Dorklake11 – Vibrati Punk Console workshops ahoy!

Dorklake11 was a nice event. Great job by Alex, Greenman and co. to create organization seemingly out of nothing. We had 12 Vibrati Punk Consoles built in two workshops

Mike Challis did a very nice build of the Vibrati Punk Console as a Coffee Can Synth.

Sam Freeman made some great phat sounds by looping the Vibrati Punk Console through a Korg Monotron.

Thanks to all the builders and all the campers that put-up with the massed bleeping!

Vibrati Punk Console – First Chance to Build

Retro Electronic Sound
Evening Build Workshop
Tue June 14th, 6:30pm, Nottingham Hackspace
All welcome

The first batch of kits for the Vibrati Punk Console (aka “Atari Punk Console 2.0″) are in. We are going to have a building session at Nottinghack on June 14th. So if you like electronic music or want to try your hand at soldering then come along.

The Vibrati Punk Console is a beginner-friendly electronic music project that can be finished in one evening. The simple circuit generates an amazing range of retro warbles, screams, glitches, fuzzes and tone ramps.

Workshop Cost: £20 includes teaching and all build materials.

For those that can’t make it to Nottingham the kit should be available to buy on the web soon.

First Home Made PCB

For most of my projects I either need quite dense PCBs that I get professionally made or I use point to point wiring techniques. At the moment though I am working on a new electronics kit under the working title of “Vibrati Punk Console” which is kind-of an “Atari Punk Console 2.0″. To validate the PCB design before sending the first batch for manufacture I decided to make a home made board.

With great timing Matt Little had just done a PCB workshop at Nottingham Hackspace so I had good practical experience. Armed with a UV exposure box from the last DDRC Car Boot Sale and a set of parts from Rapid Electronics I went out to make my PCB.

I basically followed the tips from Mike Harrison’s guide. For etching I used the Seno GS etching system which manages to keep 99.999% of the really nasty stuff in a bag.

I was delighted that attempt number 1 yielded an almost perfect result.

I made a second board as a backup, but that was a complete disaster. Once I developed the UV board you could see that the fine lines weren’t sharp and once I started etching they disappeared all together. Still not 100% sure what the problem was there. Possibly over-exposure to the UV or the mask not being completely flush to the board when it was exposed. Anyway one board was enough so as it was getting late I stopped there.

One thing I would note for future builds – the “automatic” pad size in Eagle is too small for home made boards. Use larger pads than the eagle defaults to make your life easier.

With the board drilled and everything mounted I am delighted to say it worked first time.

Electronics for Artists – The Photos

Last weekend I led the workshop “Electronics for Artists” at South Hill Park in Bracknell. Photos are now on line. Thanks to all the group for your enthusiasm and Martin for organising. Listen out for my wise words on the Digital Media Centre podcast.

MzTEK video on line

The crew at MzTEK have just posted this video about their project to help more women get in to technology. Lots of clips from the Electronics for Absolute Beginners workshop plus a cameo appearance from me.

Electronics for Absolute Beginners at MzTEK

My friend Sophie asked me to do a workshop on Electronics for Absolute Beginners for the group MzTEK which ran yesterday. Hard work as a presenter, but I had a really good day. The unflagging enthusiasm and excitement of everybody was great to see and really inspiring. Also lots of fun ideas on different things to do with the circuits in the course. I was also impressed that (almost) everything worked for (almost) everybody. Good building skills all round.

For anybody that wants to see the notes – follow the link above.