Sketching with Hardware

Drawdio: A pencil that lets you draw with music!

When I first saw the Drawdio at Maker Faire I knew it would be a great project for beginners: A lot of fun 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).
  • Use any pencil - mechanical or plain. The kit comes with a 2B pencil, the softer the lead the better.
  • Ridiculously fun for all ages!

Video!

The best way to see how Drawdio works is to watch a video...

Here are some videos from JJ Silver himself! These videos are of an earlier revision so it looks a little different.

Credits

The Drawdio kit was designed in collaboration with Jay Silver & based on his original design!

This guide was first published on Apr 21, 2013. It was last updated on Mar 08, 2024.

This page (Overview) was last updated on Mar 07, 2013.

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