Another video!

Hey,

This makes me so happy! It has taken me 5 months to get to this place (trial and error and waiting for parts) but I have finally got somewhere really promising!



This is 8 solenoids rigged up to a vibraphone (bit of a bodge rig but hey!) and it is being sent data through the Arduino, through the circuit, to the solenoids. All using Pure Data!

The patch is using a monome patch, and it works really well!

Thanks for reading!

Logo!

Hey,

So I made a little logo type thing for my work, I made it out of a breadboard and some random electronics equipment...



It does the job!

A video!

Hey!

Here is video footage of 3 solenoids operating on a vibraphone on a simple tone-row using Pure Data!



I am very happy that this is working, expect more to come! With more solenoids!

I've made it!

At last!

I have finally made it, this circuit runs 8 solenoids of mains power! I purchased a 10-way guitar pedal power supply and the circuit all runs of that!



I ripped the ends of all the power leads and soldered jumper cables on the end of them as so...



Be warned this is very dangerous, do NOT touch the ends while power is running through, exercise caution when using the circuit.

I also soldered some jumper cables together to get extra length like this...



Thanks for reading!

Another update!

Ahoy,

So I stumbled across these fine circuit board in college that would allow me to run 4 lines of power through ergo, 4 solenoids!
Furthermore I found two!
I made this circuit...


This circuit is running 3 solenoids at the moment, more later!

Update!

Hello all,

I thought I had cracked it when my ordered parts came through the post, I wire up this circuit and was planning to run everything of 9V batteries...


Unfortunately this was not too be, the main reason being that this breadboard is not suitable for 8 solenoids as it is only split into two parts, meaning I can only run two lines of power through which would not be enough. Also the 9v battery packs would eventually run out and it would start to be costly.

Solenoid Beat

Hey!

I have made more progress with the solenoids, I have got them doing individual hits using Ableton Live and Pure Data.


This is only the start of doing beat based exercises but it is still good progress, enjoy!

They're only working!

Hey thar,

So, I got my solenoids from Greenweld Electronics for a great price, but I have encountered several problems in getting the process to where it is today!

I had an issue with the plunger, in that, there was no plunger supplied, however I have figured out another way which you will see, which just shows the rod being used as a plunger.

As you will see in the video below, that spring is hooked to the rod that inserts into the solenoid itself. I attached it using an M3 screw an a suitable washer.

I encountered more problems as the Arduino can only kick out so much power, I had to order in some other parts such as resistors and transistors and also 9v battery boxes to power them.

Here is a picture of the circuit they are working off at the moment.

There it is in all it's glory, that is currently two solenoids running of that bread board both with sperate battery packs.

Onto the interesting bit...

There it is! Doing what it should, this is incredibly exciting and I am so happy to have got these working. I am hoping that tomorrow (Friday 10th March) I can get at least 4 working, so I can then control them individually and get them to do some interesting rhythms using Ableton!

Sorry for the long post, if you made it this far, kudos, and thank you!

This is going to be so rad.

Pure Data and Arduino's

Hey!
So, I have been getting an Arduino hooked up to my computer, not much exciting going on yet, however I did accomplish this before Christmas break.

On this breadboard, there are two buttons side by side shown on the left, which just input messages on/off etc... then the strange looking part on the right is a pot, like the ones found on guitars.

Although these are simple components, I still had thoughts about what they could do, for instance the buttons could trigger beat slicers in PD and the pot could be something as simple as the amount of a delay effect. That's just how this process works, it is ongoing and building on top of what you have done already, even in these early stages.

The work I will be doing this week and next week will all be towards a Lecture Recital in which we have to demonstrate and present an area of technology we touched upon last term, mine being Arduino technology of course.
What I am planning is a standard powerpoint with some video screen dumps.
Then to demonstrate the Arduino stuff I am probably going to use LDR's (Light Dependant Resistor, and I am sure you all have learn't about them in school) to control a sound of some rad experimental music!



Thanks for reading! Any questions/feedback will be appreciated! Another post will follow this soon, containing a video, how exciting!