Evlōno One

 LEGO® compatibility on the front-end, Arduino compatibility on the back-end, open source everywhere. Level up your play. 

The Evlōno is what you’ve been waiting for in a third-party controller for your favorite brick building systems. Evlōno takes brick hardware way beyond simple remote control, implementing a variety of features to bring you a huge amount of value in a small package. 

Not only is the Evlōno a great controller, it’s also a great educational platform. Whether you are new to coding, ready to make the leap from graphic-based programming to a written programming language, or an experienced programmer, Evlōno can meet you where you are and help you advance your skills. 

The Evlōno is not a LEGO® product, it is simply compatible with an epic line-up LEGO® products. LEGO® is a trademark of the LEGO Group, which does not sponsor, authorize, or endorse this product or this campaign.

Interoperability

You decide what sensors and actuators to use in your project – don’t let the man decide for you! Evlōno is compatible with LEGO® Boost™, LEGO® Powered-Up™, LEGO® Spike Prime™, LEGO® Technic Control+™, LEGO® WeDo 2.0™, Sparkfun’s Qwiic™ line of sensors and devices, Adafruit’s STEMMA QT hardware interface, and LEGO® Power Functions™ devices (via IR transmitter). That’s quite the line-up – not to mention that you can use the powered I/O port to supply 3.3V at up to 1A to any 3.3V device or group of devices (in the case of a bus protocol like I2C) – as long as you can write the code, you can make it happen. Make some LEDs blink, take analog readings from a joystick, incorporate capacitive touch, or communicate over UART or I2S.

Feature Set:

• 4x4x1 bricks in size! 
• ESP32 dual-core, 240MHz microcontroller with 16MB of flash – at your service!
• Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity! Your creation can use the internet, or you can link it to your smart device or phone over bluetooth. This means remote control over bluetooth, Wi-Fi walkie talkies (yes, there’s a microphone built-in), or multiple Evlōno’s working and talking together in a model.
• Open source hardware and software
• Arduino IDE compatibility with supporting library and examples
• 700mW speaker and amplifier, complete with built-in audio file storage and an I2S interface to give your creations sound!
• Two front facing, high-output RGB LEDs (16 million colors!)

• USB-C with Power Delivery (11V at 5A max; factory default is a 9V profile)
• Supports 80Hz update rate on data from motors and sensors (from what I can tell, the LEGO® Powered-Up™ hub only achieves 10Hz)
• Built-in PID functionality for motors, including extra configurable parameters to enhance your control like integral windup control, dead-bands, setpoint ramping, and median filtering of the process variable (don’t worry, the default configuration will be enough for most applications)
• Three motor outputs, one rated at 1.8A and the other two rated at 1.5A each
• While the LEGO® hubs will make your motors “whine” with a 1.2kHz PWM frequency, the Evlōno One offers configurable PWM frequencies up to and well-beyond audible frequencies. The default is a frequency you won’t hear.
• General purpose I/O port (Qwiic™ and STEMMA QT compatible) with two signals that can support SMBus (I2C),UART, neo-pixel channels, cap touch, analog-to-digital converters, simple digital logic – whatever you can write code for!
• IR transmitter (mostly for transmitting to LEGO® Power Functions™ IR receiver, but you could also interface with TVs, A/C units, camera systems, etc.)
• General purpose button built-in

Yes:

•  Yes, the Evlōno is capable of both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, so it is IoT-friendly. The Evlōno can communicate with other Evlōno’s directly, join wireless networks, access the web, or serve as wireless access points to meet your project needs.
•  Yes, it’s really only one standard toy brick tall (not including connectors), with a 4×4 brick footprint. You can hide the Evlōno in almost any model!

•  Yes, it’s got USB-C with Power Delivery. That means you can source up to 5A at 11V from a supporting USB-C port – the Evlōno can handle it! Some of the Demos use the Anker 10000 PD. The Power Delivery interface on the Evlōno One negotiates for 9V by default.
•  Yes, you can upload mp3, WAV, AAC and MIDI files to your Evlōno and play them back over the built-in speaker! Now your train can chug, your car can vroom, and your robot dog can bark!
•  Yes, it can control and communicate with LEGO® Power Functions, LEGO® WeDo 2.0, LEGO® Spike, LEGO® Boost, LEGO® Control+, and LEGO® Powered-Up peripheral devices. 

•  Yes, there will be an Arduino library with plenty of examples. Whether you like to brew your own code or borrow from others, you won’t have any trouble making your creation work the way you want it to, especially not with the Arduino, ESP32, and SAMD21 communities behind you!
•  Yes, you control the software – it’s open. Since the Evlōno will be open source, not only will software be as flexible as you need it to be, the product gets better after you get it!
•  Yes, you will have to modify your LEGO® motors and sensors for them to work with the Evlōno. But don’t worry, I’ve included an assembly jig and connectors for you to make the necessary modifications. It’s not hard, I promise – and once modified, devices can still be used with LEGO systems (that is, if you choose not to cut the cord).

Project Timeline

October 2020

• Campaign launch and promotion
• Prototyping of packaging
• Design production tooling
• Continued hardware and software design

November 2020

• Campaign ends
• Begin FCC certification process
• Order production injection molds
• Tooling qualification 
• Continued software development

December 2020 and January 2021

• FCC certification complete
• Publish github page with documentation (including Arduino library with examples)
• Begin assembly and testing of production units
• Handle contingencies
• Fulfill beta units

February 2021

• Evlōno One ships to backers

Other notes:

• Veteran-owned and operated
• HQ in Pennsylvania