User testing

I spent the day with Adam today. I showed him the first three Little Boards (DIY littleBits) I'd made after breakfast and he spent most of the morning playing with them. During that time I built up another motor board - this one with the motor facing forward, like an aeroplane. After lunch we did some other stuff then he went back to the Little Boards and Duplo for another hour. And after dinner he played with them some more.

Here's the new motor board (below). This one has three LED's from an old AT keyboard. Adam loves LED's. I've also cut off the top lugs off the Duplo block so the end result has a lower profile.

New Little Board with forward facing motor and propeller, plus 3 LEDs. The propeller is a bit too stiff so I've added some tape to make the tips less dangerous.

One lesson learned from watching Adam is the USB tail cable has to be long enough to allow two boards to be mounted side by side. My first motor Board had a very short cable which I've now replaced. About 95mm of flexible cable is ideal.

By the end of the day we'd run our 9V battery flat so we switched to the more cumbersome 12V gel battery.

Here's the last thing he built before heading off to bed:

Twin motor  construction.

Adam loves LEDs so much I'm thinking of adding them to every board, even the simple switch Board. LEDs are great for trouble shooting connection problems.

All in all - a good first play.

Here's another creation from later in the day - this time with "super wings"!

Cheers, Paul

PS. The next day Adam had a friend 'round who also played with the Boards. His mother was quite worried about the potential for injury from the spinning propeller blades, so I stuck on some self-adhesive spongy foam left over from draft stopping around the doors and windows. It worked perfectly.