From the mail bag… Building Drawdios with Kids! A Holiday Activity. Stacey writes -

Teaching groups of kids (in this case, family) how to solder and various areas of circuitry and physics using Drawdio kits.

A lot of the “learn to solder” kits are boring. Why not have the kids make a fun, educational, and “annoying as heck” toy? Even the 8 and 10yo kids (all brothers, sisters, or cousins) had no problem understanding how it works and how to put it together (mind you that the 14yo is learning matrix convolutions, so this might be a bit more of an advanced group of kids.

That’s my family….literally full of nerds and I love them). The kit was also great in dusting off some of the 40+yo Engineers in my family. Their names are Griffen, Cassie, Morlan, and Calder just in case

Tracey writes in….

Your site inspired me to try and inspire my daughter with the things I enjoy doing… Drawdio makes an EXCELLENT first project for kids, and helps to create some Daddy-Daughter time in dad’s workshop! Thanks for your awesome projects and knowledge.

What do you think of your new creation?
I love it.
And you built it.
Yes.

We are getting all teary eyed, thank you for sending this wonderful video in and photos! Nice work Cat!

If you look close you can see it’s a Drawdio in there! EaTheremin – Musical utensils. Thanks Michael!

At Interaction 2011, a research group at Ochanomizu University demonstrated EaTheremin which are eating utensils that make various sounds when they’re used.

“The sound produced varies, depending on the resistance. When you bite the food on the end of the fork, electricity passes through your body, forming an equivalent circuit. The resistance value depends on the food, and the sound produced depends on the resistance.”

“Electricity passes through your whole body, so no matter where you touch this to your body, you will get a sound. But because the inside of your mouth is the wettest part, you get a really good sound there.”

“Our aim is that, because this creates a good rhythm, people will want to eat more, or try eating foods they didn’t really like before. We think it would be great if children have fun with this.”

If a food has a different consistency on the inside and outside, the difference in the resistance values creates a richer, more complicated sound. And flexible items, like chicken skin, can generate vibrato effects as they stretch.
“Several people can use this if they eat together. With the current system, I think it would be fun if a special sound could be created when two people make the same sound as one person.”

As well as forks, the researchers are thinking of using this system in spoons and cups. With spoons, it could be used with liquid foods such as soup as well. Also, by dividing the electrodes between two utensils, the system could be used for both at the same time. For example, a variable sound could be created when pouring a drink from a bottle into a cup.

From the forums, Drawdio build – from a 7 year old! Tim writes -

Just wanted to say thanks for the awesome kits and information. Here are a couple of photos of my 7 year old daughter Izabel , assembling a drawdio kit she got for a gift. She loves to solder and is good at it!

Each day during the week we’re going to have a sale on one (or more) items in our store week days 12/6 through 12/21. Just tune in to the site, or twitter or our RSS feed each day for the code that will give you 11% off.

WHAT DID YOU SAY? 11% OFF WITH CODE?

The items will all go to eleven % off. Each day, eleven, eleven, eleven and… It’s not ten. You see, most places, you know, will be doing sales at 10% off. They’re stuck on 10% off – Where can they go from there? Where? Nowhere. Exactly. What we do is, if we need that extra push over the cliff, you know what we do? Put it up to eleven.

With all that said, today’s 11% off items are the Drawdio kit & Assembled Drawdio fun pack. Use the code DRAW on checkout and get the Drawdio kit and/or Assembled Drawdio fun pack for 11% off, this is the best deal online! Today only! 12:01am ET to 11:59pm ET 12/17/2010

Drawdio kit & Assembled Drawdio fun pack 11% off!

Drawdio is an electronic pencil that lets you make music while you draw! It’s great project for beginners: An easy soldering kit with instant gratification. Essentially, its a very simple musical synthesizer that uses the conductive properties of pencil graphite to create different sounds. The result is a fun toy that lets you draw musical instruments on any piece of paper.

Today’s 11% off items are the Drawdio kit & Assembled Drawdio fun pack. Use the code DRAW on checkout and get the Drawdio kit and/or Assembled Drawdio fun pack for 11% off, this is the best deal online! Today only! 12:01am ET to 11:59pm ET 12/17/2010

A great two-part assembly video for the Adafruit Drawdio kit by Proto-PIC in the UK.

Nice work!

Jay Silver’s (Drawdio inventor) holiday recommendations for the creative scientific thinker for 2010!

How-To: Soft drawdio puppet – HOLY OCTO! SQUIDRAWDIO OCTODRAWDIO DRAWDIOCTO! via MAKE…

This octopus jellyfish-inspired puppet lets you make different squeaky sounds using an embedded Drawdio. Hold the puppet by putting one hand in the loop on its belly. Use the other hand to touch conductive spots on its legs, which complete the Drawdio’s circuit to make sounds. Using the technique shown in the Make:Online project Unruly, 100K resistors in the legs create a change in pitch between each conductive circle. I experimented with different resistor values at the end to change the sound of each leg as a whole and included some that I thought sounded cool. Feel free to change up the resistor values and make your own unique soundscape.

More:

Drawdio kit – v1.1 – Drawdio is an electronic pencil that lets you make music while you draw! It’s great project for beginners: An easy soldering kit with instant gratification. Essentially, its a very simple musical synthesizer that uses the conductive properties of pencil graphite to create different sounds. The result is a fun toy that lets you draw musical instruments on any piece of paper.

Get your Drawdios @ Adafruit, if you’re a hacker space contact us for wholesale pricing!

Sylvia’s Super-Awesome Maker Show: Episode 01, Drawdio – outstanding!

Super Awesome Sylvia builds the Drawdio by Jay Silver from the kit by Adafruit! This doesn’t include a complete tutorial on bulding the kit, as Ladyada has done such a good tutorial [here]…

A. Square from the Adafruit customer forums writes -

(OK, calling it a “hack” is an exaggeration, but I couldn’t miss the opportunity for the double entendre.) After building my Drawdio, I realized that I didn’t have a thumbtack to attach it to the end of the pencil (not Adafruit’s fault, I had just purchased the circuit board). So, I decided to take it in a different direction… It’s very simple to build, once you’ve made the circuit: find a knife with a non-metallic grip (wood, plastic, or rubber should all work). Attach the Drawdio to the handle — I used a zip-tie. Using copper tape connect one end of the circuit board to the blade, and the other end to the handle so that your hand will be touching copper when you hold the knife. That’s it! To use it, hold the Syntheslicer in one hand and a fork with a metallic handle in the other, and start playing with your food! Please don’t use your Syntheslicer as a weapon. Also, I wouldn’t recommend waving it around in public, especially in Boston: they’d probably think it was some sort of stab-bomb.

A quick prototype of combining a drawdio with soft circuits to make a fun musical jellyfish… (post & photos).

Test drive of a modified adafruit Drawdio with a Blacet/Metalbox/Wiard/Cynthia Frac format modular synthesizer system. Drawdio equipped with a 1/8″ mini phone jack output and connected to an insulated 5.6 mm clutch lead holder (mechanical pencil) and a graphite starting patch on a Circa sketch book paper sheet. Drawdio output patched to Blacet 2225 I/O, to Klang Werk to Time Machine to Wiard Borg Filter, with I/O gate to Blacet EG1 ADSR. Drawdio patch mixed with Dronespace voices via Blacet 2200 VCA Quad Mix (see Dronespace videos info). Thanks to Ladyada Limor Fried and her crew at adafruit industries, and (as always) to John Blacet, Michael Ford, Grant Richter, and Cynthia Webster for their fine modular designs. Produced by Doktor Bob at Rapid Eye Audiolabs. Copyright 2010 Robert B. Trelease, all rights reserved.

We are going to embroider a dress with conductive thread so that it is touch sensitive. What do you imagine happening when the dress is touched and a closed circuit is made?

This is part of IEEE Spectrum’s Special Report on IEEE SPECTRUM’S 2009 Holiday Gift Guide. What better way to introduce a young person to the joys of engineering than by giving a gift that you construct together? I tested four suitable kits. Two are for unusual electronic musical instruments, and two are for dabbling in radio.

The Drawdio turns a pencil—or a pencil sketch—into a musical instrument that sounds something like a kazoo. The kit, available from Adafruit Industries, costs just US $17.50, takes only an hour or so to assemble, and includes everything you need but the AAA battery. If you have any experience soldering components to a printed-circuit board, assembly will be a snap. The hardest step is pushing a thumbtack (included) into the end of a pencil (also included) to make electrical contact with the graphite that runs down its center.

Drawdio is simply an oscillator whose frequency is controlled by the resistance of the circuit path connecting the part of the pencil you grip with the attached thumbtack. You can make sounds by grabbing the pencil in one hand and touching the tack with the other, but that’s not the fun way to use it. Instead, draw a heavy line, laying down a lot of conductive graphite as you go. Then press on one end of the line with the forefinger of your free hand while holding the tip of the pencil on the other end of the pencil line. Apply adequate pressure, and Drawdio will emit a low buzz. Moving the tip of the pencil closer to your finger reduces the resistance of the frequency-control path, shifting the sound to a higher pitch. So it’s not hard at all to generate a simple tune. If you have trouble hitting the right notes consistently, just mark their positions on the line.

Learn the basics of electronics and soldering by building an awesome music toy!  A workshop for kids with the manual dexterity to wield a soldering iron — approximately ages 10 and up.

From ladyada’s kit description:

Drawdio is an electronic pencil that lets you make music while you draw! It’s great project for beginners: An easy soldering kit with instant gratification. Essentially, its a very simple musical synthesizer that uses the conductive properties of pencil graphite to create different sounds. The result is a fun toy that lets you draw musical instruments on any piece of paper.

-Runs on a single AAA battery for many hours (even ‘nearly dead’
batteries will work)
-Ridiculously fun for all ages

For more information about drawdio, look at Jay Silver’s page.

The suggested donation for the workshop is $30, to cover supplies.  All of the events, classes, and workshops hosted and run by the Parts and Crafts Collective are free, or are priced on a sliding-scale.  Donations greater than the suggested amount are deeply appreciated and help us create our projects and run our programs and allow us to work with people who could not otherwise afford to come to our events.  No one will be turned away based on their lack of ability to pay.

Will Macfarlane co-founded Camp Kaleidoscope and founded the Parts and Crafts Collective.  He’s taught hands-on science, technology, and engineering to students of all ages, elementary to graduate school, as well as to artists and designers.  Apart from teaching, he also writes software for MOS architects, a small, experimental, architecture firm.

• Runs on a single AAA battery for many hours (even ‘nearly dead’ batteries will work)
• Use pencils, brushes, people, fabric, anything you want to make noise.
• Ridiculously fun for all ages

The assembled Drawdio pack contains:

• Assembled & tested Drawdio – no soldering required!
• Large brush
• Soft lead pencil + thumbtack
• 2 x Alligator clips
• 4 x Wire ties (the photo shows 2, but the kit has 4)
• 12″ of copper tape

There’s lots more information at the Drawdio kit website Including a bunch of inspirational videos here. The Drawdio kit was designed in collaboration with Jay Silver based on his original design.

Get the Assembled Drawdio fun pack – v1.2 in the Adafruit store!

Two great Drawdio videos from Ars Electronica Festival via leobard & Jay!