Edition 3: ATtiny Punk Console

​The ATtiny Punk Console by Steffen Koritsch has been presented at Circuit Control 2017 in Dresden, Germany where Steffen lives and works. He has a degree in fine arts but is working mainly in the field of sound art and electronics.

I met Steffen at Circuit Control for the first time about three years ago. At that time he was developing FX-pedals to expand his guitar sound. 2017, as a member of the Circuit Control team he decided to present something special for the community: The ATtiny Punk Console. I took one kit home with me and and ordered immediately a second when the first was soldered. Mine are generation 1 but meanwhile Steffen made some technical upgrades and created a fancy box for the ATPC.

Here you can see the ATtiny Punk Console (short ATPC)

The ATPC is an easy to build synthesizer-kit based on the ATtiny85 microprocessor which is one of the smallest but also powerful members of the ATMEGA family (you probably already know by Arduino). The ATPC squeezes out the most of this little beetle.

"The synth is equipped with 4 potentiometers with body-contacts to tweak the sound. It's powered by a center negative plug or 9-V battery. You can trigger events by a push-button or via the programmable sync in- or -out line. On the output side you'll find a variable low-pass filter and a volume controlled buffer stage to push out true 8-bit sound. Because of the parallel 3.5 mm and 6.3 mm jack plugs you are able to link them in line as well as to interconnect and synchronize with other gear." (Steffen on the ATCP)

Wolfgang Dorninger's ATPC!

What do I like is that I can programm my own tunes, can flash them on the ATiny and best I can sync many ATPC's. If you are familiar with programming Arduinos you can create your personal tunes. All you need to do is to use your Arduino as an in-system programmer (ISP). There is a lot of information in the internet about this topic (see link Flashing Code). Steffen made a kit to flash ATtiny84s or 85s. With this it's even more simple to transmit own code to these tiny microprocessors. Steffen presents on his homepage different tunes and explains how they work. My favorite is the Failure_Unit code.

Buying

Steffen sells ATtiny Punk Console kits quite cheap for 39€ and pre-assembled units for 59€. They all will reach you with an ATtiny85 chip pre-programmed with the code of your choice. An additional one will sets you back 5€. Arduino as ISP-programmer kits are also in stock, which can be purchased for 7€ without or 9€ with a blank ATt85. Send an email.

Happy soldering!

Links

Steffen Koritsch
ATPC
Sample code, schematic and instructions
Flashing Code
Circuit Control 2017 (you can hear the ATPC performed by Alwin Weber aka Störenfried starting at 9:45)