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Here's where you'll find all the latest news about technology for children. We love to follow cool new inventions on Kickstarter and we hunt out all the latest announcements about tech toys and gadgets for the coming Christmas holidays. You'll also get our take on children's technology stories in the media.

REVIEWS$show=/search/label/review

Our kids technology product reviews are intended to help you work out whether a toy, gadget or kit is a good fit for your child or family. There's lots of cool stuff available, but is it the right choice for the child or teenager that you are buying for? We'll help you make the right choices and get the best value for money.

GIFT GUIDES$show=/search/label/gift%20guide

Parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and friends assemble. We create gift lists to help you make good choices for kids technology which helps them develop the right skills for the future. We research the best in Coding Toys and Games, Making / Craft Tools and Kits, STEM/STEAM related gifts, Programmable Robots, Electronics Kits and Gadgets for Tech Age Kids and Teens.

PROJECTS$show=/search/label/project

Get crafty with technology. Here we'll post all our ideas and projects using technology to get creative and making with kids. You'll find anything from making a lemon battery to a glow-in-the-dark Minecraft sword. Our projects are tried and tested on our own kids or at events we run, so we are sure you can have a go at home with your kids. Some of our projects use specific tech gadgets which we provide links for you to purchase.

STEM$show=/search/label/stem

STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. In recent years there is an increased focus in these areas of study. We like to include Art and Design too, so we often talk about STEAM (A stands for Art). At Tech Age Kids we believe Coding is a new literacy and children need to understand how technology works, practice making skills and grow in their curiosity to make a better future for us all.

CODING$show=/search/label/coding

Coding is increasingly being recognised as an important skill for children to learn. Some will learn to code at school or at a coding club, but it's brilliant if they get support at home too.

ELECTRONICS$show=/search/label/electronics

We think it's really important for kids to get hands-on with electronics and learn how to make circuits and write code to control hardware. Younger kids can start with conductive playdough. For kids who like to combine craft and tech, littleBits are fab. And we love SAM Labs wireless electronics components for making it easy for kids to make Internet of Things inventions. Lots of electronics kits for kids have support for the Arduino microprocessor environment. The DuinoKit Jr is one of our favourites. Arduino is a fab skill for older kids and teens to develop.

ROBOTICS$show=/search/label/robotics

We love robots at Tech Age Kids, especially programmable ones. We've got lots of them and write reviews and projects that use them. Our programmable robots for kids buying guide is a good place to start if you're not sure what's available. Roby the mBot Meccano robot dog is one of our popular projects and has been with us to lots of events. Our Ozobot LEGO trailer is fab for kids who love LEGO and robots.

MAKING AND CRAFT$show=/search/label/making

We're advocates of the creative use of technology, but this needs to be balanced with developing physical skills such as papercraft, woodwork, clay modelling, technical drawing and soldering. If children don't develop these skills as they grow up then physical making projects can become frustrating rather than fun. The Maker Community uses the term 'making' as a broad term to include all sorts of artisan skills or craft activities. Being able to make things can lead to life-long hobbies or even careers. It's a great feeling to be able to take a project from an idea in your head to a real object that does something. We're particularly interested to explore products that combine maker skills with tech skills such as electronics but others focus purely on the physical making skills that are still important to modern making.

Roby the mBot Meccano Scratch Robot Dog


My 7 year old son has been designing a dog robot for ages. He has diagrams with all the features it will have. We've done some prototyping and settled on a combination of an mBot base plus Meccano (Erector) to create a dog shape. This means that the robot can be programmed with Scratch which my son already knows.

He has lots more plans for things to add but he's pretty pleased with what we've got so far. The robot dog is named Roby after Ruby the real dog! Roby is a girl robot dog, like Ruby.

What is Scratch?

Scratch is a graphical programming language for children. It's taught in a lot of primary schools and many secondary schools too. It's a fab language which enables creativity and coding. 

We've written before about how far kids can take Scratch. Adding the ability to control robots give Scratch even more scope. 

What is mBot?

mBot is an inexpensive kids robot kit that is assembled from components. There's a basic robot to build but you can reconfigure it and use mBot as the basis for custom robots as we have one here. 

mBot can be programmed from Scratch. The MakeBlock software for mBot is built on Scratch 2.0. Older kids can also move on to Arduino programming of mBot robots. 

mBot has a powder-coated metal base and as well as motors for movement it has sensors, coloured LEDs, a tone generator and some excellent add-ons including servos, an LED faceplate and more coloured LEDs.

We backed the original mBot Kickstarter project but the robot kits are now available to buy. 

You can read our full review of mBot to find out more. 

mBot + Meccano

mBot isn't Meccano compatible. But it is possible to use Meccano to build on the mBot base. Note that the holes don't align perfectly but some just happen to be in the right place. 

We used pieces from our multi-model Meccano / Erector kit which worked really well to create a dog head and back and also to provide somewhere to attach mBot add-ons. 

We found that with a bit of thought and compromise we could use Meccano nuts and bolts to attach Meccano pieces through the holes in the mBot base (which mBot uses to attach its own metal pieces.)

We do have an mBot bracket pack which we have used for other extensions but it didn't have the right kind of pieces for this model. MakeBlock do have lots of other metal components, but my son wanted to build his robot today! So we made do with what we already had.  

As usual with Meccano, you need to really tighten the screws otherwise movement from the motors will loosen them in no time. We designed the dog together to my son's specifications but I did most of the construction as it's so fiddly. (He did build other things from Meccano as we worked though.)


mBot + Scratch

Once we had built the dog we programmed it in Scratch. Movement is fairly easy and can be controlled either by the IR remote which comes with mBot or from a keyboard. We often use a mini remote keyboard paired with the laptop that's running Scratch.

It can be tricky to get mBots motor perfectly calibrated so we tend to use the approach of turning and moving while a key is held down. Then you've got good control over the robot.

We used the up arrow key to move forward and left and right arrows for turning. The code for going backwards sets the motor speed to a lower value because dogs don't usually walk backwards! We would have set it lower still but we've found that mBot's motors have enough power to move at all below a certain value.

Roby's MakeBlock Scratch code for moving while a key is pressed

Roby in Action

Here's Roby Mark 1 in action: 


Conclusion

mBot makes a great base for custom robots. My son really feels like he is designing his own robot but the starting point of the mBot base means we can get things working quickly. Adding Meccano (Erector) gave lots of flexibility in the physical design of the robot.  

We've had our mBots for a while so my son knows what they can do which means he can come up with realistic ideas for what Roby can do.

At 7 he needs quite a bit of help with Meccano and working out the best way to write the code. He has learned lots about physical engineering and making structures solid (and tightening screws!) He also learned about planning a project and adapting ideas as you go along and find out what it practical. 

Subscribe to the Tech Age Kids mailing list to see future updates on Roby's programs and extensions.

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Tech Age Kids | Technology for Children: Roby the mBot Meccano Scratch Robot Dog
Roby the mBot Meccano Scratch Robot Dog
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Tech Age Kids | Technology for Children
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