Ryan McDonough

Founder, Sometime Artist

CFO and co-founder @Accompany, acquired by @Cisco. Turnaround CFO @Ning, sold to Glam Media. Former seed VC. McKinsey trained. @Wharton School and @Haas School of Business.

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TINKERING

LEGO Polaroid E-Ink Hack

A happy little hack: I removed a handful of internal LEGO pieces so the OneStep can eject Polaroid-style e-ink photos that update via NFC and need no batteries.
LEGO Polaroid OneStep SX-70

LEGO Polaroid E-Ink Hack. The LEGO Polaroid OneStep is already one of my favorite display pieces, but I kept looking at that photo slot thinking it wanted to do a little more.

 

By removing a handful of internal pieces, I made enough room for the camera to eject Polaroid-style e-ink photo cards from VidaBay. The fun part is that these aren’t just props. They can be updated via NFC, and the cards themselves don’t need batteries.

These VidaBay displays are technically “White E-Ink Fridge Magnets”, but they are almost a perfect match for the LEGO Polaroids. While I initially had some issues getting the tags to refresh, removing my case when sending a photo completely solved the issue. Even that little change increases the power sent (inverse square law in action.) 

 

The tags come in a variety of colors and some customization options.

Buy on VidaBay.net

Note: No affiliate revenue or compensation, just like the product.

These e-ink Polaroids change the whole feel of the model. Instead of only displaying the included LEGO photos, the camera can cycle through real images, artwork, logos, or little custom moments while still keeping the original look of the build.

 

In the photo here, I’ve got two e-ink images next to the original LEGO print from the kit, along with the small set of removed parts that made the hack possible. It’s a tiny modification, but it gives the build a much more magical payoff.

 

This is one of my favorite kinds of projects: not a total rebuild, just a gentle nudge that makes an already clever object feel a bit more alive.