|
New synth Mars Roveriser is another psychogeographic synth we have created. It's available now, pre-soldered or as a DIY kit, from our etsy store at isntses.etsy.com We actually started developing ideas for this circuit back in 2022 with some of our research in our previous post: ( isntses.weebly.com/blog/ideas-of-solar-power-the-red-planet ) though we decided not to go with solar panels and went in another direction. It was in development stages for a while as we were finishing Chernobyletta and Dark Harvestator. After much design work and trial and error with programming the sound, here it is completed in 2026. Mars Roveriser is an experimental granular crackle noise / echo percussion synth inspired by the mars rover robots Spirit and Opportunity. The sound evokes the dust and chaos of the red planet and the interplanetary transmission of data, conjuring resonance through micro textures. The sounds are often sparse and sometimes even musical, there is a spacious echoey feel to the sounds as we wanted to capture the vastness of Mars. The heart of the synth is an Arduino Nano microcontroller, pre-programmed with custom Isn’tses code which generates PWM (pulse width modulation) audio which is then analog filtered and amplified to line level. The synth is controlled by six knobs, two switches and a pushbutton, and there is a trigger input and output to sync with other synths or modules. The sound is created from particle generator crackle noise which can be triggered by an internal clock, manually with a pushbutton, and also from the external triggers. There are two base noise modes; white noise and a lower-frequency bitcrushed noise. These granular sounds go through a glitchy lo-fi ‘reverb’ to create a range of metallic pings and strums, didgeridoo sounds and loud overflowing feedback. These controls allow for a sonic range including continuous digital echo noise, radio crackle textures, intermittent micro-clicks, rhythmic percussion hits and pulsating drones. A video with some of the initial drawing documentation.  While looking through NASA archives we found sound recordings taken on Mars and we wanted to create sounds of how the mysterious planet might sound in an abstract way. We have based our design of the PCB on the shape of Mars twin Rovers (Opportunity-Oppy and Spirit) and the artwork is hand drawn by Lisa McKendrick inspired by photos of Mars found on NASA website. The sounds are esoteric in their strangeness and contain all the elements you might imagine from the far away mysterious planet. There's a good range of sounds, some more sparse and others more brutal. The sounds are what you might expect from a Rover on Mars as it's intermittent movement suggests. The range of sounds created by the extreme dust storms and other wind noises are also something we wanted the unit to have, as well as evoking vast space and glitchy digital transmission of data. Here's a few development drawings, and stills from KiCad showing the design process:       Messages on Mars Roveriser We like to have mysterious messages on our synths either with the placement of components or in the text. MARS DOES NOT NEED YOU We might think we need Mars, but does Mars really need us? ^___^ Nevertheless, seeing the pictures from Mars taken by rovers are undoubtedly very exciting. MY BATTERY IS LOW AND IT'S GETTING DARK Words translated from the final communication from Opportunity, transmitted in code to the team at NASA before Opportunity died on Mars. There is something sad about the dying robotics on Mars after completing such a journey and mission which lasted 14 years, not bad considering the Rover was only expected to last a 90 days. It's final message went viral making it on to T-shirts and Mugs around the world and now it's made it's way onto our Mars Roveriser. Making the unit from a kit As most of the work is done by the Arduino Nano and programming on the chip, the unit has not too many components and is suitable for beginners or more advanced. It's really important to get the soldering all good on the Nano holder though and also the other chip, and to put the elecrolytic capacitors and LED in the right way. but apart from that it will be a fairly straight forward build. Yay, fun times ! ^___^ LEGO One of the coolest things about the Mars Roveriser is that we had the idea to incorporate LEGO to build a base with wheels, to make the synth more closely resemble the rovers. You can make one yourself out of lego you might have lying around the house. We reused parts from the Lunar Roving Vehicle (set #60348) but you could also use the parts that are used in other sets. Its based on the 6 wheels, though ours have double wheels which is only loosely based on the real rovers. The double wheels give it a bit more stability tho. We also have a perspex base available which is cut to size, the lego thing is just a bit of fun if you are into LEGO. The base can be something like this (below), you can get creative if you have a few lego bits lying around: It's basically just a base with 6 wheels. These are the basic part numbers for the wheels and axle: 6287680, 6365808, 6102596, 4142865, 6365808, 6321305, 6296856, 6261371, 4206482, 4211807, 4211407. These parts can be found on Bricklink or Brickowl, or Legopickabrick. Perhaps you could ask your kids to make a LEGO base :) This one is pretty cute     Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Selfie of Opportunity, this rover is so cute, and reminiscent of Wall-e and Short Circuit. Some photos taken by Opportunity  Opportunity Self-Portrait, Sols 322-323 This image taken on Dec. 19 and 20, 2004 by NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows the downward-looking view omits the mast on which the camera is mounted. It shows Opportunity's solar panels to be relatively dust-free. Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell
 The Curiosity rover's picture shows a slope heading down to the floor of Gale Crater. NASA/JPL-Caltech The untouched planet is so beautiful, I really don't want humans to destroy it or alter it. I would be happy if just rovers inhabited Mars, no humans. Sources:
www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/pia07372-opportunity-self-portrait-sols-322-323/ science.nasa.gov/mission/mars-exploration-rovers-spirit-and-opportunity/ www.nasa.gov/image-article/curiosity-sends-holiday-postcard-from-mars/ science.nasa.gov/blog/curiosity-blog-sols-4838-4844-wrapping-up-the-boxwork-terrain/ science.nasa.gov/blog/curiosity-blog-sols-4649-4654-ridges-hollows-and-nodules-oh-my/ |
AuthorLisa McKendrick Archives
April 2026
Categories |
RSS Feed
