Hacking Audio Hardware

TO DO Items

“TO DO” items are weekly action items that fall under your Class Participation Grade (15%). These help you stay prepared for each class and are usually given at the end of each week’s slides.

Assignments

Assignments are given periodically and fall under the Blog and Documentation (25%) category of grading. They are given throughout the semester and should be posted to your blog with the proper documentation as per the assignment. These can be found below and are included in the slides for the week they were assigned.

Assignment 1

Set Up Blog - Due Sept. 14th

Set up your blog and add it to this sheet.

Assignment 2

My First Oscillator (Variation) - Due Sept. 28th

Try one of the following:

• Assemble a variation of the basic oscillator circuit we built in class using a new type of resistor, preferably one we didn’t use in class like the fixed resistor, potentiometer, or photoresistor. See the Notes below for examples.

• Connect all six (6) of the oscillators on the 40106/74HC14 chip. If you do this, you will have to use a 10k resistor after each output before tying them together so they don’t interfere with one another. You should also use an external, battery-powered speaker for listening to the circuit.

Post a video of the resulting experiment to your blog with notes on the process. Even if you fail, show your work and explain what you think has gone wrong. Mistakes can be very instructive.

Here are some helpful notes: There are a number of choices for resistors listed on pg 103 of our textbook - Handmade Electronic Music, 3rd Ed. Here are some of them:*

• Using some long leads, place a photoresistor in your mouth, using your mouth to control the amount of light and therefore the pitch! BUT… 💀 ONLY DO THIS IF YOU ARE SURE YOU ARE NOT PLUGGED INTO ANYTHING CONNECTED TO WALL POWER. IN OTHER WORDS, BATTERY POWER ONLY!!! 💀

• Fruits and vegetables also have resistance. A multimeter will help in this case to measure the resistance value (remember that, for example, our potentiometer went between 0 - 100k Ohms) To find a capacitor value to match, here’s a handy chart:

Assignment 3

Build a new CMOS circuit - Due Oct 19th

• Using material from our book or other online resources, build a circuit that you haven’t made before. Document your work and post pics and video to your blog.
• Post the schematic and resource that you used as well, whether it’s online or from a book. You can re-draw the schematic if you think you can do it better or more clearly.

Some guidance:
💻 Use a battery-powered speaker like we did in class.
💻 Talk about what worked and what didn’t.
💻 Did you have to substitute parts?
💻 Did you have to purchase anything? If so, where from and how much was it?
💻 Did it turn out the way you had hoped?

📝 Here is a list of great online resources for learning more about CMOS chips and finding schematics.