Thing-a-ma robot

Oooops I did it again.... No - not this time. I assembled this Thing-a-ma robot for a friend of mine who is currently very busy because of a little bit bigger project. So this robot is unfortunately not mine.
After a half a day work I finished it. The kit is neat designed and the instruction-manual is very detailed with many pictures and funny drawings.
On Thing-a-ma you can vary the sound with the knobs/switches and the two LED's mounted on the top of the antennas. The "eyes" are LDR's whichare reacting on the blinking LED's. Just checkout the video to get a better impression:

The Thing-a-ma has a build-in spreaker which is a bit small, but you can connect it also with a mono-jack on the side with a bigger sound-system. Maybe a little disadvantage is, that the 9V battery can only be changed by opening the housing with a screwdriver. But a separate battery-compartment would made the kit maybe more expensive. To sum it up: The Thing-a-ma-kit is solid, easy to build and the sound is very versatile.













Here is another video, I made today showing the Thinggama connected to with my NOIZEBOX.

GP32 MIDI Interface with Darkstar

I had some little time to finish the MIDI-interface for my GP32. I can use now this little gaming-console with the LGPT-software as MIDI-sequencer together with my Darkstar XP2 you can see on the top. LGPT has no more support on GP32 and is much more advanced on the GP32 successor GP2X, which I unfortunately not own. Anyway - it works fine for me and to prove this you can checkout the video:

Of course this was only the first Test. Here are some more pictures of the whole setup:

Noizebox Flyer

I've done my first flyer with GIMP this afternoon.
It was a nice chance to take a closer look at this open-source tool. I have to admit, that GIMP is more user-friendly than most of the tools out there you can buy!

Cheers-Box!

I take Uli's comment "very" serious and put on a cup-holder =)
So our performance last longer in hot summer days out there in the shopping-streets. (btw. it's beer-can compatible!)

The Power-Box

To avoid cable spaghetti, I decided to build a individual power-supply for each electronic device within the NOIZEBOX. Two 12V outputs for the amplifiers for maximum performance and six regulated outputs with 9V for the other components.
On the top of the Power-Box should be a on/off-switch with backlit and one fan on the side to ensure that the voltage-regulators don't get overheated.
The fan is a bit loud, but hey - it's the NOIZEBOX =)














Well - at least there is the new lead-accu which also need a special charger cause it's a "maintenance-free" type. Normal chargers for car-batteries would destroy the accu. So the accu seems to stay my problem-child in this project :-P

Open the Box

Here is a fist view from the inside of the NOIZEBOX.
On the left backside you can see the Power-Box which handles power-distribution and voltage-stabilization. On the left backside you can see the Power-Amp, which is connected to the car-hifi speakers.














On this picture you can see various components I've already introduced in this blog. I just have to connect the to different audio-sources.

The Noizebox is finished!

I completed the NOIZEBOX during my vacation. Now it has the radioactive-like recycling-logo and it's own name on it. The yellow paint is usually used for marking trees in the forest!

The cover can be used as seat and is made of speaker-drapery(?).



Now you can sit down on the NOIZEBOX and e.g. play some tunes with your Gameboy like the following video shows:




An here is a picture of the first Sit-In ...ahem Sit-On:













How do you like the T-Shirt? =)

On the backside NOIZEBOX I made a hole for audio-cables used during the performance. Inside the NOIZEBOX there is the Power-Amp(hehe, 2x12Watt!), the lead-accu and the Power-Box. The Power-Box provide power for al components within the NOIZEBOX. I will show it to you on another post.

The "Tiny Boxes" concept

To keep all electronic components inside the NOIZEBOX modular, I go and get some empty plastic-cases and start soldering/assembling.
Now I like to present you an overview of all finished components:

The "Power"-Amp
Consists of two amplifier kits with 2 x 12 Watt (if the weather is fine =). The PCB's are mounted inside an amplifier-case from a defect car-amp. The stress-test is still not passed.














The "Little Brother"
This is a small amp compared to The Power-Amp but powerful enough to drive the car front-speaker in the middle of the NOIZEBOX.














The Preamp
For adding audio-sources with weak output I have this mono-preamp. On the Picture there is a piezo-microphone attached which works fine and really sounds lo-fi =)














The Equalizer
Consists of a old Kit from Conrad-Elektronik bought before the millennium. The Equalizer has fantastic features like treble, bass, volume and pan. Everything in full stereo of course. Wow. I can't keep my hands off. =)














The Condensator-Mic-Preamp and the Isolating Transformer
This tiny boxes are also very useful. The Preamp(on the left side)has a big microphone-jack.
The Isolating Transformer (on the right side) is passive (without any power-supply). He avoid ground-loop humming which should not occour on this battery-powered system - but anyway.

Recycle, Reuse, Repair, Retro

I had the idea while cleaning-up my room filled with car-hifi, defect amplifier-kits, unused preamps with loose wires around empty speaker-cases.
Why throw everything away? Why not build something new out of this "teenage electronic waste"? There were this big speaker-cases with rolls on the bottom and the car-hifi-speakers which inspired me to build a new, portable speaker-system. Roll's makes you mobile either car-amplifiers. Just a small lead-accumulator and there it is: The little NOIZEBOX.

Everything can be build quick & dirty and without additional cost.

On another day I cut-down the big empty speaker-case to a transportable size.
Enough space for the battery, amplifier and some additional electronic devices.
For easier transportation I've bought some small handles at my local building center.
Take a look a the first pictures of my NOIZEBOX:















A view from above shows where to put all the electronic devices inside the NOIZEBOX:















Behind the speakers, there is enough space for the accu and car-amplifier.















And the the trouble begins. I had to buy a lead-accu and I did. But I did a mistake and took the 6V accu which is not suitable for a 12V amp(Remember: Accu with 3 cells = 6V - see the picture above). The store won't take it back, so I have to buy another one *argl*.