My new cell phone...

Circuit bent Fisher Price toy cell phone:

Front:

Blue button: Loop switch (there's only one loop...)

Left switch by the knob: Low pitch on/off.

Right switch by the knob: High pitch on/off.

Knob: Pitch.

"Speaker": Built in LED that blink along with the noise!

Back:

Red button: Reset.
Upper switch: Blipblip loop.
Lower switch: Distortion on/off.

Jack: Output.

Upper knob: Volume.

Lower knob: Distortion amount.

Screws: Pitch/distortion body contacts.

Atari Punk Console finished!

I completed my Atari Punk Console yesterday. It is built into a box from Kjell&Co.

And it sounds great!

The pots makes sparks when turned to low... I have to keep my eyes on them so it doesn't burn while I play it...

Small guitar amplifier found in the garbage room.

I found a small guitar amplifier in the garbage room yesterday while walking the dog. I haven't tested it yet, but if it doesn't work it could perhaps be fixed somehow. If I cant fix it, I'll build something else into the box and use the other parts in another project.

Unfortunately the amplifier did not have a speaker and the line out just has a 50 Hz buzz. Hopefully it's just the fuse.

It wasn't the fuse, but I found lots of goodies inside! A transformer, three nice 220k Ohm pots (with three nice looking knobs) and four 1/4" audio jacks (two mono and two stereo). And the amplifier box could be used for another synth project.

DS7 & DS8 PCBs almost fully populated!

I started to assemble my four DS7 and DS8 PCBs yesterday and they're almost finished! I just need 3.3uF (maybe I can use 4.7uF?) electrolytic caps and four 5 V regulators (I haven't searched for them in my surplus box yet) and then they'll be ready to be mounted to the box. All the four PCBs are a little different. One of the DS7 and one of the DS8 PCBs has the lower frequency mod (R11 = 100 Ohm instead of 560 Ohm) and a lower LFO rate (R8 = 22 kOhm instead of 3.3 kOhm), when the other two PCBs has R11 = 560 Ohm resistors and a R8 = 3 kOhm.

I've also tried to use as much as my fathers old components as possible, because the look much better on the boards and because it feels that I honour him for the electronics gene that I've inherited from him.

0k, so I've at least found two 7805 voltage regulators (I have an extra surplus box to search through) and two 3.3uF caps. I used three 10uF in series for the remaining 3.3uF caps...

Maybe I could use those 4.7uF caps anyway...

MIDIbox SID OLED-display problems

I've recently built the Step A Midibox SID, but I can't get the display to work properly. It just shows a lot of weird symbols, letters and numbers. Not readable. I'll post a pic when I get home. The boards are V2 I think (bought in summer 2005), but I have modified them so they´re up to date. The display I'm using is a 2x20 OLED (PLED)-display, bought from fractronics.com and I've seen people with those displays before that are working. I've also checked the connections with the CORE-module and they seem correct. The files that I've uploaded to the midibox are a new bootstrap loader, latest MIOS, the main-file of the Midibox sid and the 6581-file. It seems to be working and I get a fat sound from it when I play the virtual keyboard on the computer. B)

I'll check the traces on the backside of the display and see if there are any floating data pins as soon as I can.

0k, it was pin #10 of the display that was floating. Probably due to my soldering and desoldering of pins and wires on the display. I'll see if I can fix it or if I have to buy a new one...

I think I'll buy a new one...