BadgerHack: Synth Add-On Kit

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Contributors: Nick Poole
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Introduction

The BadgerStick that you received by visiting a SparkFun booth at one of the various events we've attended can be hacked to perform a wide variety of tasks. It can even make music, depending on your definition of music.

BadgerHack

This tutorial will guide you through turning your BadgerStick into a little noise-making circuit that's easy to build, easy to program, and easy to alter and make your own!

BadgerStick with Synth Add-on

It looks a little messy, but it sounds pretty... okay, it doesn't sound pretty either, but it is a lot of fun!

Follow along with this guide and you'll be making sweet noise in no time!

NOTE: The BadgerStick and RedStick are two different products. The BadgerStick (aka BadgerHack) originated as an event-only platform to aid SparkFun in teaching soldering and programming at events like Maker local Faires and SXSW. The RedStick evolved from that concept and is the retail version of the BadgerStick, available for sale on SparkFun.com. All of the BadgerStick tutorials and expansion kits are compatible with both the BadgerStick and the RedStick, unless otherwise stated.

Required Materials

We will need a few other components to make this thing work:

As you can see, the parts count is pretty low and none of the components we'll be using are very sophisticated. The BadgerStick (or RedStick) is doing all of the heavy lifting here. We just need a few control surfaces and a speaker.

Suggested Reading

Before starting this tutorial, we highly recommend you work through the main BadgerHack guide first.

BadgerHack

September 23, 2015

This tutorial shows users how to solder their SparkFun interactive badges as well as put them to use in other projects.

Additionally, if you are new to soldering or electronics, we recommend you check out the following:

When you are ready to start hacking your badge, we definitely recommend reading: