Mastodawn

I have found and freed another video from Instagram. This one is around one week old and shows the computed tomography scan (CT scan) of a brick! Interesting what people have access to!

"The LEGO Smart Brick has builders divided. Love it or hate it, fitting a bunch of networking and advanced components into a standard 2x4 brick is no small feat. 😉 Check our CT scans to see everything that’s packed inside."
(https://www.instagram.com/reel/DWpRPEaEqU8/, by user lumafield)

Mäh W.4d ago

The firmware image files that were in the #LEGO #SmartBrick companion App "LEGO Smart Assist" could only be found in version 1.0.0. Either they got removed, compressed, encrypted or obfuscated in other ways in current version 1.0.1. Just in case someone else is trying to extract the images themselves. A diff would be nice. Because in the app's official changelog, TLG only mentions "minor bugfixes" — which is as generic as it can get.

Mäh W.6d ago

I had this idea of making my LEGO Mindstorms RCX yellow programmable brick DUPLO-compatible back a while ago. As there is the #SmartBrick now, this should even work better and allow demo-ing this thing on a larger scale. Unfortunately, my currently working Smart Brick is opened up and rests in my test jig (see recent toots). So I've only planned this adapter for another one (yet to be bought). Should kind if work.
#LEGO #SmartPlay #duplo

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dag 6d ago

@whitequark I expect the following (in favor of LEGO):
- There’s only an actual synthesizer inside
- It has probably no soundfonts or only limited ones

Reason:
It uses NFC to identify the setting/theme and then NFC again to identify the according figures/bricks.
If you want to program this brick with NFC, no WAV/MP3 can be transfered.
Using a programmable synth on the otherhand would suffice to push something like a midi/tracker file + settings. #lego #smartbrick

Mäh W.Apr 10

Sniffed the SPI bus of the #LEGO #SmartBrick today. As per nanash1's schematic (https://github.com/nanash1/smart_brick) only two chip select signals seem to be routed to test points -- that's for the accelerometer and the external flash. The CS pin to the ASIC is unknown... I still hope it is exposed and its test point location simply not known yet. The accelerometer seems to be configured for 3-wire SPI (single SDX for in and out). SCLK: 8, 12 and 16 MHz seen in the dump.

#hardwareHacking #reverseEngineering

GitHub - nanash1/smart_brick: Lego Smart Brick reverse engineered schematic

Lego Smart Brick reverse engineered schematic. Contribute to nanash1/smart_brick development by creating an account on GitHub.

GitHub

Mäh W.Apr 10

Just wondering if you could hack the #LEGO #SmartBrick for reflectance pulse oximetry. For now you can use it with the standard firmware and the standard Smart Tiles of spaceships and whatnot and your finger tip to fire a gun as the Smart Brick embeds a color sensor... sensing red dumb bricks from builds' firing mechanisms. Or finger tips with blood in it. (Green and blue dumb bricks trigger other effects... repair and fueling.)

😃👆🩸 📷 🔫🧱🔊

Mäh W.Apr 9

Dear #LEGO #SmartBrick hackers. I've successfully built a test jig for the brick! This time, it's still working. The brick still powers up when being shaken: LEDs light up and the speaker also makes sounds. It also still charges on the yellow pad. It's just way bigger then the bare 2×4 brick now. Still having LEGO compatible dimensions, though. Next up: some SPI sniffing with a logic analyzer. Most likely won't happen today, though.
#hardwareHacking #reverseEngineering

Benjamin Carr, Ph.D. 👨🏻‍💻🧬Mar 27

An Inside Look at #Lego’s New Tech-Packed #SmartBrick
Lego’s next release is a digital brick loaded with sensors that add new layers of interactivity to its play sets.
Lego hopes this will safeguard future of its empire. Diminutive proportions of SSmart Brick belie fact it is exceedingly clever. Inside is a tiny custom chip running bespoke software that can communicate with onboard sensors to monitor and react to motion, orientation, and magnets.
https://www.wired.com/story/exclusive-inside-look-at-new-lego-smart-brick/
https://archive.ph/iRxJ4

An Inside Look at Lego’s New Tech-Packed Smart Brick

Lego’s next release is a digital brick loaded with sensors that add new layers of interactivity to its play sets. WIRED got exclusive access to the Lego labs where the Smart Brick was born.

WIRED

Mäh W.Mar 24

Another video appeared about cloning and creating #LEGO Smart Tags or Smart Minifigs for the #SmartBrick:
➡️ https://youtu.be/4DtuPvJOkoQ

However, the title "How to make your own LEGO Smart Tags" is a little bit misleading (on purpose, I guess).
It's basically only about cloning existing tags — those ones you already have or those ones whose raw (encrypted) data is publicly available.

#SmartPlay

Mäh W.Mar 21

Some brand new great news concerning the #LEGO #SmartBrick #reverseEngineering efforts: after all the teardown that we've seen, there's already a KiCad(!) schematic. GitHub user nanash1 has shared their findings, so everybody can continue working from here!
The ASIC seems to handle quite a lot: NFC frontend, speaker, microphone, wireless charging + battery, LEDs and photo diode. Logic levels are 1.8V. The BT SoC connects 3 SPI peripherals: the ASIC, the accelerometer and the SPI flash. 🎉👏 Nice!