☀️ New Zine! Build a Solar-Powered Music Synth

Zine cover for "Build a Solar-Powered Music Synth," with the Iffy Books logo in the lower left corner. In the middle of the page there's a black-and-white drawing of cute hamsters assembling electronic components on a breadboard. A spiral sun is overhead, with a curving arrow pointing at a pair of music notes.

Our new how-to zine is ready to share! In this project you’ll build a solar-powered oscillator circuit, using two NOT gates to generate a square wave. Then you’ll add two push button switches and a potentiometer to adjust the pitch.

☀️ Build a Solar-Powered Music Synth
☀️ Screen reading PDF
☀️ Print-imposed PDF

We’ve hosted two solar synth workshops so far, and we’re hoping to do it again soon. In the meantime, you can buy a complete kit at Iffy Books (hours).

The development of this kit and its companion zine was made possible with the funds from the Swarthmore College Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility’s Engaged Humanities Studio Fellowship Grant awarded to Chris Stone and Iffy Books for the “Iffy Solar” project. 

Inspiration for this kit was derived from Ralf Schreiber’s Solar Sound Module Project (http://www.ralfschreiber.com/solarsound.html). 

Thank you to Steve, Chris, and Matty for your contributions.

Circuit diagram for an oscillator built with two not gates, two resistors, two capacitors, a switch, and a variable resistor.
Breadboard illustration for an oscillator built with a hex inverter integrated circuit, two resistors, two capacitors, two switches, a variable resistor, a piezo speaker, and a solar panel.

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Retrieved April 20, 2024 at 5:50 am (website time).

Available at: iffybooks.net/?p=2303