You can’t replace the battery in Lego’s Smart Bricks — and many of its sensors aren’t available yet

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• leoj@piefed.zip ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  wow, so just more trash and waste for the sake of making toys AI integrated…?

  I’m all for giving kids the tools of the future early (with limits)

  but why do we have to make it disposable? (profit, I know, its rhetorical guys).

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  • MurrayL@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    The disposability sucks, but I don’t believe there’s any AI involved.

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    • SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      The point is to suck any imagination out a child’s head.

      Image

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    • leoj@piefed.zip ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      HA I’ve been so brainwashed by 2025 I see the word smart and stupidly assume AI.

      Looks like its just sensors.

      I actually think this makes it worse because it doesn’t really bring a whole lot to the table from a STEM-toy perspective, although I guess learning to utilize sensors could be good for some kids if there is any type of granular control.

      I grew up with Lego Mindstorms, so it can definitely inspire.

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  • andyspam@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    You do realize it’s rechargeable, right? I watched jerryrigeverything’s video on it and it’s honestly a pretty neat and impressive little gadget. I cant imagine the battery ever needing to be replaced even if it were designed to be possible. I would expect it to last 5+ years of heavy play before its battery life would be effected enough to notice.

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    • buckykat@hexbear.net ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      You should be able to give your old Lego to your kids, what’s this five year shit?

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• AmbitiousProcess@piefed.social ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Before people get all up in arms about the non-replaceable battery… Do you know how small a LEGO brick is? For them to pack all this functionality in there, they have to be EXTREMELY careful with how they use every millimeter of space, and they have to make sure a kid won’t just… pop open the bottom of the brick and eat the battery or something.

  The article itself even states:

  As you can see in JerryRigEverything’s destructive teardown, it’s difficult to even get at the battery without going through thin, hair-like antennas.

  Break even one of them and the entire brick is nonfunctional.

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  • SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Turns out there’s not actually much functionality in these at all. An RFID reader and an RGB LED, whoop-de-shit.

    Here’s an example of what cutting-edge brick tech could look like.

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    • AmbitiousProcess@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Turns out there’s not actually much functionality in these at all. An RFID reader and an RGB LED, whoop-de-shit.

      Where did you get that idea? They have an RFID reader and LED, yes, but they also have a speaker, microphone, accelerometer, light and color sensor, near-field magnetic position detection, and then have to fit the battery alongside all of that, all in a 2x4 brick.

      Here’s an example of what cutting-edge brick tech could look like.

      That brick has a fixed option for what it displays without needing to be entirely reflashed, requires a 4x8 powered baseplate to operate, and compared to the smart brick, doesn’t have RFID, LEDs, sound, color, or light sensing capabilities, no accelerometer, and no ability to detect other bricks near it, along with having no internal battery.

      The smart brick can play different (fully interchangeable without firmware reflashing) sounds based on nearby minifigures and interactable buttons and levers, can display lights and sounds based on rotation and movement, can change how it interacts based on nearby smart bricks, and can also be charged wirelessly and operate standalone. And of course, it’ll be able to respond to sounds later on too.

      The brick from hackaday has a display. That’s it. It’s cool, yes, but it’s nowhere close to the smart brick.

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• paraphrand@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Isn’t the “Lego” part kinda just the batter casing with bumps on it, though?

  Just for conversation sake. I don’t think disposable legos are cool or anything.

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  • andyspam@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Check out jerryrigeverything’s video on it. It’s pretty neat. It’s basically just a microcontroller with a battery, nfc coils, charging coils, and sensors. So you place it near other parts of the set and it makes interactive sound effects and lights up and stuff. It recharges with a wireless charging pad and honestly will probably last 10 years+ before the battery degrades meaningfully.

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    • paraphrand@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      This all sounds like what I described. Yeah.

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• Slab_Bulkhead@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  excuse me, but i believe its pronounced Slop Brick.

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