Circuit Bending - First project complete

Recently i've got into Circuit Bending. My first project was this toy keyboard I got on ebay for £3.50. Also got some components from Maplin which were all pretty cheap. Spent quite a few hours on it, lost a few evenings here and there, but really pleased with the final keyboard. I call it the Bendinator 1.2 Deluxe!

Here's a video and a picture of the final keyboard and a video of me playing it badly!



Details

The keyboard came with no controls or switches, not even an on/off switch. So I've added an on/off switch, a blue LED to indicate signal strength, a sustain on/off switch, a pitch pot with a switch below that has two modes, one chokes off when it get below a certain range, then the other mode has a capacitor wired in that smooths out the pitch control.

The pitch control also has sustain in it too so interacts with the sustain switch, and also the LDR.

The LDR (Light dependant resistor) basically wobbles the pitch when you move your hand over it, and also has a variable filter capacitor wired into the switch to make it more sensitive.

All the controls interact with each other providing a wide iteration of possibilities, didn't get them all in the video though.

Lastly I added an output jack so I can plug it into an amp or DI for the studio. One thing I didn't count on as I wired the output jack, is that the speaker becomes microphonic, so you can get feedback too when amped up. To me this is a plus, but in future ones I might do that differently, with some kind of switch or cut out feature when plugged.

Video

How I invented the Nintendo Wii in the 1980s

Hello, today I would like to tell you about how I invented a basic version of what now people would recognise as the Wii some 25 years or so before.

It all began when I would use my BBC Micro computer to play games, I didn't have a joystick and so had to use the keys to move and fire in games. One game Daley Thomsons Decathlon especially would require constant and heavy use of the Z and X keys as I recall.

I thought to myself there must be a better way. I knew that my BBC B had an analogue port which was capable of measuring voltage. Then I realised that human muscles produce electricity when in use. I connected a wire to the analogue port, then the other end to an adapted special wrist band which was worn by the user. I then setup a special mat on the floor for the user to run on, as not to wear out the carpet.

I wrote the software which would take the voltage reading from the analogue port then move a graphic of a human along the screen, the athlete would only move on the screen if there was a voltage of a certain amount, then move faster proportionally to the amount of energy being generated by the real human wearing the wrist band.

It was a very simplistic game, but provided many hours of fun, and impressed some of my friends at the time.

Ultimately I discontinued development of the technology, as at the time I thought it to be ludicrous that people would prefer to exercise in their house as opposed to outside in reality. I imagined that the computer game version of running could not be as popular or worth while as the real activity itself. I was wrong.

I also failed to imagine other applications, or trying a variety of other sports such as golf. I did not file a patent to my invention which now seems most regrettable given my current meager financial situation.

My old 80s Personal Stereo (Walkman)

Recently I found this in an old box, yes it's my favourite Personal Stereo from the 1980s.

I got it working again too by replacing a battery spring that had come off, though it's missing the battery case lid, and the aerial is slightly bent. But it's all good, they don't make them like this anymore. That Matsui quality can't be beaten, even if it was a fake Japanese brand made by Curry's or Dixons or whoever.

This was no ordinary Walkman as many of my peers would have had in the 80s, this one was very special. It cost about £39 I think, which was a lot in those days. I remember saving up for it, longing for it. This was a superior bit of cheap tat, boasting two stereo built in speakers, a microphone, 4 band graphic equaliser and telescopic aerial.

You could record from the built in mic or from the radio. I remember thinking that was very important, my ability to record the radio on the move. Though I'm not 100% sure why now, I suspect it was something to do with my childhood being constantly preoccupied with making mix tapes from the radio. Remember those preachy signs on record sleeves saying 'Home taping is killing music', well that was me. Fast forward to today and the intangible world of mp3s and somehow making copies of songs from records doesn't seem that big a deal. At least in those days you had to buy a physical product for someone to actually copy first.

The Matsui PH6182 RSP has a vast array of features and switches though a proclivity for many of them to be pointless. A mono/stereo switch? for the days when Stereo sound was just too much, and you wanted to keep it real with just good old mono? Also the metal/normal switch, not sure it was actually wired to anything, as I could never get this thing to record with anything but normal cassettes. Also the 4th graphic equaliser fader could be moved to any position without any discernible difference to the sound, but that didn't matter. I had 4 bands of EQ, and most of my friends had at most 3. So I won the Graphic equalisers, it's important we take a moment to remember that, as life was to offer very few later triumphs!

Why did we need to move away from Cassettes? I mean records/vinyl were fine, then with tapes, surely that was it, why would we need more? No, you said 'let's move to digital, CDs then mp3, and the internet'. Do we have to I replied, yes you said, don't worry nothing bad will happen! (No nothing except the complete inevitable collapse of the music industry!)

Anyway back to the Matsui PH6182, it works really well, and I'm keeping it, I'm going to get out all my old cassettes and listen to them again, as I rock gently back and forth into gradual mental illness. What? what's that you're saying, what if I want to listen to a track further on the album, well then I simply hold down the FWD (Forward) button until in my mind I guess that's where on the tape the track will be, in continuous iterations of trial and error. That's what real music appreciation is about, now it's all been lost. Lost i tells ye. Nowdays it's all about convenience, though the words 'One Touch Recording' on the front were a pre-cursor to that. Even in the 80s holding down PLAY and RECORD at once was obviously becoming to much for consumers.

Here's a tape i listened to then and will do again now, a classic too by AC/DC!

Here are some more pictures (some would say too many) including the mysterious normal/metal switch.

Sometimes I would spend the whole day listening in Mono, then move the switch to Stereo for a treat! but just for an hour!

Well that's about it, that is my tribute to my trusty old Walkman.

This was for you PH6182, enjoy this brave new era, old friend!