optical

Chuck’s Custom Tremolo Box Uses Upcycled Dummy Discs

Chuck’s Custom Tremolo Box Uses Upcycled Dummy Discs

Weekend Projects maker Chuck writes in with his custom Optical Tremolo Box, turning light-programmable waveforms into unique audio effects. He demonstrates four audio effects made by patterns drawn or painted onto re-used clear polycarbonate dummy discs from CD spindles.

Continue Reading
Write-on Record Player Turns Doodles into Music

Write-on Record Player Turns Doodles into Music

Cool rotary optical beat sequencer, based on a record turntable, from French media artists Jesse Lucas, Erwan Raguenes and YRO. It’s called “Dyskograf.”

Continue Reading
Turning A Cheap Optical Mouse Into A Robot Odometer

Turning A Cheap Optical Mouse Into A Robot Odometer

John Graham-Cumming (JGC), author of The Geek Atlas, wrote in to let us know about a fun conversion he did with a cheap optical mouse: For a small robot project I’m working on I needed a way to measure the robot’s progress across the floor. There are various possibilities, such as: use stepper motors (expensive […]

Continue Reading
Build a Custom Tremolo Effects Box

Build a Custom Tremolo Effects Box

The latest addition to our Weekend Projects series is an Optical Tremolo Box. Inspired by Charles Platt’s article about online DIY guitar stomp-box communities (MAKE Volume 15, page 82, “Stomp Box Basics: Tremolo and Fuzz”), MAKE Technical Editor Sean Ragan took up the challenge of building this project. He used a cadmium sulfide photoresistor as […]

Continue Reading