The Laying On of Hands and Hacking the Clock

index
555 touch sensor
air mike
amplify your toy
box your toy
circuit sniffing
clock tickling
contact mike
electret mike
hack the clock
laying and hacking
laying of hands
light theremin
make a cable
mapping
pickup
piezo driver
resistors
soldering
sudomini
synthesis
tape head

Manipulate and hack your toy/device.

1: The Laying On of Hands

Flesh (and moisture) is an excellent conductor of electricity. By bridging different locations on the board with your finger you are effectively - if haphazardly - adding resistors and capacitors to the existing circuit. Your body becomes part of the circuit. Varying the pressure (or dampness) of your finger changes the values of these components.

You will need:

• A battery-powered AM radio or other toy;
• Batteries for the radio/toy;
• A small screwdriver, flat and/or Phillips, as required to disassemble the radio/toy;
• Plastic electrical tape, maybe.
• Optionally: cigar box, double-stick foam tape

The radio/toy should be cheap enough that you won't be too angry if it never works again. The AM band is more important than FM, but it doesn't matter if the radio/toy picks up both. It should have analogue tuning (that is, a dial) rather than digital preset or scan buttons. Larger radio/toys are easier to work with than tiny ones. It's better if it has a built-in speaker, not just a headphone jack, but a headphone jack in addition to a speaker is useful. Eventually, if it doesn't have a headphone jack (mini-jack socket) you'll need to install one so that you can connect your creation to a mixer/speakers with your cable.

Confirm that the radio/toy works, then remove the batteries.

Remove screws holding radio/toy together. Put them somewhere safe taking care to note if they are of different sizes. Some screws may be hidden. Separate the halves of the radio/toy. Don't force it: check for hidden screws. Avoid tearing wires. Once open, make note of any wires connecting the two halves of the radio/toy or the circuitry to the speaker, battery, antenna, etc., in case they get torn.

Locate and remove any screws holding the circuit board to the radio/toy housing. Remove any screws holding knobs or switches. Carefully remove the circuit board from the chassis. Sometimes adhesive may be used as well as screws. Knobs and switches may intrude into slots in the case and require bending the plastic to release the board. Circuit boards can be very brittle so be careful.

The side of the board with most of the little bumpy colorful things (resistors, capacitors, chips) is called the 'component side'; the side that consists mostly of little wiggly lines is the 'solder side'. Turn the board so that the solder side is accessible. Replace the batteries; depending on the construction of the case you may have to hold the batteries in place using plastic electrical tape.

Turn on the radio/toy and tune it to a 'dead spot' between stations. Touch the circuit board in different places with your finger until you find a location that affects the radio/toy's sound. Tune the radio/toy across the band, and continue to experiment with finger placement. Try several fingers at once. Try licking your fingertips before placing them on the circuit - moisture increases conductivity. I suggest you do not try licking the cb directly - even low voltage electricity is an acquired taste. And, observing the Seventh Rule, avoid shorting points on the circuit board with screwdriver tips, bare wire, or full immersion in water or drool.

Flesh is an excellent conductor of electricity. By bridging different locations on the board with your finger you are effectively - if haphazardly - adding resistors and capacitors to the existing circuit. Your body becomes part of the circuit. Varying the pressure (or dampness) of your finger changes the values of these components. Depending on the location and pressure, you may end up merely re-tuning the radio/toy, or affecting its loudness, but you may change the radio/toy into very different kind of circuit, like an oscillator. You may not know exactly what you are doing, but you should soon acquire a sense of touch: what points work best, how does pressing harder affect the sound, etc. This is a very direct, interactive sense of control similar to that which a 'real' instrumentalist, such as a violinist, uses to articulate and intonate notes. It is also the essence of the infamous 'krackebox' that STEIM unleashed on the world some 30 years ago.

Later we will modify circuits by replacing your flesh with specific 'knowable' componenents - the effect may be more predictable and stable, but the sense of touch will be diminished. In the future when things start to sound too controlled, remember you can always add your body to the circuit.

When you are through with this experiment, you may want to re-assemble the radio/toy - this is the safest way to carry it around, and ot insure its future functionality as a radio/toy. But if you wish to find a box for it. Cigar boxes are good: using tape you can stick down the circuit board (solder side up), speaker and related parts. Close the lid to transport, open it to play. If your radio/toy has a headphone jack you can connect it to a battery powered amplifier which may have better speakers that the radio/toy's.

2: Hacking the Clock

Accessing the timer circuits on the chip of your toy.

You will need:

• Check out Clock Tickling
• An electronic toy/device;
• Some hook-up wire;
• Test leads with alligator clips;
• A few resistors of different values;
• A potentiometer, 1megOhm or greater in value;
• Soldering iron, solder and hand tools.

• Slow the clock down;
• Raising the resistance;
• Remove the clock resistor;
• Replace it with a more resistant one;
• Locate the clock resistor
• Wedge a small flat-bladed screwdriver under it;
• Melt the solder on the solder-side of the CB (circuit board) at one end;
• Lever the screwdriver to lift that end free;
• Grip resistor with pliers and pull free of CB;
• Keep it safe...
  

  ---

  
  
  

  The Task Find a toy and experiment with the above processes. Whatever you do, make sure you document it fully (notes, photos, videos). There is a very strong possibility that your toy will break at any time, so if you don't document what you're doing you'll lose your work as well as the toy. Document at least two separate processes, from, for instance the use of your fingers, the use of a potentiometer, the use of a switch, the use of a photoresistor, and include this documentation in your logbooks. When you've finished, include a brief but comprehensive written description of what you've done. The document should be in rtf or pdf format. For final submission you'll need to include a physical version as well. Media files You must submit media files, such as video, audio or image files, but please ensure that video files are compressed to a reasonable degree. You should never submit dv files, but compress these to mp4. You should submit no file that is greater in size than 25MB/minute. Added value By completing the details of the task you will achieve at least a pass mark. By imaginatively and creatively considering how you might implement the task originally you can add value to your submission, and this added value may increase your mark significantly. Even when making videos of short demonstration tasks try to consider musical and performance criteria. Suggested questions to consider answering in your logbook Why does wetting your fingers have such an effect on the sounds produced by some toys? Include all these components in one section of your logbook. Include images within the logbook, and any audio or video recordings alongside. Submit your logbook to the i-Centre by 2pm on Tuesday 8th May 2018