LittleBits, Luxrobo MODI and Honeycomb Review

LittleBits, Luxrobo MODI and Honeycomb Review

Today I’m writing this review for these three projects because they all have something to do with maker education which is kind of trending in today’s world. With all glossaries swamping on the internet like open source hardware, machine learning etc., it’s hard not to notice that maker education for kids is gradually emerging to the market and school. By the way, sorry to see Arduino ESLOV failed its crowdfunding at Kickstarter.


We’re once kids before and we believe back then we had some brilliant ideas too. As the years went by, these ideas faded simply because we didn’t know the tools to make it happen and no one offered any assistance of this sort. Have you had this experience? Have you ever had this thought that you could be gifted and make a difference in the world? We believe you have.

So it all makes sense that the market is developing something to help kids that we once were and make their ideas happen. The products I’m gonna introduce to you are very convenient for the kids to assemble. Plus, it comes with various colors to catch the kids’ attention. You never run out of ideas for sensor supplies are enough to support hundreds of variations. Once the kids get their hands on it, they can hardly put it down.

I’ve been tinkering in this industry for years and it seems to be a good time to do a review of maker education kits. First, let’s take a look at the basics of them.

Clearly LittleBits has a head start over the other two. Founded in 2011, LittlesBits is a group of young electronics lovers headquartered in New York. The whole product line of LittleBits is listed below.

Luxrobo is a robot and IoT based startup from Seoul South Korea and its latest product MODI is crowdfunding at Kickstarter, which has raised $68,121 raised as of 13rd Nov. The whole product line of MODI is listed below.

Project Honeycomb empowered by ElecFreaks from China is a fun and creative project dedicated to maker education. The whole product line of Honeycomb is listed below.

Now let’s take a close look at their products and compare their features later.

Similarities

All of them are magnetic docking, Lego compatible, App control, visual programmable and colorful modules.

Disparities

As you can see, LittleBits has a wide variety of product line and complete courses to go with its education kits, but sadly high price. They have a good sense of brand awareness as you can tell from the battery cell with its name, kudos to that.

From the look of it, the biggest feature of Luxrobo MODI is cubic shape which appeals to me enormously. The electronic modules are sealed inside the plastic shell, so makers and kids won’t be able to see bare electronic parts. It’s a good design that will definitely attract protective parents. The number of modules, however, is limited.

In terms of quantity of modules, Honeycomb won’t disappoint you. It owns over 50 modules and over 100 projects. The main focus of Honeycomb is music play as you can see on their website. They can make drums, pianos and other musical instruments too. The only limit is your imagination. They also do IoT which is trending all over the world. As they have a large amount of modules, Honeycomb can do video filming that the other two products can’t deliver. With the camera module, you can snap it on your drone or your laptop. Rumor has it that they’re seeking to crowdfund sometime next month, so before long we can see it Kickstarter or Indiegogo, presumably.