555 Memorial Circuit
To mark the passing of Hans R. Camenzind (designer of the 555 timer chip), MAKE reader Jim Frize freeformed this lovely little oscillating circuit as a solemn tribute. More: See all of the posts for 555 Week.
Technology
Tropical Fruit-Powered Laser
Over at the Maui Makers hackerspace, member Ryan K showed up with a mess of Lilikoi fruit (also known as passion fruit). Using anodized bolts (source of zinc), some thin copper pipe, wire, switches, LEDs, and a capacitor, he built himself a battery from the fruit.
Molecule Synth, a Modular Synthesizer
Travis Feldman is seeking Kickstarter funding for Molecule Synth, a cool synthesizer that can be pieced together, Lego-like, from a series of hexagonal modules that feature different effects. The MOLECULE SYNTH is a unique musical instrument. It is like a traditional keyboard synthesizer that has been broken into its elements: speaker/amp, sound generator, and pitch […]
Ghostbusters Theme Song on 8 Floppy Drives
Ah, floppy drives! No need to stack them in landfills when you can hack them to make sweet, sweet music, like the Imperial March and Daft Punk’s “Derezzed”. The latest, another hot track from MrSolidSnake745, is taking me straight back to 1984. Check out his drives belt out the Ghostbusters theme song. (Thanks Trish!)
Pianocade Arcade-style Chiptunes Synthesizer
The form perfectly follows the super retro function of this arcade-tastic chiptunes syntesizer from Portmanteau Devices, the Pianocade. A monophonic square-wave synth deserves to be played with arcade buttons! The Pianocade’s built-in synthesizer is based on the sound hardware of the Nintendo NES and Game Boy (specifically, one of the square wave channels: it’s a […]
555 Timer Contest Highlights
To mark the recent passing of Hans Camenzind, we are running a 555 mini-retrospective this week. Last year Jeri Ellsworth held a 555 timer contest in the categories of Artistic, Complex, Minimalist, and Utility. Here are some photos and schematics of the first place winners from that contest.
PCB Business Card
Brian Carrigan’s clever circuit board business card has Brian’s contact info printed on the PCB and his resume and the project’s source code on the flash chip. A business card should represent a person’s expertise. My expertise is in creating unique circuit boards, so to celebrate this I wanted to create a USB thumb drive […]