Printoo wants to light up your maker life with a range of flexible, printed circuit boards and modules that can be used to power up all sorts of everyday objects. So not just flat stuff — you could wrap these printed electronics around a bottle or can, for instance, to add a display or lights. Or squeeze them into a small space inside a 3D printed car so you can control it via Bluetooth.
The aim of Printoo is to be modular and moldable, and therefore highly flexible. And if you want to keep things really simple, you can use conductive ink to link your Printoo creations rather than bothering with soldering and wires. That ambition is finding supporters — with Printoo already passing its modest $20,000 funding target on Kickstarter with 25 days left to run on its campaign.
The team behind Printoo argues that the sorts of printed electronics it’s bringing together have previously been unavailable to the public. And that’s what it’s aiming wants to change, by offering a whole platform of Arduino-compatible, open source components — bringing together printed electronics from different makers, including ultra-thin/soft batteries from Blue Spark and Enfucell; a photodetector module made by Isorg; an LED strip made by VTT; a polymer solar cell from Mekoprint; along with its own Ynvisible electrochromic displays.
Printoo kits start at $45 for a core kit (which consists of three components) or $95 for a basic pack (seven components). Kits with even more components scale up in price to a hefty $550 for an Ultimate Blimp Pack which comprises 23 components, including multiple displays, a sensor module, a motor module, battery packs and more.
As well as individual components, like an LED matrix or capacitive sensing keys, the Printoo system includes all the driver modules and connectors required to be a fully fledged maker platform. It says it’s still tinkering with layouts and materials but promises robust connectors on the finished product, along with bendable but robust boards.
It’s also building apps that connect to and control Printoo — as another way of simplifying the building of electronics projects using its modular platform, giving the whole endeavor an educational potential, as another way for budding makers to cut their teeth by hacking electro-stuff together quickly.