LucidTronix is a new Open-Source Electronics designer. We make
tutorials,
as well as transparent, beautiful, and lucid
devices.
Read more
about us here.
About Us
LucidTronix
is an open-source hardware, firmware, and software developer.Inspired by DIY culture and the maker movement, we make
electronics tutorials
and
lucid devices
. Our projects include
wearable game consoles
,
bike computers
,
computational cameras
, and
interactive rainbow lights
.Our
Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs)
are visually compelling- cut into unique shapes and silkscreened with beautiful patterns. We offer our gadgets as both
DIY kits
and ready-made products.
Why Lucid Tronix? Lucid in all its meanings:Lucid as in see-through , our circuits are always visible, either entirely exposed or embedded inside translucent enclosures.Lucid as in transparent , freely sharing every bit of information about our devices; from the design files to the parts and manufacturing details.Lucid as in clear and cogent , our designs strive to be onomatopoetic -- to demonstrate their function in their form.
Why Lucid Tronix? Lucid in all its meanings:Lucid as in see-through , our circuits are always visible, either entirely exposed or embedded inside translucent enclosures.Lucid as in transparent , freely sharing every bit of information about our devices; from the design files to the parts and manufacturing details.Lucid as in clear and cogent , our designs strive to be onomatopoetic -- to demonstrate their function in their form.
Who Are We?
LucidTronix is a group of devoted artists, programmers and engineers committed to producing radically open physical computers for education, and self-expression. We are Samwell Freeman , Julia Vallera , Agis Mesolongitis , Jason Lopez , Nick Critser and Walee Ahmed.We all love open-source technology!So, our software and hardware designs are freely shared,using the creative commons license. We have written some libraries that you are welcome to download. We also distribute EAGLE schematics and board layouts for many of our PCBs.Our site and products are built uponmany awesome open source projects including: Arduino , AVR Libc , Processing , JQuery , Lightbox , Glyphicons , Bootstrap.css , and Ruby on Rails .
Where Are We?
New York City is where we design, assemble, solder, program and play with every gadget featured in our tutorials and products.We work out of the excellent Brooklyn-based Makerspace: Alpha One Labs . We are located atright next to the BQE at the Nexus of Queens and Brooklyn. AlphaOne has awesome events so check out the eventbrite.Everybody is welcome to stop by to help us solder and write software for our devices if you're in the neighborhood! Just contact us first to make sure we'll be there to bust out the soldering irons :) !
Do it Yourself Electronics Kits
We love to do it ourselves!We hope to offer many of our designs in DIY kits that you solder and assemble yourself.We always use easy-to-solder through-hole componentsand give a detailed step-by-step tutorial.We also offer support for our kits via the comments section attached to every tutorial, product, and media asset.Please comment copiously and compassionately!We are inspired by the Open Hardware movement and we have learned (and bought) a ton of electronic goodies from sites like Adafruit , Sparkfun and little bits .
Artisanal Circuit Boards
We will soon offer these electric jewels for sale on this website.Because these items tend to be one or two or three of kindthey are more expensive than the kits which we order in bulk.We design intricate silkscreens which are printed on our boards.These silkscreen artworks add another layer of visual pleasure,and lucid thought into our products.Feel free to download our silkscreen images,and learn more by checking out our EAGLE silkscreen bitmap tutorial.
Data Sheets SUCK!
We love making electronics, but we hate reading datasheets.Many datasheets are written in an almost indecipherable chinglish,that even the engineer-authors would struggle to comprehend.We think the best datasheet is no datasheet at all!To this end, we integrate information about how our devices work into the devices themselves.For example, the printed circuit boards are silkscreened with resistor values, circuit orientations, and pin mappings.
Onomatopoetic Electronics
Ribbit, Whoosh, Pop! What do all these words have in common? They are onomatopoetic. They sound like what they are.They are wonderful because they tell you exactly what they mean,whether or not you speak their language.We try to make onomatopoetic electronics.Our circuit boards are custom shapes carved to evoke the functions of the devices.For example, our electret microphone circuit board looks like an ear,our fountain pwm pump driver looks like a water droplet,and our arduino lamp, in the picture at left, looks like an incandescent light bulb, the same type of light that it can control with its electromechanical relay.
