We’ve seen these little toys called “sugar cubes” by GirlTech around for a while now. They are a toy block, with an LCD on the front and they respond to movement, button presses and they interact with each other if you stack them up. We’re just as curious as anyone else about their internals, but maybe not quite curious enough to rush out and buy one. Luckily, we don’t have to as [Joby] has done it for us and documented what he found. While it may be lacking in extreme detail, at least our curiosity is somewhat satiated.
We can see that it has a 16×16 LCD, an unknown chip hidden under an epoxy blob as usual. To determine what character is shown, you can bridge one of 4 spots on the PCB, though he has only managed to switch to a little ninja and a question mark. Does anyone have any brilliant ideas on a project for these?
13 thoughts on “Girltech. Sugar Cubes. Monocrome LCD”
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Website already HaDOS – d
maybe host a blog on it :D
Hopefully the server will straighten up and we can use this cache…
http://blog.hodgepig.org.nyud.net/2010/11/01/girltech-sugar-cubes/
@ehrichweiss – That link didn’t work, but I found the Google cache here:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:nVefE1eerOwJ:blog.hodgepig.org/2010/11/01/girltech-sugar-cubes/+hodgepig+girltec&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a
Web server fixed
I guess it’s down again (“error establishing a database connection”)
Using Google cache link. Thanks reemrevnivek!
Ive got 3 of these things tucked away somewhere, was bought as a naff stocking filler.
I seem to remember when connected (by magnets) the characters move from one cube to the other…
Sure, but sadly enough, the Sugar cubes were just a rip off of Cube world. Instead of the new avatars in the Girltech Sugar Cube, there were stickmen.
I got a couple as a gift from my friends a few years back. i remember when i cracked them open, they werent much different. i think the only difference was the battery mount. and even that was similar.
Looks like the lcd screen could be useful, A nice icon badge for a case or project. Not to fond of that cheap looking tilt switch, more then likely its filled with a small amount of mercury.
If anyone gets specs / pin outs for screen let us know.
turn one into a generic pc data display?
hint:- most “tilt” switches these days use little ball bearings rather than mercury.
Possibly even galinstan as only a minute amount is needed and its liquid well below 0 C.
get enough of em to make a monitor to play 4 or 8 bit video games
These chip-on-pcb blobs seem to be mostly unhackable. It will most likely be a microcontroller of sine kind with a small ROM. One time programmable. Built in LCD controller.
It’s a shame because there are lots of cheap devices using them but there is no way around it.
I wonder how these compare to Cube World?
http://www.firebox.com/product/1201/Cube-World