Electronics PCB Mount on LEGO

A Useful Hack

circuit4u
2 min readJan 14, 2021

In Electronics PCB world, 0.1" is a standard spacing or pitch for ICs, connectors etc. for many, many years.

In LEGO world, 8mm pitch and 4.8mm diameter hole is its gold standard. (LEGO brick dimension drawing link)

Here is a useful trick to unite the two together with LEDs.

You simply spread several 0.1" through-hole LEDs (5mm OD LED on LCSC) on your PCB, with 8mm spacing center-to-center.

Once you solder the through-hole LEDs, the PCB can plug into any LEGO piece or technic beam very tightly.

After that, it’s only limited by your LEGO imaginations to e.g. mount the PCB or build an enclosure for your electronics.

The module in the picture has one low pin count MCU. Six LEDs are arranged in Charlieplexing way, so that only three GPIOs are needed. Six LEDs can implement a simple digital dice program or other fun games.

The idea was inspired by M5Stack’s “LEGO compatible” mounting holes.

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circuit4u

memento of electronics and fun exploration for my future self