Stick Your Own Samples In The Cheetah SpecDrum

The Sinclair ZX Spectrum was a popular computer in the 8-bit era, and particularly so in its homeland of the United Kingdom. It was known more for its low cost than its capabilities, but it gained many add-ons over the years. One of those was the Cheetah SpecDrum, which turned …read more

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Fail Of The Week: Talking Chinese Calculator Synth Orchestra

There are times when you set out to do one thing, and though you do not achieve your aim you succeed in making something else that’s just a bit special. [TheKhakinator] sent us something he described as a fail, but even though we’re posting it as one of our Fail Of The Week series we think the result still has something of the win about it. It may not be the amazing hack he hoped it would become, but that really does not matter in this case.

On his travels in China his attention was caught by an everyday electronic …read more

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Chewbacca Mask Hack Cheers Up The Whining Wookie

Once tried, even grown-ups just can’t let go of that hilariously funny Chewbacca mask. Also, the speaking toy literally cries out to be hacked. Weary of the whining Wookie, [John Park] set out to bring variety into Chewie’s mode of expression, expanding the mask’s memory and vocabulary to unprecedented levels.

For his hack, [John] keeps the original jaw limit switches and speaker of the mask in place, but replaces the sound generating electronics with an Adafruit Audio FX Mini Sound Board. This sweet piece from [Ada’s] bag of tricks plays back samples from an onboard 16 MB flash memory …read more

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