Hello world. Maybe I'm going to stream today.

Today: Building an Atari Punk Console maybe

  • Learn about 555 timer chips
  • Try breadboarding an Atari Punk Console
  • Make some terrible noises
  • Move onto a soldered perfboard version?

Spent a long time sorting through weirdly labelled capacitors from the assortment kit I got a few months ago. Glad I haven't thrown out the case they came in yet, since the bags are labelled with part numbers that only reference their uF values on the box lid.

I put this circuit together, but didn't have one of the exact potentiometers or the speaker. I tried a 1M ohm pot and a piezo buzzer as speaker to see what would happen. The circuit made no noise, but the 556 chip got really hot.

I have spares, but I'm hoping I didn't burn out the 556. Current guess is that the piezo buzzer is not even close to the right part. Maybe I can try the line-out jack option and see if the added resistors and such stop the 556 from heating up.