noisybox blog
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© 2017 jason plumb / noisybox / infiltration lab.
2019-04-05T03:45:00.000Z
Jason Plumb
jason@noisybox.net
urn:uuid:75392340-704d-463f-9dc0-98b78c24a4bc
Dry ice in a metal popcorn bowl
https://noisybox.net/blog/2019/03/dry_ice
2019-04-05T03:45:00.000Z
<p>Earlier this month at the end of a Dorkbot meeting, somebody had
a chunk of dry ice. <a href="https://archive.org/details/DorkbotDryIce20190304">I put it into the empty popcorn bowl and recorded it</a>.</p>
<p>Click the link above or listen to it here:</p>
<audio controls>
<source src="https://archive.org/download/DorkbotDryIce20190304/Dorkbot_dry_ice_2019_03_04.mp3" type="audio/mpeg"/>
bummer no audio for layout
</audio>
<p>Enjoy!</p>
2014 Church of Robotron
https://noisybox.net/blog/2014/09/2014_church_of_robotron
2014-09-27T05:42:31.000Z
<p>The <a href="http://churchofrobotron.com">Church of Robotron</a> has been working hard to find the mutant savior and to train members of the last human family. We had an opening on Wednesday, and my friend <a href="http://zacharcher.com/">Zach</a> edited together this fantastic video:</p>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/V77s2fru-lk" width="640"></iframe>
<p>Here's a test video I shot of <a href="http://futel.net/">oscule's</a> <strong>much improved</strong> jacob's ladder...it's terrifying:</p>
<p><video controls="" style="width: 640px;"><source src="http://noisybox.net/photos/video/2014_CoR/jacobs_ladder.mp4" type="video/mp4"></video></p>
<p>If you have not yet been tested, please join us on First Thursday, October 2nd, 2014 at <a href="http://www.jetsoncreative.com/diode/">Diode Gallery</a> for indoctrination, testing, anti-robot training, propaganda distribution, and some good old-fashioned street devival.</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://noisybox.net/photos/2014/2014_CoR">More pictures/video from me</a>.</li>
<li><a href="http://pureimagination.smugmug.com/Events/Church-of-Robotron/">Pictures from Mike</a></li>
<li><a href="https://secure.flickr.com/photos/88429921@N00/sets/72157648011068306/">Pictures from Zach</a></li>
</ul>
Tonight...
https://noisybox.net/blog/2010/12/tonight
2010-12-07T07:55:56.000Z
<p>Tonight I...</p>
<ul>
<li>...rode a bicycle across two bridges.</li>
<li>...was approached by a man and a woman (both strangers) and was told "we wish to join the cult".</li>
<li>...witnessed a man tapping a plastic pad connected to a tangle of circuits and wires and causing a drum sound to be played.</li>
<li>...saw a pair of multicolor robot eyeballs glowing on a tabletop</li>
<li>...witnessed a middle-aged man <em>covered</em> in a mass of glowing LEDs and EL wire.</li>
<li>...listened to the sound of a cello convolved with the impulse response from a wooden door.</li>
<li>...helped a woman field test a subversive, covert anti-television teddy bear implant prototype.</li>
<li>...watched a slot car adjust its speed in response to a computer's system load average.</li>
<li>...was in good company.</li>
</ul>
<p>Dorkbot.</p>
Ghetto Drum USB MIDI retrofit
https://noisybox.net/blog/2010/06/ghetto_drum_usb_midi_retrofit
2010-06-06T06:38:13.000Z
<p>So <a href="http://pjrc.com">Paul</a> hooked me up with a <a href="http://pjrc.com/store/teensypp.html">Teensy++</a> with a couple bad pins a few months ago and I ended up putting it to good use by retrofitting my <a href="http://noisybox.net/art/gdrum">Ghetto Drum system</a> in order to support MIDI over USB. The <a href="http://noisybox.net/art/gdrum">project page</a> has been updated and provides a few more details about the Frankenstein job. <a href="http://noisybox.net/art/gdrum/full/ghetto_drum_2_0_08.jpg"><img src="http://noisybox.net/art/gdrum/full/ghetto_drum_2_0_08.jpg" alt="ghetto drum 2.0"></a> I pulled open the old SyQuest case and unmounted the existing circuit board. After hacking at it with the Dremel for some time, I was able to turn the board sideways to make room for the new Teensy board. I mounted this new Teensy in the upper back and made a ghetto faceplate that allows the mini USB connector to poke through. I mounted the Teensy on a small piece of perfboard and made some super ghetto wooden standoffs. I wired 10 pins from the Teensy over to the existing PIC board with wire-wrap wire: 2 power lines and the 8 trigger points. On the legacy side, I decided to solder the connections right to the pins on the PIC chip itself. Whatever works! This change allows the whole mess to be powered by USB when pluged in. The legacy PIC board maintains its old function of reading the triggers and converting the data to RS232, but more importantly, the PIC toggles the trigger LED whenever a pad is hit. :) On the software side of things, I leveraged <a href="http://www.fourwalledcubicle.com/LUFA.php">Dean Camera's LUFA</a> to build some firmware that allows the Ghetto Drum to show up as a USB MIDI device. When plugged in, the device will show up with a clever name and show itself to the host computer as a USB audio/MIDI interface device. When the triggers are hit, the Teensy sends note on/off MIDI events on channel 1 (zero based). In order to make some sounds, I built a fairly involved <a href="http://puredata.info">Pd</a> patch that receives the MIDI events and can trigger drum samples from a gigantic library of synthesizers. I used the <a href="http://noisybox.net/electronics/dickhole_keypiss/">Dickhole Keypiss</a> with Pd to program different patches and assign samples to trigger channels. After the integration was complete, I ended up demonstrating the whole shebang one Monday night at <a href="http://dorkbotpdx.org">Dorkbot in Portland</a>. I hope to have a demonstration video up within a few days.</p>
CRM114 Discrimator at Toorcamp
https://noisybox.net/blog/2009/07/crm114_discrimator_at_toorcamp
2009-07-29T04:40:45.000Z
<p>The <a href="http://noisybox.net/electronics/dickhole_keypiss/">midi controller I posted earlier</a> was used to great depth in the missile silo performance that CRM114 Discriminator gave at <a href="http://toorcamp.org">toorcamp</a>. <object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" style="width:560px; height:340px;" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/kDpdnAmAjI4"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/kDpdnAmAjI4"></object></p>
The Dickhole Keypiss MIDI controller
https://noisybox.net/blog/2009/07/the_dickhole_keypiss_midi_controller
2009-07-29T04:29:43.000Z
<p>I built this little midi controller to trigger samples and control a few Pd parameters: <a href="http://noisybox.net/electronics/dickhole_keypiss/"><img src="http://www.noisybox.net/electronics/dickhole_keypiss/images/Dickhole_keypiss_icon.png" alt="dickhole keypiss"></a> It's based on an old touchtone telephone keypad, a rotary encoder, a two digit LED display, and a USB-based AVR breakout board (the <a href="http://pjrc.com/teensy">Teensy++</a>). The PC board was hand-etched at home, and it's mounted in a solid white, repurposed jewelry or makeup box, purchased at the Goodwill. Click the above to view more images, read the brief technical spec, and to download the code and circuit/pcb design artifacts.</p>
First kolpxnty boards chained.
https://noisybox.net/blog/2009/03/first_kolpxnty_boards_chained
2009-03-09T08:43:44.000Z
<p>Just a quick peek at the first set of 3 kolpxnty boards that I had fabbed:</p>
<p><a href="http://noisybox.net/blog/images/kolpxnty_chained_powered_01.jpg"><img src="http://noisybox.net/blog/images/kolpxnty_chained_powered_01_th.jpg" alt="kolpxnty"></a></p>
<p>They are not without problems and have not yet been instructed to bend the circuit things, but they will soon. The above is being driven from <a href="http://puredata.info">Pd</a> via MIDI by way of <a href="http://dorkbotpdx.org/blog/feurig/benito_7_the_next_big_thing">Benito</a>.</p>
<p>More to come...</p>
Retinal tattoo gun
https://noisybox.net/blog/2009/02/retinal_tattoo_gun
2009-02-26T07:22:25.000Z
<p>So my pal <a href="http://www.mykle.com/">Mykle</a> has done this <em>EPIC</em> event called <a href="http://www.mykle.com/lightbar/">LIGHTBAR</a> to cheer people out of their seasonal affective disorder during February in Oregon. If you can't see the victory in building a GIANT and BRIGHT bamboo-event-party-dome, by hand, in the middle of winter, then you need to be poked (with sharp bamboo).</p>
<p>A few of us from <a href="http://dorkbotpdx.org">dorkbot PDX</a> have been peripherally involved, even contributing some works.</p>
<p><img src="http://noisybox.net/blog/images/retinal_tattoo.gif" alt="retinal tattoo gun"></p>
<p>My friend <a href="http://knowhere.net/">Brian</a> and I collaborated on a light-based project dubbed the <strong>RETINAL TATTOO GUN</strong>. The concept involved a series of bright flashes intended to [temporarily] imprint iconic imagery directly into the retina with strong after-images (ghosts).</p>
<p>We had a <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/14196411@N07/3299933682/">semi-working prototype</a> up at LIGHTBAR last weekend before it <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/myklemykle/3305979165/in/set-72157613121575183/">collapsed(!!!)</a> this week. This iteration of the retinal tattoo gun was a pretty big technical failure, but it was a fun project and we have a nice foundation going forward.</p>
<p>The circuit I designed/built had a series of issues, the worst of which was some form of ground bounce or inductive jibber jabber that caused all 8 flash channels to fire when any of them fired. Turns out that yeah, it's nontrivial to sequence a bunch of disposable camera flashes.</p>
<p>The day of installation we also found out that the repurposed viewmaster switch was connected in a way that caused the flashes to trigger when the advancer jobby was directly in front of the slide...so most of the light power was dampened. Whoops, doh!</p>
<p>We hope you enjoy the above image, and we hope to have something dangerous, compelling, and electrical to mount to your face in the near future.</p>
benito + kolpxnty + barbie == <3
https://noisybox.net/blog/2008/11/benito_kolpxnty_barbie_lt_3
2008-11-10T08:36:32.000Z
<p><object width="400" height="300" data="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=2202137&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"> <param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"> <param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=2202137&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1"></object><br><a href="http://vimeo.com/2202137">kolpxnty camera phone teaser!</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user630964">breedx</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>
<p>I've mostly finished the next phase of the kolpxnty board -- driving the thing from midi over usb from apps like <a href="http://puredata.info">pd (pure-data)</a>. In the above clip, a braindead pd patch is sequencing the bowels of a Barbie telephone children's toy without any additional circuit bending bonus points. My video recorder died, so the video was recorded in near darkness on my phone ("Sorry folks!").</p>
<p>The next phase is to see how it can switch in circuit bent components (pitch down resistors/caps, for example) and to shrink the board size before having it fabbed.</p>
More cracklebox boards...
https://noisybox.net/blog/2008/09/more_cracklebox_boards
2008-09-28T23:46:32.000Z
<p><a href="http://noisybox.net/blog/images/phone_20080928164631.jpg" title="phone_20080928164631.jpg"><img src="http://noisybox.net/blog/images/phone_20080928164631_th.jpg" alt="phone_20080928164631.jpg"></a> I etched 3 more cracklebox boards at todays open dorkbot workshop. Didn't get them populated yet but will very soon...</p>