We recently got a few questions concerning the status of the control buttons:
The initial goal was to launch a Kickstarter campaign during the last quarter of 2017. This didn’t happen because of:
getting hit by hurricane IRMA
increased sales that have required most of our time
In the meanwhile we got a fair amount of feedback and questions concerning our proposed buttons.
One to the main requests that came up was the possibility to use our buttons in combination with the nControl software.
That was not part of the initial plan and the buttons were not designed for it.
However, there are indeed applications where it makes sense to link the buttons to the software.
Especially now that we have a web interface: this would allow you to control the layout with the buttons but monitor it on a tablet or computer screen.
As such we have decided to redesign the control buttons so the same buttons can be used:
in a stand-alone way like our initial design
in combination with nControl through a WiFi link with the computer running the software
Another major question was how many buttons could be linked.
That’s indeed an important issue. The limiting factor is the power consumption of the buttons.
And that’s tricky because the power consumption depends on the type of button and how it’s used.
Buttons for lights will use a low amount of power but will use it continuously, while buttons for motors will use a higher amount of power but only when the motor is actuated.
The original power brick also had two PF1.0 connectors but as The LEGO Group is moving towards PF2.0, which has different connectors, that doesn’t make much sense anymore.
As such we’re going to redesign the power brick:
remove the PF1.0 connectors
add a power sensor that drives a variable color LED. The color of the LED will change in function of the power consumption: green > yellow > orange >red.
We’ll start by redesigning the
power brick
servo motor control button
light control button
We have been running a series of tests and are hoping to finalize the new button design this summer. We still need to decide whether we’ll do a kickstarter or just try to release them on our own.
Once those are released we can add the following modules:
