Mon tout premier Barbie Karaoke.(un deuxième est en chemin...)
Malgré les précieuses infos généreusement proposées par Pete Edwards de chez Casperelctronics, je n'ai pas complété la totalité des bends du circuit de l'echo delay.Impossible de faire fonctionner l'echo pitch par exemple, cela dit je suis très satisfait de ce joujou qui offreune multitude possibilités de combinaisons de delays.
J'ai eu des gros soucis avec la modification du contôleur de vitesse de bande.Le circuit additionnel selon Pete fonctionne à merveille et est très simple à reproduire mais en extrayant le circuit à remplacer du bloc-moteur, j'ai malencontreusement déplacé le capot blanc et les balais de connection n'étaient plus en contact avec l'axe du moteur.Il m'a fallu une bonne aprem pour m'en rendre compte et une fois la chose réparée(il suffit de replacer les balais en glissant une aiguille par les petites fentes) le modulateur de vitesse fonctionnait à merveille.Je ne vais pas développer la procédure ici, je vous laisse aller glaner les tips chez Casperelectronics car cela leur revient de droit.
Bref c'est un appareil plein de potentiel et simple à bender.On doit juste ne pas avoir les yeux plus gros que le ventre et choirir ses effets selon la place disponible dans la coque(Il y'a largement de quoi accueillir une dizaine de potars en les disposant comme il faut.J'aurais aimé dérouter l'éntrée AUX sur la carte echo mais apparemment c'est une chose plus ardue qu'elle n'y paraît.
La cerise sur la gâteau reste pour ma version, cette tête de barbie en guise de bouton de potar pour le pitch de la platine cassette.

UPDATED VID HERE!

https://vimeo.com/65834946

Owning a PXL2000 is a great thing.Even a blessing for the french guy that I am as this toy camera has never been sold in europe.I believe that it's still possible to step on a vintage PXL camera in yard sales in the US, but believe me, having TWO pxl's is really something for me!

I had my first one from Waterhead at Bentstruments.I paid full price for that modified unit cause it's barely impossible to get a hand one in europe.I still use it a lot to film especially for the PXL THIS fest in L.A.

Awhile ago, I bid for another one on ebay and suprisingly won the auction for cheap (like 40€).

Thing is that the cam wasn't working that well, real deep dark image.Sound was ok but image was kinda dead.

I immediately told the seller about it and the cool lady proceeded a full refund, suggesting me to keep it for parts.

Last week, and after a couple of years,I finally took it out of the drawer with the mission to fix it for good in order to keep this PXL for audio cassette recording only.

I figured(after quite a while) that the system worked fine and that the only troubleshoot was that the CCD lense was really dirty.The previous owner might have been a smoker.So I fixed the image after opening the lense, cleaning it with a toothpick covered with cotton and adjusting the lense, replacing the dead red led and cutting off the annoying "tape end" bip.I also added some RCA outs for external recording.I added some brightness pot but it ain't working as fine as Waterhead's mod's.
The 9V mod has been done too, making the cam work with a single 9V battery instead of those 6 heavy 1.5 cells!

Having the thing opened I couldn't resist to poke around...I found plenty of glitchy bend points and some very nice filters.

I never figured out by myself that this toy has great bending potential and apparently the object is so sacred and rare nowadays that a very few people really dug into the amazing pixelvision's entrails to tweak the image as the goal is to produce and preserve the original image rendering.

Only frustation is that I couldn' reproduce the internal buffer amp that waterhead installs in his units.However the image is fine and beside that, the sound is even better as the amp is often responsible for annoying interferences and larsen effect.

 9V single cell mod

fx screen shots

 A/V out and triggers for fx.

PT87 Casio_light mod

Here's my Casio PT87.
Basic modifications on this one:
pitch knob, overdrive, Scramble trigger(big buzz) and a couple of body control vibrato.
I could find the pitch drop bend points so I closed the case with those three bends plus a grey re-painting of white keys for uncommon look.
This device has a cool sounds and pitch is easy do complete without adding any extra components.Just need to remove the tune knob on the board.Cool thing on this Casio is the cartridge block that can be used as a great enclosure for pots and swithches.
However, I am really frustrated cause it seems like no glitches has ever been  found on this model.
Any tips will please me!
This PT87 stays way below the SA and SK series in terms of bending potential.

2005 ASS-BRO FURBENT

Here's my  first bending attempt on the 2005 Furby.

I personally bought this one  my niece for christmas 2005, year it's been released.I wasn't into messing up with toys at the time but kinda disliked this version already.To me it's a total failure.It's twice bigger than the first one, have a terrible annoying voice and the design even with his furr on is just un-cute.
If you have bent the original one, you'll quickly notice that the modfication possibilities are also way below.
Entering this new century the miniaturisation of components becomes a real pain in the ass of the average circuit bender.Despite his large size compared to his 1998 big bro, 2005 furb has nano tech making himself real hard to hack.Is circuit bending set to extinguish with the 20th century's toys??It's a fact that good old large circuit boards become less common.Hopefully, there's plenty of old toys ready to be found in trift stores or yard sales all awaiting to be opened.

Anyway, here're the mods done on this sucker:

If you are working on this one or planning to, you must have notice a disturbing lack of tips on the net.This ain't cause no one wanna share, just that the range of mods on this model is really limited.Some have dug deeper but didn't get much!So basically all you can do here is vary the resistance of the voice chip located behing his left ear.

Soldering the wire on the concerned lugs of the chip is kinda tight already but if you got decent skills, you'll overcome that part.Part 2 is a bit harder and that's where I failed:You need to solder the second wire onto the nano chip below.This shit is so small that I finally burnt it.This thing is so fragile that if you lay solder iron toolong close to it, it will totally melt in no time, so be precise and quick!
After that I could say goodbye to the Matrix sound that appeared to be the only real bent.This one is ok but isn't a proper glitch(just slowers voice emulator).
At this stage I got obviously pissed and was about to smash the whole thing like I usually do in this case.I had nothing else to do except looking desperately for other possible bend points before trashing fake-ass gizmo.I miraculously found one!Not around the voice emulator IC like everyone would recommend, but by the motor circuit area on the right side.

Connecting those two simple point will make your pet talk like crazy with a different type of distorded voice.This time no need to sweat, solder is easy.Toggle is located on the spike on top of head.

I'm don't really like the remotes on furbs, so I always manage to leave the controls, switches or pots on the toy.This time it was quite cool cause I have chosen not to control the motors.I don't see the interest of having furby stomp and skake as he always do anyway...

Cool tip for the audio out is to drill a hole in one of the little corners under the belly.

A bit frustrated with the mods, I could'nt resist to add some fancy leds on the bastard.One pulsing red led between the eyes(I painted the eyelids black cause I hate the original skin color) and a combo of three random colors pulsing leds on the belly at the place of the old "tickle-me" button that is now on the side of head just like the "pet-me botton".

The center led has been relocated inside the third eyeball for cool light effect in the dark.

Toggle is now hidden in furr of the iroqwa.

check it out:

an update of the specimen.It's alllllliiiiiiive!!

Check out first CHINOI's video "PEACHES"  freshly released for total ear and eye disgrace!
https://vimeo.com/58718430

Vimeo "Tip Jar" option

I come from the Vimeo FAQ where they promote one of  their new service in collaboration with paypal:

How can I add Tip Jar to my videos?

The first step is to activate Tip Jar by connecting your Vimeo account to a PayPal account.

If you’re a Vimeo Plus or Vimeo PRO member, you can activate Tip Jar on your Account Settings or from any of your videos’ Advanced Settings. Scroll down to the Tip Jar section of the page and check the box next to “Activate Tip Jar.” You’ll be prompted to sign in to PayPal (or create a new PayPal account) and then connect your PayPal account to Vimeo.

Once you’re connected to PayPal, you can activate Tip Jar on individual videos in their Advanced Video Settings. Simply check the box next to “Activate Tip Jar” and then click “Save Changes.” Once Tip Jar is activated on a particular video, a “Tip this video” button will appear underneath the video player on Vimeo.com, allowing viewers to leave tips!


So, in short, here's another strategy from Vimeo to incite users to upgrade to Vimeo Pro or Plus account:

The Tip Jar could sound interesting for users who are willing to get financial support(along with paypal) from people who like their work.Of course we presume that this partnership between paypal and vimeo isn't for the love of art!Thing is that unless you are a huge video star with a real audience followers(if so, you really don't need vimeo to promote your art) let's face it and stop dreaming!No one is gonna donate just for watching vids when usually even if your stuff is killer, just a very few viewers think about dropping a "like"  as it's totally free...
I don't know but seeing paypal getting involved in Vimeo give me some itches!
Of course, the tipping option ain't for free as it's only avaible for Vimeo Pro/Plus users.

Here's a 1st gen Bent Furby.Really fun do modify and redesign.I managed to avoid the remote option.Finding a good looking and funny enclosure is fun but however I don't really like how it looks with all wires coming out.So I had to struggle finding the room for components and buttons.If you wanna do so, make sure to get the smallest switches you can.Same with the pot.

Bents are limited on that toy, very few diagrams on the net.It seems like too many people killed

units digging too deep, so here're the basic mods you can do beside doing a cool shell custom:

The audile tail(out)

 Justs behind the tail is the replacement "Pet me" sensor turned into a normaly open push-button.I had to disable the original one because of the reshaping of shell.

 On the right side, Reset button way more accessible with a same type button.Really useful.

 The glitch section with glitch on/off, trigger and loop switch.however, glitch works great but unable to catch a real loop...Just big buzzing sounds!Taken from a diag on the net that actually doesn't seem to work.

 Glitch pot on other side, located into original mic/audio sensor's block.The sensor  is now external and that way a bit more sensitive.

 asleep

awake with of course a pulsing led when speaking.