Will your gadget allow you to retire?Will your gadget allow you to retire?

Or maybe quit your day job?  How about if it simply supports your hobby?

UK based Sonodrome got its start with an audio oscillator called POSC.  It’s a very simple circuit — two 555 timers, a handful of passive components, a touch sensor and a CdS cell.  Light and touch control the two oscillators and allow you to create a variety of sounds. Similar in concept to a Theremin, if they filtered the output to produce a sine wave instead of a square wave it would probably sound a lot like one also.

Sonodrome wrote an article about POSC for Make Magazine, and listed their kit for sale in the Maker’s Marketplace, and it is reportedly selling like hotcakes.  That means it’s selling really well, for those who don’t recognize the vernacular.  Make online editor Sean Micheal Ragan recently interviewed Jim and Kat, Sonodrome founders.

One of the problems with trying to make money from your hobby is getting it started.  For many of us, $1000 could go a long ways towards turning a hobby into a self supporting or profitable sideline.  That’s why you should consider entering your gadget in the Make/Gadget Freak Design Contest.  The grand prize is $1000 and access to Make magazine’s Maker’s Market. The qualifications are simple:  It must be electronic and incorporate motion, timing, sensing, or networking elements.

As if that weren’t enough, there is now an mbed Sponsorship Program that could supply you with a free mbed on which to base your gadget.

Get going!

Steve Ravet

DN Gadgeteer