Maker Christian Toparceanu, of the Compact DIY YouTube channel, has put collectively a music field with a distinction: relatively than a spiked rotating drum triggering steel keys, it is a completely digital system pushed by an Arduino — however studying music from punch playing cards, like a classic participant piano.
“The working precept is easy,” Toparceanu writes of the musical mission. “A chunk of opaque paper passes over eight sensors comparable to the eight fundamental musical notes. When a paper cut-out passes in entrance of one of many sensors, it modifications its analog output worth and the Arduino notices this by producing a tone. The clipping could be longer or shorter, implicitly the size of the tone generated.”
The low-cost music field is constructed round an Arduino-compatible microcontroller linked to eight infrared sensors — one for every of the eight bits within the punch playing cards on which music is encoded. Because the punch card, constructed by hand to an even bigger scale than the normal playing cards used within the early days of computing, passes over the sensor it displays the emitted infrared gentle again — except there is a cut-out hole within the paper, during which case a selected be aware is triggered.
“The mechanical half is straightforward to do,” Toparceanu says. “The development of the sensor requires particular consideration, I opted for eradicating the elements from the plastic help and mounting them on a [prototyping] board. The paper guides are constructed with what I discovered round the home, plastic tubes and items of hose. For slicing the notes on paper, I used to be impressed by piano tutorials for newcomers on the Web. You’ll be able to select any track you need.”
The infrared sensors are faraway from their plastic housings and positioned on prototyping board, to cut back the scale of the punch card. (📷: Christian Toparceanu)
“After slicing the paper with the specified melody, it’s inserted between the 2 plastic guides. We activate the system and switch the crank. If the cutouts are executed appropriately, the machine ought to play the chosen melody at a velocity dictated by the velocity of rotation of the crank.”
A full construct information is obtainable on Toparceanu’s Instructables web page, with supply code accessible on Field below an unspecified open supply license.
