This robotic tongue drummer bangs out all of the ambient hits

In case you prefer to hearken to these “deep focus” soundtracks which are all ambient and enjoyable, then you definately’ve heard a tongue drum in motion. A tongue drum, or tank drum, is a novel percussion instrument historically constituted of an empty propane cylinder — although purpose-built fashions are actually widespread. A number of tongues are reduce into one finish cap and weighted to supply particular notes when struck. As with all devices, taking part in a tongue drum is an artwork. To simplify that, Jeremy Cook dinner constructed a robotic able to taking part in a small tongue drum.

When robotizing a percussion instrument, it is not uncommon to make use of solenoids and that’s what Cook dinner did right here. Solenoid actuators like these transfer linearly and may strike with fairly first rate drive, which makes them a good selection. Cook dinner’s drum has eight tongues, so his robotic has eight solenoids held by versatile friction arms mounted onto a C-shaped laser-cut MDF body. PVC pipes precise because the vertical structural helps on that body.

An Arduino Opta Lite micro PLC sends energy to the solenoids via an Arduino Professional Opta Ext D1608S solid-state relay growth module, which accommodates eight SSRs that may every deal with 24VDC at 2A.

To inform the robotic what tunes to play, Cook dinner added a MIDI enter that comes via an Opta-compatible I2C and serial adapter of his personal design. That adapter is offered on the market on Tindie if you would like one. 

The MIDI enter can come from a one thing like a keyboard for real-time handbook management, or it could possibly come from a PC for enjoying pre-written (or algorithm-generated) ambient hits. In case you attended the Orlando Maker Faire final 12 months, you could have had an opportunity to do this robotic tongue drummer for your self.