To start- this is a build thread starting halfway through this projects completion. Why? Because the first half has been in the works for nearly 2 years. Yeah, I know, ridiculous. I'm also trying this build thread thing again- on a previous forum I had a bad experience with this, so I'm hoping this goes over better here (I feel like a member here, not just some person...) Enough blabbering- first, an explanation. -------------------------------------------------- 2 years ago, my 2 year younger self saw his first video of a floppy drive playing music. I was flabbergasted- music from a device not designed to play music and without speakers? Wow. So, I began trying to figure this out. The original guy had a setup running BEos and some proprietary floppy drive drivers that allowed for control over the STEP and DIR pins, to control the read head (and the stepper attached to it)... What a mess. Too much software, cables and ack, I was unable to do it at that time. Fast forward 1 year, and someone has developed some Java software and Arduino code for the exact same goal, but with much better results- up to 8 drives, and a very simple setup. So, I began work. -------------------------------------------------- The setup I currently have works as follows- -NetBeans IDE is started on the host PC, and the uncompiled java app for controlling the Arduino is executed. -The Arduino (Uno or Duemilanove) is hooked up to the PC -The drives are hooked up to the Arduino via 4 pins on the floppy data port (IDE)- STEP, DIR and their corresponding ground pins. -A midi file following certain guidelines is selected in the java app, and run through it. It sends the notes and the channels to the drives, and each drive plays the corresponding channel and the notes in it. -Music is made with a very unique sound... It's been done before, but often it's been small, complicated setups. I plan to change all that and mod it all into a case for mobile transportation. Oh yeah, and I'm putting in a scanner alongside floppy drives. Why scanners and floppies? Well, consider this- the part that makes the tones is the read head, which has a certain length before it must reverse direction- therefore marring long notes. They also have issues playing high notes, as the head moves faster at high speeds (and so it just flies up and down the read area). Scanners have a long stepping path, and a better ability to play high notes. tl;dr floppies play short, deep notes; scanners play long, high notes. --------------------------------------------------- On to the build! Materials used- -brushed aluminum found off an old PC case (and cut to shape)- a foundation to mount everything to. -A Sony Video8 camera case with the hot-glued innards ripped out -a very small 170 watt computer power supply and several floppy drive power adapters -6 floppy drives (3.5") -Arduino Uno -Lots of cables Material going to be used -Canon LiDE 40 scanner (slim, USB powered) -more brushed aluminum for good looks. Currently, it looks like this Outside case Power cable plug (horrible cutting job :very_drunk internals (and laser cat on the side...) Powered and ready to play The scanner will be coming in soon, but not without a fair bit of trouble first. I'm having an issue with it not wanting to work. Because scanners do not have dedicated STEP and DIR pins, I need to open it up, solder wire directly to the stepper motor and use an external stepper driver. I WAS using an EasyDriver v4.4, until it caught fire (faulty unit). So, I now need to go out, buy a new one and hook it up AGAIN and test to make sure it works. THEN I need to modify the Arduino code to allow for a longer step length (much longer than the default floppy step length). Things I'm considering to do- -Add in an LCD panel in the back to display an image related to the current song -hook up the scanner lights to the Arduino board to display I/O info. There is an LED on board that flashes every time a note is played on any drive, so I was planning to have the same thing but on the scanner. Will post updates weekly, if all goes as planned. For now, enjoy some videos I recorded before I shoved it all into a case. In the videos it's being supported by 3 gamecubes! Flight of the Bumblebee https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5b1_K3snPU Day Tripper (The Beatles) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kjV_sTwakM Eleanor Rigby (The Beatles) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbZ-CnHZE8Q Tetris https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Q-9IRjEYuE Hopefully you found this interesting?
It's awesome. If you can if you are recording with a camera with a fixed microphone, maybe adjust the angle until the audio is more direct/louder.
Hehehe, I'm recording videos with my phone... I plan to get myself a good couple of microphones and an audio interface, and just use that along with the phone for video.
Just adding info that I'm now having some serious issues hooking up an EasyDriver- anyone have experience with these things? I'm not 100% sure I'm hooking it up right.
Small update: scanner purchased and fitted into case. Near perfect fit, but it doesn't fit two of them stacked like I hoped it would. Darn. Still don't have the time to go out and buy the EasyDriver. Welp, a photo.
