Prototyping with a couple of bread boards.

After a nightmare customs ordeal, I finally received my large order of potentiometers but sadly with a much lighter wallet than anticipated… Some freight forwarders are shifty money thieving nasties! Beware!!

With potentiometers in hand, I dusted off my bread boards and started prototyping. I’m currently working on finalising two circuits.

First is a circuit adapted from Forrest M. Mims III‘s popular 1984 “Stepped Tone Generator” (Named The Atari Punk Console by Kaustic Machines). It’s an extremely lofi Synth based around two 555 timer integrated circuits or one dual 556. My version will share a few similarities with Curious Inventor’s “Voice of Saturn” and will include a third 555 IC acting as an LFO and the ability to stop the second 555′s oscillation as well as a few other tweaks I am working on.

Second is a 4017 “Baby 10” style sequencer which will have to ability to control among many other things the Stepped Tone Generator through it’s CV inputs. I have been inspired by the work of a few DIYers and their 4017 sequencers such as Peter Edwards (of Casper Electronics), Fonik, Ken Stone and Ray Wilson just to name a few…