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]…
(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.
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.
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
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.
Drawdio is an electronic pencil that lets you make music while you draw! This fun pack has all the fun without the soldering. 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. This is the assembled version, for kits visit our kit page.
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.
Printable catalog (PDF) or (EPUB)
