Showing posts with label make. Show all posts
Showing posts with label make. Show all posts

Thursday, October 23, 2014

A Monstrous Success!

After hours of tinkering, I have had a monstrous breakthrough!

In my last post, I had run into an obstacle on my Mad Monster Candy Snatch build.


A singular reply to my plea for help got me on the right track, verifying that I was correct to have soldered new wires to the speakers and pointing out that I could determine the polarity of the wires by looking more closely at the speaker itself.


Although no one had been able to explain how to wire everything up to the transistor, I finally figured it out!

I apologize for the vertical video below, but I was so excited that I got my monster to work that I didn't pay attention!

Here is how I finally got it to work:

1.  Identify the BCE legs of your transistor and set it aside.  I labeled mine.

2.  Solder a second pair of wires to the Radio Shack speaker. (This direction was missing from the ones in the magazine, although the pictures on their website clearly show the addition of extra wires.)  If you look closely at the top of the speaker, you'll be able to determine which wire is positive and which is negative.

3.  After wiring the LEDs in parallel (I connected one 12-inch wire to the negative legs and another 12-inch wire to the positive legs), I soldered one end of the resistor to the end of the positive wire.  I then soldered the positive lead of the second battery to the other end of the resistor.  (This is the second battery, not the one connected directly to the speaker.)

4.  Solder the negative wire attached to your LEDs to the C leg of your transistor.

5.  Solder the positive wire from your speaker to the B leg of your transistor.

6.  Solder the negative wire from your speaker and the negative lead of the second battery to the E leg of your transistor.



7.  Follow the magazine's directions for connecting the alligator clips to the monster and to the wires that you soldered to the speaker.

Good Luck!

Thursday, October 16, 2014

GAH! Mad Monster Candy Snatch Game

After receiving my first hard copy of Make magazine, I could not wait to tackle this project, called the Mad Monster Candy Snatch Game.  The next day, I purchased the supplies and got started. After spending close to $30 and countless hours, I still do not have a functioning circuit.

I knew going in that I was confused by a specific part of the directions which stated, 
"Solder up the rest of the circuit for flashing the LEDs: Add the power transistor to the perf board and after noting the E, C, and B legs, wire up the connections to the speaker, then solder the connections to the dropping resistor and the 2 LEDs."  

Although I wasn't quite sure what to do at this point, I'd figured that a combination of experimenting, Googling, tweeting, and emailing might help me conquer the hurdle.  For now, I have reluctantly reached a pausing point.

If you have made this project, or think you might be able to help me, I would be most grateful!

While I'm out of ideas, I am more determined now than ever to figure this sucker out.

Updated 23 Oct. 2014:  I figured it out!