Hey all,

I'm new to BP, not new to LEGO but it's been a while. I'm really glad I found this community, it's really great and some of the members are extremely knowledgeable. 

I'm 28, a software engineer by trade (now my 9-5). I've got a lot of time on my hands so I write little tools, websites, apps and stuff on the side. I was recently re-introduced by my kid brother (who I originally gave my LEGO) and saw a bunch of great stuff going on in the LEGO world: 1) super nice community 2) LEGO ideas where you can actually make your dreams come alive for others 3) Alternative vehicle for investing (what I'd deem the 30% risky part of a portfolio) 4) Investing in a pass-time that spans across the ages, giving me something to do and share an interest in with my future kids/grandchildren 5) Something to connect with people in the local community about, and give something back when it comes to less privileged children 5) Interesting challenges, like how does one know where the best place to buy something is without making it their life? And what's the best price? And if I have all these pieces how can I organize them? Can a machine do it? Can normal 3D models be auto-magically converted to LLD models? If I have a LLD model, can a tool be built to auto-scale the internals while maintaining the general idea externally? Is any of this profitable because I do need to think about my future?  

Heck, it gives me and my brother something to talk about and that's enough, he's not really into software...

I'm here mostly just trying to help. If there's some kind of tool you wanted, I'd be one of various guys to ask.

Cheers,

Jay

Edited May 5, 201510 yr by Brickson

Great, another IT nerd. /jk from one to another

Welcome aboard!

Welcome fellow IT'er.

Welcome Brickson.  Your energy is good for the forum.

Welcome great bunch of folks 

Welcome aboard!

Great, another IT nerd. /jk from one to another

Welcome aboard!

Hey "nerd", like "geek", used to be just a four letter word... now it'$ a 6 figure one!  

Welcome! I think several MOC'ers have tried to make piece sorters, but they aren't very time efficient, and the project is usually extremely large due to many different kinds of pieces. 

Here are a few that worked well, but only for a handful of pieces. All are very cool in their own respects.

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for the warm welcome guys! 

Great, another IT nerd. /jk from one to another

Welcome aboard!

​

Welcome fellow IT'er.

​Haha, thanks fellow IT crowd 

 

Welcome! I think several MOC'ers have tried to make piece sorters, but they aren't very time efficient, and the project is usually extremely large due to many different kinds of pieces. 

Here are a few that worked well, but only for a handful of pieces. All are very cool in their own respects.

​That's really interesting, thanks for sharing. I really like that one by Akiyuki, not too big and looks efficient (doesn't look like it scales well though haha the belt needs extending for each resulting type). I haven't seen those yet. I actually haven't done any research yet. I already dismissed the idea of a physical sorter - I don't have time or space for that. I was thinking about perhaps, and it may sound crazy but like I said I haven't researched this yet, categorizing and cataloging the pieces based on their 3D reconstruction (scan the piece, run it through some algorithms, database match it). As cool as it sounds to having a LEGO machine build LEGO, I'm not sold on using it exclusively (sounds like it could be a blocker), whatever gets the job done? For example maybe use an Arduino and custom 3D printed pieces?

Edited May 5, 201510 yr by Brickson

Welcome to Brickpicker!!

Welcome!

We've already chatted a bit in messages and posts, but welcome!