A workshop on circuit bending that I will be hosting at the BeamDay Festival at Brunel University on the 10th of March. If you would like me to host a workshop please contact me.

2. Circuit Bending Workshop
In this workshop:
- Introduction
- What is circuit bending?
- Who discovered circuit bending?
- Circuit bending safety
- Tools
- The best items to circuit bend
- Laying of hands technique
- Probe technique
- Marking and choosing modifications
- Kill Switches
- Line out
- Clocking items
- Circuit diagrams / online resources
- Recommended resources
- Jamming (if we have enough time)
- Contact details
www.f7sound.com

3. Introduction
My name is Dan Wilson.
Electronics and laser systems technician.
Masters in Environmental Sustainability and Green
Technology.
Circuit bending for over 10 years.
Grew up as a new age traveller.
Interested in sustainability, recycling and self sufficiency,
as well as all forms of music.

4. What is Circuit Bending?
Circuit bending is the art (or Randomness) of reusing
electronic products to produce an output that it wasn’t
designed for.
Circuit bending in its simplistic form is shorting out parts
of the internal circuits to produce interesting
results, often drastically reducing the lifetime of the
device in the process.
Circuit modifying is the introduction of improvements to
the original circuit design, usually utilising circuit
diagrams and oscilloscopes.
www.technabob.com www.laptopnoise.com

5. Who Discovered Circuit Bending?
Reed Ghazala termed the coin in the 60’s.
However, many people have experimented with circuit
bending before this period.
Including Serge Tcherepnin.
www.anti-theory.com

6. Circuit Bending Safety
Never circuit bend equipment that connects directly to
the mains.
Be careful of large capacitors, as they can hold large
voltages and they can recharge even when the circuit is
disconnected from the mains.
If you are unsure measure voltages with a volt meter.
Always connect your circuit bent item through a mixer
and if available a limiter.

7. Tools and Components
- Multimeter
- Screwdrivers
- Miniature screw drivers
- Soldering iron
- Wire cutters
- Wire strippers
- Drill and bits
- Loads of batteries, wires and things to solder onto the
circuit
www.escapepod.org cdn.ubergizmo.com

8. The Best Items to Circuit Bend
- Battery powered
- Cheap
- Expendable
- Older the better
- Something that you have seen that has been circuit
bent.
- Items with large amounts of room on the casing, to
attach components.
Burnkit2600.com Makezineblog.files.wordpress.com

9. Circuit Component Identification
• Capacitors
• Resistors
• Transistors
• Integrated Circuits
• Amplification Circuits
• Power Supply Circuits

10. Laying of Hands
The simplistic technique, with the lowest chance of
damaging the circuit.
Your body is used to produce shorts across parts of the
circuit.
Your body acts as a variable resistor. Try wetting your
fingers, or licking the circuit board.
Alternatively push the circuit board harder. This reduces
resistance, increasing the voltage flowing through your
body.
If the circuit crashes, turn off the item, or remove the
batteries. Turn on after a couple of seconds.
Melodypanosian.info Thewire.co.uk

11. Probe Technique
A much higher risk of irreparable damage to the circuit.
As there is zero resistance through the wire, resulting in
maximum voltage achievable.
Take a piece of wire and strip back 10mm of insulation at
each end.
Using the wire, short out parts of the circuit.
If it crashes, remove batteries and reset.

12. Marking and Modifications
When you have identified the areas you want to circuit
bend.
Label the circuit board and write down the effect/sound.
Move on and complete the entire circuit.

13. Choosing Components to Install
- Body contacts
- Toggle switches (spst, dpdt)
- Momentary switches
- Variable resistors (potentiometers)
- Light dependent resistors (LDR’s)
- Patch bays
Ultimately it comes down to available time and funds.

14. Kill Switches
Many items do not have a hard power switch, they rely on
electronic components.
Crashing these items for long periods of time can destroy
the integrated circuits.
A simple toggle switch can be installed between the
battery and the circuit by cutting the positive wire from
the batteries.

15. Line Out
Most electronic toys were not designed to be plugged
into headphones or mixers.
A jack socket can be mounted onto the chassis and
solder onto the back of the speaker.
Some sockets, will automatically cut-out the speaker
when a jack is plugged in, well worth the extra 5p.

16. Clocking Items
The majority of electrical items have a master clock.
This keeps the entire circuit in synchronisation. A simple
oscillator can be built to replace the master clock.
Allowing the user to speed up or slow down the circuit.
Producing interesting crashes and drones.

17. Circuit Diagrams and Online Resources
Online guides can provide invaluable advice on
safely circuit bending a device.
Be careful when relying on online resources, as the
items can look the same.
However, there can be different versions of circuit
boards, much like software versions.
Circuit diagrams are very useful as they can give
information on processes taking place, especially
useful when combined with an oscilloscope.

18. Recommended Reading
Handmade Electronic Music: The
Art of Hardware Hacking. Nicolas
Collins
http://www.anti-theory.com/ Reed
Ghazala the founder of circuit
bending
http://circuitbending.com/
http://www.gearwire.com/circuit-
bending-101.html

19. My Online Presence
http://www.slideshare.net/circitfied - tutorials and circuit
diagrams
http://www.youtube.com/user/circitfied - videos of
workpieces
http://soundcloud.com/circitfied - audio compositions
using my own equipment