Get These DIY Tech Toys If You Can’t Wait for Nintendo’s Labo
Nintendo’s upcoming Labo series is new in many ways: DIY cardboard boxes are filled with accessories such as fishing rods, a piano and even a pulley-driven robot-controlled backpack, paired with games compatible with the Nintendo Switch handheld console. … Low-tech hardware paired with the modular switch and its tiny Joy-Con controllers provide a pretty innovative way to interact with your console. It’s due out on April 20, but if your kid is anxious to touch some high-tech toys right now, there are already some manufacturer-friendly products designed to make their creative juices flow. With the code they write, they might even create something more substantial than a cardboard controller.
Kano Computer Kit
If you want to learn a thing or two while building your next toy, try building Kano’s Computer Kit. Basically, this is a computer that your child assembles himself. It runs on a Raspberry Pi and runs a version of Linux called Kano OS, designed to teach kids basic programming skills through interactive stories and games. There are also coding issues that allow a novice programmer to create artwork or music using code, among other things.
There are dozens of additional apps you can add to your Kano Computer Kit, including Wikipedia, YouTube, and Google’s productivity suite. If you’re looking to expand the capabilities of your Kano Computer Kit, the company sells add-ons like motion sensors and a low-resolution LED grid that you can use to program various visual effects.
Don’t want to lose $ 150 to $ 250 for a Kano Computer Kit? You can always install Kano OS on your Windows or Mac device and play it there, but where’s the fun?
Small pieces
If your kid enjoys building things with a little more fanfare, entertainment, and of course a hardware-based series of sensors, switches, lights, and other Littlebits components needed to create their own games, compose their own music, or do what you can think of thanks to the Arduino microcontroller that powers the entire installation. Kids can learn to program using the Scratch drag-and-drop programming language (also found in Kano’s computer set). You can purchase different Littlebits kits for different activities (there are kits dedicated to coding, music making, or smart home control) and combine them to get whatever you can think of.
Makey Makey
Using banana clip wires, a controller-shaped PCB, any conductive material you can find, and a little imagination, you can turn anything into a touch-friendly gamepad. The Makey Makey kit connects to your computer and lets you turn any conductive material (banana, your body, this potted plant, your graphite drawing) into a controller mechanism. You can link your custom controls to apps from Makey Makey and even Littlebits if you have the correct Makey Makey connector.