Draw working circuits with a Circuit Scribe pen

Forget printing circuits or messing around with ‘breadboards‘: how about something more intuitive? How about simply drawing them instead? You can do just that with this rollerball, which means you can doodle circuits all day long.

The Circuit Scribe pen lets you draw smooth lines, which don’t require any drying time, with the ink being fairly fuss-free. This is like a freehand version of the self-printable circuits I’ve covered before.

By putting conductive silver ink inside a rollerball pen you can doodle circuit designs on the back of an envelope which, granted, isn’t anything new – but these sketches will actually work when you drop in the other bits such as LEDs, batteries and the like.

You can effectively throw out those circuit breadboards you have and draw circuits as complex as you like straight on a regular piece of paper and then even use your creation with things like Makey Makey and Arduino boards.

Currently on Kickstarter, a $20 pledge secures you a pen, or for a little more it will arrive with a bunch of simple electronic components so you can get to playing around right away.

“You can build a circuit with nothing but a coin battery, paper clip, and LED, or build out complex circuits with multiple components,” the startup notes on their campaign page.

Unopened pens will have a shelf-life of about a year, while opened pens will “write smooth” for at least six months (provided you keep them capped and store away from heat sources and tip down when not in use). Each pen is good for 60-80m (262-328 ft) worth of lines, and the lines should keep their conductivity for “years”.

The startup is seeking $85,000 in crowdfunding to get Circuit Scribe to market. It’s already raised more than $22,000 with 39 days left to go.

If the campaign hits its target, it’s aiming to ship the pens, and most of the component bundles, out to backers by June 2014.

This is a great way to get kids excited about electronics as well as being one of the ultimate Macgyver tools to be in your bag at all times.

Go on, amaze your friends in the pub buy drawing a circuit on a beer mat and then dropping a battery and a controllable motor on it.