For fans of Lego, ASMR-style YouTube builds, tiny microcontrollers, and LED screens, Christmas definitely comes early. We’re impressed with these amazing little LEGO Microcontroller OLED terminals. (opens in new tab) Built from first sight by James “Ancient” Brown, but details are always on the short side.We know these nostalgia-filled bricks can power Doom (opens in new tab)but there wasn’t a ton of information to go on as to the details of how exactly they were created… until now.
Hackaday (opens in new tab) recently new ancient youtube video (opens in new tab) This allows you to dive deeper into the process. This video is 12 and a half minutes of his maker-style ASMR bliss as we walk you step-by-step through the process of creating one of these functional terminals. This means no dialogue, but plenty of up-close sounds of things being made. Ancient warns that the video has been edited from several different builds as well as cut in a few places, but it’s still the most comprehensive look in the process. It’s wonderful and enchanting.
It turns out that one of these DIY terminals incorporates a wide variety of skills and crafts, so you can see different disciplines on display in the video. A small soldering of PCB and RP2040 microcontroller is on display, as well as resin mixing and mold making.
There are a lot of custom 3D prints out there just to hold the pieces together so they can work properly. is. Perhaps only the result is more attractive than the process.
The final actual step seen in the video is mixing the resin and pouring it into the mold. Translucent and fills around protected areas. The color change is one of the continuity errors Ancient mentioned, but when it comes out, it looks like a Lego terminal, but much cooler. There is even a textured plastic on the screen that reminds me of my childhood.
The OLED shines wonderfully through the resin screen as the various options are shown off, and it even appears to have touch controls as the Ancient changes on different screens and reacts to specific pushes. This little screen gets cooler every time you look at it.
I hope someday Kodai will release the build files, but after watching the video I understand why they hold off. With parts, I can imagine it’s a bit difficult to expect others to follow.
