I'm a 44 year old man and I would love this - for years I've tried to dabble with music with much lack of success - but this looks really fun to play with. Great job.
Show HN: I built a synth for my daughter
11–20 of 216 posts
Re: Show HN: I built a synth for my daughter
#12Regarding case material for productizing, you could consider a combination of plywood and bent sheet metal, eg like a Moog. Also check out dato.mu for a few examples of kid proof synth enclosures.
Would bent sheet metal have any sharp corners or edges? For kids it's probably best to avoid those.
Re: Show HN: I built a synth for my daughter
#13What an awesome project. It looks fabulous!
Reminds me of the Dato Duo I have.
The "Dato Duo" is also a synth aimed at kids. It allows 2 kids to play together. it is made by a Dutch company called Dato (https://dato.mu). Their latest musical invention the "Dato Drum" had a successful Kickstarter and is shipping now. This drum machine allows even more kids to play together.
PS: As the owner of a Dato Duo I can share you a little secret: it's also fun for adults :)
Re: Show HN: I built a synth for my daughter
#14If I have zero experience designing PCBs but wanted to do a similarly (non)-complex one, how much of a tall order would that be? In my completely made-up mental model, I'm guessing I just take the parts I've already breadboarded, look them up in some sidebar, and drag and drop them around, snapping to nice clean spacing, and then connect all the various pins together and have it automatically organize things? We're not going for perfect here. Just "Baby's first PCB" that at least works.
And then when I have one designed, how much would it cost to get made and sent to me if I was okay if it took a month?
But most importantly: how do I build personal confidence that I'm not shipping a potato off to be printed? Is there a community I could ask for a review from?
Re: Show HN: I built a synth for my daughter
#15Another good option for a child: https://www.eltamusic.com/solar-42 On a serious note: https://www.ericasynths.lv/shop/standalone-instruments-1/bul...
Perhaps more realistically, Teenage Engineering products: https://teenage.engineering/store
Re: Show HN: I built a synth for my daughter
#16Wow! Looks great and very inspiring. Great idea to make separate components that can be connected - something like a drum machine, sequencer, maybe even a chord synthesizer? It can be constrained such that you are always diatonic, you could have a mode knob too. Jamming with other people can be a life changing experience, and to do that as a child would be a great privilege to have.
Yes exactly, it would be great to be able to sync the clocks so they all ‘just work’ together. And maybe also a module that gives all the other synth parameters for the more advanced user too. I say it’s for my daughter, but I actually would love this too.
Re: Show HN: I built a synth for my daughter
#17Looks amazing! Reminds me of a funny reddit thread about a man who built a fiber optic star ceiling for his daughter. The top comment was "First child?". :)
https://www.reddit.com/r/DIY/comments/8g8pce/fiberoptic_star...
Re: Show HN: I built a synth for my daughter
#18If I have zero experience designing PCBs but wanted to do a similarly (non)-complex one, how much of a tall order would that be? In my completely made-up mental model, I'm guessing I just take the parts I've already breadboarded, look them up in some sidebar, and drag and drop them around, snapping to nice clean spacing, and then connect all the various pins together and have it automatically organize things? We're n…
If the board is small (10x10cm or less) it will be almost completely free, like single-digit dollars, through somewhere like JLPCB. So I’d say don’t worry too much about that, just jump in and try!
As for actually designing, it’s a little more complicated than that but not by much. I did my first pcbs with KiCAD ~5 years ago by pretty much just guessing and googling where things were. Completely feasible if you have 0 background experience.
Re: Show HN: I built a synth for my daughter
#19If I have zero experience designing PCBs but wanted to do a similarly (non)-complex one, how much of a tall order would that be? In my completely made-up mental model, I'm guessing I just take the parts I've already breadboarded, look them up in some sidebar, and drag and drop them around, snapping to nice clean spacing, and then connect all the various pins together and have it automatically organize things? We're n…
Hi, your mental model is essentially correct, though it took me a good few evenings over a couple of weeks to get the workflow down in fusion 360. The electronics retailer will usually have the footprint and 3d model available on the component page. You can then import it, define which pins you want connected to each other in the footprint and in the PCB editor you can drag the routes (wires) to connect them.
Printing is way cheaper than I initially thought it would be - I paid £35 or so, including delivery and 5 of them arrived in 5 days. You can get cheaper delivery though. Also most of that cost is shipping and the setup fee - the marginal cost for each additional PCB print in the order is on the order of low single digit dollars.
Tbh my circuit was fairly simple so I just took a bit of a chance (and some extra care wiring things up). I think there’s a subreddit where people give feedback though I haven’t submitted anything.
Re: Show HN: I built a synth for my daughter
#20Looks amazing! Reminds me of a funny reddit thread about a man who built a fiber optic star ceiling for his daughter. The top comment was "First child?". :) https://www.reddit.com/r/DIY/comments/8g8pce/fiberoptic_star...
And then the things you do to redeem your guilt for the second child is a whole interesting area.