SBrick General Discussion

[OzShan]

Can you confirm that the pledge including a set 42000, 42030 etc are covered under global shipping for €3?

Thanks.

[rollermonkey]

The 120 pledge has three SBricks and instructions for using SBricks in the 42000... There is no pledge to get the 42000 model.

[Paul Boratko]

Here is my test video for the SBrick...

[OzShan]

The 120 pledge has three SBricks and instructions for using SBricks in the 42000... There is no pledge to get the 42000 model.

Sorry you are correct. Q still stands for 42030

[OzShan]

Actually never mind. No idea where I got the idea it was € instead of £. Too much late night reading maybe.

[mahjqa]

[rollermonkey]

Here is my test video for the SBrick...

The whole time I'm watching that, I'm hoping nobody pulls in to wash their car!

[Paul Boratko]

The whole time I'm watching that, I'm hoping nobody pulls in to wash their car!

It was supposed to rain and there was thunder rumbling in the sky, so it was a great time to do some filming at the carwash... I was scared that were going to get rained on before we got the vid done...

[TheItalianBrick]

4.000 £ TO GO!! gUYS DON'T BE STINGY!!! :laugh: :laugh:

[nicoga3000]

This is neat - I just found it now...If the discounted brick were available, I'd definitely chip in! But since those are gone, I'll probably just wait until I can order one on their site. Best of luck to you guys - cool concept!

[kolbjha]

This is neat - I just found it now...If the discounted brick were available, I'd definitely chip in! But since those are gone, I'll probably just wait until I can order one on their site. Best of luck to you guys - cool concept!

Hi nicoga3000,

There is also a £40 pledge (+ £3 for shipping) for 1 SBrick (that is £11 more than the one you are referring to). I guess you will have to wait longer if you choose to buy it once it is available for order. And I am not sure if it will be much cheaper than £40.

[ZCerberus]

(And I hope nobody minds that I keep bumping this to keep it on the front page! )

The staff actually does mind. Bumping to keep something on the first page is not something we should be actively doing or encouraging. This is a new topic and the updates are welcome, but doing it merely to keep something on the first page is not allowed.

[nicoga3000]

Hi nicoga3000,

There is also a £40 pledge (+ £3 for shipping) for 1 SBrick (that is £11 more than the one you are referring to). I guess you will have to wait longer if you choose to buy it once it is available for order. And I am not sure if it will be much cheaper than £40.

Yeah, I just don't want to pay full price for a pre-order. The fact that I can get one once it comes out for that price means I have no incentive to put my money out there early. It's nothing against the guys making this, but I have a pretty strict "no preorder" policy as you seldom get any real benefit for it. However, getting the item for cheaper than retail is a perfectly reasonable reason to preorder an item! :)

I do hope they succeed as I like the idea of this!

[imajor]

Yeah, I just don't want to pay full price for a pre-order. The fact that I can get one once it comes out for that price means I have no incentive to put my money out there early.

I wouldn't call this as pre-order, because you are not paying now. The money will be drained only if the campaign is successful (correct me if I'm wrong). And you have a good incentive to pledge: this way you help the project to happen. That is what the whole kickstarter campaign is about.

[nicoga3000]

I wouldn't call this as pre-order, because you are not paying now. The money will be drained only if the campaign is successful (correct me if I'm wrong). And you have a good incentive to pledge: this way you help the project to happen. That is what the whole kickstarter campaign is about.

Yeah, I've followed Kickstarters for a long time. I've even watched a few friends get burned on them (see the Yoggscast kickstarter, along with multiple other video games, ha).

It's not that I'm not wanting them to succeed, but I just don't preorder or prepay for items that I get no true benefit out of. I stopped many years ago for personal reasons. Yes, it would help them get their project made (which is awesome!), but the fact of the matter is that I'm going to be paying the same price as someone who doesn't donate to the Kickstarter. So it's just not worth it for me in that regard. Having said that, I'll definitely purchase one when they go into production. :)

[kolbjha]

Yeah, I've followed Kickstarters for a long time. I've even watched a few friends get burned on them (see the Yoggscast kickstarter, along with multiple other video games, ha).

It's not that I'm not wanting them to succeed, but I just don't preorder or prepay for items that I get no true benefit out of. I stopped many years ago for personal reasons. Yes, it would help them get their project made (which is awesome!), but the fact of the matter is that I'm going to be paying the same price as someone who doesn't donate to the Kickstarter. So it's just not worth it for me in that regard. Having said that, I'll definitely purchase one when they go into production. :)

You are right that it is a risk involved being a backer for a Kickstarter project, even there is a pretty strong commitment for the project towards their backers, if successfully funded. Saying that, these guys seem to be in the start of a mass production phase, and that is also why they need funding. I have confidence in these guys and their product.

Further, I am not sure that the retail price will be the same when available for ordinary sale. Perhaps it will be higher? After all it replaces PF elements costing £38 (2 IR receivers + 2 IR remotes, LEGO shop, UK prices, assuming you already own a smart phone). Ok, you will need a £3 extension cable as well, so say the "SBrick-for-LEGO-price" is £35. But SBrick has far more powerful functionality and possibilities, something I think the potential buyers (mainly AFOLs) appreciate. Anyway, I am not sure if you can take for granted that the SBrick (if successful) will be available for you for £40 in ordinary sale.

Another aspect is also that if the project fails, even successful funding, I guess it is a fair assumption that the SBrick guys will do their best to at least deliver their rewards. In other words, I think there is a bigger chance of getting your hands on the SBrick if you are a backer, than if you are not. But I don't think it will come to that, I am confident these guys will be successful.

All of this is just my own assumptions, I may be wrong. Also, I fully respect your honest opinions and choices. At least we can agree upon it's a great product, and cross our fingers it will be a reality, right? :)

[rollermonkey]

The staff actually does mind. Bumping to keep something on the first page is not something we should be actively doing or encouraging. This is a new topic and the updates are welcome, but doing it merely to keep something on the first page is not allowed.

Maybe I phrased that poorly... With a 57-entry MOC contest going on right now, keeping it in sight of voters who might want to be backers, but don't follow the Technic forum can't be all bad? I mean, my only interest in the project is getting my own SBricks... And with under £3.000 to go, it looks like it should be fully funded, with 8 days to go.

[CorneliusMurdock]

Maybe I phrased that poorly... With a 57-entry MOC contest going on right now, keeping it in sight of voters who might want to be backers, but don't follow the Technic forum can't be all bad? I mean, my only interest in the project is getting my own SBricks... And with under £3.000 to go, it looks like it should be fully funded, with 8 days to go.

Please don't argue with Mods. It won't end well for you and distracts from the topic.

Perhaps instead of useless bumping, you could try to discuss the S-Brick (like others seem to be bale to do). A good post trying to get discussion going would keep the topic up top and you'd probably get other people to reply to also keep it from falling.

I just don't preorder or prepay for items that I get no true benefit out of. I stopped many years ago for personal reasons.

The benefit would be that the item will exist. It's all well and good to say you'll buy one later, but if it doesn't reach the goal, there won't be a later.

And even if the project is assured to pass, what will waiting get you?

[TheItalianBrick]

I have a question: we all know that we can use up to 16 Sbricks (and each with 4 peripherals). So questions are: 1) in each of this 16 Sbrick referrable to a channel? The norlam Lego Receiver has only 4.

2) What happens if me and my friends we play with our model, and for istances my model has 7 Sbriks, my friend's model has 7 Sbricks too, and another friend of us has 7Sbricks. In this case the we would have a total of 21 Sbrick (major than 16) and we would be all playing in the same room at home....it's the case where you get interferences?

One more questions is: I see everybody testing his Sbrick with a smart phone, honestly according to my tastes and uses, I wouldn't find it comfortable, I still would prefer to create a Lego remote control to hang with my hands, but having within a Bluetooth inside of it!

Does it make sense?

[pasztorl]

I have a question: we all know that we can use up to 16 Sbricks (and each with 4 peripherals). So questions are: 1) in each of this 16 Sbrick referrable to a channel? The norlam Lego Receiver has only 4.

2) What happens if me and my friends we play with our model, and for istances my model has 7 Sbriks, my friend's model has 7 Sbricks too, and another friend of us has 7Sbricks. In this case the we would have a total of 21 Sbrick (major than 16) and we would be all playing in the same room at home....it's the case where you get interferences?

One more questions is: I see everybody testing his Sbrick with a smart phone, honestly according to my tastes and uses, I wouldn't find it comfortable, I still would prefer to create a Lego remote control to hang with my hands, but having within a Bluetooth inside of it!

Does it make sense?

1. Yes, every SBrick and every channel is uniquely addressable according to the protocol.

2. There should be no problem with that, the BLE protocol can handle such situations.

3. Yes, we did build a prototype of a hardware remote controller for demonstration purposes, but we decided not to continue with the production, since it can't fully utilise all the features of the SBrick, so it would do quite little for the extra money.

Using existing gamepads and joysticks in the future like the PS3 gamepad is a much more exciting option. :)

[Moz]

One more questions is: I see everybody testing his Sbrick with a smart phone, honestly according to my tastes and uses, I wouldn't find it comfortable, I still would prefer to create a Lego remote control to hang with my hands, but having within a Bluetooth inside of it!

You might have to build your own. It shouldn't be too hard if you start with something like the RFDuino. It's not as though you want to do anything particularly complex, the difficult part will be deciding what control layout you want (and how to change it when you have a different need. I suspect the reason there's no official one is that people would immediately want it to do 200 different things, so they'd end up making something that no-one actually liked.

I have been wondering whether something like an arcade game joystick wired up to an RFDuino would work, or whether I'd be better off with analogue joysticks. I've been thinking about this, because if I want to let people at exhibitions play with the models I need a controller that I'm willing to let 1000's of people hammer away at (so my phone is out!). To get speed control and steering I really want analogue, so I'm currently thinking one analogue joystick and a bunch of switches/levers.

[imajor]

A few minutes ago I checked the kickstarter page, and noticed that only 499 of the £29 pledges are sold, one is available. Of course it was gone after a few minutes, but I'm wondering how is that possible? I thought it is not possible to cancel a pledge. It was definitely out a few days ago already.

[Moz]

A few minutes ago I checked the kickstarter page, and noticed that only 499 of the £29 pledges are sold, one is available. Of course it was gone after a few minutes, but I'm wondering how is that possible? I thought it is not possible to cancel a pledge. It was definitely out a few days ago already.

You can upgrade out of a pledge though. Someone probably pledged a bit more and went from the #29 level to something else.

[MaximB]

A few minutes ago I checked the kickstarter page, and noticed that only 499 of the £29 pledges are sold, one is available. Of course it was gone after a few minutes, but I'm wondering how is that possible? I thought it is not possible to cancel a pledge. It was definitely out a few days ago already.

I canceled pledge and chose the 280 GB pledge

[pasztorl]

I canceled pledge and chose the 280 GB pledge

Great choice! :)