Small Electronic Logic Blocks - eBlocks

eBlocks writes "eBlocks are small low-cost electronic devices that can be easily interconnected for a wide variety of applications such as: detecting motion, light, water, sound or magnetic fields; triggering a buzzer, a light, an electronic relay or a lock. Devices can communicate wirelessly or can be controlled remotely via the internet or a telephone. The eBlocks technology has been developed by a professor at U.C. Riverside who is looking for inspiration on its best uses. Try out the simulator. Suggestions and comments welcome!"

Comments

Re:Looks like PLC logic

[Rolo Tomasi]

Oh yeah, these are great. They cost about 300 bucks and have less functionality than a $2 AVR or PIC. The only difference is that instead of programming them in C or Assembler, you have a fancy graphical, overly simplistic "programming language". I know, they have a market - engineers (?) who couldn't program a "Hello, World" app if their life depended on it. But honestly, what's the point? If you're not seriously retarded, you're better off getting a breadboard and a few PICs or AVRs and going through a few of the hundreds of tutorials that are available on the net.

You can probably guess that I have my doubts about these "eBlocks". Hello, ever heard of breadboards? I mean how much easier could it get? The only use for these things that I can imagine would be for people who absolutely don't even want to learn anything at all about electronics, but still want to build stuff, kinda like those PLCs, which are designed for people who want to program but don't want to learn a programming language! Well, it just seems stupid.