The LEGO-lookalike displaying [Paul]'s dashboard

LEGO Space Computer Made Full Size, 47 Years On

There’s just something delightful about scaled items. Big things shrunk down, like LEGO’s teeny tiny terminal brick? Delightful. Taking that terminal brick and scaling it back to a full-sized computer? Even better. That’s what designer [Paul Staal] has done with his M2x2 project.

In spite of the name, it actually has a Mac Mini M4 as its powerful beating heart. An M2 might have been more on-brand, but it’s probably a case of wanting the most horsepower possible in what [Paul] apparently uses as his main workstation these days. The build itself is simple, but has some great design details. As you probably expected, the case is 3D printed. You may not have expected that he can use the left stud as a volume control, thanks to an IKEA Symfonisk remote hidden beneath. The right stud comes off to allow access to a wireless charger.

The minifigs aren’t required to charge those airpods, but they’re never out of place.

The 7″ screen can display anything, but [Paul] mostly uses it either for a custom home assistant dashboard, or to display an equalizer, both loosely styled after ‘screen’ on the original brick. We have to admit, as cool as it looked with the minifigs back in the day, that sharp angle to the screen isn’t exactly ergonomic for humans.

Perhaps the best detail was putting LEGO-compatible studs on top of the 10:1 scaled up studs, so the brick that inspired the project can sit securely atop its scion. [Paul] has provided a detailed build guide and the STLs necessary to print off a brick, should anyone want to put one of these nostalgic machines on their own desk.

We’ve covered the LEGO computer brick before, but going the other way–putting a microcontroller and display in the brick it to run DOOM. We’ve also seen it scaled up before, but that project was a bit more modest in size and computing power.

Working LEGO Space Computers Are A Chip Off The Old Block

We all have our favorite classic LEGO bricks, and wouldn’t be surprised if one or more of the various space computers showed up on pretty much everyone’s list. [dyoramic] loves them so much that they built two different working versions that do different things.

The first one is about six times the size of the original brick. Inside the 3D printed case is an ESP32 and a 1.5″ OLED display. [dyoramic] wired up the top six buttons as inputs and the rest are just for looks. The screen defaults to the classic white cross on green that just sits there looking legit. But start pushing buttons and you’ll find other modes — the cross becomes a radar screen in one, the computer spits out space facts in another, there’s a falling bricks game, and finally, a time and date screen.

The second LEGO space computer build is even bigger — both were designed around the size of their screens. It has a Raspi 4 and shows a dashboard with the weather, time, date, latest xkcd, and a few cryptocurrency prices. [dyoramic] has an even bigger version in the works that will use a 720 x 720 screen and a handful of brown key switches as inputs. We can’t wait to see that one! For now, check out the build and demo of the first two after the break.

What can’t you do with LEGO? It feels like we’ve seen it all, from cameras to microscopes to continuously variable transmissions. Wouldn’t you love to drive one of those around the block?

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