The Cornish Cardboard Crystal Synths were designed for building noisy semiconductor circuits with families at the Flamm contemporary art festival in Redruth (after a field trip to Poldice mine) and later for a series of workshops at Ale and Cakes mine - or in it's more modern form: United Downs Raceway.

There are two versions, the second slightly simpler and easier to build. Each one has a collection of circuits to wire up. We've found the wires and springs approach to be better and less fiddly than the usual breadboard approach. A companion cardboard crystal radio (and AM transmitter) was built to help explain the history and background to these workshops.

Instructions for building them

Cardboard Crystal Synth Version 1

Cardboard Crystal Synth Version 2