My review of the Little Bits Electronic System

Little Bits -- An open source, snap together, Electronic Hardware System

Little Bits is an open source, snap together electronics kit created in 2011 by MIT grad Ayah Bedir.
This hardware system teaches both children and adults how to build electronic circuits by simply snapping together different magnetic modules. Each module has it's own purpose and function. You would start, for example, with the power bit. This has the battery component and powers the rest of the circuit. After that, you can add whatever your imagination will allow. There are over 60 different modules that you can snap together and make hundreds of different circuit combinations. Ranging from lighting LEDs, spinning motors, building simple robots, or even to making electronic music, you are only limited by your imagination. It is a very fun and simple way to learn elecctronics.

I have used Little Bits and I found it very simple to use and program. You can connect the modules together and have them react, light up, start a motor or bell, whatever you tell it to do.  My 10yr old son got his first circuit up and running in NO time! In less than 2minutes, he was lighting up LEDs and spinning motors. The magnetic ends can only snap on one way, so there is no way to connect  something incorrectly. It has a very intuitive feel, and is also very fun to play with!

The price for getting started is very fair, and you can buy individual bits, or purchase starter packs of different levels and prices. They range from $99, up to $199 for the deluxe kit. They also have a synthesized music kit as well as an Arduino starter pack. My favorite is the Space kit. This comes with 12modules and will teach you to make things like a Mars rover, or even an international space station out of Little Bits.

There are Many Electronics kits out there from Radio Shack, and other suppliers, But there aren't any that come close to the originality and simplicity of Little Bits. It is in a class by itself and is very unique in that it has almost NO similar competing products. I would highly recommend the starter to anyone interested in learning electronics, From Ages 6-60, this kit is for YOU.

On a scale from one to 10, I give this kit a 9.0! :-)

An example of how Little Bits works