Updates

• 
  Tamás Fábián replied to a topic in the forum Support:

  Hi,
  the LEGO M motors are notoriously hard to drive. Try them with LEGO's own V2 IR receivers, and you'll likely get the same results.
  The problem with M motors is they have a large capacitor in parallel with the actual brushed DC motor in...  moreHi,
  the LEGO M motors are notoriously hard to drive. Try them with LEGO's own V2 IR receivers, and you'll likely get the same results.
  The problem with M motors is they have a large capacitor in parallel with the actual brushed DC motor in them. 
  When the DRV8833 motor driver chip in the SBrick Plus tries to charge this capacitor, it may go into overcurrent protection mode, and cut the PWM signal.
  This problem is not always present, most M motors and most SBricks work together just fine. If you can, please try other M motors and SBricks.
  The problem gets worse as the M motors need to supply more torque. If nothing seem to work, try using a thin silicon lubricant on the moving parts of your creation to reduce friction. You may try to apply lubrincant onto the planetary reduction gear inside the M motor, but you'd need to take it apart.
  (If nothing helps, and you _are_ willing to take the M motor apart, you can remove the capacitor, but this obviously isn't a real solution for most customers...    less

  • Nov 23
• 
  Tamás Fábián replied to a topic in the forum Support:

  Hello everyone,
  I'm sorry to hear your SBrick failing.
  We already have an idea about the cause of this problem. We need to take a look at the faulty pieces as they arrive.
  If the findings confirm our theory, we'll need to issue a firmware upgrade...  moreHello everyone,
  I'm sorry to hear your SBrick failing.
  We already have an idea about the cause of this problem. We need to take a look at the faulty pieces as they arrive.
  If the findings confirm our theory, we'll need to issue a firmware upgrade and change what the SBrick's doing right after it's powered on.
  Until then please do not leave your creations powered on if there's a possibility of the battery losing all charge during operation. If you see a battery pack failing, turn your creation off immediately. You sould run SBrick with fresh / fully charged batteries.
  Your SBricks are probably permanently damaged, please contact info@sbrick.com and ask for a replacement if you didn't already do.
     less

  • Nov 23
• 
  Tamás Fábián replied to a topic in the forum Support:

  Hi Derek,
  unfortunately you can't combine the current on the different pins. You can feed at most 3 amps into SBrick, othervise you risk melting the plastic around the metal contacts.
  It is _technically_ possible to drive SBrick with a LiPo pack, but...  moreHi Derek,
  unfortunately you can't combine the current on the different pins. You can feed at most 3 amps into SBrick, othervise you risk melting the plastic around the metal contacts.
  It is _technically_ possible to drive SBrick with a LiPo pack, but please only do this if you know what you're doing. There is no fuse in SBrick, and a short circuit with a LiPo pack can drive dozens of amps through it potentially causing fire or even an explosion.
  LEGO battery packs come with proper current limiting, LiPo packs usually don't.  less

  • Nov 23
• 
  Tamás Fábián replied to a topic in the forum Support:

  Hello!
  The protocol over BLE is described here: https://social.sbrick.com/wiki/view/pageId/11
  You can use the gatttool command to write characteristics, and so to use the DRIVE command, or to use the Quick Drive method.
  One caveat is the...  moreHello!
  The protocol over BLE is described here: https://social.sbrick.com/wiki/view/pageId/11
  You can use the gatttool command to write characteristics, and so to use the DRIVE command, or to use the Quick Drive method.
  One caveat is the watchdog.
  The purpose of the watchdog is to prevent a model running away is your phone (or other devices) is frozen, so there is a connection (the so the model won't stop), but the application stops sending commands.
  The watchdog is a timer that starts whenever there is a channel that's DRIVE-ing or BRAKE-ing. In these cases, the application MUST send a command in every second, or the connection will be terminated. Sending a "DRIVE 0" to all channels disables the watchdog.  less

  • September 4, 2017
• 
  Tamás Fábián replied to a topic in the forum Support:

  Hello Andrew,
  this is probably SBrick's overcurrent protection in action. It's a sign of trying to use SBrick near it's current limit.
  Don't use SBrick near it's current limit for too long, it will overheat, and the thermal protection will disable the...  moreHello Andrew,
  this is probably SBrick's overcurrent protection in action. It's a sign of trying to use SBrick near it's current limit.
  Don't use SBrick near it's current limit for too long, it will overheat, and the thermal protection will disable the motors for several seconds / minutes. Doing this often will adversely affect the SBrick's lifetime.
  I suggest using more motors instead of a single big one. I know this could be a hassle and/or more expensive, but you'll get reliable operation and happy, cool SBrick ;)
  Cheers,
  Tamas  less

  • April 4, 2017
• 
  Tamás Fábián replied to a topic in the forum Support:

  Hello Kees,
  The 5th channel is indeed the the "LED identification on-off" channel.
  It's usage with quick drive is undocumented, since it's rather convoluted. Use the DRIVE command to turn it off (0) or on (any other value).
  You could use the LED...  moreHello Kees,
  The 5th channel is indeed the the "LED identification on-off" channel.
  It's usage with quick drive is undocumented, since it's rather convoluted. Use the DRIVE command to turn it off (0) or on (any other value).
  You could use the LED identification function via quick drive by sending a value 2 to turn it off (!) and 3,4, or greater to turn it on.  

  • March 29, 2017
• 
  Tamás Fábián replied to a topic in the forum Support:

  Dear Kees,
  old firmwares don't have the manufacturer specific data record in neither the advertisement, nor the scan response data packet.
  You can recognize these old bricks (beside updating the firmware, obviously :) ) by looking for devices with the...  moreDear Kees,
  old firmwares don't have the manufacturer specific data record in neither the advertisement, nor the scan response data packet.
  You can recognize these old bricks (beside updating the firmware, obviously :) ) by looking for devices with the name "SBrick". There are very old pre-production prototypes with the name "SmartBrick".
  To support these, you need to match for names of "SBRICK" or "SMARTBRICK" case insensitive (so "SBrick", "sbrick" and "sbRIck" all match). Since you cannot prevent anyone to name a BLE device "SBrick", you might end up listing and connecting to non-SBrick devices. To prevent confusion and strange errors, check for the remote control service in the GATT database.
  Cheers,
  Tamas  less

  • March 1, 2017
• 
  Tamás Fábián replied to a topic in the forum Support:

  Hello Owen,
  you need to subscribe to notifications on the "quick drive" characteristic (489a6ae0-c1ab-4c9c-bdb2-11d373c1b7fb).
  Let me know wether this solves your problem or not.
  Cheers,
  Tamas

  • January 25, 2017
• 
  Tamás Fábián replied to a topic in the forum Support:

  Hello Francesco,
  the documentation had an error, the ADC channel numbering changed after version 14.
  The battery reading is on channel 8, the temperature is on 9.
  The full list of channels can be read in the updated documentation:...  moreHello Francesco,
  the documentation had an error, the ADC channel numbering changed after version 14.
  The battery reading is on channel 8, the temperature is on 9.
  The full list of channels can be read in the updated documentation: https://social.sbrick.com/wiki/view/pageId/11/slug/the-sbrick-ble-protocol . See section "SBrick Data Records", record 06 "Voltage measurement".  

  • December 8, 2016
• 
  Tamás Fábián replied to a topic in the forum Support:

  aaaaaaaaand that is correct. Thank you, the wiki will be updated soon. ;)

  • February 8, 2016
• 
  István Murvai is now friends with Tamás Fábián.

  • February 3, 2016
• 
  Tamás Fábián replied to a topic in the forum Support:

  (if I do make more sense, I'm gonna update the wiki)

  • February 1, 2016
• 
  Tamás Fábián replied to a topic in the forum Support:

  Okay:
  
  Bit 0 is always the direction bit.
  Braking occures, when the drive value is zero, regardless of direction. 0x00 and 0x01 are both braking...  moreOkay:
  
  Bit 0 is always the direction bit.
  Braking occures, when the drive value is zero, regardless of direction. 0x00 and 0x01 are both braking commands.
  Freewheeling occures when the drive value is the least non-zero value regardless of the direction. 0x02 and 0x03 are both free wheeling.
  If all non-direction bits are ones, then apply full drive. 0xFF and 0xFE are all full-drive commands in reverse and forward respectively.
  All other values are equal with a drive command with power X & 0xFE where X is a value written to the quick drive characteristic, and "&" is a bitwise AND operation.
  
  do I make any sense now? :)
     less

  • February 1, 2016
• 
  Tamás Fábián replied to a topic in the forum Support:

  Hello everyone,
  thank you all for the reports.
  We're working on the issues and improvements, and going to release a new version this...  moreHello everyone,
  thank you all for the reports.
  We're working on the issues and improvements, and going to release a new version this week.
   
  We're going to buy a couple of new devices for testing including many of the problematic ones to be able to hunt those bugs down.
   
  Thank you for your attention :)  

  • January 26, 2016
• 
  Tamás Fábián replied to a topic in the forum Support:

  ...the wiki page was also updated. Check it out!

  • January 19, 2016
• 
  Tamás Fábián replied to a topic in the forum Support:

  Hello Peter,
  Convert LE bytes to integer (C/JAVA): int adc = (((int)low) & 0xff) + ((((int)hi) & 0xff) * 256) Where "low" is the byte at the lower memory address, and hi is the byte at the higher memory address.
   
  Voltage is calculated as:...  moreHello Peter,
  Convert LE bytes to integer (C/JAVA): int adc = (((int)low) & 0xff) + ((((int)hi) & 0xff) * 256) Where "low" is the byte at the lower memory address, and hi is the byte at the higher memory address.
   
  Voltage is calculated as: (double)adc / 16.0 * 1.22 / 2047.0 * 11.0;
   
  Temperature is calculated as: (double)adc / 145.0067 * 1.22 - 160.0;  

  • January 19, 2016
• 
  Tamás Fábián replied to a topic in the forum Support:

  Hello,yes, bit 0 is the direction. A "0" means braking, 1 means freewheeling. Bits 1-7 can be set to control the drive level in each driection, and yes, there are 127 values from 1-127. (Value "0" either brakes or just "doesn't go" depending on the...  moreHello,yes, bit 0 is the direction. A "0" means braking, 1 means freewheeling. Bits 1-7 can be set to control the drive level in each driection, and yes, there are 127 values from 1-127. (Value "0" either brakes or just "doesn't go" depending on the direction bit). Value 127 on the bits 0-7 means "full drive" in each direction (uninterrupted DC voltage on the channel).  

  • January 13, 2016
• 
  Tamás Fábián replied to a topic in the forum Support:

  Thank you Klaus for the info.
  It means your hardware and OS is complatible with SBrick, and the problem is somewhere in the app.
  Now try "SBrick Simple Control" from Google Play. Does that scan your SBrick OK?

  • December 12, 2015
• 
  Tamás Fábián replied to a topic in the forum Support:

  Hello Folks,
  please check out this app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=no.nordicsemi.android.mcp
  This is a general purpose BLE application. Try scanning for devices and post the results please.
   
  Thank you!

  • December 11, 2015
• 
  Herman Akos: Hello szeretnék segitséget kérni most vettem egy új sbricket és a frissítését hol és hogyan tudnám megcsinálni? Tudna segíteni?

  • December 9, 2015

  • 
    Lénárd Pásztor Szia Ákos, az appban az SBricks menüben az SBrick adatainál találod a firmware update gombot.

    • December 9, 2015
    • -
    • 1 likes this
  • 
    Herman Akos Köszönöm a segitséget, sikerült!

    • December 9, 2015
• 
  Tamás Fábián replied to a topic in the forum Support:

  You're welcome! :)

  • November 6, 2015
• 
  Tamás Fábián replied to a topic in the forum Support:

  Hello Anthony,
  it wasn't a requirement on older Android versions. Since we explicitly support version 5.0 and 5.1 (API level 21 and 22), we need this permission.
  It is documented here:...  moreHello Anthony,
  it wasn't a requirement on older Android versions. Since we explicitly support version 5.0 and 5.1 (API level 21 and 22), we need this permission.
  It is documented here: https://developer.android.com/reference/android/bluetooth/le/BluetoothLeScanner.html#startScan%28java.util.List%3Candroid.bluetooth.le.ScanFilter%3E,%20android.bluetooth.le.ScanSettings,%20android.bluetooth.le.ScanCallback%29
  Anthony of Minas said:
  Dear Tamas,
  Thank you for the .apk. I've installed it and have finaly managed to update the firmware from 4.2 to 4.4! :) 
  Thank you also for the info on the Location permission. I guess my real question was why this permission was introduced now and was not there before this latest ver of the app.  less

  • November 3, 2015
• 
  Tamás Fábián replied to a topic in the forum Support:

  The green LED flashing is perfectly normal if you've (possibly accidentally) turned the identification function on. :) This is what the LED do: you can check which SBrick you control by blink the LED.
  The identification function can be turned on with the...  moreThe green LED flashing is perfectly normal if you've (possibly accidentally) turned the identification function on. :) This is what the LED do: you can check which SBrick you control by blink the LED.
  The identification function can be turned on with the simple control by tapping the status line wile it is connected (the line being green).
  Cheers,
  Tamas  

  • October 29, 2015
• 
  Tamás Fábián replied to a topic in the forum Support:

  Mopping up the last few bugs in the internal test version. As a side-effect, a new Simple Control version has been released, it should be available in the next few hours.
  I've just created a new topic for the Simple Control, please discuss related topics...  moreMopping up the last few bugs in the internal test version. As a side-effect, a new Simple Control version has been released, it should be available in the next few hours.
  I've just created a new topic for the Simple Control, please discuss related topics there: https://social.sbrick.com/forums/topic/197/sbrick-simple-control-android/view/post_id/2510  

  • October 26, 2015
• 
  Tamás Fábián replied to a topic in the forum Support:

  I'm glad to hear that Michael, thank you for the feedback.

  • October 8, 2015
• 
  Tamás Fábián replied to a topic in the forum Support:

  Makar V: thank you, I'll try something different and build a new apk.
  Others: any word?

  • October 5, 2015
• 
  Tamás Fábián replied to a topic in the forum Support:

  Michael, bachaddict, and anyone else ready for an adventure ;)
  Here is a new version of the Simple Control: https://www.dropbox.com/s/crziibp5nyzsgag/simplecontrol-201510021700.apk?dl=0
  It uses appropriate API calls on each Android version to initiate...  moreMichael, bachaddict, and anyone else ready for an adventure ;)
  Here is a new version of the Simple Control: https://www.dropbox.com/s/crziibp5nyzsgag/simplecontrol-201510021700.apk?dl=0
  It uses appropriate API calls on each Android version to initiate scanning, and requests the OS to use faster connection.
  It also displays connection information on the green status bar when connected (after a few seconds, it looks like this: 48.8ms/0/17321.0). The first number is the connection interval, the second is the slave latency, the third is the connection timeout.
  Good luck,
  Tamas
     less

  • October 2, 2015
• 
  Tamás Fábián replied to a topic in the forum Support:

  Michael & bachaddict: I'm working on a solution that hopefully fixes your problem. Also have a plan B. I need a few more days to complete the fix and thest on a number of devices.

  • September 29, 2015
• 
  Tamás Fábián → Royce Zheng: Royce,
  please send us some info on how much SBrick do you need, and maybe on
  how do you plan to use them. We'll give you a quote based on the
  quantity, and might even help you with your project. Write us to info@sbrick.com

  • September 23, 2015

  • 
    Royce Zheng Hi Tamas, O.K. Thanks for that. Since I am on business trip now, I will check that when I am free later and feedback to you.

    • September 23, 2015