Project Monday: Musical Gears

Dave Hrynkiw
June 10, 2013

Sometimes we get the opportunity to help out select people who are developing projects for a good cause. One of those things dear to our hearts is inspiring children with science and electronics. So when John Porter came to us looking for a hand to make a musical gear project as part of an exhibit at the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh, we threw him some of our support. John attends Carnegie Mellon University in the Masters of Science program, and was working with fellow classmates Daniel Pfaff and Arden Rosenblatt to make a project described as "the ‘Musical Gear’. A single powered gear would exist at the center of a table. Children would be able to place Musical Gears on the table and mate them to the powered gear. Sensors on the edge of the Musical Gear would be triggered by coming into contact with the other gears. This would cause the gear to produce a musical tone on an internal speaker. By building up a chain of gears, the child would be able to create a variety of musical beats while learning about motion transfer through gears."

They chose the Ardweeny as an ideal brain for the project - it proved to be compact and powerful enough to handle the behaviors they were after. "Once the brain of the Musical Gear was selected, the rest of the design quickly fell into place. It would be powered by a 9V battery through a linear voltage regulator. It would include the circuitry for a soft latch power switch so that it could turn itself off. A small audio amplifier was designed to boost the signal from the Ardweeny. We also selected a short range optical switch as the primary sensor on the gear, meaning there were no moving parts that could be broken."

"Exhibit deployment was a great success. The gears were robust enough that not even the hordes of children were able to destroy them. Unfortunately, however, the musical beats that we had envisioned did not come to fruition. Instead, it was three days of chaotic, incessant beeping. The kids really seemed to enjoy it, though, even if we weren’t creating the next Mozart. And while we enjoyed our exhibit as well, we were certainly glad to pull the batteries out at the end. Maybe the world isn’t quite ready for the Musical Gear yet."

John was kind enough to shoot and send some video our way which shows off what the gears looked like in motion as the kids played with them. I have to admit... I kind of really want to try it out myself.

If you'd like to know a bit more (and see a few more images), you can download a PDF right here that describes how the project was conceived and implemented. It's well worth the read, and looks like one of the more unique ways we've seen the Ardweeny put to use.

MORE POSTS

September 23, 2009
Makecation Judging

Well, my stint as Makezine's Soldering Makecation councellor is over. Last thing to do is go over the entries and pick some winners. See them here!

September 28, 2004
Robothon Success!

Congrats out to Grant, for bringing his "Ender's Wraith" to first place in the advanced mini-sumo category at last weekend's Seattle Robothon. We also picked up an award for "Most Unusual Robot" with our Turbot prototypes! Additional to that, a Solarbotics Sumovore ("Oops" by Kristina Miles) won the amateur mini-sumo category!

September 19, 2008
Yarrrr... 'Tis that time of Tide again, ...

If ye`re wonderin' what be goin' on at Solarbotics today, 'tis "Talk Like a Pirate Day". We`re big fans o' this holiday, so if ye want a 5% discount on yer order, call 't in an' TALK LIKE A SEAFARIN' HEARTY! Remember, ya gots to be talkin' like a an ol' scalwag to get the […]

November 21, 2012
Wednesday Cool Links

If I could choose a super power, I would pick the ability to erase people's memory. And lucky for me, I've just been granted a free wish from The Magic Taco. Get ready, everyone. Pew! Done! Whew, now we never have to write a new post again. Check out these "new" links we prepared for […]

Solarbotics Ltd Logo
Solarbotics has been operating for more than 25 years, bringing electronics know-how and supplies to both the electronics professional and hobbyist. We'll be happy to help you too!

Solarbotics, Ltd. is not responsible for misprints or errors on product prices or information. For more information, please see our Terms and Conditions.

Warning: This product contains chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm.
Please visit www.P65Warnings.ca.gov for more information. This item was manufactured prior to August 31, 2018.