Lego (or, if you’re pedantic, LEGO) is lots of fun. Lego Mindstorms is more fun. But what if you want to go to maximum fun? That’s where the Brick comes in. This $70 brick works with regular Lego and allows you to add unique features to your models including motor controls and light handling. The device is very similar to the actual Mindstorms brain but won’t take up most of your project space and instead can fit in an obscure corner. Bluetooth LTE even lets you control the brick from your phone.
In short, it’s a Mindstorms-compatible system that is RF controlled, compact, and far more programmable. What’s not to like?
Created by a group of Hungarian designers and programmers, the team is looking for £60,000 on Kickstarter. They’re half way there with 15 days to go.
“We built this because we wanted to have more fun with our LEGO, and it turns out to be a perfect tool to demonstrate the potential in our remote control platform,” said co-founder Lénárd Pásztor. “We don’t know why nobody has ever built a proper remote controller for LEGO. Even LEGO only built one which uses infrared.”
Obviously this project is in no way associated with Lego, which could end up being a bad thing for the team if the Danes become litigious. That said, they are quite excited about the project and plan on creating a set of apps for the brick as well as a system for sharing plans and configurations. For example, you can use the “steering wheel” version of the app to control a car or another version to control a tank. The app supports up to four SBricks at a time.
“The reaction of the LEGO community is overwhelming, they love the product and they love us for trying to produce it for them. We receive so many supporting letters we have never anticipated that,” said Lénárd. Time will tell what Lego thinks of the product and, more important, how cool it will be to have an RF-controlled super tank that can shoot rockets and roll over the cat.