/r/CircuitBending
Circuit bending is the creative, chance-based customization of the circuits within electronic devices such as low-voltage, battery-powered guitar effects, children's toys and digital synthesizers to create new musical or visual instruments and sound generators.
Thats it.. For circuit benders and circuit bending
/r/CircuitBending
25,999 Subscribers
Easy/stupid question I need help with. Prebuilt NE555 timers.
I’m working on my first bend and wanted to introduce a 555 to get LFO. If I take off the top left blue piece. I should be able to add a potentiometer to handle rate. However I can’t find a pinout of this chip to know what to wire from the potentiometer to the chip.
Nor can I find info. Or maybe I just don’t understand what jumper should be set here. (Is it as simple as knowing what freq I want the rate to be available).
Any help for a n00b would be appreciated.
Does anyone know of an easy bending guide that uses this style 555 so I can get an idea of how it is being used?
Thanks!
02:46 UTC
UPDATE: 2nd annual Chicago Synthesizer Flea Market
20:57 UTC
Ohm's Law Made Simple! | Resistors Explained
23:55 UTC
How Capacitors Work!
17:19 UTC
cheap camera from amazon
first circuit bending I've ever done. broke two of these in the processes and this one didn't turn out exactly how I wanted it to but I think this camera has some potential. small and compact but with some trimming enough space for 2 buttons maybe 3 on top. will keep messing with these and see what effects I can get out of it. (button dose work but all it dose is add some grain allowing you to see more information).
06:16 UTC
Us playing pool shot on a circuit bent camera
15:33 UTC
Bending Old DSLRs?
I was wondering whether bending old (early noughties) DSLRs is a good idea. I have a Nikon D70 which doesn’t have a lot of resale value so potentially happy to work on it. The thing that worries is that, although it has a screen, it doesn’t show a live feed of the shot while you are taking the photo because of the ways DSLRs work and I wonder whether this just makes it a not great experience as you can’t dial in the effects the way you want them. On the one hand, quite fun to not know how your shots will turn out, on the other with other cameras, responding to how the bends look on the screen is quite important to getting interesting/clear results.
13:24 UTC
1970s headphones 2-way mono / stereo switch. Only plays stereo regardless of position. How can I fix this? There are 3 sets of pins on the switch. 1 set has no wires, 2 sets have wires connected to both pins.
01:00 UTC
Questions on Spring Reverb
I have an old kids piano (non-electronic) with enough space to stretch a spring across it inside. Inside it's basically a kalimba with little plastic hammers that hit rods trimmed to length for tone.
Most sprigverbs I see tend to use a speaker to push the sound through the spring, then the other side of the spring is directly mounted to a piezo.
My questions are,
- Is something like a speaker needed for this, or could the sound of the kalimba bars being struck work as well?
- Is the mounting directly to the piezo required or could wire/s be soldered to the spring for the output?
Right now, I've already wired up a couple piezos inside to allow me to "amp" the toy and play around with some crazyness. It turned out well. With obvious notes being closer to the pickups, but a little bit of "shit" is what makes things like this so fun. I'm worried that if I need a speaker to drive the spring, the pickups will pick it up as well and create a nasty (deffo not fun) feedback loop.
I can post pictures if need be...but I'll be damned if I dont' get laughed at for the absolute halfassery I've done with this experiment lol
22:45 UTC
Any tips for bending a Canon PowerShot A495
Ive never bent a camera before and i dont want to break it but i cant find anything online for this specific model. Any help is appreciated.
20:59 UTC
Try to fix this trimmer
Was gifted this and it stopped working after a few days of use. I took it apart and tested it. Motor works, battery is holding charge and switch is working. What could the problem be ?
19:32 UTC
Circuit Bending Sony Discman, manual online
Dear hackers and benders,
this is my last bend:
You can download the building instruction here on my webpage:
https://reinhardreisenzahn.com/en/hardware-electronic/glitchman-en
Have Fun!
07:58 UTC
2nd annual Chicago Synthesizer Flea Market
Hey all, I’m getting ready for this years synth flea market. Last years was a total success and I can’t wait for this next one. We’ve got the date set for March 9 and the venue of Marz brewery down in beautiful Bridgeport. I’m looking for individual vendors, small batch euro builders, pedal makers, noise box makers, small and large stores/distributors who want to participate, etc. If you’ve got gear to sell, we’d love to have you. Feel free to reach out here or DM me for more info. Cheers!
16:27 UTC
Getting started?
I found out about circuit bending recently, and I’m super interested. I’ve always enjoyed electronics and the community seems really cool, but beyond a year long robotics class in senior year of highschool (I’m now in my second semester of college as a freshmen) I never really had much hands on experience with anything that could give me any knowledge. Are there any resources for reading or projects to practice for learning more for someone that has barely any knowledge? I assume a good amount of it (especially before the existence of online communities/wider resources) is trial and error but surely it can’t all be “huh I wonder what this thing on this circuit board is” and learning that way? Are there any links on this sub or other dedicated sources online that I can go to for a starter level of info?
07:05 UTC
What if I attach a motor to a music box, put it in a box and make spring reverb?
Trying to figure out what to do with this music box I got thinking it would have a circuit but alas
02:18 UTC
Has anyone circuit bend this;
The only info i have is the photo, sorry for this post being kinda silly but i have seen this circuit bend i believe in a documentary and cant find anything on it. Does this ring a bell to anyone ; https://ibb.co/zP5YkX6
23:41 UTC
Where do you store your tools and/or components when not in use?
This question is especially for the folks who work out of their garage. Where are you storing your tools when you aren’t using them? Where are you storing your electronics? I’m concerned about the lack of temperature and moisture control in the garage, but also aware that having to lug everything in and out of the house will effect how often I want to do it. I am considering buying a big weatherproof case, flipping it upside down, and using the lid as the table so I can just put the case over it when I’m not using it. That way I can seal it up and leave it out. I’m curious what creative things other folks have done to address this, or if there is something made for this that I am overlooking. Thanks in advance.
19:17 UTC
Circuit-bent "Space War" chip
20:27 UTC
We need to end the black blob hate!
Hyperbolic title, but it needs to stop 🤣 I don't know how it started, but it's been going on years and it's complete misinformation 😅 It's a chip just the same as an IC package - the blob is just a different covering, that's it. There's nothing about a black blob that makes it unbendable or harder to bend.
It might have come from that cheaper toys are more likely to have black blobs and less external components, meaning less possible bends. Even then, many of the barest are still pitchable and some can be voltage starved.
But... there's loads of black blobs with a plenty more on the outside, and plenty of IC based units with loads of components that lock up when you go near anything. In all my years circuit bending I've never seen any correllation between black blobs and bending potential.
These are just a few of the blob devices I've bent. Two of the targets (mixme and hing hon) are highly sought after! So don't panic when you see a blob and please don't put others off bending with them. They ain't no thing 😎
Hing Hon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7tOLv01S60
Groovy Tunes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PNvmirOTOc
Mix Me DJ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RhvRmumiXc
Sing n Play https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_uH2fNKL2w
Cyberman voice changer (though it's SMD so therefore fiddly) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BdJRogusY
18:54 UTC
I got the Ultimate Techno Fart Ensemble for $5 at Goodwill today...
The combinations are crazy with these two... I kind of wanna keep them in the og form but they would be sooo cool in a custom enclosure...
00:27 UTC
New to this
I really want to get into circuit bending but I dont know how, I have a soldering iron and all the tools I just need the knowledge. So wise benders, give me a crash course and some tips and tricks, I could also use some knowledge on what to bend and where to fine it.
04:51 UTC
starting out with bending
I want to start out with circuit bending.
specifically cameras
I can solder smd down to 0402 without a microscope,
so that is not an issue. (tho I do have a microscope, so I can do what ever)
what I am wondering is what are the do's and dont's?
and are there any cameras that people recommend with ''decent'' image quality?
or do I just grab what ever I can find on the used market?
18:20 UTC