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Music

Become A DJ Hero With Wristwatch Turntables [Instructables How-To]

Scratch “records” and drop phat beats wherever you go.

It can be said that in this day and age, anyone with an iPod can DJ, but we maintain that not just anyone can circuit bend a greeting card to create their own mini mash-ups on the fly.

This week’s Instructables How-To comes from Michael Saurus, a current resident at Instructables whose efforts are focused on “reusing found materials and repurposing Dollar Store purchases.”

Here we’ll walk through the main steps of building your own set of wristwatch turntables, constructed from two recordable greeting cards and some potentiometers. Obviously, what can fit on your wristwatch is nothing compared to a real set of decks, but this version does enable you to record your own songs, play back and distort the music.

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Some of the tools and materials you’ll need are one recordable greeting card and one pre-recorded greeting card, two potentiometers, small plastic pucks (or furniture movers), an old wristwatch, a small box to hold the components, a soldering kit, hobby knife and glue gun.

First off, you’ll need to take apart the greeting cards and extract what you’ll need for the turntables. For Turntable 1 (from the recordable greeting card), set aside the three recordable buttons, background beat, potentiometer (for volume) and the push-button power switch. For Turntable 2 (from the pre-recorded greeting card), you’ll need the momentary switch to activate audio recording and the potentiometer for sound alteration.

Now you’ll need to wire your potentiometers and redirect the current so it can receive human control before being outputted to the speakers. After that, construct your decks from the plastic pucks (or furniture movers). Place your decks on the lid of the small box, and poke holes through the center point of each deck. Push the potentiometer knobs through the lid openings and secure the body of the potentiometer to the underside of the box.

Next, wire the deck (or operational) buttons. For the circuit board that corresponds to the pre-recorded greeting card, secure its switch to the underside of one of the decks with hot glue. The top of the button should be operable from the top of the deck. For the circuit board that corresponds to the recordable greeting card, use a push-button switch, so you can tell the component when to record. Mount this button on the lid between the two decks. Mouth the other recordable buttons on the underside of the other deck.

Fit the speakers between the potentiometers to let the sounds transmit through small openings on the lids, and create openings in the lid near each potentiometer knob to pass wires from the underside of the deck to the circuit board. Hot glue the circuit board to the back of the speaker, and then glue the second circuit board and the battery cell all together, so you’re able to fit everything into the box.

Finally, create slit openings on the bottom of the box and feed the watch straps through them. Secure the base of the watch to the bottom of the box, place the electrical components inside and secure the lid. Place the decks with buttons onto the potentiometers and start scratching!

Visit the Instructables How-To for further instruction, more detailed photographs, and tips on where to buy materials.