SBrick General Discussion

[dr_spock]

I'm building the 8043 excavator using Jurgen Krooshoop's plans. I've reached the point that the control system needs to be installed. I would like to use S-bricks but several question need to be answered. I have an Android based phone running 2.1+EDR Bluetooth software, is this compatible with the S-brick? If so, are they as "reliable" as the IR controls? Your opinion's pleas.

Seems like it needs Bluetooth 4.0

https://social.sbrick.com/wiki/view/pageId/12/slug/application-device-compatibility

[Jim]

For those of you who are interested check out the SBrick Store

[dr_spock]

^ Nice deal. They'll ship you a grey Sbrick plus a black case. You will have to swap out the grey case with the black one yourself.

[TamasMisik]

Let me show you what happenned with Vengit & SBrick in the last couple of weeks.

The SBrick has teamed up with Scratch! Scratch is a free educating platform which uses drag and drop method to teach kids programming and robotics. Participating in education - this is something that the creators of SBrick envisioned from the start, and now it's becoming reality.

“With Scratch, you can program your own interactive stories, games, and animations — and share your creations with others in the online community. Scratch helps young people learn to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively — essential skills for life in the 21st century." Scratch is designed and maintained by the Lifelong Kindergarten group at the MIT Media Lab and is free to use.

Learn more about Scratch at: https://scratch.mit.edu/

Video: https://www.youtube....bed/-WZUhPNREBw

Lenard Pasztor, Vengit CEO, says, "education was what we first had in mind with the SBrick, close to two years ago. Looking around the marketplace as an employer, it's clear to me that there aren't enough capable and well-trained IT people in Hungary. It's the same across Europe and unless we do something, this problem is just going to get worse. That's why we wanted to produce something suited to teaching programming and robotics for the age group that counts, namely children aged 8-14."

As a first step, the SBrick is now compatible with Scratch, a programming language which uses an intuitive drag-and-drop methodology to teach coding in a sophisticated way. As children create with Scratch, they learn to think creatively and work collaboratively. This also leads to better systematic reasoning.

In practice what this means is that any child can program a set of commands using Scratch - which runs in any browser - and then send those commands to the SBrick, which will carry them out. This is both programming and robotics.

With so many schools and institutions having Maker spaces within their premises, the addition of SBricks can breathe new life into LEGO® Power Functions motors and lights. Children already enjoy building and creating with LEGO®; an addition of SBrick(s) provides countless ways to incorporate these powerful tools into education. It's a very exciting time for SBrick."

What you’ll need for using SBrick with Scratch:

• An SBrick of course, and something to put it into. You can buy this from our store, and get a lot of ideas on our facebook site.
  
• A BLED112 USB bluetooth dongle from Bluegiga / Silicon Labs. You can buy one at DigiKey, Mouser or RS online. This device can be plugged into an USB port, and will look like a standard serial port. This allows using it on a wide range of devices.
  
• The S2bot Scratch helper application from PicAxe. This application can connect to various robotic platform such as PicoBoard, Sphero, Ollie, BB8, and of course SBrick. This application acts like a “glue” between the browser and the hardware by providing a tiny web server on your computer, so it can “translate” from browser to hardware and vica versa. Follow the installation instruction described on the site.
  
• A Scratch account and a little bit of experience using Scratch. Visit https://scratch.mit.edu/ to register, and start your adventure with programming.
  

Configure SBrick with S2Bot on Windows

Configure SBrick with S2Bot on Linux

Configure SBrick with S2Bot on OS X

Please, if you know about any summer camp or school, that teaches kids LEGO® robotics, and would like to include SBrick for improving the curriculum, contact us at: info@sbrick.com

[BusterHaus]

Wow, this is excellent news. I remember asking about being able to run programs through the SBrick, it's great to see that it has been implemented. :thumbup:

[SevenStuds]

The SBrick has teamed up with Scratch!

Great to know that the software is being developed in this way! If the SBrick unit can now communicate with a PC, then could we eventually see this as a complete alternative to Mindstorms? On the hardware side, would there ever be a way to start connecting Mindstorms or WeDo sensors to the SBrick?

[braker23]

Now, this is awesome! I love this PC to SBrick interaction, and Scratch seems like a cool language to program robots, way to go SBrick team!

[BrickCurve]

I have been teaching my 9 year old sister Mind Storms (NXT 2) and while she is interested, she is frustrated by it not working with her iPad. This is exactly what I was after, rather than buying NXT 3.

[MAB]

This is great news. I bought an S-brick during the kickstarter campaign and haven't used it much recently. Now the kids can start to use it more effectively.

[CorneliusMurdock]

I'm not really that tech savvy. Will this work with an IPad? And do I need the dongle thingy since the iPad can already communicate with it over Bluetooth?

[Balrog]

Wow, that is awesome. Something like this is what I have been really missing and is a welcome addition.

Now it would be awesome if this was somewhat compatible to the Sbrick application. E.g. you can add a scratch program to a custom control profile, assign it to a button and enable that program (snippet) with the press of a button.

[TamasMisik]

Some news about the SBrick

1. New cases:

Our new webstore and the colorful cases for the SBrick are available: https://sbrickstore.com/

2. We have a new competition:

All you have to do is to share anything related to your LEGO® and/or SBrick experience on our Social platfrom (https://social.sbrick.com/event/36).

It can be the first time you built a MOC, the first time you played LEGO® with your kids. It can be funny, interesting, creative; a story, a photo, a drawing, anything you wish!

The SBrick team will pick the best ones.

Prizes:

- The very best submission will get an SBrick

- The other great entries will be honored by a 10% SBrick coupon code that you can use up in our webstore: https://sbrickstore.com/

Here is the what you have to do:

1) Share your favorite LEGO®/SBrick experiences (photo, story, drawing, app, gif, etc.)!

2) Upload it to our social website to this topic:https://social.sbrick.com/event/36

3) Wait for the results! If you win, wait for the SBrick in your mail, or you can use up your coupon code right away!

You have one week to submit from today (deadline: 06.27)! Good luck everyone and happy father's day!

Edited June 20, 2016 by TamasMisik

[OneMoreRobot]

The coloured cases look good - is it possible to order an SBrick in a certain colour or are the cases additional?

I think it would be wasteful to have a collection of discarded LBG cases.

OMR

[2LegoOrNot2Lego...]

Cool to have you around here on EB as well Tamas!!! I like the idea of having first hand info about SBrick...

The coloured cases look good - is it possible to order an SBrick in a certain colour or are the cases additional?

I think it would be wasteful to have a collection of discarded LBG cases.

OMR

I completely agree with that!

[TamasMisik]

The coloured cases look good - is it possible to order an SBrick in a certain colour or are the cases additional?

I think it would be wasteful to have a collection of discarded LBG cases.

OMR

We sell only grey SBricks. You need to buy the cases separately, then you can swap the cases manually:

Edited June 21, 2016 by TamasMisik

[OneMoreRobot]

We sell only grey SBricks. You need to buy the cases separately, then you can swap the cases manually:

Tamas, Consider listening to what the market / customers want.

Perhaps a YouTube video of a customer reviving / unboxing their Bluetooth bricks in the desired colours might be how to convey the message - just as condescending as a vid on how to change a case. :-)

[Jim]

Perhaps a YouTube video of a customer reviving / unboxing their Bluetooth bricks in the desired colours might be how to convey the message - just as condescending as a vid on how to change a case. :-)

Providing useful information for your customers is in no way condescending.

We sell only grey SBricks. You need to buy the cases separately, then you can swap the cases manually:

Do you consider selling colored SBricks? I think having the option to choose a color without the need to change the case isn't a bad idea.

[legolijntje]

I believe you did sell black sBricks as a black friday sale/promotion last year, right?. So, it must certainly be possible to sell them directly into the desired color.

Or at least in grey and black and separate cases for the other colors; I'm sure grey and black are by far the most popular

[Jim]

I believe you did sell black sBricks as a black friday sale/promotion last year, right?. So, it must certainly be possible to sell them directly into the desired color.

Or at least in grey and black and separate cases for the other colors; I'm sure grey and black are by far the most popular

If I am not mistaken that was a grey SBrick with a separate free black casing.

[legolijntje]

If I am not mistaken that was a grey SBrick with a separate free black casing.

Could be, I'm not sure. All I do know is that it was on sale and I saw it too late (when the sale was over)

I'd like another sBrick, but now only at that sale price

[OneMoreRobot]

Providing useful information for your customers is in no way condescending.

Do you consider selling colored SBricks? I think having the option to choose a color without the need to change the case isn't a bad idea.

I was being sarcastic to emphasize the point of being able to purchase exactly what the customer requires - Tamas was dismissive of the concept.

For the record, I am a SBrick supporter with over 20/pcs installed in various models.

OMR

Edited June 21, 2016 by OneMoreRobot

[Jim]

I was being sarcastic to emphasize the point of being able to purchase exactly what the customer requires - Tamas was dismissive of the concept.

For the record, I am a SBrick supporter with over 20/pcs installed in various models.

OMR

Cool

[TamasMisik]

We think the the option to swap the houses a really nice feature. You can even mix two colors for the bottom and the top part. Like this way: https://social.sbrick.com/albums/photo/view/album_id/135/photo_id/1496

It can be helpful if you always build new creations. You don't need worry: your SBrick always will match to your model perfectly :)

Anyway thanks for your idea. Of course we will consider it! :)

[arshiaIQ]

Are youtube videos allowed?

[Jim]

Are youtube videos allowed?

Sure!

Paste the url without the s behind https