Now that the control buttons are in the circuit, I’ve tamed the clanking noise of the Robotic Glockenspiel! Hear it in this YouTube video.
In an earlier post I mentioned that I’d used a tube of silicone to put a drop of silicone on each solenoid, to reduce the loud ‘clank’ when the solenoid strikes the chime. I found out that a drop of silicone is way too much: the chimes hardly sounded at all.
Continue reading Silicone Pads Make a Lovely SoundSince my last post about the glockenspiel, I’ve been taking a vacation from my vacation (aka working). Today I turned back to the glockenspiel and wired up the first of the 5 lighted switches.
Continue reading The First Switch is InIn my previous post, I started putting the glockenspiel case together. Now I’ve bolted the glockenspiel harp and circuit boards into the base of the box, and temporarily mounted the handles and buttons. I still need to wire up the buttons.
Continue reading It’s All in the Box (Except for the Buttons)In my previous post, the robotic glockenspiel played its first tune. This post is an update on transcribing more tunes.
Continue reading Robotic Glockenspiel Now Plays 17 CarolsYup, it plays the Somerset Wassail!
It still needs a set of pushbutton controls and a wooden case, but it’s finished enough to play tunes.
Here’s the story since my previous post:
Continue reading The Robotic Glockenspiel Plays “Somerset Wassail”In my previous post, I crashed and burned with a glockenspiel frame that slipped while gluing. This post covers the version two, working frame.
Ok, it’s not robotic yet, but I now have a manually-playable, octave-and-a-fourth glockenspiel made from 1/2″ EMT conduit.
Continue reading My DIY Glockenspiel Works!In an earlier post I tuned the chimes. In this post, I find one way not to make a frame for those chimes.
I created the frame for the glockenspiel, with a square frame on the outside so that I could mark the inner part of the frame with 1″ lines, one per chime.
Continue reading If At First You Don’t Succeed…After a few weeks of experimentation, I think I can now write sensible notes on how to cut and tune the chimes for a glockenspiel (metal xylophone) out of metal conduit. This is the first step of my Robotic Glockenspiel project, which I hope to end with a network-connected, Arduino-controlled set of chimes that can play Christmas carols.
Continue reading Cutting and Tuning Robotic Glockenspiel Chimes
