17
votes
How are the sounds from the Sorting Hat produced?
This set includes a single novel element, 102723c01 Sound Brick 4 x 4 with Random Talking Sorting Hat Sounds, that does all of the hard work:
That element is integrated into the hat so that Technic ...
- 41.8k
16
votes
Accepted
What internal electronics do Spike Prime and Mindstorms Robot Inventor use?
If we open the hub we can take a look at the main PCB inside. There's just one PCB in addition to a small speaker and the replaceable lithium ion battery. Here's the top of the PCB:
And the bottom:
...
- 41.8k
15
votes
Accepted
What electronics are inside the LEGO Powered Up hub?
The bulk of the space inside the Powered Up hub is consumed by the housing for the 6 AAA batteries. A small portion of the top of the hub contains the main printed circuit board. Here's how it looks ...
- 41.8k
13
votes
Accepted
white-coloured light brick for the iron man sets
I'm not aware of 3rd party sellers that offer these in alternate colors, but it doesn't look terribly difficult to do yourself. There is at least one video covering the process. Here's the gist:
Take ...
- 41.8k
12
votes
Accepted
What is inside the LEGO Powered Up M motor?
Let's take a look. The first step to disassembling the motor is removing the small Philips screw on the bottom:
Now there are a pair of gray tabs in the back white section that we need to release. I ...
- 41.8k
12
votes
Accepted
What is inside the Technic Powered Up XL motor?
I was curious about this, and TLG was willing to provide me with one of these motors, so I opened it up. I was able to get the outer shell off by cutting down the 4 tabs on the outside. This motor ...
- 41.8k
11
votes
Why are there 4 wires leading to the Power Functions LEGO train motor?
The LEGO Power Functions connectors have 4 standard designations regardless of the usage:
9V power
"0V" Ground
C1 "control 1"
C2 "control 2"
It seems for motors that the 9V and Ground are unused. ...
- 5,303
10
votes
Is there a way to buy just the robotic parts?
Yes, you can buy all the electronic parts by themselves, but given that the electronic parts are the bulk of the cost, you may not save much.
The MINDSTORMS EV3 set (MSRP $349.99 USD) contains:
1 - ...
- 13.3k
10
votes
Accepted
What internal electronics does LEGO Boost use?
Here's what the main board in the Move Hub looks like from the top:
And bottom:
The Move Hub includes the following hardware:
Motors
The two built in motors are fairly standard DC motors. They ...
- 41.8k
9
votes
Accepted
How do the Infrared Towers work?
IR Transmitter Tower exist in both USB version as well as Serial cable version.
Page 7 of instructions for one of the sets (3804) that was using USB version has following explanation:
Transcription:
...
- 23.4k
8
votes
Accepted
Classic 9V battery box current limiter?
The short answer is about 150mA.
Electrical Characteristics
From the limited testing that I've done, the component you pointed out appears to be a positive temperature coefficient thermistor. Here's ...
- 41.8k
8
votes
Arduino-izing LEGO Technic - ideas for a car / vehicle to choose
I'd be tempted to use the Batmobile (76112) design:
Basically, you have independent motors for the left and right wheels. This allows you to steer quickly and easily without the fuss of a traditional ...
- 41.8k
8
votes
Accepted
EV3 not recognizing resistance correctly (MicroPython)
Here is the schematic of an input port on the EV3 (available on official LEGO MINDSTORMS download page):
And this is the implementation of the resistance() method from Pybricks MicroPython:
STATIC ...
- 9,778
8
votes
What electronics are inside the SPIKE Prime angular motors?
Here's what the part looks like from the outside:
The first step to opening it up is to remove the cover over a section of the drive. Note that this process is likely to cause permanent damage to the ...
- 41.8k
8
votes
Accepted
Recommendation on how to build a "brick presence detector"?
I'll suggest going the Arduino way and relying on magnetic contact switches - fairly inexpensive, and invisible once embedded in a build.
Another commonly used trick is using an ultrasound distance ...
- 9,646
8
votes
What is inside the SPIKE Essential battery?
This battery was glued when assembled, and it can only be opened destructively. The best way seems to be cutting with a knife around the seam to break all of the tabs that are glued in place.
Here's ...
- 41.8k
7
votes
Duplo Locomotive: What is this inner part used for?
They are protective locks. If something (let’s say kids hair, or part of their clothes) gets stuck and dragged inside the wheel, these tiny blocks will lock the wheels and make sure it doesn’t keep ...
- 243
7
votes
Accepted
Custom extension cables for Light Stax?
I have also little soldering experience, but I managed to create custom extension cables:
First: open the cover with a small screw driver:
Remove the PCB by lifting the small notch to open the light ...
- 186
7
votes
What is inside BuWizz 2.0?
I don't have this part, so I can't directly give you the photos that you are looking for, but there is at least one teardown video floating around that we can use to see what is inside the BuWizz 2.0 ...
- 41.8k
7
votes
Accepted
How to integrate hardware/embedded button with LEGO?
For the first switch I bent the legs of the button and splayed them out just a little bit.
Next I stripped off the caps of two Dupont connectors, ran them through the headlight bricks and connected ...
- 2,548
7
votes
Recommendation on how to build a "brick presence detector"?
LEGO Dimensions had NFC tags in the round bases, e.g. part 18602c01 "Dimensions Toy Tag 4 x 4 x 2/3, generic":
These can be integrated into the accessories. The tag, and therefore the ...
- 17.3k
6
votes
Accepted
AA Battery Packs 54950c01 vs 59510c01
The main functional difference between these is the electrical connector. The one with the red switch uses the old style 9V connection, while the one with the orange switch uses the newer Power ...
- 41.8k
6
votes
Accepted
Running Power Functions Train Without IR Receiver/Remote
There is a fairly easy and cheap way to do this since you don't want real variable speed control. As you noted, connecting the AAA battery box directly to the PF train motor technically works, but the ...
- 41.8k
6
votes
Which programming environments or APIs are available for the LEGO BOOST?
Boost and the other Powered Up components (the new City trains, the app-controlled batmobile, and WeDo 2.0) are controlled via Bluetooth. Any environment that can send bluetooth commands can be used ...
- 6,201
6
votes
Scarcity of electric parts: motors etc
Cost. If you look at any set with electric motors, etc. you will see a significant increase in the price of these sets. They have marketing research groups and accountants that somewhat dictate the ...
- 3,274
6
votes
Accepted
Does the Mario Starter Course require a smart device?
Yes, a smart device is required. The box says the following:
Smart device required but not included
However, this set is not like Boost, where the intelligent brick just adds weight to your model ...
- 41.8k
5
votes
Are there any difference between the Power Functions 88003 and 99499 L motors?
According to bricklink, 88003 is the set containing exactly one part, namely the 99499 motor.
You can buy the motor as a set in LEGO shops or online, it's packaged in a plastic bag, which probably ...
- 11.1k
5
votes
Accepted
Duplo Locomotive: What is this inner part used for?
Skip on over to YouTube and watch this guy fix one of his toddler's jammed up trains.
Comparing your picture to his video, we can see the general area where the "hip springs" should be, but ...
- 8,913
5
votes
Accepted
Why is the LEGO IR Receiver V2 not widely produced? Or are they?
No, the V2 receiver isn't available in any new products. It's only available in the sets you mentioned.
The most likely reason it's not available in new products is that the production cost would be ...
- 11.1k
5
votes
Accepted
Arduino-izing LEGO Technic - ideas for a car / vehicle to choose
If I were you, I'd try to use a car chassis as simple as possible.
This would achieve multiple goals:
By using a vehicle with the least amount of complexity you can keep the price low.
By avoiding ...
- 17.3k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible