<![CDATA[first impressions of the Lego smart brick, before I do any actual tearing down: wow, I forgot how good they are at working with plastic.]]>first impressions of the Lego smart brick, before I do any actual tearing down: wow, I forgot how good they are at working with plastic. the injecton molding remains impeccable, at least for this specific piece (I know about their recent QC issues elsewhere)

it's hard for me to look at the positively microscopic (I am literally using a microscope to look at it) "Li-Ion" lettering and think of anything but "showing off!"

(treehouse doesn't let me attach the full size images, you can grab them here: front, side)

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/topic/645173a7-a610-44a2-b6d3-cabe58004a57/first-impressions-of-the-lego-smart-brick-before-i-do-any-actual-tearing-down-wow-i-forgot-how-good-they-are-at-working-with-plastic.RSS for NodeThu, 16 Apr 2026 14:45:49 GMTSat, 11 Apr 2026 18:59:00 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to first impressions of the Lego smart brick, before I do any actual tearing down: wow, I forgot how good they are at working with plastic. on Sun, 12 Apr 2026 12:19:23 GMT]]>@whitequark Help in finding checksum or hash algorithms... timestamps or whatsoever in the data structure is more then welcome. Happy to get pull aka merge requests on Codeberg.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://chaos.social/users/maehw/statuses/116391697677805746https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://chaos.social/users/maehw/statuses/116391697677805746Sun, 12 Apr 2026 12:19:23 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to first impressions of the Lego smart brick, before I do any actual tearing down: wow, I forgot how good they are at working with plastic. on Sun, 12 Apr 2026 12:18:20 GMT]]>@whitequark Just in case, others want to dig deeper: I cut out the binary starting from offset 0x105000 and can confirm, that I can parse the unencrypted, uncompressed read-only file system (ROFS) there:

https://codeberg.org/maehw/SmartBrickToolkit/src/branch/main/kaitai/smart_brick_decompressed_rofs_segment.ksy + other parts in the repo

I guess that the remaining parts are meta data... and probably also diagnostic data which are collected by the brick and may be transmitted to TLG via their companion app.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://chaos.social/users/maehw/statuses/116391693533836440https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://chaos.social/users/maehw/statuses/116391693533836440Sun, 12 Apr 2026 12:18:20 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to first impressions of the Lego smart brick, before I do any actual tearing down: wow, I forgot how good they are at working with plastic. on Sun, 12 Apr 2026 10:30:54 GMT]]>@whitequark @drwho oh boy i want one so bad, shame i don't have the time of day to use it though

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://infosec.exchange/users/novet/statuses/116391271076387663https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://infosec.exchange/users/novet/statuses/116391271076387663Sun, 12 Apr 2026 10:30:54 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to first impressions of the Lego smart brick, before I do any actual tearing down: wow, I forgot how good they are at working with plastic. on Sun, 12 Apr 2026 09:37:57 GMT]]>@whitequark @pdo

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]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mathstodon.xyz/users/at/statuses/116391062889489125https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mathstodon.xyz/users/at/statuses/116391062889489125Sun, 12 Apr 2026 09:37:57 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to first impressions of the Lego smart brick, before I do any actual tearing down: wow, I forgot how good they are at working with plastic. on Sun, 12 Apr 2026 09:09:19 GMT]]>@whitequark
How did you guess these GPIO would be JTAG?

EDIT: explained further down the thread --> https://social.treehouse.systems/@whitequark/116389802932543329

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://infosec.exchange/users/magnetic_tape/statuses/116390950283062146https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://infosec.exchange/users/magnetic_tape/statuses/116390950283062146Sun, 12 Apr 2026 09:09:19 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to first impressions of the Lego smart brick, before I do any actual tearing down: wow, I forgot how good they are at working with plastic. on Sun, 12 Apr 2026 08:42:26 GMT]]>@sounddrill @whitequark you need MacGyver, a paperclip and two elastic bands, clearly… This is the closest I could find to an appropriate MacGyver picture…

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]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://toot.me.uk/users/revk/statuses/116390844583604761https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://toot.me.uk/users/revk/statuses/116390844583604761Sun, 12 Apr 2026 08:42:26 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to first impressions of the Lego smart brick, before I do any actual tearing down: wow, I forgot how good they are at working with plastic. on Sun, 12 Apr 2026 07:24:39 GMT]]>@maehw ah I don't trash boards like that unless I 100% know there's nothing more to be gained from them

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.treehouse.systems/users/whitequark/statuses/116390538706875957https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.treehouse.systems/users/whitequark/statuses/116390538706875957Sun, 12 Apr 2026 07:24:39 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to first impressions of the Lego smart brick, before I do any actual tearing down: wow, I forgot how good they are at working with plastic. on Sun, 12 Apr 2026 07:23:37 GMT]]>@whitequark Monkey Island Q-tip comes to mind

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]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.tchncs.de/users/ppxl/statuses/116390534651838613https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.tchncs.de/users/ppxl/statuses/116390534651838613Sun, 12 Apr 2026 07:23:37 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to first impressions of the Lego smart brick, before I do any actual tearing down: wow, I forgot how good they are at working with plastic. on Sun, 12 Apr 2026 06:53:52 GMT]]>@whitequark I won't stop you doing more RE'ing! Just curious if the internal flash could still be dumped and before it goes to the trash. Even though I may be lacking the skills to do so.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://chaos.social/users/maehw/statuses/116390417713740061https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://chaos.social/users/maehw/statuses/116390417713740061Sun, 12 Apr 2026 06:53:52 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to first impressions of the Lego smart brick, before I do any actual tearing down: wow, I forgot how good they are at working with plastic. on Sun, 12 Apr 2026 06:38:06 GMT]]>@maehw I am open to giving it away; I might consider doing a little bit more of RE work e.g. to probe if maybe the LEGO ASIC has a JTAG port available

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.treehouse.systems/users/whitequark/statuses/116390355712823840https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.treehouse.systems/users/whitequark/statuses/116390355712823840Sun, 12 Apr 2026 06:38:06 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to first impressions of the Lego smart brick, before I do any actual tearing down: wow, I forgot how good they are at working with plastic. on Sun, 12 Apr 2026 06:15:34 GMT]]>@whitequark Just in case this were really the end... would you give away your PCB in the state it is right now? And maybe some advice how to dump it? I guess you mean the configuration mode thingie?

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://chaos.social/users/maehw/statuses/116390267110536582https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://chaos.social/users/maehw/statuses/116390267110536582Sun, 12 Apr 2026 06:15:34 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to first impressions of the Lego smart brick, before I do any actual tearing down: wow, I forgot how good they are at working with plastic. on Sun, 12 Apr 2026 06:08:44 GMT]]>@whitequark in theory you can use openocd to wake it up and switch it to 4 wire mode but thats also not very fun;

in the TI parts the GPIO mux is subordinate to the JTAG TAP so if you wake up 4 wire mode it takes over the other two pins no matter what the GPIO mux is set to afaict

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.treehouse.systems/users/ldcd/statuses/116390240218520014https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.treehouse.systems/users/ldcd/statuses/116390240218520014Sun, 12 Apr 2026 06:08:44 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to first impressions of the Lego smart brick, before I do any actual tearing down: wow, I forgot how good they are at working with plastic. on Sun, 12 Apr 2026 06:05:20 GMT]]>@ldcd welp

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.treehouse.systems/users/whitequark/statuses/116390226836395709https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.treehouse.systems/users/whitequark/statuses/116390226836395709Sun, 12 Apr 2026 06:05:20 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to first impressions of the Lego smart brick, before I do any actual tearing down: wow, I forgot how good they are at working with plastic. on Sun, 12 Apr 2026 06:03:25 GMT]]>@whitequark yeah it's a PITA I was trying to bring up a CC1354 and just could not get it to respond

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.treehouse.systems/users/ldcd/statuses/116390219331063772https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.treehouse.systems/users/ldcd/statuses/116390219331063772Sun, 12 Apr 2026 06:03:25 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to first impressions of the Lego smart brick, before I do any actual tearing down: wow, I forgot how good they are at working with plastic. on Sun, 12 Apr 2026 06:02:49 GMT]]>@ldcd hm it's possible but i haven't implemented cJTAG yet so can't easily test

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.treehouse.systems/users/whitequark/statuses/116390216942470647https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.treehouse.systems/users/whitequark/statuses/116390216942470647Sun, 12 Apr 2026 06:02:49 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to first impressions of the Lego smart brick, before I do any actual tearing down: wow, I forgot how good they are at working with plastic. on Sun, 12 Apr 2026 05:59:55 GMT]]>@whitequark if the REd schematic is to believed TCKC goes only to a testpoint

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.treehouse.systems/users/ldcd/statuses/116390205563281609https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.treehouse.systems/users/ldcd/statuses/116390205563281609Sun, 12 Apr 2026 05:59:55 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to first impressions of the Lego smart brick, before I do any actual tearing down: wow, I forgot how good they are at working with plastic. on Sun, 12 Apr 2026 05:59:00 GMT]]>@whitequark yup i only mention because TMSC (GPIO11) and TCKC (GPIO10) both go straight to vias (and then maybe to the array of testpoints on the back?); Wheras TDO (GPIO9) seems to go to the flash and TDI (GPIO8) seems to go ??.

So I was thinking there's a chance they might be explicitly configuring it as cJTAG and using it for a boundary scan test after manufacture.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.treehouse.systems/users/ldcd/statuses/116390201950944072https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.treehouse.systems/users/ldcd/statuses/116390201950944072Sun, 12 Apr 2026 05:59:00 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to first impressions of the Lego smart brick, before I do any actual tearing down: wow, I forgot how good they are at working with plastic. on Sun, 12 Apr 2026 05:55:41 GMT]]>@whitequark I'm way out in South India but hey, thanks!

I first learned basics of PCB design years ago over a discord server so I'll be sure to ask if I need to pick something up

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://infosec.exchange/users/sounddrill/statuses/116390188922383262https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://infosec.exchange/users/sounddrill/statuses/116390188922383262Sun, 12 Apr 2026 05:55:41 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to first impressions of the Lego smart brick, before I do any actual tearing down: wow, I forgot how good they are at working with plastic. on Sun, 12 Apr 2026 05:49:42 GMT]]>@triplef honestly the easiest way would be to join LEGO and get all the docs. I probably could do this if I wanted

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.treehouse.systems/users/whitequark/statuses/116390165409954366https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.treehouse.systems/users/whitequark/statuses/116390165409954366Sun, 12 Apr 2026 05:49:42 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to first impressions of the Lego smart brick, before I do any actual tearing down: wow, I forgot how good they are at working with plastic. on Sun, 12 Apr 2026 05:49:28 GMT]]>@triplef that would have to involve the totally undocumented ASIC

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.treehouse.systems/users/whitequark/statuses/116390164480374339https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.treehouse.systems/users/whitequark/statuses/116390164480374339Sun, 12 Apr 2026 05:49:28 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to first impressions of the Lego smart brick, before I do any actual tearing down: wow, I forgot how good they are at working with plastic. on Sun, 12 Apr 2026 05:17:26 GMT]]>@whitequark This is wonderful 🙂

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://oldbytes.space/users/arclight/statuses/116390038511528168https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://oldbytes.space/users/arclight/statuses/116390038511528168Sun, 12 Apr 2026 05:17:26 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to first impressions of the Lego smart brick, before I do any actual tearing down: wow, I forgot how good they are at working with plastic. on Sun, 12 Apr 2026 04:39:15 GMT]]>@sounddrill if you're in the area I can teach you how to do it as cleanly as this. nothing special about it

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.treehouse.systems/users/whitequark/statuses/116389888368431334https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.treehouse.systems/users/whitequark/statuses/116389888368431334Sun, 12 Apr 2026 04:39:15 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to first impressions of the Lego smart brick, before I do any actual tearing down: wow, I forgot how good they are at working with plastic. on Sun, 12 Apr 2026 04:37:13 GMT]]>@whitequark I know this seems like an ordinary jump to you but if I managed to get one as clean as this, I'd feel like a goddamn hero 😭

I ruined a beautiful rf01(one of those xbox 360 donor rf recievers wired through usb) with my soldering

Then it died but I think that was because I wasn't supplying the right power the right way(iirc it wanted a stable 3.3v and I just gave it a nodemcu 3v3) which was a common problem on these boards

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://infosec.exchange/users/sounddrill/statuses/116389880338468605https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://infosec.exchange/users/sounddrill/statuses/116389880338468605Sun, 12 Apr 2026 04:37:13 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to first impressions of the Lego smart brick, before I do any actual tearing down: wow, I forgot how good they are at working with plastic. on Sun, 12 Apr 2026 04:34:07 GMT]]>@lenary no, just normal lego brick shape

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.treehouse.systems/users/whitequark/statuses/116389868191955707https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.treehouse.systems/users/whitequark/statuses/116389868191955707Sun, 12 Apr 2026 04:34:07 GMT