So back a while I blogged about the Makey Makey. An arduino based bit of kit with the added fun of crocodile clips aimed at making electronics easy and fun for kids.
Well it arrived a while ago and it’s more fun than I expected, and I expected loads of fun.
The set up below kept the two boys entertained for a whole morning working our way through the various games on the cbeebees site. Well, I say the set up below. Over the course of the morning we’d tried just about everything as a button.
The Makey Makey just acts as a keyboard up down left right panel – with a space and return. You hook up those ‘keys’ using the croc clips to anything conductive, and then poke the button with something else that’s conductive. Like your brother, or a cauliflower, or a carrot.
Peppers don’t work very well. Bananas and Carrots are great. Toast only works when it’s got some butter and marmalade on it. People work ok too.
A great way to have fun with electricity, demistify electronics, and get to play games on a saturday morning.
- Cauliflower: accelerator / jump button / fly button
- Tortilla arrows: Left and Right
- Banana: brake
Steven Milne 