hallucination Visor - soldering & mind hacking workshop

Modify welding goggles to project diffuse flickering colors. Hit resonant frequencies of visual cortex and observe complex unstable spatiotemporal patterns. Hack your brain.

• Custom printed circuit board
• Preprogrammed micro-controller : 100+ color light patterns, shuffle, browse, or play in sequence
• Passive components, batteries, switches and LEDs
• Laser cut light diffuser panels with custom quasi-crystal artwork
• Everything you need ( additional materials such a as soldering and glue will be provided )

• Flicker induced geometric visual hallucinations
• Ganzfeld hallucinations
• Other neurological illusions and demonstrations

The hallucination visor displays immersive flickering lights. While completely safe for most people, individuals that suffer from photosensitive epilepsy or flicker induced vertigo should not use this device. The visor is not designed for individuals with a lazy eye or other ophthalmological conditions that interfere with convergence and depth perception.

Ready to hack your mind?

Fellow makers of all things noisy, lend me your ears!

This month, we got a special workshop going on at the labs. Traveling circuit bending rock band, CMKT 4 will be stopping by the labs to host a "Build a Contact Microphone" workshop on Thursday, September 22nd. Contact microphones are awesome for noise making and experimenting. Just check out some cool projects here - Get LoFi. You can record sound traveling through any material (metal, wood, your body...starting to get awesome ideas?).

What can you do with a contact mic? Put it into a glass of water in the freezer and record the sound of water freezing or unfreezing. it sounds really cool! Slap it on a banjo or any acoustic instrument and electrify it!

Build a Contact Microphone Workshop

Join the members of the circuit-bent rock band CMKT4 for a workshop on building your very own EconoMIC Bottle Cap Contact Microphone (from Creme DeMentia).  CMKT4 will show you how to solder up a piezo-electric pickup and house it sturdily in a recycled bottle-cap housing of their own design! Stick around for a set from the band as the tool-handle dip on your freshly built contact microphone dries. Additional take-home kits and other surprises will be available, come build a mic and see and hear some of the circuit-bent instruments you've read about on www.GetLofi.com  up close.  Bring your own instruments and objects to amplify!

The workshop is going to be held on Thursday, September 22nd from 7-10PM at the AS220 Labs. Students pay $20 to partake in the class, this includes materials to build 1 contact mic, and additional kits are available for $10 each. Pre assembled kits will also be on sale for students to purchase.

*To enroll in the course, go here - online store. *

Ready to make some noise? You're neighbors will love you.

AS220 Labs is bringing back Make and Breaks this month. This one in particular we will be featuring the Doomsday Device!

So what is a "Make and Break"?

Well...it's basically an excuse to nerd out for the night. It is totally open to anyone that wants to come down to the labs and check out what's going on. They will occur every month, and each event will feature a new type of project that you can make and/or hack.

So what is the "Doomsday Device"?

The doomsday device is a noise making maniac electronic gadget thingy. It is basically an old alarm system circuit that has been gutted for its original purpose, and will now be used to make our device...the doomsday device. You can circuit bend it, hack it, make fun of it, whatever you want. The point of this is to have fun and maybe learn something about electronics along the way. Sound groovy?

What's the deal?

While the event itself is free, if you want to take a fancy doomsday device home with you, its going to cost you. Here is the breakdown of things:

• Spectators - Free
• Circuit benders (Not Taking Home Device!!!) - Free
• Bare Bones Kit (Not the Fancy Deluxe Kit) - $5
• Doomsday Device Kit (Fancy!!!) - $20

This is what you get with the Doomsday Device Kit:

• Doomsday Circuit
• Wires
• Thumb Tacks
• 2 Potentiometers (Control Knobs)
• 2 Control Switch
• 1 Power Switch
• 1/4" Instrument Jack (plug it into an amp!)
• Laser Cut Enclosure

See, it is cool! You could make your very own noise making machine and use it with your noise making band! Still don't believe me? Go to this facebook page and check out the video posted there.

Want to come?

It's Thursday, March 24th at 6:00PM - 9:00PM

It's at the new lab space at the mercantile building, around the back of the building on Martha Street is where the main entrance is. The address is 131 Washington Street, but that will take you to front of the building, just go around back!

See you there!

The labs is offering a series of introductory courses this October. To sign up, just click on the name of the class below.

Introduction to the Laser Cutter
Saturday, October 9th, 1-4pm
Learn how to use this tool to cut or etch wood, plastics, papers or textiles! From 1pm to 4pm we will cover the basics of using the laser cutter safely, techniques for working with different materials, and the software tools for preparing work for the cutter. This is a hands-on workshop; bring a project if you like!

Electronics for Artists 101: Two Weeks
Wednesdays, October 13th and 20th, 7pm-10pm
Have you ever wanted to learned some basic electronics to add to your art? Do you want blinky things? Monster switches? Retro red digital numbers? This is the first of a series of classes designed to teach the basics of electronics to those interested mostly in the practical with just a little bit of the theoretical. EA101 will introduce students to basic electronic components, how to design and prototype simple circuits, and where to go from there.

Open Kit Build Night
Tuesday, October 26th, 7pm-10pm
Buy a cool kit and come build it in our labs! We'll provide the tools and the space. Choose from a dazzling variety of the following kits! TV-b-Gone Minty Boost bring your own container & 9v battery That's right! For the mere cost of parts, you'll walk out of our lab with a blinking, singing, tv-annihilating toy you made yourself!

It's a three dimensional microcontroller! Program it using the Arduino software environment (arduino.cc), hook up buttons/sensors/motors, make it play music; whatever you would do with an Arduino!

This is kit version of the drawbot that is installed in AS220 Labs. This limited edition comes in a fancy laser cut wooden box. Put all the pieces together, mount it on a wall, put the Sharpie in the clip and you have a working drawbot!

The kit come fully soldered and tested. Right out of the box it will draw the shape that is on the box (a nice circular mandala shape).

No programming is necessary, although the drawbot is 100% Arduino-compatible and comes with a library that makes it easy to draw Bezier curves, circles, and move from one point to another. The board is based on the Sanguino board (www.sanguino.cc), so you have plenty of memory to work with (64k program space and 4K RAM). This is a limited edition with laser cut parts and custom circuit board; order yours in advance today! Kits will ship in early April.

Visit the AS220 Shop to reserve your own.

Has your craps gambling habit got you down? Looking for the perfect gift for your Fluxus-obsessed brother-in-law or grandmother? Well, you may be satisfied with a pair of laughing dice: a laugh is guaranteed with every roll! Now available in the AS220 Shop.

ABOVE: Parts for 100 noisekits.

The 555 Noisekit from AS220 Labs is a kind-of musical instrument that generates raunchy square wave noise from two 555 oscillators. The circuit is controlled by varying the amount of infrared light hitting the board (like an optical theramin) and injecting the natural resistance of your body into the circuit via four touch points. Squonky fun for the whole family!

The 555 Noisekit is available for $20 in kit form at the 2008 Craftland show, or stop by the Lab. Also at Craftland are two of AS220's other "cottage industries": the Print Shop and Design Providence. Check it out!

Visit the Noisekit page for schematics and instructions.

We just received the circuit boards for the Hair and Balanced TV Filter Kit:

What does the kit do, you ask? Here's a hint:

This open hardware/free firmware kit isn't quite ready for prime time, but will be debuted at the Austin Maker Faire; stop by our table to see it in action!

We just received our first official AS220 Labs printed circuit boards in the mail. It is a version of Tom Igoe's 2-wire bipolar stepper motor control circuit used in the drawbot, for a future Make and Break workshop. I used Ladyada's PCB design hints and resources and chose the Gold Phoenix service. Cost: $89 for 90 boards.