DIY hardware company littleBits starts to grow up, launches smart home kit

When we spoke to littleBits a year ago, the company had raised $11.1 million in new funding and was working on a snappable electronics kit for kids.

But the littleBits of today goes beyond the education market, and today it’s launching preorders for a $249 smart home kit that will ship in December.

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Just like littleBits’ other kits, this one comes with a set of 11 modules that fulfill various functions and can be assembled to form all sorts of devices and smart aids for the home. Some can be standalone devices, while others help make ordinary home devices and appliances “smart,” like a standing lamp you can control from your smartphone.

The recently released cloudBit is featured prominently in this kit as it enables users to add Internet connectivity to their creations. It’s the module that makes the smart lamp work as it allows a smartphone sporting the littleBits app to control it.

The kit also includes five brand new modules: the MP3 player, Threshold, Number, Temperature Sensor, and IR transmitter.

“Right now, the big leaders in hardware are the big companies,” littleBits product design lead Krystal Persaud told VentureBeat.

“You should have a say, and you should have the power to invent the devices that you put in your home,” she said.

Persaud also shared that the company’s products are now in more than 2,000 Radio Shack stores around the country.