Revised the design a little for The Barnacle battery for the SX-70 to be smaller and rounded at the bottom saving some space. Also some legends for attaching it and cut outs for the LEDs.
The board is cool because it has both micro USB and USB-C inputs for charging plus USB-A outputs to power something else.
Being underneath, it points the camera up instead of down so shots on a table with a timer are framed better.
Porcelain notebook teacups designed by Betsy Morningstar ...
(I mean how could I NOT post after seeing this?)
And the completed plot: Truchet tile plot with arcs of CMYK color and wavy fringe.
CMYK on 24”x36” watercolor paper, vintage HP DraftPro DXL #PenPlotter, Python, #NoAI
Available in my shop: https://shop.paulrickards.com/truchet-tiles/
#GenerativeArt #CreativeCoding #MastoArt #Art #ArtForSale #Artist #ArtForSaleByArtist #PenPlotterArt #PenPlot
On to the scary Varta battery topic: here are the iPhone shots of the back of the board behind the three battery pins and the negative and positive sides of the battery topside.
First off - there's no immediately obvious horror show, so whatever damage there might be is, I hope, immaterial at best and slight at worst. The board is definitely not the nightmare it could have been 32+ years on from when it was made.
Opinions invited!
More detailed shots to follow.
Looks like someone else tried to make an all in one SX-70 battery mod bottom shell but ran into the same boost issues I did.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Polaroid/comments/1t1ee8b/sx70_battery_mod_help/
Inside is a "18650 battery shield" board that provides charge/boost to 5V (with an added 10uF cap). It also does 3.3V but not using it.
Even though the camera usually uses 6V, it seems to work OK with 5V.
Power is delivered underneath through two small pogo pins.
This idea came from the "remora" case by nunocruz which is honestly a lot smaller than my solution but I have so many 18650 batteries to use.
Second attempt at a i-Type battery mod for the SX-70. I call it "The Barnacle" because it snaps onto the bottom of the camera and uses pogo pins to inject power.
There's also a 1/4" tripod mount snap on as well.
Here's my attempt. It's a replacement bottom shell with 18650 and charge/boost.
I modified an existing shell design to accommodate the battery. Bonus is the neck strap mounting points (something sorely missing from the 1st gen).
Buuuut, it doesn't work. The LX-LCBST charge/boost circuit shuts down as soon as the motor is connected. The boost out is rated at 1A but I'm guessing the motor pulls too much as it starts. Boo.
Now that I can shoot 600 film, I'd like to be able to use i-Type film. It's the same film as 600 but has no battery in the pack.
That means the SX-70 needs another power source. There's a few solutions out there. I prefer something that's not permanent/easily reversible and one I can make myself.
The Aphex Twin pre-order re-release of Drukqs website has a few whimsical easter eggs like ZX-80 keyboard headers and a pixel boat for the audio playback position.
I removed the SX-70 motor to clean the armature and brushes. Despite what I saw Online, do yourself a favor and desolder the motor first before trying to remove it. I struggled and the flex cable really suffered and began to delaminate.
I also cobbled together a quick test for light leaks in the bellows. I used a LED light puck inside an empty film pack and slid it inside the camera. Then I examined the bellows in a dark room to see if I could see light.
I did see a few dots of light low on the gear side but they were blocked when I installed the gear cover. So I'm going to say for now it looks good.
Back to the Polaroid SX-70. I want to convert it to shoot with 600 film (ISO 640) instead of the usual SX-70 film (ISO 100).
One way is adding ND filters over the lens or even a sheet ND filter over the film pack.
But you can also swap a capacitor for a lower value. That's what I did. It's located in the shutter housing. I swapped the original 800pF for a 150pF.
Truchet tiles, but all horizontal.
CMYK on 11”15” watercolor paper, vintage HP DraftPro DXL #PenPlotter, Python, #NoAI
Available in my shop: https://shop.paulrickards.com/truchet-tiles/
#GenerativeArt #CreativeCoding #MastoArt #Art #ArtForSale #Artist #ArtForSaleByArtist #PenPlotterArt #PenPlot
This is nuts. #huggingface have just scraped the entirety of #github. https://huggingface.co/spaces/HuggingFaceCode/in-the-stack
@paulrickards Eight years later I finally got this framed!
Lines twist and flow through large center arc Truchet tiles. Where the lines overlap, it really digs into the paper.
CMYK on 11”15” watercolor paper, vintage HP DraftPro DXL #PenPlotter, Python, #NoAI
Available in my shop: https://shop.paulrickards.com/truchet-tiles/
#GenerativeArt #CreativeCoding #MastoArt #Art #ArtForSale #Artist #ArtForSaleByArtist #PenPlotterArt #PenPlot
And with that, loading a film pack in the SX-70 and closing the door starts the orchestrated symphony of an electrical and mechanical marvel with a sound that's full of nostalgia. It ejects the dark slide and stops properly. Sound on!
Lots more to look over still, but, progress!
Long flowing lines converging in the center with larger tiles.
CMYK on 11”15” watercolor paper, vintage HP DraftPro DXL #PenPlotter, Python, #NoAI
Available in my shop: https://shop.paulrickards.com/truchet-tiles/
#GenerativeArt #CreativeCoding #MastoArt #Art #ArtForSale #Artist #ArtForSaleByArtist #PenPlotterArt #PenPlot
Inside, S3 and S5 are mounted on a rail and can be adjusted with a screw. S5 never makes contact and the camera keeps cycling. I slid it closer to the front. Now S5 closes and the camera cycles once.
Note: S3 and S5 are closed when connected to GND. However, S8 and S9 are closed when connected to VCC (+6V).
Extra Kapton tape because the flex circuit is delaminating 😬
