HoneyComb is a set of playful electronic blocks, designed for makers of all ages and skill levels.  With so many different types of blocks and endless combinations, you can quickly design, program, and prototype your own creations.

Honeycomb is designed to help (coding illiterates) people scared by computer science to easily and rapidly build (prototypes) creative works too.

Honeycomb first came into our mind when we found out a great deal of people who were always stuck on the starter kit and their passion waned as time went by.  So we thought that was it possible to come up with a product that’s not self-limited, but scalable and interdisciplinary. We did our research and test, and it turned out hexagon is the best option. So we modeled our product after honeycomb, as Laozi puts it in his Tao Te Ching:

So its name and shape were all set and we made the first set of prototypes, including LED, Buzzer, Relay and Servo blocks. But that’s just not enough. To help people make amazing works, we had to incorporate state-of-the-art blocks, so we tried cool sensors like MIDI, camera, IoT, mind control, leap motion, VR traveling, voice and gesture recognition. To lower the threshold of learning, all blocks were made interchangeable and nicely sealed. It’s us that should worry about technical details, and you worry about creativity. We wanted people to only focus on creativity rather than lost in details.

Just to be on the safe side, we decided to launch our first 3 kits:

To improve logic thinking, we put in a lot of thoughts:

      No more endless wires

      No programming skills needed

      No more technical details

      Boundless combination

      Up to 100+ modules

      Use middleware to be compatible with Lego toys

      Input, logic and output

      No computer, no screen, hands-on coding

To ensure perfect magnetic snap, complete data pin contact and flexibility, we’ve tested many magnets from N35 to N40, regarding magnetic force, flexibility, contact, and gilding thickness. To improve its scalability, we adopted hexagon as its basic form and to make sure every block independently controlled, we designed 1-in-3-out interfaces. Also, we tried several solutions to deal with conflicting attraction and repulsion. The most difficult part was define scalability and compatibility of the interface. We came up with a unique G/D/S/V transmission mode, which simplified the compatibility between analog and digital modules, while I2C was adopted to solve the compatibility between data modules. After several trials and errors, we finalized our mold design in September 2016.

Honeycomb hides all the technical details that has been troubling non-computer majors and enables them only to focus on logic thinking and creativity. With its infinite scalability and smooth compatibility, we encourage people to make full use of everyday objects such as tree trunks, bananas, soft drink cans. It’s just like the French artist Auguste Rodin said,

We also advocate an eco-life as you can see all our packages are made by cardboards and cut by laser.

We’re right now developing Honeycomb App trying to build a community where Honeycomb users can share their works and get inspirations from each other, and we’re continuously adding new Honeycomb block members and cool ideas into the Honeycomb system. When Honeycomb grows to its maturity, you’ll get to connect with endless Honeycomb users alike and you will benefit a lot from and be inspired by others’ works. Don’t let your ideas slip.