If you’re not familiar with the Atari Punk Console, it’s a name given to circuits based on the Stepped Tone Generator circuit by Forrest M. Mims III. It’s based on the 555 timer chip and uses two oscillators to create a single square wave output.
How to make an Atari Punk Console
This Atari Punk Console (APC) uses a 556 timer chip, which is essentially two 555 chips in one. It’s built onto a small breadboard and is powered by a 9 volt battery. It’s a very simple circuit to build, and can easily be built in 10-minutes, with soldering required.
You can buy our kit on Etsy to build your own Atari Punk Console.
Atari Punk Console BOM
We will be using the following components to make our circuit:
| Component | Quantity |
|---|---|
| Solderless breadboard | 1 |
| 556 timer chip | 1 |
| 1k resistor | 1 |
| 0.01uf (103) capacitor | 2 |
| 500k potentiometer | 2 |
| 9v battery clip (plus battery) | 1 |
| 8-ohm 2-watt speaker | 1 |
| Jumper wires | 12 |
Here’s an image of our components laid out:
Atari Punk Console Circuit Diagram
Here’s our version of the Atari Punk Console as a circuit diagram, using a 556 dual timer. It’s what we’ll be using to build the circuit later in the article.
How to make an Atari Punk Console in 5 minutes!
There’s a step by step guide below to help you through the process. It’s all here in a handy video too!
A More Detailed Guide…
Step 1 – Position your 556 chip in place, across the centre of the breadboard. You’ll see there’s a notch at the top of the chip which identifies the top of the chip. Pin 1 is to the left of the notch. Mine is positioned starting on row 3 to give some space around the chip.
Here’s a diagram showing the ‘pinout’ numbers for the 556 chip:
Step 2 – Take your 1k resistor and insert it between pin 1 and pin 6 of your 556 chip. I’ve trimmed the end of my resistor so it lays flat on the breadboard. Your resistor can be placed either way round.
Step 3 – We are going to connect our capacitors. Connect pin 6 to negative for the capacitor 1, and pin 12 to negative for capacitor 2.
For this build we’re using ceramic disc capacitors, which can be connected both ways round, unlike other capacitors. Our breadboard should look like this:
Step 4 – Insert your potentiometers. Put the two B500K potentiometers on the bottom. corner of your breadboard. I’ve used A 18-20-22, and A 26-28-30 as my insert points.
We’re now going to patch our circuit together using jumper leads. Don’t rush this part…
Step 5 – Connect the middle leg of the first potentiometer to positive. Connect the leg to right of the centre of the pot to pin 1 of our timer chip.
Step 6 – Connect pin 2 of the chip to pin 6.
Step 7 – Connect Pin 7 to negative.
Step 8 – Connect Pin 14 to positive.
Step 9 – Connect Pin 14 to Pin 10.
Step 10 – Connect the middle leg of our second B500K Potentiometer to positive.
Step 11 – Connect the adjacent leg of the second B500K potentiometer to pin 13.
Step 12 – Connect pin 13 to pin 12. Your breadboard should now look something like this:
Step 13 – Connect pin 5 to pin 8, crossing over the chip.
Step 14 – Connect one speaker wire to pin 10. Connect the other speaker wire to pin 9.
Step 15 – Connect the two positive rails with a jumper wire. Connect the two negative rails together.
Step 16 – Connect the red battery clip wire to positive, connect the black battery clip wire to negative.
If everything is in the correct place you should hear your device. The end result should look like so:
It’s a raw sound, and can be complemented with a little reverb and delay. Here’s an Atari Punk Console I made and used to create an ambient track. The sound is enhanced by the addition of Valhalla SuperMassive, a great VST reverb plugin. The video was created using OBS to capture the performance footage, and then processed using an old copy of Resolume Avenue.
Replacing the Speaker with a Jack Socket
It’s relatively simple to enhance the circuit with a jack socket, to enable you to hear the APC through an amplifier and speakers, or to process the output of the APC through effects pedals for example. Here’s a few extra steps…
- Firstly, remove the speaker from the breadboard.
- Connect the positive end (longer pin) of the 10uF capacitor to pin 9 of the 556 chip. Connecting the other end to a space row (i) on the breadboard.
- Connect a 10k resistor from this spare row (i) to another spare row (ii).
- On this spare row (ii) connect a 4.7k resistor from adjacent to the the 10k resistor to ground.
- Connect the positive / outer tip of your jack socket to a space next to the 4.7k resistor on spare row (ii)
- Connect the ground / inner tip of your jack socket to ground on your breadboard.
The finished connections will luck like the picture below…
