SUPER-MOD GLITCH CAMERAS

For the past year, I have been building and selling these "Super-Mod" glitch cameras, and I thought it was about time I posted some details on the process of building them, as well as sharing some information on how they work for the numerous people who have purchased them from me so far. Thanks for waiting!

2X 'SUPER-MOD'

The 2x 'Super-Mod' has two separate glitch channels with four controls.

Each channel has:

-One two-position 'Input' switch selects the PWM filter input.

-One slide potentiometer to control the PWM filter cutoff.

-One two-position 'Polarity' switch changes the PWM filter from HP to LP.

-One five-position 'Output' slide switch to send the PWM filter data to.

(The 'Output' slide switch can disconnect all mods in the '0' position)

The 2X 'Super-Mod' is an advanced modification for taking striking glitch-photography with high quality classic cameras such as the Panasonic FZ-10.

The controls are easy to use, and offer a wide variety of glitch combinations that work well under various types of shooting conditions. 

FZ-10 2X SUPER MOD HARDWARE LAYOUT

2X SUPER-MOD SIGNAL PATH

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3X 'SUPER-MOD'

The 3x 'Super-Mod' has three separate glitch channels with four controls.

Like the 2X 'Super-Mod', each channel has:

-One two-position 'Input' switch selects the PWM filter input.

-One slide potentiometer to control the PWM filter cutoff.

-One two-position 'Polarity' switch changes the PWM filter from HP to LP.

-One five-position 'Output' slide switch to send the PWM filter data to.

(The 'Output' slide switch can disconnect all mods in the 'OFF' position)

The 3X 'Super-Mod' is also an advanced modification for taking striking glitch-photography with high quality classic cameras such as the Canon Powershot S3is and S5is. The controls are intuitive, and offer a carefully selected variety of glitch combinations that work well under various types of shooting conditions. 

S5is 3X SUPER MOD HARDWARE LAYOUT

3X SUPER MOD SIGNAL PATH

FISHERS (project pt.8)

 -ASSEMBLING PARTS/FINISH:

The faceplates I use are made from 3mm colored acrylic sheets that I buy from a local plastics store in Portland, Tap Plastics. It is a pretty cool store, and they sell scrap acrylic pieces by the pound, which is awesome! Sometimes I find unique colors in the scrap pile, but usually I just have custom sheets cut to order so that I have a variety of colors to choose from at the ready. When I started this project, the original plan was to use red faceplates. By the time I was ready to cut them out, I had kind of changed my mind, and wanted to imagine what some other colors might go good with the black and off-white enclosure of the original keyboard. I think most colors would have worked fine, but I ended up going back to my first choice since red was already stuck in my mind.  

FISHERS (project pt.7)

 -WIRING/DEBUGGING:

Black and red wire for power connections

With all of the circuit boards aligned to their temporary faceplates, and fitting to the enclosure how they should, the next step is wiring everything up and turning the power on for the first time, which is always exciting. The wiring process was pretty simple since I took the extra time to label everything well, and even had a sort of plan for how everything will be connected so that the wires don't overlap too close to where they are connected.

I decided to use this thin wrapping wire for all of the board-to-board connections, with the exception of the keyboard connector. For that I used a 1.27mm pitch IDC connector cable. Unfortunately, the connector cable's connections broke pretty easily after a few times folding it over during debugging. I had to re-strip and solder it again, and secure it with hot-glue. I probably should have just used the wrapping wire instead. The wrapping wire was an impulse buy from years ago–probably from ebay–that is actually pretty decent wire. It is super thin, but pretty tough, and it is pre-tinned, so soldering it is easy. I seem to remember it being super cheap, and I have a ton of it, so using it for longer leads is great because it can be twisted together in groups for stability. Having a massive roll of 50-pin IDC ribbon cable on hand has been nice over the years, but it is bulky, needs to be ripped apart, and tinning the stranded tips can be annoying. I think I'll be using more of this wrapping wire in the future. Plus it's colorful!

FISHERS (project pt.6)

 -PREPARING THE ENCLOSURE:

Prepping the keyboard enclosure is a lot of busy work, and gets very messy from all of the plastic chips, dust, and sometimes smoke. It is always a good Idea to clean up the work area first, and have my HEPA vacuum and smoke absorber at the ready. Wearing eye and respiratory protection is essential, too. It is really not fun to try and pick little plastic bits out of breadboards or parts bins, so putting things away before starting is crucial. 

Giving the enclosure a good scrub with soapy water is a good start in getting things cleaned up, and will make it easier to spot the stains and blemishes that will need extra attention with rubbing alcohol and a scrubber. Removing the stickers from the keyboard was especially challenging. The adhesive is very stubborn, and after trying to heat it up to release it, and finally scrubbing with alcohol, the only thing that seemed to finally get it off was a fine grit sanding block that left a slight buff to the finish, but is hardly more noticeable than the difference in color of the rest of the case–to the strip of plastic that was protected from sunlight for the last 37 years. 

FISHERS (project pt.5)

 -ASSEMBLING CIRCUIT BOARDS:

Circuit board day–my favorite day! For some reason, waiting for my circuit boards to arrive from JLC PCB always makes me super anxious. I know that they will arrive on time, and be perfectly made to my specifications, but for those 5-10 days between ordering and them arriving, I can't help but feel like something terrible is going to happen, and won't get them because I wake up to a reality where ordering circuit boards for as little as 5 dollars including shipping is not even remotely possible, and I have to go back to perf-board circuits with through-hole parts. Or maybe I'm anxious because I am constantly checking the very detailed progress of the manufacturing processes of my circuit boards on the JLC website. Either way, when they do arrive on my porch in bright blue packaging, it is the closest thing to the feeling of waking up on Christmas morning as a kid, but better! 

FISHERS (project pt.4)

 -DESIGNING CIRCUITS:

Designing the circuit boards is by far my favorite part of any project. I am still using an old version of KiCad 5 that I have really had no reason to upgrade for the last few years. I have created my own custom footprint libraries for all of the parts I use, and the last time I upgraded KiCad it was a disaster, so I'm happy to stick with the old version. I'm sure I am missing out on new features, but as is the case of all of my other old-working software versions like CorelDrwaX5, sketchup2017, Mach3, Arduino1.8.5, and even Windows10, as long as it still works, there is no reason to upgrade!..

FISHERS (project pt.3)

 -PLANNING THE INTERFACE:

The first step in designing the faceplates and arranging the hardware layout, is taking careful measurements of the keyboard enclosure, and drawing it up in my design software. It is important that the working perimeters of the drawing are as close to accurate as possible, so that I know the added hardware will all fit properly.

FISHERS (project pt.2)

 -PLANNING/BREADBOARD STAGE:

VOICING

I was hopeful that the circuit would be a good candidate for circuit bending, since there are so many big chips, and lots of analog circuitry. Unfortunately, there was really just not much that I could find that was useful. I tried bypassing the data lines to the ROM chip to try and get some kind of access to the piano voice sample using all manner of counter/dividers, pulse-delays, and shift registers, but it seems that the way that the piano-sound data is parsed with the program memory is too closely multiplexed. At least that is what I concluded from my repeated failed attempts to do anything but crash the whole system again and again. I still think it would be possible to bypass the piano-sound data somehow, but seeing as how the sample-depth is only 8-bit resolution, I can assume that there would be a very limited amount of sound variations, and would probably not justify the hardware needed to achieve them...

FISHERS (project pt.1)

 1989 FISHER PRICE 3810 "REAL-SOUNDS PIANO" 

The Fisher Price 3810 Piano was a common toy during the early 90's. They were well made, and are still available in good condition on ebay, and sometimes can be found at thrift stores. The keyboard measures around 23 inches long, 8 inches wide, and about 2 inches thick. There are 32 keys that are slightly larger than standard mini-keys of the era. Despite the sturdy build quality and uniquely 90's design, the sound quality and functionality of the toy is curiously limited...

TRIP DELUXE

The TRIP DELUXE is the second prototype of the TANDY TRIP rhythm/drone machine. This version has all of the same functionality as the first TRIP, but has 8 additional rhythms that can be selected with the touch-control inputs when the added 'RHYTHMS' switch is set to the 'ALT' position. While the 'RHYTHMS' switch is in the 'HOLD' position, the last ALT-RHYTHM selected will be held, and the touch-control inputs can be used without interrupting the pattern. The ALT-RHYTHMS can be clocked independently of the drum voices' pitch control. This is especially useful when the PITCH is modulated by the sequencer, since the change in pitch of the drum voices will not change the tempo of the rhythm. The ALT-RHYTHMS can be clocked by external clock sources, or by the TOY-RHYTHMS at 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, 1X, 1.5X, 2X, or 3X time. The clock input for the ALT-RHYTHMS is held at averaged input intervals(tap-tempo), so the TOY-RHYTHM tempo can be used to set the ALT-RHYTHM clock, then switched to EXT-CLOCK so that the ALT-RHYTHM clock is independent of the TOY-RHYTHM it was synced to. The DELUXE has 5 volt CV inputs for the two filters, and the pitch. There are 5 volt CV outputs from Sequencer-2, and EG-2. There are also sync outputs from the master-clock, and Sequencer-1 clock, and there is a Clock-sync input jack. All are 0-5 volts(rising).