littleBits are like Legos for circuit boards
By Paul Miller 
posted Aug 12th 2008 6:23PM
posted Aug 12th 2008 6:23PM
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how bout you guys get a life instead of attempting first posts.
turn off your computer.
sound familiar?
Replicators!!!!!!!!!!!!!
sshhh, don't give them any ideas...
sg ftw.
Nice video, shame about the song.
That song was awesome!
@ guiliop
hey STFU
Ha! Marc, I liked the song. I'm trying to find more, where should I look?
Why do I get the feeling one day somebody will fall into a BIG pile of those LittleBits and get out as a cyborg that wants to destroy us all
It wouldn't surprise me.
Just last week, I reached into my misc. electronics crap box (Where I throw everything when I'm too lazy to sort it back into its proper resistor/capacitor/etc. bin), and my hand has been assimilating shit left and right ever since.
Shit, I hope I'm that guy.
Cool idea but it would be nice if THEY DIDN'T USE WHITE TEXT ON A WHITE BACKGROUND!
ops caps....
I'm with you there.....
Awesome idea though. Where can I get em. :)
I had these, but mine were blocks, over 30 years ago
This can be very educational. I'm a Digital Electronics / robotics teacher and i think it can be a good way to introduce the basics.
YOU'RE a Digital Teacher???!?!? Whoa! looks like these things have already assimilated someone...
Reminds me of those spring terminal electronic kits radio shack used to (and maybe still does?) sell that came with instructions and wires on how to connect all the components together via the springs to make various things happen.
want some now.................maybe combine with my lego mindstorm
Lego, not legos.... lol
I think those things could be lots of fun. I would have loved them when I was a bit younger. now I can make stuff easily enough. still, probably great for kids.
(and don't down my post because I use Lego over Legos, the Lego company says to call their bricks lego.)
That's because Lego is the correct term :P
I'd of loved this when I was a kid.
Legos... it hurts my eyes.. ;) beat me to it!
Actually there is no plural of the word Lego. Lego is the company name, and in a 1980 catalogue they clarified that Lego should be used as an adjective. Uses: Lego bricks, Lego toys, Lego bocks, etc.
Actually there is no plural of the word Lego. Lego is the company name, and in a 1980 catalogue they clarified that Lego should be used as an adjective. Uses: Lego bricks, Lego toys, Lego bocks, etc.
(sorry if this double posts, compy went wonky)
LEGO is a contraction of the Danish words, "Leg Godt" or, in English, "Play Well"... as if you cared, so it can't be contracted......
...like other diseases, it must first be introduced into the bloodstream through a convenient tear in a membrane or orifice.
"Actually there is no plural of the word Lego. Lego is the company name"
Every proper noun (such as a company name) has a plural, including the Legos of this world. Its additional use as an adjective doesn't restrict its original use a noun...
The word "Lego" is both the plural and the singular. Like many other words the plural is the same spelling.
Sheep, fish and deer eg 0ne sheep, two sheep One deer, two deer etc
When I was young I played with loads and loads of lego! :) See it even sounds better!
I think the initial idea was probably geared more towards people to young to use a soldering iron (but seriously, is there such a thing?)
However, I just dont see to many 8 year olds all that interested in building circuits.
"However, I just dont see to many 8 year olds all that interested in building circuits."
I built a protocol droid at that age, sadly it turned against me with the help of a smal R2 unit and a band of rebel scum.
To be honest, I don't trust myself with a soldering iron and I'm 23, but that's because I've got enough scars from (purely accidental) self-inflicted wounds to last me a lifetime.
But I'd love to get my hands on these things... I could spend hours upon hours tinkering with them, building stuff and then destroying it to build something else, and also building stuff with my four year old niece who's mind's sharp as a whip and who would love this sort of thing.
zomg0t, aren't you the ironic one always being the first to bash the firsties with offtopic shit. You'd think you're the one that does nothing else than bash them asap and feel like you did something humanity would appreciate. Unless you're paid to do so you're the one who should not only turn off your computer but shove it up your ass too and say "Dad are you proud of me now."
broli, aren't you the little bitch I pwned a few days ago for failing hard in a first post? I thought you got over it but I was sorely mistaken. You'd think you're the one that does nothing else than attempt to get first posts, bash those that produce slightly more sane posts, and feel like you did something humanity would appreciate. Unless you get off to your worthless posts you're the one who should not only turn off your computer but shove it up your ass too and say "Dad, I'm sorry I can't spell 'first', please don't rape me again."
I had a lot of fun with a big box of these components. I don't know much about electronics but I do like magnets and as the company says, magnets are fun!
I dumped the box of littleBits on the table and they were all stuck together in a big ball because of the magnets and all. After a few seconds, the light at the end of the circuit started to glow brighter and brighter and the electric motor started to turn faster and faster. So I watched the light get brighter and the motor turn faster until I got bored and pushed the tangle of electronics off the edge of the table back into the box.
Later, I wondered what I had accidentally created. It created power with no source of power...
So I dumped the box onto the table to see what would be created. I'm not sure what it was, but it called me a "blood orange" and ran out the back door.
Just great! That cost me $150.00! What a waste... Customer Service was a joke! They thought I was an Apple FanBoy!
Oh well, I gotta go, Judge Judys on...
the jumble of parts called him a "blood orange" and then ran out the door. ill tell you the story at 11.
nhanimator you should know what i am talking about
The first part of your comment was fine and would have ranked you up, but it's the fact that you used the other word that puts you down.
@I LOVE THE CAPS LOCK KEY
That's respectable. I just find it annoying to see a first post when I'm expecting something intellectual and worth contributing to articles I find interesting. And then there are people like broli, who fervently defend themselves and others who post equivalent trash. I just have to put him in his place or else he'll never learn, however, it seems like a lost cause with broli: he must know he's wrong, but he refuses to admit it or change his ways.
Back around 1968 to 1969 I had a set of modules from Raython. Each was about the size of a stamp and about 1/2 tall of that. Each connected by a brass plate which had a magnet behind it. You assembled it on a metal plate. had from two to 5 of these pads per small block.
AKA nothing new...
I had a set of those, although I seem to remember them as being a bit bigger than stamps. Maybe it's just that I was smaller then. They had clear sides so you could see the components and a white top with the circuit diagram printed on it, showing the linking points to complete the circuit. I thought is was great! Played with it for years, and passed it on to a younger cousin who showed an interest in it (I had graduated to the soldering-iron stage by then.)
omg!
FAIL!
Anyone remember a show on Nickelodeon about miniature people with this exact same name?
would be cool if kinderSurprise chocolate eggs each contained one of these bits instead of they crapy toys they seem to be producing now, i remember you could get cool stuff... what happened to them? :(
Arduino + breadboard, anyone?
The plural of Lego, is Lego! It's a product name.
More than one story on Engadget does not make me say "do you read Engadgets?"
Singlular would be Lego brick > Lego bricks.
There is more than one engadget though. If I were to read the mobile page and the regular page I would call it engadgets.
It reminds me of a toy I had when I was a kid. They were electronic building blocks used to inspire the cold-war youth of the 1960s. It was a set of bricks that had wiring diagrams etched onto their white plastic tops. You placed the blocks next to each other in a tray and made what looked like a wiring diagram...except the device worked because each brick was either a connector (wire) or a device (switch, speaker, dial, radio crystal, etc).
It was made or at least put out in the US by Raytheon...you know the people who make radars & missiles. I'm not sure I would take on Raytheon in a patent infringement fight, they could bomb you into the stoneage or cook you alive with microwaves.
Since nobody is going to o believe Raytheon put out a toy I will supply a link http://www.retrothing.com/2007/03/electronic_domi.html
I believe you, I had a variant of this myself, the Denshi Block Electronics Kit or something like that. A white base had a matrix of squares with slots at each edge, each component occupied one, two or four blocks. Components had legs which dropped into the slots, and circuits were metal straps.
You could make radios, audio amplifiers, oscillators, light flashers etc.
I still have it with the manuals, the original packaging got lost I think. It probably still works too, there's not a lot to go wrong. When my son is old enough I'll dig it out.