Lushprojects Blog

Oldest working mobile?

Friends of mine are planning a “who has the oldest working mobile” event. I have an Orbitel 863 from about 1994 [Edit:] 1992? which I reckon could be a winner. With a bit of searching I found a post in German that gave correct pinouts for the battery. In a quick test the mobile powers up OK without a SIM. Given it is a somewhat powerful radio transmitter and it is missing its antenna I haven’t dared try anything else yet. Anyway, here are some photos.

Edit: Another source on the web dates this mobile to 1994 without giving any evidence. From the design and what I know of its history I would say it was a very early GSM mobile and 1994 feels a bit late. There are various date codes visible on the boards and body castings. The latest date code I can see is “21 92” (ie week 21, 1992) on the main circuit board. Therefore I believe that this is a phone from 1992.

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!

Interview! With me?!

Lots of stuff happening so here are the highlights in bullets:

• Interview with me by the charming Josette Garcia about the background to my various projects.
• Look out for Lushprojects.com circuit bending at Brighton Mini Maker Faire and a chance to buy Vibrati Punk Console kits
• Vibrati Punk Console building workshop at Dorklake11 in a couple of weeks
• First batch of Vibrati Punk Console sold out. Working through the second batch now
• Details of a suggested box for the Vibrati Punk Console now available

Vibrati Punk Console featured in Sound on Sound Magazine

I read Sound on Sound so I am very excited that they have reviewed the Vibrati Punk Console.
The Coffee Can Synth!

Vibrati Punk Console with optical control – New video

Lushprojects.com will be at Brighton Mini Maker Faire

We are going off to the seaside in September. Lushprojects.com will be a Brighton Mini Maker Faire with circuit bent electronics to play with and a chance to buy and build the Vibrati Punk Console. Hope to see you there.

Vibrati Punk Console – second boxed version

Just made this at Nottingham Hackspace using a Vibrati Punk Console that Clare soldered and a mini tin box for vodka that we got at Christmas. I rather like it.

Used my own drilling guide to make it.

New lushprojects.com logo

Sneak preview of the new logo. More changes coming soon.

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.