Glimt · Swedish for a flash
Put a block on the steel plate and it is live. Power, a switch, a light: three blocks and the LED is on. No wires, no breadboard, no code to start.
Get on the listBook a 20-minute callHow it works
Tap the switch.
How it works
Every circuit is a loop. On GLIMT the steel plate is half of that loop, so you only build the other half. That is why three blocks are enough.
A sheet of nickel-plated steel with a dot grid. It holds every block with magnets and carries the current home.
Each side has a sprung gold contact between two magnets. Any side meets any side, with a click.
Every block wears its own circuit symbol and wiring. What sits on your table is the drawing, so the drawing makes sense.
Feel how it works before you read about it.
Swap the switch for a light sensor and the LED follows the room. Add a distance sensor and a buzzer and you have a parking beeper. You learn what a block does by putting it down and watching. The theory shows up after, printed on the block you just used.
The blocks
Each block is 40 × 40 mm. A ground mark on top means it reaches down to the plate.
PowerTwo AA cells, 3 V. Everything starts here.LED redLights up. Has its own resistor, so it never burns.
LED greenThe same, in green.
SwitchOn or off. Stays where you put it.
ButtonOn while you press it.
Light sensorLets more current through when the room is bright.
Distance sensorSwitches on when something comes closer than 20 cm.
BuzzerThis one makes noise.
MotorSpins a little fan.
CapacitorFills up with charge, then lets it go slowly.
TransistorA small signal opens the way for a big one.
100 ΩHolds back a little current.
1 kΩHolds back ten times more.
Pull-down 10kGives a sensor a path to the plate.
WireCarries the current across.
CornerTurns the path.
T junctionSplits it in two.
Huey linkWires your build into Huey, our walking robot.What you can build
The blocks each one uses, left to right. Each takes a minute to put down and an evening to play with.
Power, switch, LED. Flip it and the LED comes on.
Bring your hand closer than 20 cm and it beeps.
The LED brightens and dims with the light in the room.
Let go of the button and the light dies out over a few seconds.
A tiny press through the transistor starts the motor.
Split the path and both LEDs glow. Pull one and see what the other does.
The film
Concept renders, shown until we film the made blocks.
Who it's for
Try an idea in a minute before you solder anything.
Feel how a sensor behaves in your hand before it goes into a product.
No reading needed for the first light. The questions come by themselves.
Class sets of 16 plates, one per pair, packed in one box. Ask us about a pilot.
One box for a whole class.
Sixteen plates and sixteen trays of twenty blocks, sorted by colour so a tray can be counted back in at a glance. Every power block has a resettable fuse: a short circuit warms nothing and fixes itself.
First batch
Put one down.
Watch it light.
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