After building this Lego set and seeing it move, it seemed a waste not to add a motor and make it a useful device for my Home Assistant setup. (At the moment I’m using it as a motion activated doorbell.)
It’s a pretty simple setup - just a motor coupled to the rear paddle with a custom 3D printed part, driven by a NodeMCU with a motor shield. That uses PubCubClient to subscribe to an MQTT channel, and then I use NodeRED to trigger it (and simultaneously play the theme over a nearby speaker). I also printed a few custom height Lego bricks to raise the whole boat high enough to stop the rubber wheels (that drive the gear system) touching the surface it’s on.