With Conflux just weeks away, it’s probably a good time to start posting my advances with the new Concrete Cricket designs.
I took a really good look at my first boards for the concept I presented back in May, and spent some time getting a more power-efficient, louder, generally less buggy design together. I’m actually really happy with how it’s coming along so far, and I had a chance to street-test one such design this week. That test involved just the mp3 player, op-amp circuit (now a bit louder), two speakers (as opposed to the first prototype’s single speaker), and a 9v battery in a takeout container. I’m classy!
It was surprisingly loud. I could hear it just fine within 10 or 15 feet, which is the ideal range I’d had in mind, and half a block away, with car s and people passing, I could still make out tones. That’s better than I’d hoped for — it may attract people from further away, which is great, but it’s still not so quiet that people right near it will miss it, and not so loud that it will get unwanted attention from the authorities or bother people living nearby.
I’m also sure it worked because an old couple called the cops on me. I’d attribute that less to the project and more to the crazy dude running around with a beeping box of exposed wires, taking pictures and dashing back and forth to hear how loud it was (me, of course). However, police attention = successful graffiti!
By all means, if you’re in the area, please do come on out to Conflux. I’ll hype that more as time goes on, but so yous knows, it’s September 13 – 16 in Williamsburg — tons more info found on their site.
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