Author: Lee Wilkins

3 Articles

Mac 128K Emulator Gets DIY Ceramic Enclosure

October 6, 2022 by 8 Comments

Creative technologist [Joselyn McDonald] wanted to hone her ceramic skills by building an iconic Macintosh 128K sculpture, complete with a fully functional operating system.

At first, she was determined to use Processing to create an interface for her sculpture by recreating the UI visually and adding some touch controls. However, she soon abandoned this tedious task after discovering MacintoshPi, which steps you through installing Mac OS 7, 8, and 9 emulators on a Raspberry Pi. [Joselyn] has also installed several retro games, including DOOM II, Carmen Sandiego, and Sim City, thanks to sites like Macintosh Garden and Macintosh Repository. 

Next, [Joselyn] hopes to set it up to display her and her partner’s schedules, and to let friends play around with nostalgic games. This piece was made using hand building, but other cool ceramic techniques like this slip cast dog bowl and this stone 3D printer have us thinking about what other types of enclosures could be built!

CMOS Oscillator Circuit Gets An Eatable Input

September 24, 2022 by 9 Comments

In interaction designer [Leonardo Amico]’s work Processing Decay, lettuce is used as an input to produce sound as an element within a CMOS circuit. 

We’ve all seen lemons and potatoes doubling in science-fairs as edible batteries, but lettuce is something else.  [Leandro]’s circuit uses alligator clips to insert lettuce into oscillators in this audio generating circuit — we think they’re behaving like resistors. Without refrigeration, the resistance of the lettuce changes, and so does the oscillation in the circuit. In a matter of hours, days, and weeks the cells degrades slowly, modulating the system and its sonic output. What a way to make music!

This hack isn’t the freshest — the video dates from nine years ago — but this is the first lettuce circuit we’ve seen. Of course, we love other food hacks like these multi-wavelength lasers used to cook 3D-printed chicken, or maybe the circuit can make use of this neural net detecting fruit ripeness. 

Big Noise From A 555 And A Little Embroidery

September 14, 2022 by 3 Comments

[Sam Topley] specializes in making textile based, electronic instruments and sculptures using embroidery, and this little hoop packs some serious sound (Nitter).

The circuit is a riff on a classic 555 timer circuit, which produces a signal that is modulated by applying pressure conductive textile in different ways. The signal is then piped through a system built in a visual coding interface called MaxMSP, which allows [Sam] to get specific on how to control it. The program shifts the pitch and applies filtering, producing a dynamic dial-up tone-like sound as the user interacts.

To top it off, [Sam] uses vintage resistors  and tropical fish capacitors from the 60s that compliment the visual design and match the embroidery floss, they’re both beautiful and functional! This isn’t the only circuit of this kind [Sam] has made, she also produces tons of e-textile radios using similar techniques. We love how this project spans a ton of areas, analog circuitry, vintage tech, and soft circuits!

While we don’t see too many projects involving them come our way, e-textiles are certainly a fascinating topic. Our coverage of 2018’s “eTextile Spring Break” in New York is a must-read if you’re interested in exploring this technology, and the relatively recent news that MIT has developed a washable LED fabric has us hoping we’ll see more projects like this in the near future.