I hate to be negative, but this just seems reminiscent of consumer video game hype in the 1990s; where things never lived up to the hype.
New Lego smart-play system
41–50 of 53 posts
Re: New Lego smart-play system
#42Watch this be like, $40 for a single brick thing.
Re: New Lego smart-play system
#43I don't have kids, but if I did, I would probably not go for Lego but for 3D-Printing. It shouldn't be hard to print pieces that can snap together. In all kinds of colors and all kinds of forms. I imagine the adventure of printing new pieces would be a fun thing for the kids and the parents. And when the kids are old enough, they can print pieces on their own. And a bit later design pieces on their own. Would there b…
There are off-brand budget Lego blocks available and they're (in my experience) all awful. Legos are very precisely manufactured to fit together smoothly, if the off-brand ones made in a factory can't replicate that then I don't have much hope for small-scale 3D printing.
No sure what exactly you mean by "off-brand", but I have recently bought big sets from Mould King and Cada and they are perfectly fine. Not only are they cheap, I'd say the color consistency is even a bit better. The sets themselves are great, really creative, challenging to build even for older kids, something Lego stopped doing many years ago.
Re: New Lego smart-play system
#44The linked behind-the-scenes story gives a few more interesting insights https://www.lego.com/en-us/smart-play/article/innovation
Re: New Lego smart-play system
#45I don't have kids, but if I did, I would probably not go for Lego but for 3D-Printing. It shouldn't be hard to print pieces that can snap together. In all kinds of colors and all kinds of forms. I imagine the adventure of printing new pieces would be a fun thing for the kids and the parents. And when the kids are old enough, they can print pieces on their own. And a bit later design pieces on their own. Would there b…
I actually think what you suggest _would_ be brilliant if there was a printer that printed as nice and detailed parts as Lego does from ABS. The digital ecosystem for that would be crazy. But. Modern consumer printers are way better than decade ago but they still sort of suck if you want any fine details. "It shouldn't be hard to print pieces that can snap together." It's actually quite hard to print pieces that are…
Can confirm everything. PLA is completely unusable for this as it quickly deforms under constant pressure, so it is impossible to have a stable press fit with it. ABS would be the obvious choice (since Lego is ABS), but it's difficult to print. Generally, a press fit with ABS that can be handled by kids (so easy enough to create and remove), but still being sufficiently stable so that it can be handled, requires extremely tight tolerances which you will not be able to achieve with an FDM printer. Even very good FDM printers with small nozzles will have dozens of micrometers in tolerance, which is too large - pieces will either be almost impossible to fit, or they will just fall apart at the slightest movement. Resin printing is better, but again, the material is too soft and will not be able to withstand the pressures long-term. Even if you use special durable resin, it will deform quite quickly under constant pressure.
Re: New Lego smart-play system
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can easily print bricks that work. They will just require more force to assemble than normal because you have to make them slightly undersized to make up for the lower tolerance. Just think of how many 3d prints you've seen that consist of multiple parts friction for together.
> Just think of how many 3d prints you've seen that consist of multiple parts friction for together. I've seen probably 10s, ranging from amateur-who-just-unpacked-their-printer to acquaintance who runs a business doing 3D printed products, and none of them come close to the experience of lego bricks, so far I'm not sure I'd actually call it "work". Stack 10 of these "custom" lego bricks and place them next to anothe…
Also: try taking them apart a hundred times and sticking them together again. If the parts initially stuck together strongly, chances are one of the parts will break down.
Re: New Lego smart-play system
#47[dead]
Re: New Lego smart-play system
#48I'm very confused by this one. I can't tell what it really does . With Mindstorms, We Do, and Spark, you can build things that interact because you have motors, sensors, remotes, a programmable hub. This... makes noise and flashes lights?
Just like the Light & Sound sets from the 80s.
https://www.les-archives-de-joe.net/article-108-lego-espace-...
Except now it has an accelerometer too, and the sounds are more than just a siren, so your spaceship can make a swoosh noise when you fly it around. This is what we wanted.
Re: New Lego smart-play system
#49I don't have kids, but if I did, I would probably not go for Lego but for 3D-Printing. It shouldn't be hard to print pieces that can snap together. In all kinds of colors and all kinds of forms. I imagine the adventure of printing new pieces would be a fun thing for the kids and the parents. And when the kids are old enough, they can print pieces on their own. And a bit later design pieces on their own. Would there b…
> It shouldn't be hard to print pieces that can snap together I have some news for you. Lego piece tolerance is nuts. I think it is down to 2 micrometers. You can't achieve that in consumer 3d printers. Now, you can make something that kinda works like lego but it wont have the structural integrity for advanced builds.
What you _can_ do is add slots for magnets. You can totally make "snap on" toys like this but it's a different concept.
Re: New Lego smart-play system
#50[deleted]