Simontron speaks
Posted: 12 March 2006 Filed under: Critical Context Leave a commentI’ve now managed to connect one of the pulse circuits up to the Simon and got it to make a noise. But I’m using the speaker on the new board rather than the buzzer built into the Simon. I’ve tried connecting the buzzer up to the board but still no go. That’s a bit of a pity coz I really wanted Simontron’s “voice” to be the original from the Simon. I’ll keep having a hack around and see if I can suss it. I’m thinking of disconnecting the onboard speaker and going straight to the buzzer but I’m a bit wary of my “new” skills and not being able to connect the speaker up again later if I still can’t get the buzzer to buzz. That sounds a bit familiar doesn’t it??? Anyway, have a quick listen to the Simontron below.
Video mashup
Posted: 10 March 2006 Filed under: Ramblings | Tags: film, mashup, music Leave a commentThis is a really cool video mashup of Prince, The Kinks and Smokey Robinson and the Miracles. The guy behind it is called CCC and has quite a few mashups on his blog here – http://www.mashups.blogspot.com/. Ben E King & The Police is my favourite.
Preston
Posted: 8 March 2006 Filed under: Ramblings | Tags: argyle, football Leave a commentSo we drew with PNE last night and that was one of the best 0-0’s I’ve seen. Both teams really going for it – loads better than the Brighton game. We’ve really come along way under Pulis to hold a team like Preston. I know there’s still a long way to go but I’m pretty certain that we’ll stay up.
Openreel
Posted: 7 March 2006 Filed under: Ramblings | Tags: film, openreel Leave a commentWe had our first Openreel last night. Sarah and I have been planning this for months and we finally managed to get it up and running. Openreel is essentially an open projection night where film makers can come along, show their work and get to meet and chat to other film makers. Professionals, amateurs, students, whoever really, everyone is welcome. We were a bit worried that no-one would turn up but in the end it was packed and we couldn’t show all of the film. Photos have been loaded up into Flickr.
Pulse circuit again
Posted: 6 March 2006 Filed under: Critical Context Leave a commentOh yes!!! I’ve got my circuit. Simontron is back on course!!!
That was boring
Posted: 4 March 2006 Filed under: Ramblings | Tags: argyle, football Leave a commentThat has got to have been one of the most boring wins I have ever seen in all my years of watching Argyle. I know it’s 3 points and a win’s a win but even so I thought Brighton might have tried to come at us and nick it but appearently not. Stange considering that they’re in the bottom 3.
On a brighter note though, Tom won 5-2.
Pulse Circuit
Posted: 4 March 2006 Filed under: Critical Context Leave a commentAfter having a chat with Joasia about the problems I’m having with making the buzzer buzz, she put me in contact with Peter White. I explained what I was trying to do and showed him Simon. He then got out this big box of electronic tricks with dials and a little TV screen built in, switched it on, twiddled a couple of the dials, stuck a couple of probes onto the buzzer which then buzzed. He twiddled a dial somemore and it still buzzed but a bit higher. He then explained that what I need is a pulse circuit which essentially runs at different frequencies to produce a different pitch from the buzzer. As I was gonna need 4 different sounds I was gonna need 4 circuits. Still not really knowing much about electronics I asked him how I could make one. He rang someone else in his department who had an idea that might work. On the electronics course, they have to make some sort of organ which essentially is a load of pulse circuits on a board and hopefully there’ll be an old one lying around that I could have and then bend into a Simontron.
You have no idea how pleased I was when I heard that. After spending weeks going thru’ the board in Simon and running a current thru every single pot and getting more and more frustrated thuis this was fantastic news. I’ve got to pop along to a lab and see speak to someone else who hopefully will be able to track one down for me. I’m gonna see him Monday morning and with any luck I’ll be back on track.
Film Archive
Posted: 2 March 2006 Filed under: Ramblings | Tags: film, openreel Leave a commentJoasia arranged for us to visit the South West Film Archive this afternoon. What a fantastic place. Loads of old TV and film footage, both professional and amateur, of the the South West. We were shown around the place, had a look at the equipment and were taken into a vault. The first set of film I saw when I walked into the vault was of Westward Diary 1st January 1962 – 5th January 1962 – the week I was born! What a wicked coincidence. Never one to miss an opportunity, I dropped off a card for OpenReel and she seemed quite keen on it. It would be brilliant if we could get them involved somehow.
Snow
Posted: 2 March 2006 Filed under: Ramblings | Tags: snow Leave a commentIt snowed again for the 2nd night on the trot and I had the awareness to take a photo of it this time. We don’t tend to do snow down here, probably one of the reasons we moved back 🙂 It certainly doesn’t hang around long – must be scared of the chavs – coz it’s all but gone as I’m writing this. Still, enjoy the pic.
