An interesting piece from ITP’s spring show, the Crudbox records button presses as a sequence controlling onboard 5v ports –
There are 4 speaker terminals on the box, into each of which you can plug any object that can run on 5 volts. In the video I’ve plugged in LEDs because it makes the interaction clearer, but my main interest is in plugging motors in, attaching them to the box, and amplifying the sounds they make. Each speaker terminal has a button and a pot. Pay attention to which of the 4 tempo LEDs is on, then press a button, then let go. It will switch on the object (motor, LED, etc), then switch it off when you let go. The next time it cycles through the loop of 4 LEDs it will switch on and off at the same points. The object will pulsewidth modulate at different speeds depending on what position the pot is in when you switched it on. You can do this up to 8 times and can change the PWM with each one, then do the same with the 3 other objects.
For the demo, the box was powering small vibration motors which sounded the devices actual enclosure and amplified the resulting sounds via a piezo contact mic. It’s a electro-mechanically-acoustic-digital-synth-sequencer – cool! – CrudBox: Finished (for now)!!!1
ADVERTISEMENT
