If you are an ardent Star Wars fan or have always dreamt of having your own personal robot, the new littleBits Droid Inventor Kit IS the droid you’re looking for. (Apologies to Obi-Wan Kenobi.)
This sleek-looking package allows young inventors to build their own droid and bring it to life using littleBits components.
littleBits and Droids: A Perfect Pairing
If you don’t already know, littleBits is a set of award-winning electronic building blocks. These unintimidating “candy bar” components magnetically snap together, allowing children to be exposed to engineering concepts while exercising creativity and inventiveness.
The new Droid Inventor Kit is a tie-up between littleBits and Star Wars – and it is nothing less than amazing.
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The kit comes with six littleBits components that allow the droid to be assembled. These are a Control Hub, Power module, Proximity Sensor, Wire Bits, DC motor and Servo.
The components fit on a plastic board that gets encased into a clear plastic housing in the shape of an R2-series astromech droid. Accompanying the engineering components are stickers that allow young builders to aesthetically customise their droid.
Building the Droid
The best way to build the droid is download the littleBits Droid Inventor Kit app (available for both iOS and Android devices).
The app provides a series of video tutorials (“missions”) that walk young builders through the process of assembling the droid.
The droid can be controlled wirelessly from the app via Bluetooth.
By following the instruction, It is a matter of time before the droid starts whistling and clicking along in classic R2-D2 fashion.
Once completed, the droid can be steered and controlled remotely from the app.
Assembling the droid is easy enough for an eight-year-old to do – without any adult intervention. The steps are very well-illustrated and it is impressive to see a child put it all together.
Not only will kids gain a sense of accomplishment from the building the kit but also have tons of fun steering it around, navigating obstacles and making random beeps and whistles at unsuspecting adults.
Going Beyond
A hallmark of littleBits kits is its extensibility and the littleBits Droid Inventor Kit is no different.
After completing basic droid model, tinkerers can take on additional projects to extend the capabilities and feature of the droid. It can be modified to deliver covert messages and even draw out top-secret maps.
In the US, Canada and UK, there is a littleBits competition being held for young inventors to build custom droid using the Droid Inventor Kit.
The littleBits Droid Inventor Kit is a wonderful way to get children tinkering with technology and engineering – without them even knowing it. The kit appeals to a child’s creativity and pays off with an impressive (yet cute) droid.
With the upcoming holiday season and the Star Wars movie, The Last Jedi, the littleBit Droid Inventor Kit makes an awesome gift. And, yes, that applies to children too!
littleBits Droid Inventor Kit
The littleBits Star Wards Droid Invention Kit is recommended for ages eight and up. You can purchase it online from Amazon.
In Singapore, littleBits kits can be purchased from stores such as gethacking.com
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