Review: Vengit SBrick Plus smart brick

A few weeks before the availability of the first sets benefiting from the LEGO Technic concept controller +, I take this opportunity to quickly introduce you to a product that most LEGO train enthusiasts and fans of the LEGO Technic range are already familiar with, but those who only occasionally buy motorized products may discover for the first time. I say this because it's important: the product and the associated application have largely reached their maturity since their initial launch and you will not be acting as beta testers.

LEGO has invented almost nothing with the sets Powered Up ou controller + : the smart SBrick Plus brick has been making it possible for several years to take control of your various elements Power Functions using a dedicated application on a smartphone or tablet.

This brick communicates with your motors and other sensors via Bluetooth with a range of up to 50 meters under optimal conditions. The Plus version of the SBrick, which succeeds the basic model, can also control the sensors of the LEGO Education WeDo 1.0 range. If it is the educational aspect that interests you, know that this product is compatible with different programming languages: Scratch, Apple Swift Playground or even Javascript.

To put it simply, this product therefore allows you to take advantage of all your elements Power Functions under conditions similar to those proposed by the new system Powered Up and free yourself from the limitations of the concept Power Functions, especially related to the use of infrared with the problems of range and connection that we have all already encountered at least once.

The Sbrick also adopts a similar format (4x4 studs) to the official LEGO infrared receiver and it will therefore easily replace it on motorized models via different elements of the range. Power Functions.

It can also be placed inside the model, the use of the Bluetooth protocol does not require leaving any sensor visible by the remote control. The possibilities of integration are therefore almost limitless, the SBrick being 100% compatible with official LEGO studs and pins.

Vengit offers for sale a set of four empty boxes in various colors that will allow you to fine-tune the integration of the SBrick in your different models. All you have to do is carefully open the starter box, remove the printed circuit, being careful not to damage the different sets of pins (and not to lose the small transparent plastic element that returns the light from the LED) and to reassemble everything in the case of the color of your choice.

The basic installation is very simple and takes a few seconds: just connect the SBrick to a power source, here a Battery Box official rechargeable battery, and then connect the various elements, motors, LEDs and sensors that you wish to use to the four connectors provided. At this stage, you thus obtain a complete circuit which allows you to motorize and animate your construction.

Please note, you must have an extension cable Power Functions (ref. LEGO 8886 or 8871) to connect the SBrick to the battery box or to the rechargeable battery. It is indicated on the product box and this cable is not supplied.

To put everything in motion, you then need a control interface. By installing the official application (iOS or Android) on your smartphone which then turns into a virtual remote control, you can communicate with your SBrick via Bluetooth. For owners of Apple products who have already invested in an MFI (Made for Phone) certified gamepad, you can also use the latter to control your SBrick. With a BLED112 Bluetooth dongle, the programming possibilities are open to the vast majority of current platforms, including Linux, Windows, MacOS, Raspberry PI, etc ...

The smartphone application is very well designed, it offers in particular a test tool to confirm which port a particular element is connected to. This tool will come in handy if you use all of the four available ports. The application is intuitive, its handling does not require any particular diploma.

You then need to create and activate a control profile that will allow you to activate the various connected elements. Vengit provides a rather well thought out tool that allows you to create and customize the interface of your virtual remote in a few minutes. The customization possibilities are endless and you can choose to use the various visual elements already provided or import your own buttons and illustrations.

With a few clicks, you can add the different buttons and sliders that will later have to be associated with the different ports of the SBrick. Nothing very complicated, you don't need to be an engineer or an astronaut to set up the virtual remote control. You can then choose to keep your valuable profile to yourself or you can decide to share it with the rest of the SBrick community.

The possibilities are numerous, from the addition of a simple two-channel joystick to the creation of chained sequences that can be launched and repeated by pressing a button, including the setting of the tilt detection of the smartphone associated with particular functions.

The smartphone app also offers a library of profiles already created by other fans for different existing LEGO models. These interfaces are already designed to use all the motorization elements of the models concerned, just associate the corresponding ports with each button or slider and you can take action in a few minutes.

In practice, the conversion of an existing set initially equipped with the system Power Functions will only take a few minutes before you can play with it again and the simplicity of the whole concept from the installation phase of the brick itself to the setting of the virtual remote control makes this product truly accessible to all.

If you have a problem or difficulty setting up your SBrick, be aware that there is also a very active community around this product. Help is bound to be found on the manufacturer's official forums where most of the problems that users encounter are documented and resolved.

You will thus be able to exploit the full potential of the product without frustration and enjoy all the elements for a long time to come. Power Functions accumulated through your purchases of LEGO sets. And in my opinion, this is the whole point of this product: to prolong the life of your elements Power Functions while benefiting from the few technical and aesthetic refinements reserved for owners of products equipped with elements of the new system Powered Up.

There is in fact for the moment no certainty as to the capacity (and the will) of LEGO to one day provide an adapter allowing the use of the different elements of the range. Power Functions with the new system's Samrt Hub Bluetooth Powered Up.

For its part, the manufacturer of the SBrick should offer by summer 2019 an adapter still under development that will support the new motors and sensors from the ranges. Boost / WeDo 2.0 / Powered Up, just to contribute a little more to the amortization of the 74.90 € to be invested in this product.

Note: The product shown here, supplied by Robot Advance, is used as usual. To participate in the draw, all you have to do is post a comment (avoid "I participate, I try, etc ..." be a little more constructive) on this article before the June 18, 2019 at 23:59 p.m.. You have every right to disagree with me, this is not eliminatory.

Update : The winner was drawn and was notified by email, his nickname is indicated below. Without a response from him to my request for contact details within 5 days, a new winner will be drawn.

SBRICK PLUS AT ROBOT AVDANCE (74.90 €) >>

PACK OF 4 BOXES FOR SBRICK PLUS AT ROBOT ADVANCE (10.90 €) >>