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.

I then found these fabulous 21-gauge glue syringes on Amazon. They’re perfect for painting just the right amount of silicone on the tip of the solenoid. They’re easy to use: pop the syringe open, squeeze a little (very little) silicone out of the tube into the syringe, touch the tip of the syringe ‘needle’ (really a thin metal tube) to the solenoid tip, then gently squeeze the syringe plunger as you paint the silicone onto the solenoid tip.

The photo below shows the result: a much smaller pad of silicone. I still have to experiment / adjust a bit: I thought I painted all the solenoids with about the same amount of silicone, but the chimes sound very different from each other. I suspect that I just have to be more careful about painting exactly the same amount of silicone on each solenoid.

Next I build a lid for the box.