Raytheon Lectron

I was watching this video from DigiKey:

source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUmDfVxSnFg 

And then I looked at the page on DigiKey for the magnetic connectors:

project page: https://www.digikey.com/en/maker/projects/designing-interactive-led-game-tiles-from-scratch/237a699db3be477ea00c898b55a27eea 

connector page: https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/adafruit-industries-llc/5359/15965217 

Yikes !  $6.95 per pair (plus tariff tax !)  and only 15 in stock !  One of those hexatiles would be over $21 just for the connectors !  Of course something similar was used in a Mac, cool yet expensive.

But it immediately brought the Raytheon Lectron to mind:

source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raytheon_Lectron 

This was a set of magnetic modules that a kid could use to create circuits.  The modules had a magnet on the bottom which would be attracted to a steel base plate.  The connections are also magnetized but only one contact on a side so they might be a lot cheaper than 4 closely spaced pogopins and 2 tiny magnets on the DigiKey connector ?  Also no tiny springs in the Lectron (inside the pogos of the DigiKey connector).  I wonder if any of them were rigged for polarity where the magnets would repel if incorrectly used ? :)  Fran from Youtube has nice pictures of the contacts on the Mr. Wizard version of the modules here (and the scanned manual):

http://www.frantone.com/Mr_Wizard/Mr_Wizard.html 

review in Electronics Illustrated, 1967-09:

http://www.decodesystems.com/lectron.html 

The Sears 1969 Wishbook had a set for $24.99:

source: https://archive.org/details/1960s-sears-christmas-wishbook-catalogs/page/n2825/mode/2up 

Incidentally, view and / or download the Wishbook at the peril of your precious time - I spent hours looking through it :)

Semi-oblgatory inflated price of the basic set:

and the basic set plus optional modules as mentioned in the Electronics Illustrated review:

Yeah, I can see why they didn't catch on big even though it was a really cool idea.  The Lionel Communications lab that I had used a system of plug-in wires that were much cheaper but not as easy or elegant:

https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2023/12/lionel-communications-lab-mark-i.html 

That's always the tension: coolness versus cost.

Best Regards,
Chuck, WB9KZY
http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm