I’ve created a slideshow that illustrates the process of building my Weird Sound Generator, from the unopened box through completion of the project. The third photo in the series (shown below) shows the items that came out of the box including all of the components for the WSG and a CD by Ray Wilson titled Electroluminescence.



The next photo is a shot of the circuit board with a few of the resistors installed. I started by sorting the resistors and then carefully soldered them onto the board in groups of the same resistance. I wanted to make sure that the WSG worked after building it with minimal troubleshooting, so I took my time and was methodical about soldering the components to the circuit board, checking and rechecking the schematics before applying the solder.

Two above is the circuit board with all of the resistors and the two IC sockets installed. This was as much as I had time to complete on the first night of my build. Notice the brown paper underneath the board. I put down a layer of thick brown paper from recycled grocery bags to protect the table where I was doing the soldering. The next shot (just above) shows the circuit board with all of the components installed, including the resistors, ceramic caps, electrolytic caps, diodes, transistors, and ICs.

The next two shots (above) show the front and back of the faceplate after installing the pots and switches. I cut the faceplate from an old computer case and drilled holes for each of the eleven potentiometers, seven switches, audio output, and four screw holes to secure the faceplate to the wooden frame.

By far the longest and most tedious step was cutting, stripping and soldering all the leads necessary to connect the ciruit board to the controls and output on the faceplate. More than 65 solder joints were necessary to connect the 50 or so leads from the components to the circuit board or other components. This shot shows all the leads connected and operational.

The last couple of steps involved mounting the circuit board and 9 volt battery to the backing. The plastic battery holder shown in the photo is actually an old mount for a set of window blinds that I had stored in my toolbox. It just happened to be exactly the right size to hold a 9 volt battery. Serendipity.