Tag Archives: circuit board

littleBits Modular Magnetic Electronics Kits: No Solder, No Problem

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A few months ago I talked about a Kickstarter project called the LightUp, an electronics kit for kids and newbies. Instead of wires or solder, LightUp uses magnets to connect the modules together. It turns out that there’s already a very similar product out on the market. It’s called littleBits, and it already has a growing number of modules and a healthy community.

littlebits modular magnetic electronics kit

Like LightUp, littleBits uses color-coded modules that easily snap together using magnets. Each module also has screen-printed labels that identify its parts. Unlike LightUp, littleBits uses the polarity of magnets to prevent you from sticking a module to another module the wrong way.

The modules are separated into four types: power, input, output and wire. The first three are self-explanatory, while the wire module is used to extend or branch out your circuit. Each type has multiple variants. For instance, there’s a USB and a coin battery power module, a button and a light sensor input module, an LED and a DC motor output module and more.

Head to littleBits’ online shop to order a kit. The base kit costs $99 (USD) and comes with 10 modules. You can also buy more modules separately.

Check out the littleBits website and their YouTube channel to see what customers have built with the kits.

[via Make:]

TRON Kevin Flynn PCB Portrait: Fatherboard

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The intriguing appearance of printed circuit boards or PCBs have inspired works of art. But Taylor John Brooks figured out a way to make art out of PCBs themselves. What better way to show off his craft than with a portrait of the man who got into the digital frontier?

tron flynn lives printed circuit board art by taylor john brooks

If that image caused an uprising in your pants, order the Flynn Lives circuit board from Taylor’s Etsy shop for just $15 (USD). Taylor also plans to make PCB illustrations of lightcycles and recognizers down the road.

[via DudeIWantThat]

Postcard Music Player Plays Printed Circuits Printed on Paper

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We have accessed music in many different ways. It’s the 21st century after all. And now UK-based communications agency Uniform has devised a new way to access music. With their interactive Postcard Player.

postcard player

These music playing postcard prototypes are printed with electronics using conductive inks. These allow users to interact with the flat printed circuit. The postcards can be docked into the Postcard Player to play music. You can control music by touching the paper postcards in the same way you would a touchscreen. Each card has tracks with printed buttons to pause and remix the music. Though it appears that the music itself is stored in the docking station, and the printed circuit only serves to identify which track to play and to control playback.

postcard player1

The Postcard Player is being shown off at Design Museum’s 2013 Designs of the Year show through July 7th, where it is showing everyone what you can do by printing electronic circuits onto unconventional surfaces. Pretty cool. Imagine getting a postcard, then docking it to hear a voice message and a song. Sure, it’s a novelty, but an interesting one.

[DigitalArts via TAXI via Damn Geeky]

LightUp Electronics Construction Kit: LEGOtronics

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Stanford University alumni Josh Chan and Tarun Pondicherry invented LightUp, a modular electronics kit that’s as easy to use as LEGO blocks. The kits is designed to teach children the basics of electronics and computer programming.

lightup electronics construction kit

LightUp simplifies the process of building an electronic circuit so that it won’t discourage children from experimenting and trying again if they don’t get the result they want. Instead of requiring children to use soldering materials or wires, the parts in a LightUp kit connect to each other using magnets. This means that they’re easy to put together and take apart. It also means that if you purchase more kits, you get more parts to mix and match.

lightup electronics construction kit 2

One thing that LightUp kits have that LEGO toys don’t have is an augmented reality app. When you take a picture of a LightUp circuit on a mobile device, the app can point out if any of the parts are incorrectly connected. It can also show the flow of electricity throughout the circuit, as shown in the image above. Finally, LightUp can be programmed using Arduino code, so kids can jump right into coding if they want. I’m not sure if the kit will come with programming aids or lessons though.

Pledge at least $39 (USD) on Kickstarter to receive a LightUp kit as a reward. The reward tiers seem to have different kinds of kits assigned to them; I’m not sure if the more expensive kits will include all the items included in the cheaper ones, so choose your desired tier carefully.

Memory Rug Inspired by Circuit Boards: Soft Hardware

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It doesn’t take a computer engineer to be intrigued by the appearance of printed circuit boards, the foundation and highway for the hundreds of electronic components that make our electronic devices function. Thier cryptic yet functional arrangement – like an alien city viewed from above – inspired designer Lukas Scherrer to make the Memory Rug.

memory rug by lukas scherrer

As with many carpets, the Memory Rug has repeating patterns and elements, only in this case its parts resemble processors, conductive pathways and the like. But unlike a real circuit board the Memory Rug is made of nothing but wool felt.

memory rug by lukas scherrer 2 300x250 memory rug by lukas scherrer 3 300x250 memory rug by lukas scherrer 4 300x250 memory rug by lukas scherrer 5 300x250 memory rug by lukas scherrer 6 300x250 memory rug by lukas scherrer 7 300x250

I wonder if it’s upgradable.

[via MOCO LOCO]

Geeky Wedding Invitations Adorned with Circuit Boards and Blinking LEDs

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Wedding invitations don’t get any geekier than this. Bill Porter and his fiance Mara really wanted to come up with invitations that popped and screamed geek all the way. With their wedding theme being ‘Circuits and Swirls,’ the power couple put their heads together to come up with DIY invitations that involved circuit boards and embedded LED lights.

led circuit wedding invitationsLike most couples, Bill and Mara’s main constraints were time and money, but they were able to get the job done – and by that, we mean all of 50 wedding invitations – by being resourceful and smart about it.

Each invitation had a battery and several blinking LEDs built into it which were controlled by a microcontroller. They embedded a light sensor into each invitation as well, which signaled the LEDs to light up when the invitation was opened.

The coolest part? When the light level detected by the sensor falls below a certain limit, a secret Morse code message is flashed for the guest to figure out.

led circuit wedding invitations envelope

Bill detailed how the invites were conceptualized and made on his blog, which you can check out right here.

[via Hack a Day via Dvice]

Amazing Circuit Board Fingernail Art

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Circuit boards are, in their way, beautiful and perfect, so it’s really cool that someone decided to take the pattern and transform it into geeky fingernail art.

The circuit board fingernail art is the creation of the geniuses at Nail Pop. It must have required a lot of skill to ...
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Visualized: London Underground circuit map is also a radio

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Visualized: London Underground circuit map is also a radio

London has a rich history of underground radio stations, but what if we flipped that, and turned London's Underground into a radio? Well it'd look like this. The circuit-board radio project is a collaboration between Yuri Suzuki and Masahiko Shindo, and uses Harry Beck's iconic tube map design. Note the choice of BBC's White City for the tuner, and Hyde Park's Speaker's Corner for volume control -- plus a few other famous names changed for geeky in-joke fun. We love the attention to detail, we just hope it's not permanently tuned to Capital FM.

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Visualized: London Underground circuit map is also a radio originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 16 Sep 2012 13:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Circuit Board Green Swimsuit For True Geeks

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Circuit boards are undeniably beautiful, but sadly, rarely exploited when it comes to fashion design. It’s time to rectify that, in swimsuit form.

This suit comes straight from Black Milk Clothing in many sizes, including XS,S,M and L. Something for everyone, ya’ll. It goes for AUD$90 (about USD$95), and is ...
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