were all pretty excited as we now each had our own houses and trees that needed a proper Lego train.

Recently after running an Arduino, Android App, Bluetooth Workshop for TechShop Pittsburgh, the idea hit me that I should be able to use the similar skills to create an app to control the train.  I started to do some research and was lucky to find LEGuanO, a blog with instructions and a few examples on how to control the train. After combining the sketch with some previous sketch’s I’ve created I was able to talk to an Adafruit Trinket Pro with an HC-05 Bluetooth module and transmit the necessary IR signals to make the train move in both directions at different speeds. I also added a basic train whistle sound MP3 in the app as well.

See more information on the project over @ www.andyprojects.com