HEX3000

HEX3000 approaches the improvisational act of circuit bending as a double ended process of construction & deconstruction.

The user plays the instument by connecting any number of the nodes (floating circuit parts) to form a makeshift circuit. The single limited power supply ensures the emergence of complex and unpredictable behaviour.

The vibrations from a web of circuitry can be taken from several points and contrasted and mixed with attenuators. The master tuner starves power to your circuit and scans through audible and inaudible frequency ranges.

Clusters of 4 nodes form around 6 buffered inverters. The inner nodes are direct connections and the outer node resistive conections. In between groups of 4 are floating capacitive nodes that pass up/down. The top outer attenuators and nodes are coupled and form the output mixer. The lower left attenuator is the power starve frequency scanner.

Hex Inverter die image from s.zeptobars.com. 

The CD4049 and 69 are the slowest chips in the cmos series and are actually made from the same stock as the 40106 but leave an unconnected transistor that would form the schmidtt trigger in the 40106. More recent chips like the one pictured have weaker output than the oldest inverters. Some discontinued buffered hex inverters actually had 5 invertions per inverter.

*Circuit bending is an experimental process of probing and connecting points of a circuit together to modify or control its function. The bender is often thrilled the process of probing the circuit and the unpredictable nature of the chaos - fusing points of the circuit together uknowingly until oftentimes a silcon chip is pushed beyond its limits and implodes.