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.
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@whitequark @timonsku really braindead tip: search "ultrasonic kinfe" or "ultrasonic knjfe", because AliExpress censors the word "knife" in listings
@gsuberland @whitequark https://hozodesign.com/products/neoblade is the one I have. Also available on Amazon
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@webhat @whitequark @timonsku yeah, the other way to go is to search "ultrasonic cutter", because a "cutter" is not strictly age restricted like a knife. which in this case is particularly funny because ultrasonic knife blades aren't really that sharp, it's barely sharper than a metal spudger.
@gsuberland @whitequark @timonsku in the end I found a couple of listings, because the listings were in Dutch and they didn't flag the age verification
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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)
@whitequark is love to see what of the CAT scans that Tested does on various things.
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I'm not yet sure how I'll open it up. I don't have a hacksaw (somehow... I should fix that), so my options are somewhat limited: it's either cracking or melting plastic. from what others have done I know I there's plastic welding all around the joined region.
@whitequark
No razor saw?
(a super fine modelling saw with a reinforced back) -
@whitequark
No razor saw?
(a super fine modelling saw with a reinforced back)@kirtai me: i don't have a hacksaw
you: no razor saw?
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@kirtai me: i don't have a hacksaw
you: no razor saw?
@whitequark
They're not the same kind of saw
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decided the next thing to do would be to dump the presumed Winbond flash WLCSP
here it is mounted on a SOIC-8 pinout with a tiny bit of UV epoxy, like a particularly exotic dead bug
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Interesting... I wouldn't do the port myself due to lack of time, but it should be doable.
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@whitequark Wow they've come a long way since the Mindstorms NXT bricks! I wrote my first embedded stuff on that brick, debugging my LCD driver by beeping out register values one bit at a time. Simpler, more innocent times when I didn't have the tools to hook into the handy JTAG port that was right there.
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@Viss bluetooth le, but yes
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decided the next thing to do would be to dump the presumed Winbond flash WLCSP
here it is mounted on a SOIC-8 pinout with a tiny bit of UV epoxy, like a particularly exotic dead bug
connected half of the pads
this is my first time soldering a 0.3mm pitch WLCSP, so it took me a bit to set up the workspace the way that makes it possible, but it's not too bad
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@migratory fascinating!
actually the easiest way to get rid of inconvenient abs is acetone. dump ABS in, get highly flammable toxic sludge out.
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@bob i don't have any nichrome at hand and i'm pretty sure i'd give myself burns if i tried
8-year-old me discovered copper works just fine when attached to a sufficiently large transformer.
much older me is banned from hot tools.
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@Viss bluetooth le, but yes
@whitequark hah, wow
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@whitequark Calling an ARC CPU industry standard is very funny to me
@ldcd @whitequark
It is quite widespread, even if not visible to end users.
Being in most Intel CPU's and all that. -
8-year-old me discovered copper works just fine when attached to a sufficiently large transformer.
much older me is banned from hot tools.
8 year olds should be allowed nowhere near these. https://dfarq.homeip.net/all-about-the-lionel-zw/
doubly so, two of them, with the knowledge you could run them back-to-back to do interesting things.
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@ldcd @whitequark
It is quite widespread, even if not visible to end users.
Being in most Intel CPU's and all that.@ftg @whitequark yeah that's why it's kind of funny, it is simultaneously a very common CPU and a very obscure CPU (ie it's hard to get comprehensive documentation, the devkit is literally an FPGA, etc)
Like they're not lying but they're trying to imply it's a normal CPU to use and be able to program which isn't really true
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connected half of the pads
this is my first time soldering a 0.3mm pitch WLCSP, so it took me a bit to set up the workspace the way that makes it possible, but it's not too bad
finally done. no shorts and (as far as i can tell under mag) no opens
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@ftg @whitequark yeah that's why it's kind of funny, it is simultaneously a very common CPU and a very obscure CPU (ie it's hard to get comprehensive documentation, the devkit is literally an FPGA, etc)
Like they're not lying but they're trying to imply it's a normal CPU to use and be able to program which isn't really true
@ldcd @ftg @whitequark I have yet to come across any SoC with an ARC core where the docs weren't partially or fully NDA'd, or at least gated behind a sales call.
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@ldcd @ftg @whitequark I have yet to come across any SoC with an ARC core where the docs weren't partially or fully NDA'd, or at least gated behind a sales call.
