Alien String Thing

Amazingly enough, it has been made.

In minimal form. This took an hour or so...

When I'm done getting the stench of solder out of my nostrils (read: resting after inhaling all those lead fumes) I'll do more...

Also, note the extra black wire from Pin 1 to Pin 5 of the lone 555 socket -- I made a goof in the perf layout -- I'll correct it later. Right now I have a headache.

The perfboards arrived this morning. I have photos of everything, and I'll put them up right here. I made a goof in ordering (wrong toggle switch for the power, dumb mistake, I didn't realize it was center off) so I'm swapping in an SPST toggle instead. It'll have to do. Goes on the positive line (not the ground, of course). The other thing is that the power LED will be green. My best friend likes to scavenge electronic parts, and as a result I have a couple of pretty old green LEDs that do not look like modern green LEDs. The color is way different.

Without further ado, here are the pics...

That's the three perfboards and a 9v 2a wall wart with a 2.1mm*5.5mm barrel plug.

Project box from Radio Shack (7x5x3 -- by the way, Bob, you forgot one of the four screws...) and the power input jack.

The 555's, LM386's, and chip sockets.

Lots of parts! The key-switches, and caps on the top row, and all the resistors on the bottom.

Bag o' LEDs. Thanks, Ryan, you rock!

Replacement toggle switch, guitar strings, cabinet latches, string pegs, hinges, hinges, tuning machines.

LED holders, left over from a previous project.

OH CARP. I forgot to order the pickup. I knew there was something missing here! Guess I better get on that... I hope I've got the money...

Got the lumber and project box yesterday, as predicted. Latches came today. That just leaves the perfboard.

Found an old can of stain in a pile of stuff. I hope the rust is only on the outside of the can, because I didn't budget for stain so what I have is what I have to use. It'll do...

Hinges arrived this morning! The lumber will be arriving later today. Tracking on the perfboard indicates that it'll be here Monday or so. Latches are anyone's guess -- they're shipping FedEx SmartPost, and while FedEx thinks they might arrive Monday, FedEx isn't always right ;) be nice if they were here tomorrow, but I'm not that optimistic.

I have to pick up a project box later today as well. Radio Shack's eBay outlet decided to run out of stock and refund me. Argh.

Once those things have arrived, I'll take photos because it'll all be here!

Dangit, just realized I need a can of stain from somewhere for this thing. I think I have some, actually. (I hope so. I'll be over budget if I don't, and that would be bad.)

Got more stuff in the mail today. The power supply and an order from Mouser (all the electronic bits except for the perfboard) arrived.

I'm waiting on some hinges and latches, and the perfboard, but they should be here Monday or sooner. The one piece of lumber I don't have will arrive tomorrow as well, for sure -- it's being brought by a friend, since I'm "transportationally challenged" ;)

When everything's here I'll take some pics before I start building.

First part came in today! I already have some of the parts (most of the wood, the tuning machines, and the strings) but the string pegs arrived this morning from fleaBay. Made me smile.

I'll try and get the last bit of diagramming (the schematic) up tonight, if my scanner decides not to be cranky. I'll also be re-upping the outside dimensional drawing -- I made an oopsie in a couple places ;)

Oh -- and I will be replacing the video, when I figure out how to make a PPT into something YouTube will like. I can do far better with plain text and a couple images than with that half-dead electric toothbrush I used the first time around :P (just kidding, but if I could return that horrible camcorder to Kohl's, I would -- alas, it's been too many years...)

...and, for this project, that place is here ;) I've submitted this as a THP entry. We'll see how far I get...

Right now the only photos are of the plans I have so far. I'll be adding to those plans (I have one sheet left to draw up) and I'll be taking photos as I build this thing and posting those as well.

This should be interesting.