Collin's Lab: Atari Punk Console

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By Collin Cunningham
Posted 2011/09/13 @ 9:30 am
Category Electronics, General, Music

A true classic for DIY synth makers and circuit benders, the Atari Punk Console can kick out some ear-catching square waves. It’s easy to build and a lot of fun to play around with. It may be challenging to make traditional music with an APC, but hey, there’s enough of that around already, right?

Subscribe to the Collin’s Lab Podcast in iTunes, download the m4v video directly, or watch it on YouTube and Vimeo.

Oh, and here’s a schematic for the APC I built in this video:
(The 556 timer chip is shown in two parts in order to emphasize the two separate timers included in the IC.)

BY Collin Cunningham

Born, drew a lot, made video, made music on 4-track, then computer, more songwriting, met future wife, went to art school for video major, made websites, toured in a band, worked as web media tech, discovered electronics, taught myself electronics, blogged about DIY electronics, made web videos about electronics and made music for them … and I still do!

In the Maker Shed

25 Responses to Collin's Lab: Atari Punk Console

Christian Restifo on September 13th, 2011 at 4:56 pm said:

Hmmmm….already made crystal radios with my Cub Scouts. May need to do this to really annoy the parents……

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Christian Restifo on September 13th, 2011 at 4:56 pm said:

Hmmmm….already made crystal radios with my Cub Scouts. May need to do this to really annoy the parents……

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Christian Restifo on September 13th, 2011 at 4:56 pm said:

Hmmmm….already made crystal radios with my Cub Scouts. May need to do this to really annoy the parents……

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- Collin Cunningham on September 13th, 2011 at 8:46 pm said:
  
  that’s one lucky troop!
  
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Mark on September 13th, 2011 at 5:44 pm said:

The APC was how I learned to solder…. good times

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Santiago Ozafrain on September 19th, 2011 at 12:13 am said:

Hi! Nice video. I’ve tried this project and encountered two problems. The first one is that the potentiometers don’t work gradually, the changes are too abrupt. I couldn’t get 1M and used 500k ones, my guess is that that’s the problem. And the other one is that the output is too low. I plugged it to my guitar amp but the volume is very low. I used a 1k resistance instead of the 4.7k before the output, can this affect? Thanks, sorry for my english. Bye, Santiago.

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- Saulo Silva on November 14th, 2011 at 6:13 am said:
  
  Maybe you are using a logarithmic instead of the linear potentiomer, that makes this abrupt changes. i guess…
  
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Jordan Gutierrez Jr. on October 21st, 2011 at 10:58 pm said:

pitfall…..i love that game

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Mike Wittmer on February 7th, 2012 at 11:31 am said:

I found these videos yesterday…very cool! I’m an instant fan.

I’m trying to find a couple of parts used in the video for this project. 1. the power jack soldered to the board which Colin attaches his 9v bat to. 2. the little rings he installed to support the pots.

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Zomby mike on March 3rd, 2012 at 7:20 pm said:

I would really like a good look at the bottom of that completed board. Take a snapshot for me?

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- josh on March 26th, 2012 at 12:26 am said:
  
  same here dude
  
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William on March 11th, 2012 at 12:40 am said:

i am a noob at electronics, i have no idea what to do, do you think it is possible for a noob like me to do this project?

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- Jason on March 13th, 2012 at 1:58 pm said:
  
  Im a noob to and i did it.
  
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a fellow electronics hobbiest on March 29th, 2012 at 4:07 pm said:

i was wondering were i could find schematics for this using 2 555 timers… instead of 1 556 timer… my spare parts are limited!

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a fellow electronics hobbiest on March 29th, 2012 at 4:08 pm said:

wait… never mind… the schematics you posted should work!

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giedriuszzz on April 1st, 2012 at 5:22 am said:

I make this AFC with two NE555, forked perfect.
http://giedriausweb.lt/?p=62

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mosantos on June 3rd, 2012 at 12:14 pm said:

I’m having some troubles
yesterday I make this circuit and it worked perfectly.But today I can’t make it work??
I’ve not change it.
Anyone can help me?
Sorry for my English

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graehme on July 8th, 2012 at 2:13 am said:

just built a homemade motherboard from scratch. took me 4 years to plan and make and now im done. Only works with a special home built security card that plugs into the motherboard to make it run or it will not work. built in ram of 512 mb running a os that i paid my buddy to make. and alot of pic processors combined to make it compare to a pentium. Supports only my custom made video card that has a custom slot to attatch to motherboard. Video card has a whopping 256 megabytes of ram and core clock of 400mhz. Reads floppy disks only. no cd’s.

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Thijs v Beers on August 2nd, 2012 at 3:32 am said:

could it be split in half, like two circuits. one with a potentiometer to pitch a constant tone, and one with a potentiometer to break a tone. I`ve got two small containers an apc cant fit in but half an apc can maybe, if you have any other ideas for small noismakers I would like to get them.

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Blinkyblinky on August 21st, 2012 at 5:55 pm said:

What is the synth you are playing with in the beginning?

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johngalt on August 26th, 2012 at 8:44 pm said:

In the audio he says it is the Sound Lab synth. It is from musicfromouterspace.com
YOu can check google for links.

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Nick Latocha on August 30th, 2012 at 8:16 am said:

I decided to create a similar sounding patch in Max/MSP for those who aren’t too hot on soldering…..

http://www.myredhotcar.co.uk/blogg/?p=376

Although not truely authentic is creates a decent stepped tone sound.

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Dylon Jamna on February 4th, 2013 at 6:30 pm said:

Are those 500k or 1m ohm potentiometers?

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Bill on May 15th, 2013 at 7:15 pm said:

Can someone please list me all the components needed to make this exact device please?

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Brad on June 16th, 2013 at 10:13 pm said:

I made this, but only the potentiometer controlling pitch is working. There is nothing wrong with the potentiometer so what could be wrong?

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