Blinking, Singing, Marioman

Use an attiny13a, two LEDs and a greeting card speaker to create a blinking Marioman that plays the Super Mario Brothers theme song.

This can be an easy low-cost project for anyone who is looking for a fun way to break into AVR programming!

The notes of the songs are generated by a square wave outputted on a single pin of the AVR microcontroller. The LEDs that alternate on each note are connected to 2 pins each of the same chip.

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Step 1: Materials and Contruction

1 attiny13a

http://www.mouser.com/Search/ProductDetail.aspx?qs=sGAEpiMZZMvu0Nwh4cA1wRKJzS2Lmyk%252bEP0e%2f7dEeq0%3d
Cost: $1.40

2 LEDs - any LEDs will do
1 lithium coin cell battery

http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=338
Cost: $2.00

1 coin cell holder

http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=8822
Cost: $1.25

1 small speaker from a musical greeting card

Total cost of materials ~ $5

The two LEDs were attached directly to two pins each of the attiny13A.
Two pins are used for each LED, the second pin is set low to use as a ground connection.

The current limit of the I/O pins on the AVR will prevent the LEDs from drawing too much so a resistor is not necessary to connect in series.

The speaker used is typical of one found in a musical greeting card, any small speaker will do, given that this is outputting a square wave tone, it's not too important to worry about driving the speaker or sound quality.

geeklord says: Sep 7, 2009. 7:32 PM

Made one a little earlier today, and its pretty sweet. Just wondering, how on earth did you get all those numbers for the frequency, length, and delay arrays?? That would have taken me forever, even with sheet music or something.

geeklord says: Jul 30, 2009. 7:52 AM

Any links for where I can get one of the little mushrooms?