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Generating truly random numbers appears to be impossible. It is, however, fairly easy to use a microcontroller to generate pseudo random numbers and then use them to display sounds and different colored lights. While the music that is generated is not exactly Beethoven, it is more interesting than you might expect. I would venture to say it is more pleasant to listen to than much of what they play on the radio these days. A music generator slightly better than this, may someday replace rock stars (I am hoping).
The fact that we cannot generate true random numbers has interesting implications which are considered in step 4.
pic 1 shows the music and light generator. It is 1.3"x2.3"x.8". It plays music over a two octave range through a built in 1" speaker. A surface mount RGB LED displays a range of colors below the speaker. It runs on a 1.5 volt AAA battery.
The fact that we cannot generate true random numbers has interesting implications which are considered in step 4.
pic 1 shows the music and light generator. It is 1.3"x2.3"x.8". It plays music over a two octave range through a built in 1" speaker. A surface mount RGB LED displays a range of colors below the speaker. It runs on a 1.5 volt AAA battery.
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Signing UpStep 1Music Generator Components
Pic 2 shows the random music generator top of circuit board.
Pic 3 shows the bottom of circuit board
You can see the liberal use of Liquid Tape to reduce the chance of shorting between the components.
MATERIALS
1.5 volt to 5 volt voltage converter:
http://www.bodhilabs.com/vpack5aaa1.html
08m Picaxe Microcontroller: http://www.hvwtech.com/
1 inch, 32 ohm speaker, LM-386 amplifier, switch, resistors, capacitors, .1" header sockets, RGB LED: http://www.mouser.com
On-off Switch, Plastic Case-1.3"x2.3"x.8" : http://www.jameco.com/
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Humor aside, I built an actual random number generator a while back. It uses a shielded particle detector to sample the impact of helium atoms originating from a radioactive source. The full engineering specifications are available at your request. If you want to try and prove your hypothesis that there is no randomness, I have just over 100 megabits of data you can have if you want.
I'd be happy to give it to you and let you see what you can find. That's science, right?
I'll be honest: I've already run extensive statistical tests on it and it passed every one I can throw at it. It's random so far as I can tell, as predicted by current knowledge of quantum physics.
Also: Praise Eris.
a Mac (hence MacAXEpad ) User
and
just tried to look at the code
receiving the message "error: loop without Do" message -
this happens with a lot of other PIcaxe script
which i downloaded too,
hence it must be me
who "does smthng wrong" -
may you please provide a hint
on this (for an absolute newbee)?
i look forward to your reply!
If you change loop: to loop1:
and change all instances of goto loop to goto loop1 that should solve the problem.
This program worked fine with the older picaxe programming software until the word "loop" became part of the command set in the newer programming software. So loop can no longer be used as a label unless you add additional numbers or letters to it.
but now the code gets stuck at ....
lookup b8,($20,$2 ....
.... telling me about syntax errors.
am a bit worried that eventhough i work myself through
whole script it's functionality might suffer from my corrections.
however and whatever remains:
such a shame they changed the syntax -
i like your project !
i need to teach myself/learn about the alterations
of the current script - and "translate" it.
thanks for you rreply
& have a great day!
but really, do you think this was the best place for this? I mean, this is instructables. and this was kind of jammed onto the end of an instructable. I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm saying that you probably could find other, more effective ways of sharing your faith.
If you have evidence that is independent of Nature and the Universe please share it with us.
By the way, the most effective way of sharing is to go where there is a need.
but yeah. that's what I mean by there's more evidence.
The best thing to do is test the ouput! NIST produces a decent randomness test suite (if such a thing can exist), though you'll need ~100 megabits of data.
http://csrc.nist.gov/groups/ST/toolkit/rng/index.html
was it bad. Oh no it was bad wasn'y it.?!!!
noob.