Pocket Terminator
The Pocket Terminator


HISTORY / INFO:
I got this little noisemaker for Christmas probably around 1986 or so. It was loud then and it's loud now. It has three buttons for each noise: Missile Launcher, Tommy Gun and Death Ray (you gotta love a toy with a DEATH RAY!). Plus, if you held down both the Tommy Gun and the Death Ray you got the Tommy Death Ray Gun.

This was my first try at circuit bending. I pretty much did everything wrong when doing this project. I tried wiring directly to the resistor (instead of on the solder points). I used solder that was WAY too thick and tempermental. I used 22-gauge wire which 1) was meant to be intercom wire 2) had 4 separate wires all fused together so I had to cut them apart, 3) was WAY too thick for what I was trying to do and 4) wasn't flexible enough so every time I tried to cram everything back in, the wires broke free. I also manged to melt the casing when soldering the wires to the body contact screws. This is a project that would now take me, I dunno, 5 minutes to do. It took me the better part of 6 hours. Eeeeks! Bad solder, wrong gauge of wire and lack of ANY type of soldering skills.

PRE-MODIFICATION PICTURES:
Sorry, no pre-mod pics, but it's prerty much the same minus the two screws sticking out of the side.

MODIFICATIONS:
1) body contacts for pitch up... way up! This is SUPER sensitive to touch. Very hard to control.

POST-MODIFICATION PICTURES:

front view

back view

detail of the body contacts and case warping (oops!)

SOUNDS:
pocket-terminator.mp3 - This sample first cycles through each sound, then cycles through each sound with bends. Like I said before, the body contacts are really sensitive so I had a hard time getting a good sample. Since there is no line out, I had to shove a microphone up to the internal speaker and record it that way.

FUTURE MODIFICATIONS PLANNED:
I need to add an audio out to this one. I think there is enough space for a 1/8" jack. I don't like ripping out the speakers unless they are toast and this one is just fine. I potentially could look to see if there are any points to add some distortion via diodes or caps, but I dont think I would have any room to add a switch even if I wanted to.




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Last Modified:  February 13, 2005




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