Paper Circuits
Circuit boards you print, four sheets of paper thick.
Circuit boards you print. The drawing is the board, the holes are poked with tweezers, and the traces are bare wire laid along the lines on the back. I love the concept of Peter Blasser's paper circuits, but his are complicated, use esoteric parts and are difficult to troubleshoot - so this series takes circuits you already know, with common parts, and makes paper circuits something a beginner can try.
New to it? Start with the Paper Mosquito, the first one I built. Every guide has a printable sheet: page 1 is the board itself, and the pages after it are the recipe.
All 6 builds
Paper Mosquito: The Atari Punk Console on a Printed Sheet
the Dead-Bug Mosquito's NE556 APC rebuilt as a paper circuit: print the fold sheet, glue it around a folded core of plain paper, poke the holes and lay bare wire along the lines. One chip, ten parts, the chip soldered straight to the paper. Fifty-nine steps from the middle outward, a printable build sheet, a voltage check and a troubleshooting table.
Paper Opto Duet: Two 555s That Talk With Light
the Opto Duet as a heart-shaped paper circuit: one 555 ticks, every tick flashes an LED into a photocell in the other 555's timing, and it chirps on the beat. A tempo eye and a pitch eye stand up on the board, the vactrol is an LED and a cell in black heatshrink, and the battery snaps on. Same circuit and values as the stripboard one, and this one is built too. Sixty-four steps and a printable build sheet.
Paper Mosquito Heart: The Second Version, Drawn as a Heart
the Paper Mosquito redrawn as a heart, four sheets of paper thick around a folded core, with a 1N5817 diode so a backwards battery does nothing, a power LED, and the battery snap on the board. Same NE556 core and B500K pots, volume pot kept. Drawn and checked, not yet built. Sixty-six steps and a printable build sheet.
Paper Theremin: Two Photocells and a Note-Off
the 555 Optical Theremin as a heart-shaped paper circuit: two photocells in series set the pitch, cupping both stops the note dead, and it drives a speaker with no amp. A 78L05 holds it at the 5V it was built on, off a 9V snap. Same circuit and values as the built breadboard one, drawn and checked, not yet built. Fifty-five steps and a printable build sheet.
Paper Cicada: Four Voices, Four Touch Plates
the Cicada as a heart-shaped paper circuit: four CD4093 voices, each with a pitch pot on wires and a touch plate, a bare staple on the gate beside one on ground. A fingertip across a pair stops that voice. Same circuit and values as the built stripboard one, drawn and checked, not yet built. Sixty-four steps and a printable build sheet.
Paper Hornet: The Amp for the Other Paper Builds
the Hornet LM386 amp as a heart-shaped paper circuit, with the volume pot on the paper: plug a Paper Mosquito or a Paper Cicada into IN and a small speaker into SPK. Gain cap, bypass and Zobel as on the built stripboard one, drawn and checked, not yet built. Forty-four steps and a printable build sheet.