Pointless Electronics · PE-002
The Groaner
A sealed box with a square grid of holes in its face. No button, no light, no knob. Pick it up and it groans, like an old-school groan tube; put it down and it groans again. The Button asked something of you. The Groaner asks nothing, and gives you its opinion anyway. Finished.
- ObjectSealed aluminum box, winked silver (Tayda's name for the finish), a square grid of holes in the face
- FunctionGroans when picked up
- PurposeNone
- Inputs1 (gravity)
- Outputs1
- ControlsNone
- InsideISD1820 recorder, 470K pitch resistor, tilt switch, 4 Ω speaker straight off the module
- User serviceable partsFour screws
- LastsAbout 50,000 groans, or ten years, whichever comes first. Estimated; the groan current is not measured yet
- FinishedSeptember 2026
Binding. Refundable, see Returns & Repairs. It exists.
The pitch
THE BUTTON proved that a device could do one thing. THE GROANER proves it need not be asked. There is no input. There is nothing to press, turn, plug in or hold. It sits where you put it. Pick it up and it groans. Put it down and it groans again.
Some products respond to you. THE GROANER responds to nothing, which frees it to respond to everything.
Build one
There is no circuit board in it, and it has a build guide anyway. The PE-002 build guide, on the circuit-bending shelf, has the parts, the four solder joints, the 470K trick that makes a groan out of a voice, the square grille template for the front, the board that turned out not to be needed, and the arithmetic behind 50,000 groans.
The series
PE-002 is the second of sixteen, and the second finished. The first, PE-001 The Button, is for sale. The rest are on the Pointless Electronics catalogue, two on the bench and twelve that exist as a name.