technology workshop craft home food play outside costumes Eureka!Factory Atari Punk Console v2 by Chuck Stephens on November 1, 2015 Author:Chuck Stephens I build cool things from trash and recycled materials. I like noise and sound circuits. I live with my wife, a chihuahua named Monkey and an awesome cat named Honey Boy. I'm a full time maker. Intro: Eureka!Factory Atari Punk Console v2 This circuit changed my life. That's no hyperbole. Let me tell you a story- When I was a kid I really wanted to understand electronics. I loved taking things apart and circuit boards fascinated me. One year my folks bought me a Radio Shack 200-in-1 Electronics Lab for Christmas. While I had a blast following the direction and building projects, I was a little too young to take it seriously and learn the theories behind them. Over the years I would periodically decide that it was time to get serious and 'learn electronics'. I'd get a book from the library and start reading, but I was soon lost in a sea of theory and formulas with no real-world application. After a week or two I'd decide that electronics was not for me and return the books. One day I was reading the Make magazine blog. I saw a post from Colin Cunningham about the Atari Punk Console. This circuit originally appeared in a book by Forrest M. Mims. He called it the stepped tone generator. Some folks built it and noted the similarity between its sound and early video games, so it was dubbed the Atari Punk Generator. I watched a video of the project and was impressed by how simple it was to build and how cool it sounded. After a quick trip to Radio Shack and an hour or so of really bad soldering I had a cool little sound gizmo. I was hooked. I bought more chips and a breadboard. I bought a variety pack of resistors and capacitors. I looked online for more 555 based audio circuits and tried them out. I bought a heat gun from Harbor Freight and stripped discarded circuit boards. I soon had enough parts to build most of the circuits I found. Something cool happened. I'd build a circuit and then I'd swap out resistors or capacitors for ones with different values. This had an effect on the sound it produced. Soon, resistors and capacitors began to make sense. This opened the door to transistors, chips, diodes, pots and a bunch of other amazing parts. I was soon building more complex projects that made even more complex sounds. Without really trying, just playing around, electronics started making sense! Soon, all those baffling formulas and theories started making sense, too. Why didn't those books just show me how build cool things and let me figure out the rest? I had an epiphany- no one wants to 'learn electronics', they want to learn how to do things with electronics. This applies to almost any STEM discipline. Find the interest and work the science in. Like to cook? Let's learn the chemistry behind food and cooking. Like video games? Let's learn to program our own. Want to play music? How about making your own synthesizer, drum machine, amp or effects pedals? When I was a kid I heard Joseph Campbell's quote about following your bliss and opening doors. I thought it was some feel-good hippie BS. Now it makes perfect senseonly after I 'followed my bliss' (making noise that sometime resembles music) did the 'doors' of understanding electronics begin to open. Now I spend most of my time building electronic musical instruments and having a lot of fun. Here's my version of the Atari Punk Console. I hope it inspires you the way it inspired me. Who knows? You may end up with a soldering bench and rolling parts cart in your living room, too.
Step 1: Parts The Atari Punk Console needs the following parts- 1 170 hole breadboard 2 555 timer chips 1 1k resistor 2 330ohm resistors 1.047uf capacitor 1.1uf capacitor 1 10uf capacitor 1 speaker 1 photoresistor 1 9v battery connector 1 plastic base board You can get all of this at Radio Shack or Fry's, but if you want to save money or create multiple kits you should check out ebay's sellers overseas. I get 100 555 timers for under $10 and 1,000 resistors for a few bucks. 1. Jumper wires 2. Battery connector 3. Speaker 4. Mounting plate 5. Breadboard
1. Capacitors 2. Resistors 3. Photoresistor 4. Potentiometers 5. NE555 Timer ICs 1. The rows of holes on the breadboard are connected internally to make electrical contact between multiple components. Step 2: Chips and Pots First we'll install the chips and potentiometers (pots). See the pics above for more details. Chips usually have an indentation in one end. This marks the 'top' of the chip. The pins are numbered starting with the top left and continuing counterclockwise around the edge of the chip. 1. The two NE555 timer chips are plugged into the breadboard, spanning the central 'gutter'. Leave two rows free at the top and one row empty at the bottom.
1. The indentation in one end of the chip marks the 'top' of the chip. 1. The potentiometers, or pots, plug into the empty space between the chips.
Step 3: Wiring Up Chip A Writing out the steps of building a circuit is like writing the score of a Skrillex song. The best way to explain the circuit is visually. See the above pics for the steps involved in building the circuit. 1. A.o47uf capacitor is plugged in between pin 1 and pin 2 of chip A. 1. A 1k resistor is plugged into pins 6 & 7 of chip A. 1. Pin 2 of chip A connects to pin 6 of chip A. 1. A jumper wire connects pin 1 of chip A to pin 1 of chip B.
1. Pin 3 of chip A is connected to pin 2 of chip B. 1. Pin 4 of chip A is connected to pin 8 of chip A. 1. Pins 7&8 of chip A are connected to jumper wires. The other end will plug into the potentiometers later. 1. A 330ohm resistor is plugged into the left side potentiometer between the center pin and the empty row next to it. 1. The jumper wires from pins 7&8 of chip A are connected to the empty row with the 330ohm resistor and the 'top' pin of the pot. 1. A jumper wire is connected to pin 8 of chip A. This will connect to the battery clip later.
Step 4: Wiring Chip B Chip B is wired next. Be careful to have the right polarity on the 10uf cap. Electricity can only flow in one direction through a capacitor. Make sure that the side of the 10uf cap with the stripe connects to the empty row where the speaker connects. 1. A.1uf capacitor is plugged in between pin 1 and pin 6 of chip B. 1. A jumper wire is plugged between pin 4 and pin 8 of chip B. 1. A 10uf capacitor is plugged into pin 3 of chip B and the empty row just below the chip. Be sure that the ground (marked with the stripe) plugs into the empty row. 1. Another view of the 10uf cap. 1. Pins 7&8 of chip B are connected to the right side potentiometer through a 330ohm resistor, just like chip A. 1. A close-up of the right side pot connections.
1. A jumper is plugged into the empty row with the 10uf cap. This will connect to the speaker later. Step 5: Connecting the Speaker and Battery Connector The speaker and battery connector have stranded wires. These are made up of many thin wires. This makes them hard to use on a breadboard. It helps to twist the individual strands together and use a jumper wire to hold them in the hole. See the above pics. 1. One wire from the speaker is plugged into pin 1 of chip A. 1. The speaker wire on pin 1 of chip A is held in place by plugging a jumper wire into the same hole. This jumper will plug into the battery's ground connector. 1. The other speaker wire is plugged into the empty row at the top.
1. The second speaker wire is held in place with the loose end of the jumper wire from the 10uf cap on chip B. 1. A jumper from pin 8 of chip A connects the positive wire (red) from the battery connector on the adjacent empty row. The battery's ground wire (black) is connected to the other empty row with the loose jumper wire from pin 1 of chip A. Step 6: Mounting the Breadboard and Battery The base plate holds everything in place to prevent things from coming loose. 1. The plastic base plate. 1. The bottom of the breadboard has an adhesive pad to connect it to the base plate.
1. A piece of two-sided foam tape will hold the battery in place. 1. The back of the speaker has a magnet. 1. The speaker's magnet will hold it in place on the battery.
Advertisements Step 7: Testing the Circuit and Making Noise Now it's time for the moment of truth. When you plug the battery in, the speaker should make a sound. By turning the two pots the sound should change. If you get no sound go back and check all of your connections. Don't give up! Turning the right side pot causes individual notes, created in 'steps'. Turning the left side pot controls how close those steps are to each other and how close the pitches are. Twiddling the pots can create various video game-like sound effects. Now try this- disconnect the right side pot and plug in the photoresistor in it's place, between the jumpers from pins 7&8 of chip A. Now put the Atari Punk Console in a bright spot and wave your hand back and forth over it. The amount of light hitting the photoresistor will now control the pitch of the APC. Eureka!Factory Atari Punk Console V2 from chuck stephens on Vimeo. 1. My design assistants- Monkey the Science Dog and Honey Boy the Noise Cat.