While ordinary LEGO can provide hours of fun and educational construction, Brixo takes both those aspects a notch higher. Using Brixo means children get to learn about electronics, which is sure to get many children excited while offering them a broad range of construction options.
What Is the Brixo?
Brixo is an electronics kit that has conductive blocks, lights, motors, and sensors. It also comes with LEGO compatibility, eliminating the need for the costly reinvestment of buying new building kits that work with it.
The LEGO-compatible and chrome-coated bricks allow the adding of motors and controllable lights to projects without the need for wires.
Product Specs
The Brixo comes with a micro USB cable that can be used to power it. Alternatively, it can be powered using the included 9V battery. The proximity sensors consist of a reed switch that is triggered by the bundled magnetic robot head.
The sound sensors act as a toggle, with one clap closing the switch and the following clap reopening it. The light sensor can detect light and turns off when it detects light as well as on when it's dark.
The blocks can make cohesive connections both vertically and horizontally. A large horizontal circuit can be created vertically on a large LEGO board. Because of this, it's easy to build a big structure while providing it with power. In the event of short circuits, the protected power supply results in the flashing of a red light. Pressing a button instantly resets the unit.
Pricing
A Brixo kit with 43 pieces fetches for around $60. You can order kits on Indiegogo and online retailers such as Amazon and eBay.
How It Compares
We picked a few similar products available on the market to see how they compare:
Brixo is an electronics kit that has conductive blocks, lights, motors, and sensors. It also comes with LEGO compatibility, eliminating the need for the costly reinvestment of buying new building kits that work with it.
Ease of Use
Assembly Time
Design Quality
Educational Value
Warranty
Pros
Cons
Brixo is an electronics kit that has conductive blocks, lights, motors, and sensors. It also comes with LEGO compatibility, eliminating the need for the costly reinvestment of buying new building kits that work with it.
Ease of Use
Assembly Time
Design Quality
Educational Value
Warranty
Pros
Cons
The Snap Circuits Pro SC-500 has a conspicuously small design and varied parts that allow for diverse constructions. This kit's design shows a clear focus on tidiness. Despite containing over 100 experiments, the kit itself takes up little space.
The circuit board is small and lightweight and, in keeping with the theme, all the other pieces are smaller than you'd expect. The packaging allows all the components to be tucked away easily.
The pieces are durable and well made, particularly the plastic base which we found to be resilient. The kit requires two batteries, which you'll have to buy separately.
Ease of Use
Assembly Time
Design Quality
Educational Value
Warranty
Pros
Cons
The Makelblock Starter Robot kit is comprised of two packages. One has the mechanical parts while the other has the electronic parts. It doesn't come with assembly instructions, but you can access them on the Makelblock wiki.
The mechanical and electronic parts included in the kit are enough to build two different robots: a track drive robot and a two-wheel-drive robot that has a caster wheel. All the tools required come with the kit.
These include a screw driver and three hex keys that work with different sizes. It's possible to expand the kit with Lego Mindstorms parts.
Ease of Use
Assembly Time
Design Quality
Educational Value
Warranty
Pros
Cons
Conclusion
The Brixo offers kids a fun way to learn about electronics and its short assembly time makes that easier. We are giving it a rating of 5 stars because of the multiple features it comes with, its impressive specs, and the convenience it offers by being compatible with LEGO blocks.
