Hello There,
I'm David Levi. I’m an electrical engineer, toy designer, and now, thanks to MicroKits, a small business owner. I began designing the MicroKits theremin kit in 2016, and in 2017 I built and sold a couple hundred. This small success lead me to work as an electrical engineer in a few of the largest toy companies. But, like so many others, I was laid off in 2020. I decided to combine the skills I had learned in the toy industry with the theremin kit I had already designed, and started MicroKits in earnest.
I've always known I wanted to be an engineer. Thanks to my middle school's ham radio club, I was able to get an early start on electronics, soldering together all kinds of simple electronic kits. I've been constantly tinkering and inventing since then.
Now, I want to help the next generation of engineers, and make circuits accessible to everyone. For our first kit, I decided to create a theremin. Theremins are one of the most spectacular ways to demonstrate the physics behind circuits. When I was a young student, it took hundreds of dollars and complicated assembly to build a theremin. But with this kit, I've made it easy for anyone to get started.
With the success of the theremin kit, I've had the resources to design more inventions, starting with the Synth-a-Sette. I designed the synth to be both a portable musical instrument, and a fun way for STEM students to learn about conductivity and what it means to complete a circuit.
I first started working on what would become the Synth-a-Sette in 2021, with a business card synth written about on Hackaday. I though back then that I was almost done, but I had so many more features to add and fine tune. I finally created the final version of the Synth-a-Sette in 2024 after adding robust touch sensing, a power supply that automatically turns off, and a lot of little tweaks to the design to add character to the sound and make it easy and fun to use. And of course I realized that if I added alligator clips, my touch sensors could turn anything into musical keys!
As of late 2024, MicroKits is me working full time, plus Debbie. I've done most of the engineering/artwork/marketing/finance/operations/planning/procurement/customer support. And Debbie works part time to assemble products. After seeing how quickly she can kit a bag of parts, I think I might have the easier job.
Many of the parts we use are imported from China and other countries, but we do all our own final assembly in Charlottesville, Virginia. It's more expensive and logistically challenging. But doing things in-house lets us tweak designs quickly and keep an eye on quality. It's also so fun to run and modify industrial machines.
MicroKits is growing, and we have so many ideas in the pipeline! If you want to be the first to know when our next invention is available, sign up below. I'll let you know when our next creation is ready!