Electronics at the Beach is a comic book & maker kit
It's for anyone who has looked inside the electronics all around us and wondered, how does it all work? What are all those little parts doing? What the heck is electricity? We recommend the kit for humans age 12 and up.
It's about learning electronics - learning breadboarding, how to use the real components used in real electronics - and truly understanding how electricity flows through and makes all this stuff work.
It's about creativity - why we make things, why we make art, why do anything!?
After spending countless summers playing with hermit crabs and snails in the tide pools of New England beaches, we wanted to create something that would let us indoor kids be outdoors.
Build A Real Relaxation Oscillator
The kit includes everything you need to build a working oscillator - the most basic building block to a real synthesizer. It uses the same kind of solar panel a calculator does, so it will work both indoors and outdoors. When finished, it produces a buzzy hum that you can "play" by letting more or less light hit the solar panel - like a tiny optical theremin.
The kit includes a breadboard, solar power source, a Hex-Schmidt trigger inverter, a small speaker, and a handful of jumper wires, resisters and capacitors.
We designed the kit so you could build this project, but also use it as a jumping-off point for future electronics projects. A breadboard is basically a sketchpad for electronics, and the components we include have a wide range of values for experimentation.
Meet Electronics at the Beach!
Ashley Holtgraver and Charlie Hoey live and love in Somerville, Massachusetts.
Ashley studied Computer Science with an Art minor in college and that is how she has lived her life thenceforth. She has been a human centered designer and web developer for the duration of her career, always dabbling in illustration and storytelling. She has played keyboards in local synthpop outfit Freezepop since 2010, and has deeply loved synth music since it was being made in her very early childhood. She is the writer for most and illustrator for all of Electronics on the Beach.
Charlie Hoey grew up in the city and spent his summers at the beaches of Boston’s south shore. He is a great appreciator of all analog electronics, particularly the kinds that make sound, and a creative tinkerer in hardware and software. He is also a web developer. Charlie created all of the circuit instructions and writing on the flow of electricity. Ashley likes him a lot.
Say Hello
Questions about the book? Need some troubleshooting help? Ideas for an ocean-themed band pun? We would love to hear from you!