One of our tipsters just sent an interesting crowd funding project our way. They’re called Circuit Stickers and are a very creative way to get basic electronics into children’s hands through arts and crafts.
The project is the brainchild of [Bunnie] and [Jie Qi]. [Bunnie] is a hacker, and a Director of Studio Kosagi, a small manufacturing outfit in Singapore. [Jie] on the other hand is a PhD student at the MIT Media Lab, who focuses her research on combining electronics and programming with arts and crafts. They came up with this idea to bridge the gap that exists between electronics and the arts, and the stickers are a great start. They allow anyone to learn basic electronics in a very easy and friendly way, using skills we all learned as children, drawing and sticking stickers on everything.
The current offering includes LED stickers, effects stickers (to control the LEDs), sensors, microcontrollers, and even breakout boards. They are all in sticker form, and can be connected together using  conductive fabric, thread, carbon-based paint, copper tape, pencil graphite, and really, anything conductive. They have already manufactured thousands of the stickers and everything is working as designed, so the crowdfunding campaign isn’t to raise funds to continue research, or even to start their company. It’s more of getting it out there, and getting these stickers into children’s hands to raise the next generation of hackers from a young age.
The video after the break gives a great overview of the project, and if anything we think it’ll give you some great ideas on children’s electronics projects.
[Thanks Valentin!]
Wow, 2,396,800% funded.
yeah except they had a $1 goal, they did that just for the good number.
Or they have really low expectations!
I would imagine that this project would definitely work perfectly well with the one that prints circuits that you guys posted about some time ago.
The “printed” solution would certainly work a lot better with this as
the critical part of the circuits are on copper e.g. decoupling caps,
high speed circuits within a function block (e.g. RF stuff, modern
digital circuits) and anything circuits that is sensivity to trace
resistance/impedance.
A solution to a problem already solved: 200-in-1 electronic kits. You know, the ones with the springy terminals?
Radio Shack kits. I had a couple as a kid in the 80s – a radio shack 200 in 1 and a 160 in 1 – (the 160 was cool because it had a solar cell). Great fun. I remember building crystal radios, fm transmitters, audio amps and of course an electric shock machine (3v through a transformer hurts!)
I just recently saw one at a Radio Shack in my city. I was in shock due to the fact that it seems most Radio Shacks are about selling phones and phone accessories.
Radioshack started stocking Arduinos and kits and whatnot last year in an effort to reach out to the ‘maker’ community.
I had the exact kit you are talking about and it was the best toy I ever owned. Taught me so much
It felt like the technology was really old back when I had it and that was decades ago. Still, that didn’t stop me from building a ton of those projects. Fun stuff!
If you watch the video you will notice that this project is not geared to teach electronics to young ones. It is actually meant to merge electronics with arts and craft.
I LOVED THOSE!!!!!
I had/have one of those. Flat-out hate the thing, it’s such a pain to actually do anything with compared to a breadboard, snap kits or pretty much anything else, even for a kid.
Kickscammer.
Don’t just post defamatory remarks. If you think that the project is a scam, you need to elaborate and state your reason.
You need to keep in mind that the first Amendment does not protect you against a law suite. No person has the right to spread lies about others and unless you have good reasons for your statement, and proof that the individuals are scamming, you need to refrain from making such defametory remarks.
Even at that, stateing the truth does not mean you cannot be sued, it just tends to protect you from being found guilty of defamation and slander.
Hallmark and other greeting card makers should seize on this idea and sell DIY electronic card kits.
The hobby industry really needs a good reliable source for 8 1/2 X 11 single or double sided copper coated Kapton sheets that can be fed through an Inkjet printer.
Bunnie seemed very happy in the video.
A thin flexible copper clad for laser printers toner transfer would be nice. :)
I saw a PCB milling machine in a trade shows eons ago. That one uses a
very thin flexible PCB that is mounted to a drum and a milling head on
the x axis like old dot matrix printer. The neat part is that it traces
out a PCB layout (probably implemented in analog circuit), so any
magazine layouts or WYSIWYG 1:1 printout would work. When it is done,
you can stick it onto a blank FR4.
I feel like this is a cheaper and simpler solution to the same thing:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/electroninks/circuit-scribe-draw-circuits-instantly
however the two combined would be kind of awesome.
Brilliant idea, Someoe should make accelerometers, etc and vibrate motors for DIY haptic feedback rigs.
The idea of using flexicables and flat connectors should work, as far as if a module breaks or stops working then it can be replaced easily.
One thing I’d have done is encapsulated the chips etc to make them somewhat corrosion resistant, PCL aka Polymorph or a clear variant would be an excellent idea.
Clear silicone would also work, the 5050 LEDs on DX use this approach.
I didn’t stick stickers on everything when I was young. I’m not going to claim I was a normal kid though.
I grew up playing with metal Meccano and 200-1 kits i think this should be taught in schools at a young age.
The Basics are so important and fun
The 200-1 kits are so much better in understanding how electronics work than this design in my opinion.
Very good project. In general assembly of electronic components simply shouts for a long time to be reinvented and reengeneered. It would be best of all something like that made Siemens having released their electronic modules LOGO. Only to make so that in such blocks basic elements, such as resistors, condensers, diodes which can be adjusted and switched between them contacts were combined, forming of them fragments of schemes, to use in them adjusted elements (variable resistors, condensers of variable capacity, etc.) that each such block could be adjusted by means of a screw-driver and jumpers or even to be programmed. And to make so that these blocks could connect to the help of ordinary sockets (as processors on the motherboard or simpler) or with cables and to form the whole schemes. Something like advanced modular breadboard with built-in adjustable basic components. Then it would be possible to simplify strongly assembly of prototypes or experimental models or even to use these blocks in working devices, and if necessary to reconfigure them as a part of other devices or to replace failed in parts.
Maybe producers of MEMS-equipment sometime will become interested in inventing such technology. So it will be small enough :)
Kids could stick them on their hands, etc. so that when they clap a circuit would complete. Or, put them on their finger tips, or costumes, etc.
You could even put them on pets or Livestock, or on boxes/supplies for inventory control, etc.
The possibilities are endless !!!
Put them on Doll Houses or Lego House/Cars, Toys …..
why not simply use a soldering iron for connections ?
why not use a cheap breadboard instead ?
why pay more for learning less ?
better heat up the iron and tear things apart for learning – and be sure
there will not be a sticker patchwork inside !
Because the goal is not learn to build circuits, or how they work.
SImply awesome! !