overhead by daylight noise

The tube men

Each is a small model of the real thing: a fabric tube his fan fills. The air pushes him about; bent too far at the waist the tube kinks and he folds over, and the fold chokes his air until the pressure throws him back up. So his CV holds high, drops away and comes back hard: never an LFO, never plain noise.

BLOW, the big knob: the fans. Fully left they're off and the four lie on the ground; a little up they heave themselves half up and fold again; at noon they stand and dance; fully right they thrash, folding and snapping back several times a second.

BLOW, the jack: a CV added to the knob; 5 V takes it the whole way.

GUST: how much of what pushes them is the lot's one wind rather than their own air. Fully left each dances alone; fully right a gust throws all four the same way at once, a moment apart.

The lights: each tube man is one window, lit from his fan up to his height; a fold puts out his top half, and his fan's light is his power.

The cloud

As it comes over, the air goes still. Then its shadow crosses the lot from one side, stopping each fan a third of a second after the last, and the four sag and fold to the ground in a wave. The dark lasts three seconds with NEAR low and seven with it full; then the fans spin back up and the four rise again.

NEAR: how near it sits. Fully left it never comes; at noon it comes over about every sixteen seconds, at random; fully right it's back within a second of leaving, so the power keeps dying. Its window glows faintly while it's near.

NEAR, the jack: a CV added to the knob; 5 V takes it the whole way.

LOOK, the button and the gate: look up at it, and it comes now. Held, it stays: the dark lasts as long as you hold it, then its own length. The cap is lit while the power is off.

What comes out

FUEL, EATS, OPEN, ICE: the four tube men, left to right, each named for the sign he dances by. His height, 0 to 8 V: 8 standing straight, under 2 folded over, 0 on the ground.

DARK: a gate, high exactly while any of the four is without power.

COINS: what it couldn't keep. After each pass a burst of triggers, three and two and a half more for every second it stayed, over a second and a half.

Inside

One board sits 10 mm behind the panel with everything on its front: the jacks, the knobs, LOOK, the 65 LEDs and the whole circuit, the USB-C in a notch in its bottom edge. Each cell of a tube man and each lobe of the cloud has its own chamber in a black printed baffle, lit by its own white LEDs, one LED on each channel of two drivers, so a tube man lights cell by cell as he stands and folds. An RP2350 runs the four of them and the cloud a thousand times a second, in 64-bit floating point.

The OVERHEAD panel as the cloud comes: the cloud lit, two of the tube men sagging with their fans cut, LOOK's cap lit, its knobs and jacks on.

Drag it or use the arrow keys to turn it; click it to take it apart.

Specs

Format

Width: 20 HP
Depth: 20.8 mm behind the panel
+12 V: about 35 mA dark, 220 to 260 mA dancing, 280 mA at the most (estimated)
−12 V: about 5 mA (estimated)
+5 V: not used
Controls: a big knob, 2 knobs, a lit button

I/O

BLOW, NEAR: CV, added to the knob, 5 V the whole way; reads −5 to +5 V, safe to ±12 V, calibrated
LOOK: gate, high past about 0.9 V, ORed with the button: its rise brings the cloud, held it stays; safe to ±12 V
Tube men: FUEL, EATS, OPEN, ICE: CV, 0 to 8 V, 16-bit, calibrated
DARK: gate, 0/5 V, high while any fan is without power
COINS: triggers, 5 V for 5 ms, at least 15 ms apart

Engine

Brain: RP2350, 1,000 steps a second, the tube men in 64-bit floating point
The cloud: at noon about every 16 s, at random; dark 3 to 7 s, longer while LOOK is held; 3 to 32 coins after
Light: 65 white LEDs in 45 windows on two 36-channel drivers, one LED a channel, 125 frames a second
Power cycle: keeps only its calibration; every power-up a new lot