Olopede - Functucational Electronics Kits

Hey Instructabalonians!

Zachninme and I have been working on starting a company for makers who want to get more out of building awesome things - a kit company for makers who want to learn. We bring you: olopede!

"We're the family of insects bringing education back to DIY Electronics. olopede kits are specifically designed to make the oh-so-familiar "black box" kits, parts, and widgets "transparent" to the inquisitive mind. Not only do our kits deeply encourage an understanding of fundamental electrical engineering concepts, but they also challenge the hacker to design circuits that suit his or her needs using a combination of the kits and concepts that we supply. Our kits are designed to demonstrate interesting applications of electronics AND serve to be readily understood by those dabbling in the field. By making our kits interesting and didactic, we hope to engender interest and understanding in not only electronics, but also technology and engineering in general. "

We want to make open-source kits that encourage learning the fundamentals in both analog and digital electroncs, as opposed to kits that encourage quick soldering in exchange for a finished black box.  As a maker, you'll be given a PCB with an easy-to-read layout, non-magical components that we can quickly teach you to understand wholly, and several sources of support including full documentation and learner's manual.

We've got four awesome kits ready for PCB prototyping including a Turing Machine, The 'oloduino', 'Fungen' - an analog function generator, and 'The Ampliflier' - an analog amplifier, but we need some help with funding!  We set up a project on Kickstarter, where you can trade donations for various rewards depending on how much you donate.  The rewards include free stickers, thank you's, kits, access to our GITHUB repository where we keep all of our files, lessons, a day with us, and a metal sculpture of your favorite arthropod!  The most awesome reward by far, though, is the birth of olopede - a company interested in propagating maker culture by educating the next generation of makers.

If you're interested in learning more about olopede - or helping us get the ball rolling - you can check out our Kickstarter page here, or our website @ http://olopede.com.

Keep the awesome coming!
- Josh and Zach

edit:  You can really help us out by spreading the word.  Join our facebook page or follow us on twitter!