New concepts.(at least new to me)

[Dirt]

I'm new to this forum, and new to bending. but I had some ideas, what would happen if you were to take a coil, set it to two random parts of the circuit board, then run an electrode over the coil? also if this idea does work. may I ask for suggestions .(ie, length of wire, gauge of wire, places to attach, ect)

[Dirt]

I guess nobodys tried this yet(if it even works)

has anyone combined different things, like say a speak snd spell with keyboard.

[Circuitbenders]

wiring machines with patchbays into each other can produce some interesting effects as the ROM chips trigger parts of samples in other machines at random, take a look at the Plump DJ's 707, 727 and 505 on the gallery page.

You can also get interesting effects wiring machines like Speak&spells and speak&maths togather, theres an mp3 of an S&S and S&M machine in an endless loop triggering glitches in each otheres circuits on the soundz page of the site, or can be found here http://www.circuitbenders.co.uk/demos/ambient.mp3

that one was built for a art installation.

[Dirt]

This relates to my first comment about the coil. I was talking to someone who under stands circuits better than I do, and I told him my idea and he told me that my Idea probally wouldn't work. but what would work is if I made a coil where the center rod could be pulled in or out. which has the same effect as a potentimeter. well there goes another theory shot to shit.

[Dirt]

New question. I was doing some experimentation with what looked like an amp on one of my bent dollar store toys. Well It started to smoke! the basic components are very simple. one resistor, five contacts, one of those black three pronged components(I'm blanking what it is called) and one of those memory chips(it looks like a big black spot). anyhow my question is are any of those compenents tempenture or voltage sensative? I'm still trying to fix it and I want to ask if it is at all possible.

[Circuitbenders]

well, like most things in life all components tend to be temperature sensitive once they start to smoke!

Actually i'm quite impressed you managed  to get anything with a black blob chip to start to smoke, i wouldn't have thought there would normally be enough juice  in any circuit using black blobs to even warm anything slightly, what are you running the thing from? Might be helpful if you knew which component was smoking although if the 'three pronged component' is a voltage regulator and its getting hot enough to smoke somehing is horribly wrong somewhere.

[Dirt]

well after that mishap with this "amp" that was found in an alley, I discontiuned its use. I think that the wiring was boched. as for the "three pronged thing" it says: S9013 H _ _(0 or 9)4...good call That part is melted...well that sucks. the under score stands for the place that is melted through. I can see half of one letter and I cant tell if its a 0 or a 9 I'm Thinking I can replace it. but hopefully I didnt burn out that black dot thing. what do you call it any way? and also a quick question is there a way to tell the resistance of a resistor. does the colour mean anything?

[Circuitbenders]

 the stripes on resistors show their value, theres a handy calculator thing here http://samengstrom.com/elec/resistor/index.html

The 'black dot thing' sounds like a black blob chip. Essentially its a tiny chip encased in resin stuck to the board.

[Dirt]

that is by far the coolest thing I have ever seen when comes to bending. I take apart old electronics for parts so this will make my catagorizing them a whole lot easier. true i could buy the parts but whats the fun in that! so what do you think that three pronged thing is? I figured the black blob chip holds information because everything leads to it. hey thanks for the help.

[Dirt]

next two questions, on the site you linked what is the tolerance? I understand tolerance only as a welder would, which is the amount of deviation allowed. like say something has to be welded at 100 amps, and you have a 10% tolerance, you can run 100 to 110 amps. so what's the tolerance for a resister. my other question is how can you tell the watts. for example I'm building a pocket amplifier, and one of the components is a 10k Ω 1/4w metal film resistor, how would I tell  if one of my salveged resistors is 1/4watts?

[sponge]

Hi there,

the tolerance band on a resistor is there to allow for inconsistencies in manufacturing, so a 100k resistor with 5% tolerance means that the actual value of the resistor could be between 95% and 105% of the 100k value (so the resistor is between 95K and 105K).

resistors with 5% tolerance are most often the carbon type, and are okay for most uses.  if the resistor is required to be precise, metal film resistors usually have 1% tolerance (a 100k resistor would vary between 99k and 101k), but they are more expensive.  (for cheap metal film resistors, check ebay for packs of resistors - i got 1080 metal film resistors for £10, ($20 US) in common values).

as far as checking the wattage of a resistor, your 'standard' size of resistor is usually 1/4 Watt for most low voltage applications.  if the resistor needs to be 1/4 Watts, then this is a minimum, and any value above this can be used, but you have to take space into consideration, as they get very large. 

you can tell the power rating of a resistor by measuring the length of the 'bead' or 'body' on the wire of the resistor:

1/8 (0.125) Watt resistors usually measure between 3mm and 3.4mm (these are the really tiny ones you get in walkmans etc)

1/4 (0.25) Watt resistors usually measure between 5.5mm and 6.5mm (these are 'standard' size resistors you see everywhere)

1/2 (0.5) Watt resistors usually measure between 8mm and 9mm

anything larger than 0.5 Watts is usually huge.  to get the power rating go to an electronics website (i used www.rapidonline.com) and view the datasheet for the resistor of that wattage - you get full measurements and dimensions.

to work out the minimum wattage required, you need to know the equation: P=VxI ,
i.e. power in watts = voltage x current

so if you know the voltage and current then you can work out power.  if you do not know the voltage, the equation can be rearranged (using ohms law) to get P=I²R

if you dont know the current, you can use P=V²/R

I hope this is useful... 

Dan

[papaspank]

Dammit though I'd got the definition of tollerence confiused...

so if anyone's seen that post about that by me - very sorry!!

It's been a l-o-n-g time since we played with stuff like that in the physics lab at school.

[Dirt]

cool, so tolerance in electronics and welding are based off the same idea. I have to say one thing. trying to teach ones self schematics is a pain. especialy when your dyslexic, and the books being used are from the 70's and earlier.

[catweazle]

Something about coils:
Coils can produce a "Alernating current output" if you move a iron material core inside them. But the voltage inducted can be very high ( if you have a lot of turns)
This may destroy the circuit (ICs often work with digital voltage levels -> TTL (0/5Volt) 
for more details check:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coil

Better try Capacitors (100nF ... 10uF)  or variable Resistors (Potentiometer 100k/1M)