Discovering you can DIY
6 months ago, if a future version of me had traveled through time and told me that soldering, circuitry and physical computing would soon become some of my favorite pass-times, I would have been skeptical. I had never soldered anything, had no experience writing or reading code, and the only experience I had with circuitry came in the form of elementary school education. Furthermore, I had no interest in getting started with assembling electronics, I mean…they come assembled, don’t they? I may not have ever started if it hadn’t been a part of the curriculum at BDW.
I first tried my hand at physical computing during my first semester Creative Technologies course at BDW. We were assigned to create something basic using an Arduino or Raspberry Pi — something as simple as making a light blink on and off, or make a sensor responsive. Those of you with any physical computing experience know how easy this task is, especially with an Arduino (in my case, a spark fun inventors kit). Having missed the introduction class, I was intimidated by the box of circuits and wires that greeted me when I opened my kit, but in the spirit of pushing myself and problem solving I jumped right in. The reward was immediate: my interest was piqued as I ran through the most basic projects the inventor’s kit had to offer. I made lights blink, a motor turn, a slew of sensors respond, and I was hungry for more projects. Although I was stumped on what to do next, a semester at BDW doesn’t afford you the time to sit around and ponder what pet projects you might want to pursue. Soon, we were given the task of building a piece of creative tech to be displayed at the BDW holiday party. The pressure was on to build something interactive and engaging.
My sketching and planning process may have been affected by delusions of grandeur. I spent hours researching various projects to decide what I wanted to build. I wanted to build something interactive and musical, so I chose to buy and assemble Sparkfun’s “Sparkpunk” sound generator kit. Fellow BDW student Joe Toscano and I collaborated to make an interactive “dancing-fire” experience using the Sparkpunk’s classic Atari-like sounds. The aim was to route the sounds through a speaker connected to an aluminum tube filled with propane. Joe focused his efforts on building the aluminum tube and I took lead on assembling the Sparkpunk board.
With no experience soldering or assembling electronics, I went to work on the Sparkpunk board. This was probably ill advised, and in hindsight I should have developed my soldering skills on a simpler project. Regardless, I dove in and started assembling the board. With shaking hands I nervously applied solder to the first few resistors, cut away the excess wire, and surveyed my work. The solder job was messy, and I was unsure how clean the connections needed to make the thing operational. But since I had gotten that far, I decided to go all the way and finish assembling the board. With each step I became more confident and my soldering became cleaner and cleaner. I proudly finished the assembly and excitedly tested the board. The board turned on and off successfully and made a single tone noise that sounded like an electronic fly was trapped inside my headphones, but the knobs that were supposed to control pitch and filter the sound were unresponsive. I feared the worst — that I had wasted my time and money, not accomplishing anything. I scrambled to the Spark Fun site and began troubleshooting.
I ran through the troubleshooting list, but was stumped and disheartened. It seemed I had done everything right and the board still didn’t work. I brought my work to my teacher, and it didn’t take long for him to point out the problem: my messy soldering job. Frustrated, I revisited my initial solder jobs; cleaning them was tedious and much less fun than the initial assembly. At several junctures I stopped and re-tested the board to find some of the knobs working, but the entire unit never functioned. When I fixed some connections, others would break. I went through 3 batteries and countless hours that week attempting to correct my sloppy assembly.
Ultimately, time ran out. I was forced to pivot to another sound-generating solution. With only a few days to execute, I turned to the “Makey-Makey” as the vehicle for my solution. My tools were Ableton Live, and household objects. On Abletone Live, I mapped various keys on my computer to control sound triggers. The triggers turned a bunch of bananas and various colors of play-doh into an interactive piano and drum machine, respectively. Those of you familiar with “Makey-Makey” know that this accomplishment sounds cooler and more difficult than it actually is. Nevertheless, it succeeded for the purposes of the project.
Since my foray into this project, I have since cleaned up the soldering on my Sparkpunk and am happy to report it is fully operational and a very cool product. I learned many lessons in the process; more importantly, I have a new hobby. I am halfway through the assembly of my second physical computing project: the Sparkpunk sequencer. The kit requires about 5x the soldering and assembly, making it fairly intimidating, but after working on the first board I’m comfortable tackling it. My soldering is much cleaner than on the first board, and I am confident in my ability to troubleshoot should anything go wrong. Once the sequencer is built I plan to jump in the code and experiment further with the sound capabilities of the boards.
Assembly is moving slowly, as my spare time is sparse these days, but the value of doing digital DIY projects extends far beyond a cool new hobby. What I have learned about preparation, troubleshooting, attention to detail, and flexibility is invaluable. These projects offer an opportunity to sharpen your problem-solving skills and critically think about how electronics function. As my understanding of the underlying electronics and computing becomes more clear, and I develop my building skills, I see more and more opportunity to use these projects as a creative outlet and build DIY solutions to everyday problems.
Ultimately I would like to build my own synthesizer, a far-off goal I am realistically (albeit slowly) working towards. I think it is likely I’ll be taking on projects like this one for the rest of my life. If you’ve never tried your hand at the world of digital DIY, I highly suggest you get started today. The avenues you can go down are endless, and you might find yourself hooked on a hobby that you can practice for a lifetime.
