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Pedal Powered Synth Process and Final
Here is some final documentation of my building process.
Testing the circuit:
Building Process:
My first prototype was made of scrap 3/4 plywood. I used the CNC Router to do a test cut of my gears. The rest was thrown together with any available wood and screws.
Moving on from the prototype I designed a two level box to house my coils. The coils themselves remained in their packaging. I soldered the leads to wire and cut acrylic tubes to size and added rubber end stoppers to house the neodymium magnets.
After staining the wood to a walnut color and drilling holes for all my wire I gave my box a tolex covering:
I also created a separate housing for my soldered bridge rectifier circuit:
This circuit uses a series of bridge rectifiers to convert the alternating current (AC) of my coils to direct current (DC):
The beginnings of the synth circuit and interface:
Look closely to see the synth circuit, the optional capacitor circuit, and the bridge rectifiers. Springs are mounted to the box.
The synthesizer circuit consists of 3 integrated circuits (IC) in series.
The 74C14N oscillator provides input for the CD4093 which in turn becomes the input for the CD4040 
Using the CNC I cut my pedal, baseboard, and under pedal connectors from 1/2 inch plywood. I put sleeve bearings through all bores that house moving parts, and shaft collars to help keep moving parts in alignment.
CNC cut box to house the synth: Note the massive scratch, an error in either CNC file setup or in zeroing the CNC. Luckily for me this error is cosmetic and will be covered up.
I also added an acrylic cover to my coil box
Synth circuit soldered and mounted to the faceplate
Synth with tolex exterior and laser cut luan face plate. Buttons were numbered to match the outputs of my CD4040 IC:
Final assembly
Power inputs for the synth and the mounted speaker
Switches for the Pedal’s capacitors
Speaker power source switch
Outputs for Headphones and speakers. A switch to alternate between the outputs
Tone buttons for the 4040 chip
Photo-resistor & “GLITCH” switch controlling my 4093 IC. Oscillator Potentiometer controlling the 7414C IC. Mounted speaker.
Watch it go!
Pedal Synth Presentation
Here is my presentation for my Pedal Powered Synthesizer
(skip to the end for circuit drawings and stats)
Pedal Synth Presentation Outline
For the presentation accompanying my Pedal Synth I am thinking about briefly discussing the following points and giving a demonstration of the machine.
1. Goal: Make something electronic, easy to play, portable, and fun.
2. Influences: What has influenced my decision to make this instrument:
- Folk music, punk music
- Common thread: DIY. Pick it up. Do it yourself. Make a sound. Anyone can do it.
- Electronic Music: Even easier to pick up and get started. Push a button make a sound. Infinite possibilities (hacking, algorithms, sampling, internet)
- DIY Electronics Music: Still highly dependent on power.
3. My instrument: Hybrid of energy generation/ transfer and immediate sound production
- mechanics
- components
- materials
- circuits
- energy generated & consumed
4. Demo / performance
Functional Prototype
My Geared Pedal Mechanism Works! The circuit is generating sound and power, however I am still connected to an external amplifier and need more power to drive my speakers.
CNC Project: Pachinko Decision Maker
Using our CNC router I designed a miniature pachinko game made out of 3/4 inch plywood. The first iteration of this design was pocketed out with with a large bit which caused many of the pegs to rip off.
For the second iteration I redesigned the peg shape and layout. I also stained the plywood and used the laser cutter to etch and cut a face plate to hold in our steel balls and mark the terminals. I decided to go with the mechanism of decision making instead of the usual points system found on most of these types of games
First Laser Project: Chore Wheel
For the laser cutter assignment I decided to make a chore wheel for my house. The wheel is made of laser cut and laser etched luan plywood and acrylic (plexiglas) and it has three layers: one with the names of each of each housemate, one with daily chores, and one with weekly chores.
The first iteration of the wheel was designed to to have a peg and lock system to prevent the three layers from sliding. But after getting a feel for the system it seemed unnecessary.
The final iteration is pressed together with the middle screw.
1st Iteration:
Final Iteration:
Power & Sound
My 3 coils collectively generate enough power to create musical expressions with the “pedal” motion and sustain sound after a few pumps.
Synthesizer Oscillator Tests
Below are a few of my first experiments with using a Hex Schmitt Inverter (IC 74C14) to make my simple synth circuit. For my generator I alternated between testing with copper wire and magnets and using a wall plug variable power supply that has settings for 3, 4.5, 6, 9, and 12 volts each at 1 amp. Most of the experiments using the plug-in supply were using the 3 and 4.5 volt settings.
D.I.Y. Home Monitoring: Final Comm Lab Web Project
For my web final I created the beginnings of a D.I.Y. home monitoring system.
The current version of the project can be viewed here
I wanted to create something that would allow me to monitor over the web whether my doors were open or not.
The project uses an Arduino Uno and an Arduino Ethernet shield to read homemade switches and send that information to my server. The server then uses ruby to analyze the data and display whether or not my doors are open.
The Arduino reads the switches and displays a green light when my “doors” are closed and a red light when they are open.
The Ethernet shield then uses an HTTP post protocol to send the correct information to my website, which then displays the state of the switches
For debugging and troubleshooting purposes the site also has an admin page (for manually entering information) and a history page to view all the updates sent from the Arduino at once.
Considerations / Next steps:
The next goal for me would be to utilize web sockets instead of a timed refresh to get instant readings. I would also like to connect the Arduino wirelessly and maybe use reed or magnetic switches if i were to actually apply this to my doors. I would also want to create a page for statistics (when was the door last open/ closed? have the doors been open or close and any irregular times? how long was the door open when it was last open? etc..). And ideally I would like to make either a time based alert system that would send a message to me and the other people in my household when the door has been open for too long, or a or user based alert system that would allow someone checking the site to send a text or email from the browser to the residents.