SnapCircuits are electronics kits designed for kids (although adults have fun with them, too!). Components, such as resistors, capacitors, motors, transistors, and LEDs are mounted on plastic bases that snap together. The manuals that come with the kits describe a number of different circuits that are both fun and educational.
Now, for adults there’s littleBits. The website has a short video on the concept and this text:
littleBits is an opensource library of discrete electronic components pre-assembled in tiny circuit boards. Just as Legos allow you to create complex structures with very little engineering knowledge, littleBits are simple, intuitive, space-sensitive blocks that make prototyping with sophisticated electronics a matter of snapping small magnets together. With a growing number of available modules, littleBits aims to move electronics from late stages of the design process to its earliest ones, and from the hands of experts, to those of artists, makers and designers.
Stay tuned, design files, schematics and instructions will be online soon
Ambitious, no? I do like it that the designs will be open-source and the way the modules connect magnetically, but without more detail it’s hard to say how easy or difficult it will be to use these things.
There’s also a question of whether or not there will be processor “bits” and how these processors are to be programmed. I can’t imagine they haven’t thought of that yet, but there’s such little detail on the website, it’s hard to say for sure. If they’re smart, and Bdeir is an MIT graduate so presumably she is, they’ll adopt one of the small processor designs, such as the Arduino, that’s become popular in the maker community.
Anyway, they have a mailing list, that I just subscribed to, and hopefully there will be more details forthcoming soon. I’ll update when I know more.
Great post and stellar links. I’ve not yet assembled any kit much less experimented with circuit boards however your links really inspired me. Tinkering is important, for me at least, and I feel like something is missing from the shack. That is, building something from scratch, and I’m buying into this as a personal goal.
Thanks again.
73
Scot, KA3DRR
Thanks, Scot. Check out my post on building kits – https://www.kb6nu.com/beyond-heathkit/ – for places to get kits.
Nice to know that a company actually acknowledges or cares that people do still wish to tinker and build things. In this modern age, Legos and Erector Set type toys, both of which nourish creativity, are few and far between. If you look at all the new PC games, most of them are ‘solve it once’ type scenarios. The wonderful thing about a 100-in-1 Electronic set is that you can experiment until the cows come home. Have an idea, test it. I wish more developers would come up with ‘thinking’ toys, instead of just money-making ones.
Thanks again for the links and information on your blog.
73,
Ronny, KC5EES
Round Rock, TX
what do sanp circuits look like for adults look like/