Circuit Bending Workshop

I'll be running a quick circuit bending workshop on April 15th at 7PM for the Boston area Dorkbot group at the Willoughby and Baltic in Davis Square. I'll cover a few basic things like pitch bending, as well as the basics of wiring up audio jacks, pots, and switches. I'll also go over a few best practices in exploration, so that you aren't as likely to fry your toys, and give a general introduction to some of the more advanced stuff out there (speak and spells, atari-punk, etc.).

This is meant to be a fairly low technical barrier type event. So even if you don't know anything about electronics, you can come and have a good time. Hopefully this will be the first of many, and if there is enough interest we could do additional workshops that maybe cover more technical stuff. I will also be giving away a few toys I have that are bend-able as prizes to the people with the "best sounding" modifications (this will be voted on by the group). Share.tv will also be there to help out and film parts of the event.

Go to the blog entry on my circuit bent guitar for an example of what to expect:

Click to get to the flickr set, which has a bunch of information on this bend.
What should you bring?

• some kind of cheap toy that makes noise, the cheaper the better, music and talking based ones are generally easiest to get good sounds out of (suggestions on where to get them are target, CVS, toys-r-us, or any other place that sells cheap crap to kids)
  
• beer
• assortment of switches and buttons you like
• metal things for body contacts, anything you can attach to stuff and then solder to (screws, knobs, and very thick wire works well)
• tools, the more the merrier (wire cutters, screw drivers, jumper wires with alligator clips, etc)
  
• 1/4" or 1/8" audio jacks if you want to have audio output
• both audio and linear potentiometers (volume control pots, etc). along with a suitable knobs
• assortment of resistors if you really want to get complicated (I will have some on hand if you want to dive into that)
• some more beer
• a VERY open mind to what you define music as, and a high tolerance for noise
  

I will have a few of each of these things to trade/sell if you need them, but everything can be bought easily enough at Radio Shack for a decent price. If there is enough interest in getting a bunch of pots and jacks, then let me know, and we can put in an order with Jameco/Digikey, but it only becomes cost effective with 10 or more of a bunch of stuff. We will provide some soldering irons, drills and wire for the permanent mods, but please bring some as well if you have them.

If you have anything you've made, then please bring it by and show us. I'll have some of the things with me that I've posted on this blog about, as well as a few others I've not. Please let me know if you have any questions by responding to the Boston Dorkbot google groups post, or going to my contact page.