Materials and Information for a simple DIY Synth workshop.

What it is:

• A breadboard square wave oscillator that is controlled by a Light Dependent Resistor, with a tiny speaker.
• The potentiometer acts as a combo volume and rudimentary tone control.
• This is intended for people with little to no electronics experience. The circuit is very basic, but makes a fun little noisemaker.
• People as young as 12 or so can probably build it on their own. Children as young as 5 have built them with assistance.

How to use this repository:

• The workshop_docs directory contains a step-by-step pictoral walkthrough for building the breadboard circuit. This walkthrough is typically projected on a large screen that everybody can see. Typically, a presenter will walk through the construction of a breadboard alongside 25 to 30 participants, who each have their own kit to build.

• The development_docs directory contains kicad schematics, fritzing layouts, and a BOM for the workshop. Unless you are modifying the project, you don't need to go in here. If you do want to modify the project, you'll need to install the kicad and fritzing programs to open and modify the schematic and layout files.

How to order parts:

1. Determine how many kits you want. About 25 ~ 30 has worked well in the past.

2. Buy the Mouser Parts:

   1. Follow this link to the Mouser project page for a single kit.
   2. On the Mouser page, next to the green "Order Project" button, enter the number of kits desired.
   3. Note that you may want to order an extra kit or two, in case someone breaks or looses something.
   4. Click the "Order Project" button to place the parts in a Mouser cart.
   5. Follow this link to the Jumper Wire Kit on Mouser.
   6. Each Jumper Wire Kit has enough wire for about 30 kits.
   7. Add the required number of Jumper Wire Kits to the existing Mouser cart with the green "Buy" button.
   8. Complete the Mouser order.

3. Buy the Light Dependent Resistors:

   1. Follow this link to the Light Dependent Resistor page on the Small Bear Electronics website.
   2. Choose option "9200". (If this option is out of stock, substitute another option).
   3. Buy the desired number of Light Dependent Resistors, one LRD per kit.
   4. Complete the purchase for the Light Dependent Resistors on the Small Bear site.

Parts Preparation:

• Once the parts arrive, someone will need to unpack them and get them ready.
• The speakers need stiff wires soldered to them. You can use some of the Jumper Wires from the kit, or some solid core 22awg wire, or clipped off resistor legs, etc.
• Some of the Jumper Wires will need to be trimmed and bent to suit the layout.
• The parts should be counted and sorted into individual kits ahead of time.
• Do a test build to verify that everything works as expected.

A note about the software used to develop this workshop:

• Efforts were made to use only free, open source, and multi-platform software to develop these materials.
  • Kicad for capturing schematics. Kicad is a mature and well supported suite for electronic design.
  • Fritzing for capturing layouts. Fritzing has some annoying kinks, but it does the job.
  • LibreOffice Calc to generate the BOM spreadsheet. The BOM can be opened with Microsoft Excel.
  • LibreOffice Impress to generate the PowerPoint-like pictoral walkthough. The walkthrough can be opened with Microsoft PowerPoint.
  • Anyone wishing to modify or add to this workshop is welcome to download the materials here, install some free software, and go to town.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.