Just like Tom Thumb's Blues

a quick overview of tiny projects from the past month or so. some pieces are proprietary, so none are captioned. 
a laser was involved.

Digital Pianomophone debuts at CIF Open House

The crack team of radical fabricators and zazz technicians debuted the Digital Pianomophone on Saturday at the Columbus Idea Foundry Open House.
Those responsible: Michael Newman (Engineering OSU), Matthew Bowman (here, elsewhere), Alexander Bandar (www.HandMadeByRobots.com, Director, CIF), Mike Schoenborn (COSI), and Andrew Rahman (andrewrahman.bandcamp.com/).


The Pianomophone operates via a micro controller that fires the solenoids, pitch and timing assigned by ultrasonic sensors located in the gallery, key of C minor.


Jessica Francis took this photo during the opening

s/l on the Buddha Den

long-time co-conspirators Don Thrasher and Kyle Melton flatter s/l for a moment at Buddha Den

http://thebuddhaden.net/2011/01/21/squelch-latency/

The Digital Pianomophone

The Digital Pianomophone is a collaborative project being prepared for the opening of the Columbus Idea Foundry on Jan 22.  www.ColumbusIdeaFoundry.com The spinet piano has been armed with solenoids to play notes in a C min scale activated by hidden sensors in the facility. 

Attendees will move through the space, "playing" the piano.

Michael Newman, Matthew S. Bowman      Concept, Design, Mechanics

Dr. Alexander Bandar     Concept, Programming, Philanthropy 

Mike Schoenborn      Circuit Design, Programming

Andrew Rahman      Musical Pre-Arrangement

Several photos and two videos follow in this post, but a thorough documentation of the project will be compiled after the opening.

We started with the basic piano modification tools, soon to be a kit available for sale.

Solenoids mounted on a polycarbonate armature, machined by Columbus CNC www.columbuscnc.com

 There is approximately .1" between solenoids for the upper linkages to pass through to the keys

It works this damn well.

this will be explained later

 this is the rocket we helped build right before dinner on Saturday.

tons of wire, solder

 All mechanicals in place, wiring harnesses, MOSEFT control board, Arduino Mega

Keys fire from independent sensors

The Columbus Idea Foundry will hold its open house on January 22, 2011. Visit their site (link above) to RSVP.