Circuit Bending 2: Resistors and Switches | Simon Hutchinson

An introduction to circuit-bending old toys. Circuit-bending is the creative customization of consumer electronics with the goal of inventing new unique devices for sound-making, visuals, or other expressive goals.

In this series, I take you through my process with some toys from the start, including explorations, experiments, and, importantly, failures. In this video, I continue work on the Tinkerbell wand testing out different resistors and switches to see what I might add to increase its glitchy expressive range.

I'm a composer and sound-designer, not an electrical engineer, so my goal is to find fun sounds that I can use in creative ways (rather than any kind of serious circuit design).

0:00 Recap/updates
0:58 Examining the components
3:33 Speeding up the clock
4:59 Slowing down the clock
6:29 Varying the clock
12:40 Switches
17:08 The "glitch switch"
19:44 Closing thoughts/next steps

#circuitbending #DiYMusic

Follow me:

I’m a composer, sound-designer, and new media artist trying to bring a global perspective to music technology. This channel contains performances, experiments, and instructional videos for artists and audiences searching for new ideas and avenues of musical expression.

[mightywombat]

Not sure if anyone has mentioned this yet, but a resistor inline with the LED is best practice to limit the current to the LED and prevent it from burning out. The value of the resistor will vary depending on the LED and the voltage of the power supply, but generally speaking a resistor between 50-150 ohms would be expected. That one looks like red-orange violet, which would be 230MOhms, which seems like a lot, but I can't tell the third band color for sure. It might well be 230 ohms, which is more in the right range. It will affect the brightness of the LED a little, so finding just the right value may be important to you (there are calculators online) but too bright leads to fizzle, smoke, and getting a new LED.

[SpectralEvolver]

Thank you so much for sharing this! How wonderful! It's so great to see the inner workings and how you make creative decisions along the way. The glitch switch is a keeper if you ask me! Soon I'll have to make a thrift store run myself :D

[ghostroll]

Thank you so much for this series! It's super informative and beginner-friendly :) Just and idea - it seems the glitch switch is releasing all the current quickly even when youre using a resistor or potentiometer. maybe putting another potentiometer right after the glitch switch will give you slower lenghtier glitches? Either way I'm waiting for your next video :)

[zzzz]

this is awesome, super valuable. Thank you!! (p.s .. would you or do you do one on one support / consultation for circuit bending ? I am just getting started.. I have some dirty video mixers already.. so I just need help with routing them and getting set up. but there is always room for growth and creating my own in the future)