Argos toy keyboard video

[doctea]

http://www.doctea.co.uk/misc/mp3/Circuit%20bending/%AC%20argos.wmv [warning, 60mb+ file!]

My latest effort ^
Argos £7.99 toy keyboard, really impressed with its features as standard.

Have added a line out, slow/crash dial, some kind of filter dial with a dt switch to switch in a straight line or some diodes (which seem to shape the effect somehow or at least change the range of the knob), and a feedback dial...

Some pretty nice sounds but i dont really feel like i've got the most out of it yet!

[boneless]

wow this looks great - and inspiring!

Couldn't watch film tho btu perhaps thats coz I'm mac?

Anyhow I am new to circuit bending (so far all i've done is add a pot and line out to a "hot music toy drum machine and fried two circuits!)  - do you think this might be a bit advanced for a newbie - or something to aim for?!

Thanks.

[Silas]

Please give a warning that it's an 66 mb file... Damn, and .wma of all extensions? Oh well, but it sounds great!

@Boneless: Don't be affraid, just jump on it!

[doctea]

Ooops yeah I should have warned about the size, my apologies!  And wma because MS Movie Maker was the only webcam recording software I had available in a hurry!  Recommendations cheerfully accepted..

Boneless: I'd recommend this keyboard to anybody - I absolutely loved bending it and keep meaning to go and buy a couple more for future rainy days! 

There are some pictures and notes on my website here: http://www.doctea.co.uk/CircuitBentWiki/doku.php?id=argos_7.99_toy_keyboard

[boneless]

cool.
have purchased two and will post up any successes/findings/failures!

PLayign with it straight out the box I noticed it can record notes  - (which seems pretty rad)- I wondered if it was possible to bend it to loop the recorded notes - rather than it playing then once off...

Something to try anyhow...

[doctea]

Great stuff, I hope you're having lots of fun with them!

I've not tried anything like this myself but as I understand it you can create a looping switch using a simple 555 timer circuit wired up to the switch which presses the button for you at an interval set using a potentiometer.  Sounds like a good idea, definitely worth exploring!

I might have a go at that myself as my first 555 project actually!

Eager to hear of any successes and joys you have, let me know how you get on!  will also post back with a bit more of my own information next time I open the sucker up. 

[Silas]

@ doctea: .avi is ok i guess..

Anyhow here's a link to a 555 LFO that should do the job well http://mikmo.dk/cblfo.html

[boneless]

having much fun with this thing!

Great sounds and the casing has tons of room in it for mods. Thanks for starting this thread about it.

Like doctea I found some pitch bends-   down and  up.
Put two pots in the down one tho as it seems to make the wirder noises.
WHen the pitvh goes up it get to a certain point with me an just crashes.

Also put linout, speaker off switch, reset switch,  and a few toggle switches with leds to hold notes, so I can make a wall of  drone tone noise and then go off to play guitar over it...nice. (some of the instruments have sustain and the mandolin has this great messy modulation)

Haven't found any distotion bends yet but perhaps that's because I've only been exploring the top circuit board.
Havne't tried the lower one yet as it's chock full of diodes, capacitors etc and it looks like I could mess up if I make a bad short circuit..?

Anyhow will probably make a bit of music with it before I start twiddling again...

I also like the idea of a 555 circuit to trigger teh loop  - praps one to aim for with a bit more experience futher down the line...

[Silas]

WHen the pitvh goes up it get to a certain point with me an just crashes...
I also like the idea of a 555 circuit to trigger teh loop  - praps one to aim for with a bit more experience futher down the line...

Hey man crashes are good... Don't take it away  You should be able to make the 555 trigger. It only uses 6 components all togheter. Easy peasy...

[rougetortoise]

Getting one of these keyboard tomorrow... first proper bend... should be fun

[boneless]

Good luck. This is the most fun project I've done yet.

Found a couple of new things with mine tho-

First is that it seems to power itself down after a bit if it hasn't had much button pressing.
Bit of a problem with using it as a drone generator performing live. Not sure how long this takes.

Second is more of a question-

I've put a 1/4inch jack output in with a switch to cut out the speaker sound if I'm recording.
The output jack works fine until I cut the power to the speaker which causes it to gradually sort of power down to a silent crash.

Any help anyone?

This is the first time I've put in such a speaker cut switch so praps I've done it wrong?

Thanks.

Also found a distortion like bend on the lower circuit board which adds lots of low tone. Sounds similar to doctea's findings though looks in a different place. Also I bought two of these keyboards at the same time and it works slightly different for both so I think they must vary a bit.

Also going to put a pitch up pot in with a toggle switch to flick between pitch down and pitch up. Thought that would be quite fun and useful to be able to flick between two modes of sonic assault.

[doctea]

I've put a 1/4inch jack output in with a switch to cut out the speaker sound if I'm recording.
The output jack works fine until I cut the power to the speaker which causes it to gradually sort of power down to a silent crash.

Hmm, I also had some problems fitting a line out, but I put that down to me not knowing how to wire up a switched jack properly, as I still got noise through the internal speaker when I had the cable plugged in and noise from the speaker too.

Took mine apart again last night and determined that a) I didn't know how to wire it up properly and b) its broken anyway, so replaced it with a normal non-switched jack and added a switch to disable the internal speaker.

However, I'm getting something very odd and wondering if its the same as with yours?:

If you switch off the internal speaker, then play a few notes, the first few notes play much 'louder' and fuller and the lights in the keyboard light up.  However after a second or so the sound 'fades' to a lower level at which it stays.  The keyboard lights stop lighting up.

The keyboard lights appear to be driven off the audio signal after its been processed somehow - if you connect up a jack to the LED legs then you get a low, filtered version of the sound out of them. 

Not sure how all this is connected or how to fix this, does anyone with more experience have any suggestions?!

[boneless]

yes, that's exactly what happens to mine when I plug the line out to a speaker and switch the internal speaker off! Wierd.

It's the first time I've tried to disable an internal speaker, whilst keeping the signal of a line out, so I thought it was due to my dumb ass wiring, but perhaps its something odd about the way these things work then?!

[Signal:Noise]

sometimes if you remove a speaker you need to replace it with a resistor of  the same impedance value, often the case with cheap toys, you might need to rig something up so that when the speaker switch is off you have a resistor acting as a dummy speaker so the circuit responds the same.

[Psycho:Active]

Hey there to anyone reading this, this is my first post on this forum after reading it a bit for a few weeks (very helpful website, cheers).

I'm a massive noob at circuit bending, and only today got my first soldering iron (I did some soldering in school though, got the scars to prove it ), I also got some components, multimeter, all that, and also, importantly, crocodile clips! I don't have to feel like I have too few hands anymore.

But yeah, more on-topic, this argos keyboard was the first toy I bought when I first got 'into' circuit boarding a few weeks or so ago. I only found this topic after I'd bought and broken it a bit. I'd found some great bends which I labeled on a printed out picture of one of the circuit boards, but I might have fried something, or broken a connection somewhere, as it doesn't work properly anymore. I confirmed that it still works a bit earlier today, as I attached a crocodile clip to a speaker bit and a part of the circuit board that made a noise and it now works at a greatly reduced sound level.
I couldn't see anything which looked obviously burnt, and there was no smoke or anything when it stopped working initially, however a connection I was trying produced a small spark, but I've done a fair few times without even crashing the machine.

I know I'm digging up a thread which is about a year old, but if people could dig up their argos keyboard or buy one up for a pricey tenner it'd be great to get some help and tips