New Theremax!

Hey guys, I'm new here! (first post, BTW).
I just wanted to stick my head in and say hello. I received my Theremax kit yesterday and have been busy putting it together ever since. I've got the electronics, and case done, less mounting the board. All I need to do now is build and mount the antennas and I should be ready to start tuning it!

I've taken pictures of the construction process and will be blogging about the event when the time comes. For now, I'll show you what I've done for my case:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v687/yourtvlies/theremincase.jpg


-nik

Good case.

i love it! i wish it was the 80s again

Well it's not, so I guess you're screwed.

I was originally looking to dismantle an old "portable" AM radio, but after I got the back off, I just couldn't bear to start ripping tubes out. I got that Atari for 10 bucks in the early 90s at a Goodwill. Little did I know that it was broken, but decided to throw it in the garage. Little did I know that I'd ever have such a use for it, but needless to say, I'm glad I kept it around :)

Oh yes. I remember cycling home from school at break-neck speeds (thank goodness I wasn't still riding a chopper, or it wouldn't have been my neck I was worried about) with my mate The Don, shouting "AtarrrEEEE" at the tops of our voices. Hmm, must have been the late '70s - I was wearing a brown jacket held together with safety pins that I inherited from a guy who was shot in the eye with an arrow by his kid brother. By 1980 we had progressed to Intellivision.

Ah well. I claim the honour of welcoming you to Theremin World. :-)

I've (what I believe to have) successfully constructed the theremax - created some long term, though temporary antenna out of 1/4inch copper tubing and started the tuning processes...
However, I've run into my first issue - which is that the output is almost 0, and the volume control has little to no effect on this. I'm guessing someone's seen this problem before... here maybe?
http://www.thereminworld.com/forum.asp?cmd=p&T=1761&F=3

I've started taking some readings from my multimeter, but am not yet ready to formally ask for help via these forms of from Paia. (that'll come tomorrow if I can't figure it out ;) )

Anyway, I should have been doing homework... but was busy finishing up my Theremax. Hopefully tonight's procrastination won't have much hold over getting my associates in a few weeks... but I can see myself getting sucked into these amazing devices.

Thanks for the welcome, and goodnight.
-nik

All is well guys!
I still need to do a bit of fine tuning, and build some more acceptable antennas, but here you have it:

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v687/yourtvlies/theremin.jpg[/img]
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v687/yourtvlies/theremin.jpg

i see that and can only hear the sound of "wampa wampa wampa wampa, dee dew dew dew doop"

Hey! You stole my idea! I thought about that ever since I discovered the Theremax and realized I have (several) Ataris lying around [and they work, too, which makes me hate to dismantle them, but I need to do this]

I already gutted a 6-switch (original) 2600 unit, since that will have the perfect number of holes already there for my 6 potentiometers. I will need to drill holes in back for the jacks (so my jack/knob config will be sort of opposite from yours); in addition, the joystick ports will be becoming CV/MIDI jacks since I will be cramming a PAIA CV-to-MIDI converter (9201FK) in there as well for synth/lighting control via theremin. I am looking into the possibility of using collapsing/telescopic antennae instead of bent-rod antennae (so that I can easily pop them out to make the unit more compact and transportable) -- does anybody know if this is possible or advisable? (I'll post another topic thread about this later...)

To buddy_craigg: if all you can think of is Pitfall- and PacMan-like sounds when you see the Atari... did you know you can actually use it as a synthesizer for creating music? Check it out: http://www.atariage.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=101

You can even mod out the Atari to make it MIDI-controllable via a standard MIDI keyboard controller... http://www.highlyliquid.com/kits/midi2600/

This may have to be my next project... but one thing at a time

P.S. I'm kind a pissed because this is my first time ordering fro PAiA, and they screwed up my shipment -- they sent drum controller documentation instead of MIDI fader docs for the MIDI brain... AND they didn't send the circuitboard it requires! You'd think that would be an easy omission to spot...

P.P.S. - Any way you could show a pic of the interior? I'm curious as to how you mounted the board inside (did you use aluminum foil or a metal plate as a ground when mounting the board?)