SBrick General Discussion

[aminnich]

Ok good, I will not be needed them, at least for this build.  Thanks BlakBird

[Hod Carrier]

My apologies if this has been covered before, but is it possible to control more than one SBrick from within the same profile?

Many thanks.

Edited July 7, 2017 by Hod Carrier

[AkiyamaWataru]

@Hod Carrier It is possible. Madocca did it with his Icarus (just an example)

[Hod Carrier]

Thank you.

[suffocation]

It's necro time again

I've ordered two Sbrick units to couple with my half-dud (atrocious BT lag) BuWizz units. I have a couple of questions:

1) How do I get the BuWizz to run on Normal or Fast through the Sbrick app? If I use the BuWizz app and then run the motors using IR receivers, the BuWizz unit reverts to Slow within a matter of seconds.

2) How many motors can a single Sbrick receiver handle efficiently? And how many per channel? My model is driven by 4 L motors and 2 servos. It's not designed for speed but I don't want the motors to be underpowered.

Thanks

[Seasider]

I’m thinking of dipping into the world of 3rd party Lego and thinking of an Sbrick and have a specific model in mind that I might use it on.

i found a link the other day for a uk reseller and just wanted to know if this is real and official ?

thanks

[mahjqa]

6 minutes ago, Seasider said:

I’m thinking of dipping into the world of 3rd party Lego and thinking of an Sbrick and have a specific model in mind that I might use it on.

i found a link the other day for a uk reseller and just wanted to know if this is real and official ?

thanks

Actually including a link or name might improve your chances getting an answer.

[Seasider]

https://www.techbrick.co.uk/

took me ages to find the link again !

[Seasider]

Sorry for bumping a thread but can anyone confirm that the website above is an official uk reseller of Sbrick 

[Jim]

6 minutes ago, Seasider said:

Sorry for bumping a thread but can anyone confirm that the website above is an official uk reseller of Sbrick 

Seems that way. They also have a Facebook address and I see lots of resources pointing to them.

https://www.facebook.com/TechBrickUK/

[doug72]

2 hours ago, Jim said:

Seems that way. They also have a Facebook address and I see lots of resources pointing to them.

https://www.facebook.com/TechBrickUK/

They are also selling TrixBrix Lego compatible track products including the double crossover at £40 plus £10 p&p.

[Seasider]

Thanks I may get someone to buy me one for Christmas 

[Seasider]

Ok me again. Having watched the Buwizz competition entries I’m now considering should I go buwizz instead of Sbrick.

im not concerned about super quick cars but I do like the idea of BT control. I’d want to use it for a range of models not just cars.

So ignoring price is one system “better” to the other ? Or is one system prefered and got more longevity interms of development over the other 

[Marxpek]

@Seasider i have both for some time now and here is my 2 cents:

The app for the sbrick is way better and versatile, programmable sequence buttons, built in controller connectivity, stuff like that, the buwizz app only allows you to add, remove or move sliders and buttons. but the brickcontroller app imurvai created can help the buwizz slightly in this department.

The 2nd big difference is the battery of course, if you want to build small and fast, the buwizz is the answer, with the s-brick you will use a extension wire and a battery box. Using the battery box has some pros and con's compared to the buwizz, most battery boxes are limited at around 800mah meaning the sbrick cannot exceed this limit (the sbrick can easily handle it but the battery box is the bottleneck here) so fully powering a buggy motor without the lower voltage Lego LiPo is out of the question for example. The buwizz has no such issue with the built in battery, but it does have an issue with the current limiter tripping to easily at standing starts with high loads. Also a concern of mine is: How long will the built in battery last, or at least remain usable, the sbrick has the advantage here.

In the end i enjoy the buwizz the most, because is just that much more powerful than any battery box can provide, including the Lego LiPo because of the lower voltage. If you are looking for the best BT experience go sbrick, if you are looking for the best RC experience, go buwizz.

[Seasider]

@Marxpek thanks for the comparison review. As I said I’m not after speed and I don’t own any buggy motors (or plan to). I’ve got a range of PF motors and both the standard and rechargeable Lego battery packs.

i think from your comments the Sbrick is still most probably the way for me to go then. Thanks

[fongalv]

Hi Everyone,

I've only had experience with Lego PF parts and would like to give the more powerful(and smaller) Sbrick controller a try, mainly because of its compactness, range and LOS.

I understand most people like the BT interface on a smart device, but is there anyway to control the Sbrick from a physical remote(similar to the good ol IR receiver) so that I can continue using the IR transmitter (instead of a smart device) to control the Sbrick? 

Edited November 7, 2018 by fongalv

[iuliand]

I like that the communication is open standard and I can use imurvai's BrickController app to control it with a physical controller.

[t12ung]

On 11/7/2018 at 5:22 AM, fongalv said:

Hi Everyone,

I've only had experience with Lego PF parts and would like to give the more powerful(and smaller) Sbrick controller a try, mainly because of its compactness, range and LOS.

I understand most people like the BT interface on a smart device, but is there anyway to control the Sbrick from a physical remote(similar to the good ol IR receiver) so that I can continue using the IR transmitter (instead of a smart device) to control the Sbrick? 

In the past, I've seen sbrick being controlled by a PS game controller. At the time it was beta. I've not kept myself up to date with sbrick things but I'm sure you can find out more info with a Web search.

[pasztorl]

Just now, t12ung said:

In the past, I've seen sbrick being controlled by a PS game controller. At the time it was beta. I've not kept myself up to date with sbrick things but I'm sure you can find out more info with a Web search.

Now the official SBrick app support gamepads on iOS/Android. You may need a gamepad which can pair with your phone/tablet, then you can configure the gamepad in the profile settings.

[mattmarsden]

Can anyone help me with this - is I’ve got several trains on one profile do I have them all powered up to use the profile? I hope theres a way round this

[Tommy Styrvoky]

23 minutes ago, mattmarsden said:

Can anyone help me with this - is I’ve got several trains on one profile do I have them all powered up to use the profile? I hope theres a way round this

You need all of them powered for that profile to work, it wouldn't be too difficult to have multiple profiles for different models, as with a train, I presume you will be only using 1 port for directional control.

[pasztorl]

3 hours ago, mattmarsden said:

Can anyone help me with this - is I’ve got several trains on one profile do I have them all powered up to use the profile? I hope theres a way round this

The app currently wants to connect all configured SBricks before it actually start. But it's an interesting usecase. We can implement a modification for this. I imagine a new way, where the profile shows up, but only that controls usable which have actually connected SBrick. The app can keep trying to connect the missing SBricks at the background.

[pasztorl]

On 1/6/2019 at 9:47 PM, pasztorl said:

The app currently wants to connect all configured SBricks before it actually start. But it's an interesting usecase. We can implement a modification for this. I imagine a new way, where the profile shows up, but only that controls usable which have actually connected SBrick. The app can keep trying to connect the missing SBricks at the background.

We are investigating how we support this "feature". The main problem is that if we continously scanning in the background the active connections can be lag/unstable, so the next compromise can be that the profile waiting for all of the configured SBrick when the profile starts for 5 seconds, then the profile will start with the SBrick(s) found in that time limit, then there is no scanning until the next profile start. How it sounds for you? Or anybody have a better idea handling this?

BTW, we updated the apps, and there is also a new feature. You can configure what happens when you close the profile or the app in the profile settings. You have two options. Reset the SBrick ports to null (this is the default), or leave the SBrick ports on the last state. This is also can be useful for trains when you want to leave the train running while you close the app.

[shadow_elenter]

1 hour ago, pasztorl said:

Reset the SBrick ports to null (this is the default), or leave the SBrick ports on the last state. This is also can be useful for trains when you want to leave the train running while you close the app.

This could be really usefull for GBC builds!

 

I had 2 other ideas to improve the profile designer

I'd love an "add text" option so you can label the buttons and sliders in the profile designer like "cargo train 1 and "passenger train 2".
Especially when you're like me and you occasionally have 6 SBricks controlling 22 actions in one profile this would be helpful, because this is chaos:

I'd also love a slider bar element with a number of pre-definable motor states.
I imagine a slider that you can tell how many predefined states you need, like an option to set anywhere form 2 to 5 (or more) pre-defined motor states.

Each dot on the line represents a pre-defined motor state and if you drag the selection dot, wherever you release it, it "snaps" to the closest dot on the line and switches over to that motor state.

That way you can get for instance a 5 states dial to have:
state 1: 100% turning clockwise

state 2: 50% turning clockwise
state 3:  motor off

state 4: 50% turning counter clockwise

state 5 100% turning counter clockwise

Some applications require me to "jump" from 50% to 100% motor speed. with a normal slider I can't skip all the speeds between 100% and 50% motor speed and it's nearly impossible to reliably slide it to that exact 50% point.

Anyway, just ideas...

 

 

Edited January 11, 2019 by shadow_elenter

[Carsten Svendsen]

Does anyone know if it is possible to do sequence programming and if so, how?

I tried with the sequence and step function but it doesn't work at all like I intended.

Basically, I just need a couple of motors to complete a set of start/stops on a timer, via the push of a button

What you see below are two channels controlling each motor. I know there's an error in the "knifes" sequence, but I can't be bothered redo it and screenshot it again. Anyway, look at the graph above.

Am I on the right track or completely off? When I tap the pink button in the app, the "bale turner" motor runs very slowly, the longer I hold the button the faster it goes. Similarly, when it's at 100% and I hold the button, it slows down gradually to 0 and then nothing.