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
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.
