iBrix Lego wireless lights

[Deathleech]

He seems to be losing ground. He needed what, around $5,000 or 5,500 per day before to make it in the remaining 22 days? Now he needs $5,800 per day and that's with it being advertised on two of the bigger Lego sites (Brickset and Eurobricks). I think it's a really cool idea and I would love to see it get made, but unless it starts getting a lot more support it doesn't look like it's going to happen

Edited June 27, 2015 by Deathleech

[Andy D]

Dustin needs to get hot on the marketing! I really want yo see this made, but.. but...

Well, well

Andy D

[Prairie]

I posted it to Reddit, though couldn't put it in /r/lego since that's for official LEGO stuff only.

[Andy D]

He seems to be losing ground. He needed what, around $5,000 or 5,500 per day before to make it in the remaining 22 days? Now he needs $5,800 per day and that's with it being advertised on two of the bigger Lego sites (Brickset and Eurobricks). I think it's a really cool idea and I would love to see it get made, but unless it starts getting a lot more support it doesn't look like it's going to happen

Unfortunately this has gone from pledges of around $5000 per day to maybe $1000. I hope Dustin figures out something soon or it will be too late. I really thought this had a good chance.

If anyone is sitting on the fence about backing, now is the time, go back it! If you are afraid of losing your money... Your CC doesn't get charged unless the project funds.

Andy D

Edited June 29, 2015 by Andy D

[talos]

I got this update today:

Big NEWS - additional products to be offered...Motor Brix & Flicker Brix

Posted by Dustin Culton

I wanted to give all of our backers a heads-up (and potential "noobs" to the campaign) that we are presently working on some really cool Add-Ons! This includes a future Motor Brix and a Flicker Brix product!

The great thing about these new products is that they WILL work with your wireless Power Plate bases that are packaged with the sets here on KS! Therefore, you'll be able to add Motor Brix and Flicker Brix to your system you order from us now.

We are still working on some details of these as we speak, but here's a general run down of their functions:

Motor Brix - provide rotating motion (ie, great for propellers or other spinning items)

Flicker Brix - provide a great flickering light effect. We will have a red/orange Lit Brix (good for a flame/fire effect) and a blue/green (perfect for water highlights)!

We have BIG plans for i-Brix and would love to bring all of our ideas to life. It is important for us to reach our initial funding goal as this will provide us with a foundation of being able to utilize molds and other machined components. Help us get there so you can have one of the most awesome accessories to use with LEGO®!

BTW, did I mention all of these add-ons will also be wireless?! No need to connect special bricks under your lights or stack the LED bricks on top of powered bricks. All of the power comes from the Power Plate base. Sweeeeeet!

[Darkdragon]

I wish he had put more thought into marketing. I don't see this happening because the goal will not be met. It solves most of the problems I have with add-on led lighting. There are some details missing from his campaign though that might be turning off potential backers.

1 - what does the current base look like? It's hidden in all the videos, I can only assume the prototype is huge.

2 - how many lights can really be powered off a single plate? The current can only power a finite number of items, I didn't see this mentioned anywhere

3 - What about horizontal distance/what is the shape of usable wireless area. For those of us that aren't knowledgeable in wifi spacial details.

I'll pledge but I feel pretty hopeless based on current numbers. I also think that his Dec '15 plan is way too optimistic, I'd guess summer '16 at the earliest based on other projects.

[CouchGuy]

It is a damn shame that this looks like it might miss the goal by a wide margin. It looks like a great product. I doubled my original pledge, but that goal is just too far away.

The motors and flicker lights are both wonderful ideas. I want those flickering light bricks for my LEGO Minecraft builds! (What great torches!) I'm not sure how small of a brick they could get a slow-rotate motor into. A small turntable would be sweet, maybe 4X4 to mount a minifig on...

Endless other possibilities for lights, too. A 1X1 round brick, of course. A lightsaber hilt with a white LED so you could mount any color blade. (Lighted handheld items for minifigs in general would be so cool.) A lighted minifig head could be made into a glowing skull or Jack-o-lantern. A light-up 4X4 brick in multiple transparent colors. (I want a sparkly gold one for glowstone...) A 1X4 or 1X6 brick where the lights show through the bottom would illuminate a transparent panel window from the top. I want some of those prototype solid color "headlight" bricks, too, where the light shows out the stud hole on the front. Shut up and take my money!

[Darkdragon]

I'm not sure how small of a brick they could get a slow-rotate motor into.

The old LEGO Micromotor was a bit bigger than 2x2x3 brick. There's probably a posibility they could do it in 2x2x2 or 2x2x3 with the new smaller tech. Though doing that one without another kickstarter to fund it would be surprising.

[AlexBush]

Interesting technology would try

[Andy D]

I wish he had put more thought into marketing.

My thoughts exactly. I tripled my original pledge to try to make a difference. Well, 15 days to go,I hope something happens soon.

Andy D

[talos]

I agree with you too, too little too late..I think we are doing most of the PR ourselves.. Too high a goal in too short a time frame.

[Darkdragon]

I know, but that is an extra cost. But entertaining your idea, I wonder if this new element will actually secure a baseplate to a tiled surface, or at least keep it from sliding:

Not if it's a standard rod size, those don't fit into the underside holes of a baseplate.

[CorneliusMurdock]

Yeah, the project looks a bit hopeless. The only way I think it could still make it is if he got some mainstream techie like site Gizmodo or Wired to talk it up. I think non-AFOLs could save it. The thing about this lighting system that excites me over some other third party offerings is that even my kids could use it.

I hope he pursues other options if this fails (like private investors or something). Especially if he can make wireless motors as well.

[Andy D]

I agree with you too, too little too late..I think we are doing most of the PR ourselves.. Too high a goal in too short a time frame.

The last couple of updates have been about asking those who have pledged to spread the word.

I feel that he should be reporting where he is advertising, it appears to have been a customer driven campaign so far. In the beginning I was one of his biggest boosters.

It appears that he has some technical skills, it might be too late, but maybe he should have brought someone on board with some marketing skills. It looks like he is trying to do it on his own, like so many people with a good idea trying to be too protective of his assets. 100% of nothing is still nothing, 50% of something is still something.

Just MHU, YMMV

Andy D

[JopieK]

The last couple of updates have been about asking those who have pledged to spread the word.

I feel that he should be reporting where he is advertising, it appears to have been a customer driven campaign so far. In the beginning I was one of his biggest boosters.

It appears that he has some technical skills, it might be too late, but maybe he should have brought someone on board with some marketing skills. It looks like he is trying to do it on his own, like so many people with a good idea trying to be too protective of his assets. 100% of nothing is still nothing, 50% of something is still something.

Just MHU, YMMV

Andy D

I agree, this is the 21st century and not the 1980-ieth with patents and other stumbling blocks to adverse innovation. I'm also working on a large (non-LEGO) hardware project but we make it open and well-documented to boost innovation on it with a lot of different partners.

[-zenn]

I gotta say I love this concept, real innovative.

I hope he succeeds, 9 more days and $100.000,- to go.

I might have to go with that all white pack...

Started a topic about it on the Lego group over on Flickr. *click*.

Edited July 7, 2015 by -zenn

[talos]

Less than 6 days left, and $91,843. to go. I'm not too confident it'll make it.

[Andy D]

Down to 5 days and 90,998 to go. I believe it will take a major miracle, but I am still hoping.

In order to make it he needs to sell out on his three top award levels.

It is a nice project, I am starting to believe that maybe he just needs too much community support.

Edited July 11, 2015 by Andy D

[rollermonkey]

It's a cool concept, but the goal was unrealistic. The SBrick kickstarter goal was far smaller (60,000GBP) and only made it in the last few days. That one had similar molding and technology requirements, plus programming for the related apps. They ran their campaign in 6 languages, and got lots of support from LUGs and AFOL fan sites, plus tech sites across the globe.

I backed, but frankly, I don't see it happening.

Edited July 12, 2015 by rollermonkey

[Naijel]

It's a real shame that the video for this kickstarter was a bit unprofessional. Guy in a t-shirt, weird collections of random colored blocks. It didn't do a great job of selling me on the idea. I'd have made some decent MOCs and shown them with and without lights, shown them moving with lights still on but no wires, shown builds that would not be possible before as there was no where to fit the wires. He also didn't show what the power source looked like under the base.

[Deathleech]

Ya I am not really sure what he could have done better besides the obvious more advertising himself, and made better videos. He was actually losing ground though. He needed $5,000 per day to hit his goal, but eve after Brickset and Eurobricks featured his iBrix he still ended up the last week needing over $10,000 to reach his goal.

[Prairie]

He still needs over $90k, not just $10k. He's only going to reach around 30% of his goal.

Edited July 14, 2015 by Prairie

[dr_spock]

Jangbricks also featured him on his Youtube channel. Jang has over 300K subscribers.

[JopieK]

It's a cool concept, but the goal was unrealistic. The SBrick kickstarter goal was far smaller (60,000GBP) and only made it in the last few days. That one had similar molding and technology requirements, plus programming for the related apps. They ran their campaign in 6 languages, and got lots of support from LUGs and AFOL fan sites, plus tech sites across the globe.

I backed, but frankly, I don't see it happening.

Amen to that!

[CouchGuy]

We'd all love to see this happen. Maybe we can help. Why don't some of you experienced builders contact the creators and offer to build a MOC or two that would really show off the goods. Any of you with YouTube experience could offer to shoot video for him. Sometimes really good things fail because a clever inventor isn't also a marketer. It takes a village, sometimes. Reach out. The creator can always make another attempt with a better-planned promnoitional effort, lined up in advance.