Circuit Bent Stylophone Beat Box

This has just recently been finished and is up and running in my studio. It is now one of my modules that can be triggered by my Casio CTK mutation which I will do a blog on soon.
All original wiring and switches have been removed and it has been rewired and rehoused in an old computer power pack case.
A 12 way rotary switch is used to select any one of 12 sounds and there is a 3 way switch to change between the banks of sounds. A pitch shifter has been added as well as a LED filter. The sounds are triggered externally via the patch sockets. The 3 pin kettle lead socket has been adapted to send the audio out signal.
In the picture it is attached to a trigger box which contains a 555 timer circuit which outputs an on/off pulse via a vactrol.
The case also contains 6 super bright LED's recycled from some Christmas lights from the pound shop.

 Here you can see it removed from all its casing. At this stage it is crucial to make a note of where all the wires are going, either draw a picture or take a photo. The wires are thin and break off easily. I experimented with the pitch pot at this stage and realised only 2 of the lugs were connected. If the spare lug is wired to ground you can get a massive drop in pitch. In fact so much it will crash the toy resulting in a stream of aleatoric weird noises. If you want to avoid this a buffer resistor must be fitted.

All PCB wires have been removed leaving just the touch plate which I still hadn't decided what to do with. I was still toying with the idea of fitting it all back in its orignal case.

I soldered the new wires to the PCB. Power + and -, audio out, 3 wires for the select switch and two wires for the pitch pot. I then hot glued them in place. I always do this now. The copper traces are thin and can easily tear off. I chose to not use the record/playback function and removed the connections and the LED.

 I thought I'd better test it at this stage to make sure everything was still working. It makes trouble shooting a lot easier. Everything worked fine.

 I decided to remove the contact plate after all. I desoldered all the connections and attached a strip of ribbon cable to all the relevant connections. There are actually 3 x 15 sounds but as I only had a 12 way rotary switch to select them with I had to just choose 12.

 This was then hot glued in place after testing that all the connections worked.

Bit of a jump here! It is now hot glued inside of the new casing and all wired up to the 12 way rotary, the pitch pot, patch sockets, 3 way select switch, toggle switch for the LED filter, a 3 AA battery pack, (from the same recycled Christmas lights from the pound shop) and a main power on off switch.

Side view. 3 pin plug for audio out, on/off switch (from an old digi box) and 3 way selector switch (from an old steam iron).

Other side view. 2 patch sockets for triggering the audio, pitch pot, rotary switch, toggle swich for LED filter and LED.

View from above to show the paint job. This was achieved with marker pen and switch cleaner.

I was really pleased with the paint job it was very easy to do and dried within an hour.

All original casing and screws have been saved and will be used for another project. Maybe a crackle box.....

And here is a video of the beat box being triggered by a 555 timer circuit.



GO FORTH, ADAPT, EVOLVE AND RECYCLE.