Geeky Gift Ideas

If you’re still looking for some good geek-friendly gifts, I have a couple kits available. My Blinkybug book/kit is available at Amazon. It has all the parts for making simple little blinking electronic insects, with easy-to-follow comic book-style instructions. It’s a great parent-kid project. Here’s a review on BoingBoing.

(Book cover photos by Lenore M. Edman, www.evilmadscientist.com)

Here’s a look at the inside, amazingly illustrated by Alexander Tarrant:

Blinkybugs sense movement, wind and vibration through there antennae, which causes their eyes to blink. It’s a very simple design using a coin-cell battery, a couple LEDs, and antennae made from guitar string, yet they have a strangely life-like quality. They’ve been a huge hit at the Maker Faire, and they’re a great way to teach kids basic ideas about electricity. Here’s one of the bugs:

Also there’s my LED Art Kit, available through MakerShed. Make your own groovy light-art with this simple kit (originally created as an Instructable):

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2 Responses to Geeky Gift Ideas

  1. Paul Andrews says:

    When’s the kit comin o the Uk?

  2. Ken says:

    Paul-

    Which kit? Looks like you can find sellers of the Blinkybug kit through amazon.co.uk:

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Blinkybugs-Ken-Murphy/dp/0811871401/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1323200269&sr=8-1

    It does have distribution in the UK so you should call around to your local bookstores. It gets carried in some arts/craft supply stores here in the US so you could try that as well.

    Regarding the LED Art Kit, MakerShed ships to the UK (although I just noticed in their order form that you have to select the specific country: England, Scotland, Wales, etc., which threw me off at first).

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