When we were young, Physics and Electronics classes used to be from another space. Our textbooks used to be full of drawing of squiggly lines that would be in the form of a box, and we were expected to make sense from those. As we grew up, we understood the meaning of those drawing and how they worked. Life became relatively simpler. But, the challenge was creating drawings of circuits that would actually work. It is practically impossible to tell from a drawing if the real thing will work or will it fall flat on its face.
In order to help us out with our conundrum, a company has decided to step up and come up with something. A new company called Electroninks wants to make DIY electronics as easy as ABC! They have come up with Circuit Scribe that is a roller – ball pen filled with conductive silver ink that enables you to create circuits by just drawing them.
The circuit – drawing pen first caught public attention way back in 2011 when it was being researched on at the University of Illinois in the research lab of Professor Jennifer Lewis. Now, Lewis, along with Brett walker (who is an expert on reactive silver ink) formed Electroninks to produce and market Circuit Scribe.
The makers want to offer a simpler, less messy, and more fun alternative to breadboards that are used for building circuits. All you need is a coin battery, a paper clip, and an LED. You just use the pen to draw circuits with the silver ink, and you will be able to create fully functioning circuits. Those who are more technology inclines can resort to a large number of components to create complex circuits. Circuit Scribe is compatible with various electronic platforms like Arduino and Makey Makey.
The pair is also creating a selection of components that you will be able to use with the pen in order to build fully fledged circuits that includes LED boards, coin batteries, 9V battery connectors, to more advanced components that will be aimed at makers, like RGB LED’s, potentiometers, and photo sensors. They have developer kits that contain additional components like a motor, DPDT switches, DIY solder boards, and more, for people who want to use Circuit Scribe while tinkering around with Arduino and Raspberry Pi.
You will be able to connect components to the conductive link circuits that you have drawn on paper by keeping a magnetic material right behind the paper, or by keeping it on the door of your fridge, and then snapping the components to the circuit directly.
The pens that have not been opened will have a shelf life of about a year. The pens that you have opened will write very smoothly for at least six months (as long as you place the caps back on and store them away from sources of heat and always keep them tip down when not using). Each pen writes about 60 to 80m of lines, and the lines should retain their conductivity for a very long time.
Know more by visiting >http://www.electroninks.com
