Gift idea | Limbo, perpetual rotation… or almost

Whether it’s mechanical or flippable, whether it’s a Beyblade or a simple fidget… At one time or another in life, everyone plays with a spinning top. On the other hand, very few are those who have had Limbo in their hands, which we present to you today.

If you saw Inception, the film by Christopher Nolan, you surely remember the spinning top that Cobb (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) uses to find out if he is in the real world or if he is dreaming. In the first case, the router stops after a few tens of seconds. But if he dreams, it spins perpetually.

Obviously, the little guys from Fearless Toys were impressed by the object and decided to reproduce it. But be careful, not just anyhow: the model of their dreams (it is the case to say it) had to turn indefinitely. As you can imagine, the laws of physics are not very cooperative on this subject… And yet, it turns!

Up to 27 hours non-stop

Limbo is thus able to run for a little over 4 hours before forfeiting. It’s not exactly perpetual motion, but it’s still very compelling.

Even better, Fearless Toys has designed a model, unfortunately not commercialized, capable of holding just over 27 hours, which made it enter the venerable Guinness Book of Records.

As you can imagine, it took its designers a lot of imagination, solid knowledge of mechanics and a large dose of patience to achieve this. And also three letters: P, I and D.

Proportional, integral and derivative regulator

PID is the acronym for “proportional, integral, derivative”, an ultra-complex algorithm implemented in an electronic circuit. This is then referred to as a PID controller. This pilots the micromotor and the gyroscope hidden in the bowels of Limbo. We are not going to go into the details of how such a mechanism works here: it’s complex, and quite honestly, we haven’t understood everything…

We will therefore content ourselves with saying that the result is astonishing, since Limbo remains remarkably stable, even if we apply a (slight) flick to it. Admittedly, it pitches a little, but it quickly returns to its initial stability.

Limbo is powered by a lithium-ion battery that is recharged using the micro-USB connector integrated into the motherboard. To access it, simply unscrew the upper part of the router. An LED system lets you know approximately the remaining battery life. Charging the battery fully takes about 30 minutes.

Fearless Toys offers Limbo in four versions: three in aluminum (gloss black, matte black and silver), while the fourth, much more luxurious (and expensive), is made of titanium. If necessary, it is possible to add a slightly concave rotation disc to the top, which allows it to spin for hours without it wandering around and eventually falling to the ground. If it did, know that it would continue to turn imperturbably. She would surely take the opportunity to hide under a piece of furniture, where you would spend a lot of time trying to recover her…

A small technological marvel, Limbo is the gadget par excellence: totally useless, therefore absolutely essential!