Circuit Bending
Taking something that already makes a noise and making it make the wrong one.
Module mods, teardowns and the bends worth keeping. Some of these are a part with every pin mapped, one is three months of probing that found nothing, and one is a box that groans when you pick it up. They are the guides where the circuit already existed and the work was finding out what it would put up with.
All 4 guides
Four Modes, One Chip: The ISD1820 Breakout Nobody Finishes Wiring
record, one-shot sample, loop - plus the feed-through megaphone mode almost every ISD1820 tutorial skips. Pinout, a mode state table, the desolder trick that makes parts fall out, and the loop jumper that isn't on any schematic for this board.
The Groaner
Pointless Electronics PE-002: pick it up and it groans, like an old-school groan tube. An ISD1820 with a groan recorded into it and its pitch resistor swapped for 470K so it plays back slow and deep, a tilt switch across the play button, an LM386 at full volume, and a grille in the backplate so the outside stays blank. Four solder joints, a grille template, and the one-shot board that turned out not to be needed.
Nothing In Here: Three Months Bending a VTech Super Sound Works
every capacitor, every resistor, the chips - and essentially nothing in the whole toy. What I probed, the two bends that did turn up and why neither was worth keeping, and the one modification that is: the crystal clock, which moves pitch, tempo and playback all at once.
The Nag
Pointless Electronics PE-003: an empty box that yells at you when you close it. A reed switch in the base and a magnet in the lid make a contact when the lid shuts, the One Shot board turns that messy closing into one clean pulse, and the pulse plays a yell on an ISD1820. Four connections and a magnet, and the box stays empty, because the moment it holds anything it stops being funny.