T1 Corruption: What The Hell Am I Doing?

April 3rd, 2010 Posted in T1 Corruption

I have known for a while now that once I finished The Mole, I would begin working on A Weird Sound Generator.  I had found the schematic when I was looking for projects to make with the ICs that I had on-hand, and it seemed like a fun project.  The nice thing is that I could concentrate more on the superficial stuff (crazy case and controls), rather than the actual schematic and electronics behind the project.

I ordered the parts for this back in February, when I ordered parts for the Triggered Drum Light, but since I only have one breadboard, it was going to be a bit until I could get to it.  Until then, I decided I was just going to keep my eyes open for weird and unusual parts that I could slap onto this thing.

I knew that the schematic called for several 1MOhm potentiometers, and one day when I was in Ax-Man, I spotted these groovy pots that were in enclosures and wired up to RCA jacks.  I figured these would be perfect as the main controls for this project.

Now I just needed a box to house everything.

While I was in Florida on vacation, me and the wife went to several Flea Markets, and it was in the last one we visited, in Saint Augustine, FL, that I found the box I was looking for.  It was an old case for testing T1 lines, made by Western Electric, the hardware manufacturing arm of Ma Bell.  I dickered with the guy selling it (he wanted $20) and bought it for $5.

This is certainly going to be an interesting project.