Arduino Controlled Bell Tower/Carillon

This is a set of musical bells which are driven by solenoids and controlled by an Arduino microcontroller.

There are 8 bells covering one octave.

The bells are controllable from a PC, or the tower can stand alone and play pre-programmed melodies.

Check out the final page for video of it in action.

Step 1 Parts

The following parts were used:

1 set of chromatic handbells. I got these from my local Aldi for $20. They span the range from C to C. (I.e. c,d,e,f,g,A,B,C).

Wood panel & brackets to hold the bells and solenoids in place. $10.

8 Solenoids to strike the bells. I had these laying around in my junk box. I got them from a typewriter repairman who was throwing them away. You can probably find similar on Ebay.

Arudino microcontroller. ~$45. I got mine from SparkFun electronics.

Proto/Perf board & misc components to make my custom 'shield' for the arduino. $10.

Darlington driver board. I used one I had laying around, but I believe they're not sold separately. Should be possible to make it using the ULN2803 chip for a couple of dollars.

Comments

[robotmaker123]

i use those bells in music class

[DIY-Guy]

Handbell choir in a box! Can we do wind chimes with these too?

[02.anand.m]

It is a nice one. why can't u do interfacing using Processing?http://www.processing.org.

[mechatronics]

Thanks for the comments!

Threebean, I got the board here from Softmark. It came as an addon board from a USB PIO kit, but unfortunately I don't think they sell them separately.

I think I'll have to raid the bargain stores for cheap music books like PKM suggests.

[RaisedByRobots]

those bells are cool. I wish I could get some

[PKM]

I'm pretty sure the Futurama theme has sharps in it so you probably can't play it on your setup as it is at the moment. I recommend hitting the charity shops for a children's "I can play t3h piano" book of simple "white notes only" tunes, or maybe getting more bells! You could always get a box of cheap wine glasses and some water.. :P

[threebean]

Just out of curiosity, where did you get that darlington array board. That looks like it would be handy to have. Thanks!

[AndyGadget]

I like this. How about a simplified version omitting the Arduino, using the PC's parallel port instead. You can also pull 5v from this.
I don't know about Futurama but "Over the Rainbow" fits into one octave. (I worked it out for a kalimba .)

[alex-sharetskiy]

Awesome indeed!

[falafelcakes]

This is awesome! Now I just need to learn Arduino...