MAKE pal Robert Hall has a lot of photos, videos and a write up write out of the first ever MAKE Philly meeting! – “Harris and David had put together a great idea – a Makers challenge, just like the monthly challenges in Make Magazine, you are given a scenario and a parts list and a challenge. We were given a tupperware container full of random parts and electronics, and 30 minutes to make a musical device that we could play a few bars of “Mary Had a Little Lamb” – the scenario was “Your in a Pub with strangers”. We divided up into groups and went at it. There was a mini breadboard kit and parts and a cheat-sheet schematic for wiring up a 555 timer based wet sponge circuit. I set about trying to wire up the circuit, the other groups with the electrical engineers knocked that one out before I could, for some reason the diagram needed a slight revision and I had to bridge a resistor across a different set of pins, but then it started working (Flash video of circuit in action). Our group also went the manual wrote and used the tupperware container itself to build a cigar-box style guitar. The winning group had a great idea to get more resistance and range out of their circuit by using one of their members own bodies like a giant human potentiometer (Flash video of winning performance). This provided a greater range of resistance than the wet sponge, so they were able to play the tune pretty well in a unique way.” Link to article photos & more about MAKE:Philly here.
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