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Blockits – the "LEGO® circuits"

A tool to learn electronics with LEGO®-like "component" blocks.

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Blockits is a tool to learn electronics. It consists of small, LEGO®-like blocks that each contain a basic electronic component (resistor, capacitor, LED,...) and has connectors on its side. Put several of these blocks next to each other on a building plate to start making electronic circuits!

The problem

As someone who is passionate about electronics, I know how hard it can be to learn electronics. This situation is a problem because electronics is a very interesting discipline, but it can easily intimidate due to the risks it is often associated with. It is also a problem because our world relies more and more on electronics, and it is important that future generations understand it in order to have more control on their lives.

A few solutions exist, but they are often very expensive, and education should be accessible to anyone.

Blockits: how does it solve it?

The goal is to make a product that can be used by many people, including children and, ideally, that would be fun and easy to use. Another important factor was that it would be better if the solution relied on existing skills rather than forcing the user to develop new ones. Blockits fulfils all these needs:

  • it makes learning easy as you can easily remove a block and replace it with another one to test what each component do,
  • it has several safety precautions to remove any risk that could be present,
  • it relies on existing skills: everybody knows how to play with LEGOs!
  • it is fun to use: it is LEGO-compatible so you can embed your circuits in existing creations!

  • First block made

    Benoît Vernier06/27/2015 at 09:32 0 comments

    We made the very first block! We started by 3D printing a plastic case and milling a PCB to fit inside the case.

    We then soldered the connectors on the PCB. This is just a connector block so no extra component inside.

    The next step was to press-fit the circuit inside the block.

    And there it was, the first block was born!

    We will continue building more blocks to be able to actually make a circuit out of those. We will also be testing pogo pins for the side connectors, as the ones we are currently using seem to be easily distorted and do not always come back to their initial position after compression.

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Discussions

Sophi Kravitz wrote 05/06/2015 at 21:47 point

I just saw a finished product like this. You could make yours much cooler than everyone else's if your blocks taught how a cell phone (or other relevant electronic) goes together.

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henk wrote 03/31/2015 at 10:47 point

Nice! Similar to the kit I had 20 years ago called Bloc-Tronic.  Now my kids are playing with it. There's a manual online and a page dedicated to it:

http://www.lifeaftercoffee.com/2006/05/24/bloc-tronic-electronics-toy/

Manual: http://images.lifeaftercoffee.com/v/bloc_tronic_manual/

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