Bricks by the Bay Day TWO Concludes

Day TWO is done and it was just as good as Day ONE.  It started off  with a great  presentation about the the use of LEGO (especially robotics) to teach children how to design, build and program LEGO.  This was given by the local librarian and how it had been going on for years.  The always great presentation on brick geometry and how to use SNOT and other building techniques.  The last one was on how to build MECHs.  Excellent presentation on how to build the frame for strength.  Then great ideas on how to cover the frame with armor and other cool gadgets.

Below are just a few of the over 300 MOCs that were submitted, plus best in show.

Bricks by the Bay 2022, Jun 23-26, Santa Clara Convention Center, Santa Clara CA.  It will be great to be back live.

 

Best in Show

 

 

 

 

 

Bricks by the Bay - Day ONE Concludes

 The first Day concluded with very interesting seminars.  

 In the past Windows and Doors have just been whatever LEGO provided.  This presentation showed different techniques for making architectural quality doors and windows.  Designs that have merit and using unique pieces, like muckrakers from car set sets as the frame for a window or door.

As always the LEGO Masters round table was interesting.  Offering their take on the show and how it worked, especially with the COVID restrictions this year.  It was not only informative but highly entertaining.  It is one of the best times of the virtual Bricks by the Bay.

One of the last seminars of the day was on Creativity.  Given by an Industrial Designer with a Masters thesis in creativity, it was quite interesting.  This seminar could have been given to any group of people where creativity is the driving portion of their job.  But since she is also a MOC builder, there was a slant to brick building.  Listening to the seminar, I found that what was discussed is what I normally do, except I do it in a more haphazard process.  The seminar provide a more formal process without impinging on the creativity itself.  This is something I plan to incorporate into my design ideas, not only for LEGO but other projects I am working on.

Looking forward to Day TWO.

Bricks by the Bay - Day ONE

 

Great time so far, #BBTB2021 #bricksbythebay.  The presentation on STUDIO was great.  I have been using MLCAD, but I may have to change over now.  It is more versatile and looks like it will have more support

There was a presentation on the LEGO Typewriter by the two primary designers.  It was fascinating how they did it and the LEGO process needed to make it a product.  If you have not seen this, here is a link to the LEGO page, LEGO Typewriter.

And this was just the morning.  We will be presenting at 4:40 PM today.

Scripting Part 2

The scripting language is mostly done now.  One new item is start script on power up.  This will be a control bit set by the PC/Mobile.  It can be cancelled by simply sending a HALT script command.  This makes installation for shows and the like, much simpler.  Connect the Brick Controller to a power supply and the script is running.  

Now I need to finish the MP3 section.  I would like to show it at #bricksbythebay.

Bricks By the Bay

 This weekend (virtual).  You can get tickets here.

We will be showing our line of Brick Controllers, Power Supplies and new Soft Wear.

We will be presenting on Saturday between 4PM and 5PM PDT.

Brick Controller Enclosure

What we have here is an enclosure for the USB Power supply and the Brick Controller.  These are designed mostly for the MOCs that I build.  There main purpose is to attach to the back of the MOC and provide a support methodology for the small wires that are used to light the MOC.  I have generated a quick instruction set that can be found on the web site, here.  Below is a short video explaining how it works.

Daughter Card for Brick Controller 2

Spent more time on this than I wanted.  At first I thought there was a PCB error, then realized I had swapped the two SPI ports from the proto I built earlier.  This meant having to chase down ANSEL, TRIS and port settings on the PIC32.  Once that was solved, the drive registered with Windows and we were off and running.  One interesting item is any SPI baud rate above about 500KHz has no effect on the time to write to the FLASH memory (SST26).  For now I dont care, as long as it reads fast enough to keep the MP3 decoder pipeline full.

Next was to place the MP3 decoder chip on the daughter card.  This again was chasing down incorrect settings on the PIC32, but it was finally started to respond.  Now I need to connect a headphone jack to the board and see if it is decoding properly.  The PCB design has a class D amplifier on it, I just have not improved my soldering skills enough to try it.