Circuit Skills: Perfboard Prototyping

YouTube via makemagazine | June 24, 2010 | 8:37

"When you think - "DIY electronics", one of the first images that likely comes to mind is a bunch of parts and wire soldered to a standard piece of perforated circuit board - and that makes sense. Perfboard is super-versatile - essentially it's just a grid of potential solder-point connections. You can trim it down to just the size you need - or leave extra space for future enhancements ... or revisions, if need be."

Click here for all makemagazine posts.

RIP Hans R. Camenzind - Creator of the 555 Timer IC

via Designing Analog chips

"Hans Camenzind was born and raised in Switzerland and moved to the U.S. after college. He received an MSEE from Northeastern University and an MBA from the University of Santa Clara. After several years doing research in the Boston area, he moved to the West Coast to join Signetics (now Philips) and later started his own company, Interdesign. After heading it for seven years he sold Interdesign to Plessey. Since then he has been an independent design consultant in analog IC design, operating under the name Array Design in San Francisco. During his career at four different companies he designed the first integrated class D amplifier, introduced the phase-locked loop concept to ICs, invented the semicustom IC and created the 555 timer. He has designed 151 standard and custom ICs so far."

via Wikipedia: "Hans R. Camenzind (1934-2012[1]) is an electronics engineer best known for inventing the 555 timer IC in 1970.[2] He has also acquired 20 US patents,[3][4] written numerous books and technical articles,[5][6][7][8] and lectured at the University of Santa Clara.

He received an MSEE from Northeastern University and an MBA from the University of Santa Clara. After several years doing research in the Boston area, he moved to the West Coast to join Signetics[9] (acquired by Philips Semiconductors, now NXP Semiconductors) and later started his own company, Interdesign. After heading it for seven years he sold Interdesign to Ferranti. Since then he has been an independent design consultant in analog IC design.

During his career he has written three textbooks, designed the first integrated class D amplifier, introduced the phase-locked loop concept to ICs, invented the semicustom IC and created the 555 timer. He has designed 140 standard and custom ICs as of 2006.

Camenzind's latest book, Much Ado About Almost Nothing, a general audience book on the history of electronics, was published in February 2007.[10] Other books in publication include Designing Analog Chips."

The Atari Punk Console by Forrest M. Mims III consisted of two 555s. Via wikipedia: "The Atari Punk Console (commonly shortened to APC) is a popular circuit that utilizes two 555 timer ICs or a single 556 dual timer IC. The original circuit, called a "Stepped Tone Generator", was published in a Radio Shack booklet: "Engineer's Notebook: Integrated Circuit Applications" in 1980 and then in "Engineer's Mini-Notebook - 555 Circuits" by its designer, Forrest M. Mims III (Siliconcepts, 1984). It was named "Atari Punk Console" (APC) by Kaustic Machines crew because its "low-fi" sounds resemble classic Atari console games from the 1980s, with a square wave output similar to the Atari 2600. Kaustic Machines added a -4db line level output to the circuit which was originally designed to drive a small 8 ohm speaker."

via this auction
YouTube Uploaded by makemagazine on Sep 13, 2011

http://bit.ly/prZRJ1 "A true classic for DIY synth makers & circuit benders, the Atari Punk Console can kick out some ear-catching square waves. It's easy to build and a lot of fun to play around with. It may be challenging to make traditional music with an APC, but hey - there's enough of that around already, right?" via Create Digital Music where you'll find a good write-up by Peter Kirn.

CRAFT Video: Craft Meets Tech at MIT

YouTube via makemagazine. Arduino DIY.
"In this week's CRAFT Video, come with me to the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. There I met with e-textiles pioneer Leah Buechley and students from her research group called "High-Low Tech," which Leah describes as "blends" of technology with traditional crafts to make new toolkits for creativity and learning."

MidiVox Arduino Shield on Make: Live ep01

YouTube via makemagazine | January 27, 2011 |

"Collin Cunningham shows off his MidiVox Arduino shield on the premiere of Make: Live! This is an archived clip from the episode broadcast 1/26/11. Go to makezine.com/live for details on the next show."

I Make 2010

YouTube via makemagazine | July 21, 2010

"Meet some of the talented makers & crafters that made Maker Faire Bay Area 2010 so great!"

Dr. Bleep of Bleep Labs at :18.
Collin Cunningham at :59
Anyone make out where Mark is from at :49? Curious if they do any sound labs.

Making of Gary Numan DieHard commercial

YouTube via makemagazine | August 09, 2010

"Syyn Labs, the folks who created the Rube Goldberg machine for OK Go's "This Too Shall Pass" video, recently did a commercial for DieHard featuring Gary Numan performing his classic song "Cars" on actual cars (their tuned horns), playing them like a piano, all powered by a single DieHard battery. We were intrigued and asked them to tell us how they did it. They sent us this behind the scenes video. The commercial is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4YsMV... [previously posted] You can read an article about the making of the commercial and the tech they used here:
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010..."

Collin's Lab: Switches

YouTube Uploaded by makemagazine on Jun 27, 2011

"Easily overlooked, but elemental to electronics hardware, the manually operated switch is the simplest of electromechanical devices -- and likely the most familiar. While the most basic switch is ... well, quite basic -- there's a crazy-huge variety of switch types & sizes available to the electronics maker nowadays. Those new to the soldering & schematics scene will surely benefit from an introduction to some of the terms and formats relevant to various switch species."

Circuit Skills: LED Color Organ

YouTube via makemagazine | October 20, 2010

"http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010...
Join Collin as he synchronizes light to sound using the power of analog circuitry - It's disco-tech!"

Collin's Lab: Schematics

YouTube Uploaded by makemagazine on Nov 14, 2011

"http://bit.ly/uBjkMR
Schematics are the functional diagram of electronic circuits. With so many designs available on the web, understanding how to read schematics can unlock a world of possibilities for the electronics maker. In fact, if you can read a schematic, you can build a circuit before even understanding how it works!"

Collin's Lab: Homebrew Piezo

YouTube Uploaded by makemagazine on Mar 11, 2011

"Piezoelectric materials are about as close to magic as you can get. They turn physical pressure into electricity and can even turn electricity into physical pressure - an amazing sort of bidirectional converter for mechanical and electrical energies. Perhaps even more amazing is the fact that you can easily 'grow' your own piezoelectric crystals overnight using just a couple of common ingredients - awesome."

Make a Theremin

YouTube via makemagazine
"In this podcast Bre Pettis makes a theremin from a kit by harrison instruments. A theremin is a musical instrument invented in Russia in 1918."

The Obama Board: Build Your Own Obama Speech

YouTube Uploaded by makemagazine on Jul 31, 2011

"Created by Ashley Lewis, The Obama Board is a new twist on a traditional musical keyboard. Instead of a musical note, each key, when pressed emits the sound of a word from Barack Obama's inauguration speech. Press the keys in the sequence of your choice to create you own speech!"

Collin's Lab: The REAL Breadboard

YouTube Uploaded by makemagazine on Apr 6, 2011

"http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2011/04/collins-lab-th...eal-breadboard.html

Ever wonder why they call it an electronics "breadboard"? Way back in the day, folks had to be pretty resourceful to pursue an electronics hobby. So power down the soldering iron and go grab a hammer - it's time to try building on a *real* breadboard."

Circuit Skills: Surface Mount Devices

YouTube via makemagazine | August 23, 2010
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010...
"Join Collin Cunningham as he explores the oh-so-tiny world of surface mount electronics. Follow along as he constructs what may be the world's smallest phototheremin all in super-macro detail - plus learn why adhesive poster putty is so darn useful."

MAKE presents: The Inductor

YouTube via makemagazine. follow-up to this post
"The deceptively simple wire coil that proves incredibly useful in the world of electronics - the inductor's ability to store energy in an electromagnetic field is the key to making transformers, electromagnets, and many more components. It truly is an awesome device!

For questions, suggestions, and more info -
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009..."

Make: Shorts - Limor Fried: Adafruit Industries

YouTube via makemagazine | December 07, 2010 |
Limor Fried aka Ladyada is the woman that brought us the x0xb0x (see this interview). See was also featured on Wired news (see this post). No synth talk in this new video but the influence on synth DIY is inherent, and of course gives us some insight to the person that created the x0xb0x.

"Limor Fried is the founder and engineer behind Adafruit Industries which makes electronics kits that teach soldering, tinkering, and technology exploration. One of their projects, the Tweet-a-Watt, is a wireless modification to a common off-the-shelf home energy monitor, the Kill-a-Watt. The Tweet-a-Watt not only monitors your energy consumption, it sends the information to Twitter so you can track it online, which reveals usage trends over time. Besides selling a Tweet-a-Watt kit, Adafruit has also put the open source plans online for all to freely build and share, creating a network of makers watching their usage and swapping energy-saving tips."

Circuit Skills: Infrared Light

YouTube Uploaded by makemagazine on Nov 1, 2011

"http://wp.me/p1CIX9-udv

Infrared light may be invisible to the human eye - but it's usefulness in the world of electronics is easy to see. IR emitters & detectors can be used in a variety of different ways - most of us use them for wireless communication everyday."

Circuit Skills: LED Matrix

YouTube via makemagazine | Mar 2, 2011 |

"Learn the basics of controlling a grid of LEDs - use one as a miniature game machine and more, as Collin Cunningham takes a look inside the LED Matrix."

Coliin's Lab: Digital to Analog Converter

YouTube via makemagazine | February 15, 2011 |

"The Digital to Analog Converter (DAC) turns bits into waves using a surprisingly simple circuit built from little more than a few resistors. Learn how to build your own R-2R DAC and use it to generate waveforms with a microcontroller"

Collin's Lab: Monotron Hacking

YouTube via makemagazine | Mar 1, 2011 |

"The Monotron mini analog synthesizer was made to be hacked - learn how to add your own control-voltage inputs and check out some sample synthing played via strobe light."