Concept:
Multi-use string instrument
Materials:
-Hanging Wire
-Regular wire
-Blocks on wood
-Metal fasteners
-Wood screws
-Brass squared pipe
Week 2 Assignment:
Recording sounds with piezo
Week 3 Assignment
Recording a beat with DIY instrument and piezo.
Final Project Proposal
After watching this video on Instagram, I decided to try to create an instrument using Arduino coding and hardware that would react to light. Ideally, the instrument would have 3 notes or chords and they would play when light is shined on the sensor.
Final Project Progress
For the next parts of this project I followed the steps of this Instructables tutorial. https://www.instructables.com/Illumaphone-Light-based-Electronic-Musical-Instrum/
As the first step into the final project, I had to quickly learn how to use photoresistors with my Arduino Uno board. The tutorial wasn't very clear on how to connect the photo resistors to the board so with a little help from google and youtube I managed to get the project going.
After connecting the first photoresistor, I uploaded a test code that can be found in the Instructables tutorial to see if it was properly working. By opening the Serial Plotter in the Arduino software, I could see how the sensor was reacting to light and shadow.
The next steps consisted of following this same connection method but multiplied by six new photoresistors. These six sensors will allow my instrument to play six different notes.
With every new sensor plugged into the board I checked with the serial plotter to see whether it was working or not. Once the final code is uploaded, every sensor should react independently from one another. This can be checked by looking at the serial plotter in the Arduino Software.
The next step would consist of downloading a program called ChuK in order to assign the musical notes to each sensor. The code for this program can also be found in the Instructables tutorial.
Final Project Assembly
So in order to have 6 separate keys, I first cut 6 pieces of PVC tubing. This helps with filtering out light from the sensor itself. I then lightly sanded the ends of the tubes to have a nice smooth surface to glue later.
After cutting the PVC tubes, I made a PVC box and drilled tiny holes in it to put the sensors through. I put them through and glued them to box using hot glue. I later glued the PVC tubes to cover each of the sensors.
I later flipped the box, and started rewiring the sensors in order to reconnect them to the Arduino board. I had to solder longer wires to the tips of the sensors in order to have enough cable to reach the board itself. Once the cables are soldered, I hot glued the Arduino to the inside of the box and reconnected the sensors to the board. Finally, I drilled a hole side of the box in order to pass the USB power cable through and connect it to my computer.
Final Illumaphone Image
