Twitter Drummer

From Hackypedia

[edit] Idea

A device which plays rhythms on actual percussion instruments, and responds to Twitter messages.

[edit] Hardware

The physical device consists of four solenoids (salvaged from HP laser printers) with 'drumsticks' which actually hit the instruments. These are driven from a 24V transformer (salvaged from a Canon printer), and controlled by an Arduino through a transistor interface.

The instruments consist of a cowbell, two bongos, and a larger drum.

Eventually there will also be an Ethernet shield to read Twitter.

Currently the electronics work, they just need a rig making to hold the solenoids where they can actually hit the instruments.

[edit] Software

Currently, the Arduino sketch holds the rhythm to be played as a string of 16 hexadecimal nybbles, each representing one semiquaver, with each instrument as one bit.

Arduino sketch to follow - soon!