Hardware Hacking

For this assignment you should acquire a toy that makes music or noise or speech. You can acquire this toy from a thrift store (such as Deseret Industries where toys of this sort are typically $1 or $2), or steal it from your younger siblings. Don't steal anything that they'll miss though - the toy will never be the same after you're finished with it. Take the toy apart and hack it to make new sounds that it was never intended to make. We have lots of supplies to help you: potentiometers, wires, resistors, diodes, etc. We also have a bunch of cigar boxes you can use to repackage your new noise instrument. 

Many more details are forthcoming about this project. This project is based on material in Part III (Chapters 12-17) in our textbook. 

There are on-line versions of the videos from the book that show examples of two hacks. We'll go over these in class, but you might want to watch them on your own time too: 

Laying of Hands on a battery powered radio: http://www.nicolascollins.com/hackingtutorial09.htm Links to an external site. 

Tickling the clock on a noise-making toy: http://www.nicolascollins.com/hackingtutorial10.htm Links to an external site.

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These slides have some details on the various components you might encounter in your circuit bending: components.pdf Download components.pdf

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