Programmable Knex Piano-Playing Robot

I've always been a big fan of K'nex, ever since I was a little kid. Then, when I discovered this website, I felt like I had hit the jackpot. This is a "robot" that I built out of knex, it's designed to play the piano. This version can play up to a 16 note sequence in a 12 note range. I call it "Zeeanobot" (Zach's Piano Robot), corny, I know, but I couldn't think of a better name. I spent a lot of time on this, and I'm very proud of it, so please be nice. Just to be clear, I have not tried it on a real piano, I built it to play my Yamaha DGX-230. You may need to modify the design slightly to get it to work on real pianos or other keyboards.

Please note that this is my first real instructable, so I'd appreciate any constructive criticism. Thanks. (So far the response has been mostly positive, so thanks everybody! I put a lot of work into designing and building this so I'm very proud of it. I'm glad you like it too.)

The first video is a mechanical view of Zeeanobot, showing how it works.



The second video is Zeeanobot playing a simple proof of concept song.



The third video is a duet of Katy Perry's "Hot and Cold". Ignore the errors on my part, they're not the point.



The final video is a duet of "Heart and Soul".

Step 1: Materials

Materials Required:

Rods:

6 x Black Rods
25 x White Rods
100 x Blue Rods
104 x Yellow Rods
23 x Gray Rods

Connectors:

20 x Gray 1-Prongs
60 x Gray 2-Prongs
4 x Brown 2-Prongs
41 x Red 3-Prongs
28 x Interlocking Gray 4-Prongs
1 x Green 4-Prongs
54 x Yellow 5-Prongs
20 x Interlocking Blue 7-Prongs
18 x White 8-Prongs

Miscellaneous:

63 x Blue Spacers
48 x Gray Spacers
2 x Small Blue Gears
8 x Medium Red Gears
2 x Big Black Gears
48 x Chain Links
37 x Tan Clips
1 x Motor
1 x Piano (Optional)

Comments

[KGuy]

I'm probably the first comment you've had in a while.........................................can you use the smaller chain links? I'm all out of regular.

[KILLERK]

GRENADE!

[freakyqwerty]

And that is realated to this instructable in which way other than its knex?

[Atalung]

It makes noise?

[freakyqwerty]

S'pose so…
Still pretty unrelated :^/

[GASSYPOOTS]

if u trow a real grenade at them i bet they both explode XD

[Superben51]

am i the only one kidda scared about this?

[~KnexBuild~]

Cool Mech, 5 stars

[hunter999]

It is very good u should be proud, may i ask how long did it take to make

[plysaxaphone]

It's hard to say. I worked on it a little bit at a time over the course of several months. But thanks, I am proud of it.

[Atalung]

I'm going to try and make it (a modified design) in under 48 hours, I think i can.

[brammeke11]

 Sry for the double post but do you play the saxophone?

[plysaxaphone]

Yes I do, as well as the piano and the viola.

[brammeke11]

Viola?! Nice

I play the sax to. I have have alt, tenor and a bari. =D

[fartnocker]

 Bassoon!!!!! get some!!!!

[Azayles]

[99igo]

finaly a cool instrument i play

[evanwehrer]

 lol!

[brammeke11]

 lol

[ajleece]

I really like this! I want one!
If only it was a bit more in time.. Haha

[rustymia]

i would like to build this exept i only have 6 red gears do you no any way i could make it work? Great instructable 5*

[plysaxaphone]

You can build just one of the modules(hands), but you'll only have a 6 note range. To do that you only need 4 red gears.

[PikminRed]

I love it! That's the same concept of a music box! the cylinder spins, with its little prongs making the noise. this spins, having the prongs push up a rod, pressing buttons. Great idea!

[joey99]

were are the videos?

[wertywaster]

AMAZING!!!

[rexdino5]

This is very awesome! It is one of the best K'nex models I have seen.

[Merugop]

 Brilliant just Brilliant 5* dude i sub too. 

[27ace27]

Oh, I get it! the white connectors rotate continuously, and then the small green rods strike the fingers, thus playing the song! Genius! simple too, I would've tried to put a motor on each and every finger. my brain has a hard time comprehending "simple" ;) BTW, I love knex too! check out my knex lemonade machine instructable, I know it's not finished, but the drawings could give someone some ideas. and maybe you could make another model with a larger diameter drum so it can store more notes. And check this out, its the merging of my two favorite hobbies! (and yes it's my vid)

[Benthomash]

Is that steam powered? The piano player work basic the same way the chimes on a Grandfather Clock do. I have to agree that  K'nexs are great for build mechanical things. I have made a drag saw, a crawler, and model of an internal combustion engine, a pendulum clock, and a distrubuter.

[27ace27]

is what steam powered? the chairswing=-yes, the piano playing robot-it probably could be, but I'll let the author answer that question.

[Benthomash]

Where did you get the steam engine?

[27ace27]

Ebay! I get all of my engines from ebay. here is my website showing most of my engines; http://thesteamchest.yolasite.com/ chack back more during the summer as I will do some major updating.

[TheFoofinator]

 Guess what my two favourite hobbies are? Teh same ones as yours!  I have a mamod sp4 and  the mamod car (in green), my sp4's piston exploded in my brother's face it was the funniest reaction I have ever seen in my life!

[27ace27]

Cool! lol, so the piston literally exploded, or did it just shoot off?

[TheFoofinator]

 Well it popped off, but the crank rod snapped in half because it was still attached to the crank

[27ace27]

oh dear! I trust it works now?

[TheFoofinator]

 Yep just bought a new crank rod and bolted the cylinder bak on

[27ace27]

nice! BTW, be on the looks out for the knex lemonade machine MKIII, preliminary tests are all good!

[David97]

I am acualy building a steam engine myself. it teams to have alot of power for a boiler that size. What is the size of the cylinder?

[27ace27]

I'm not sure how big the cylinder is, I'm sure a quick google search for Wilesco D10 would turn up some results, though. On another note, I apologise to the auothor of this 'ible for hijaking his comments box. If anyone has a comment or question for me, please email me instead of cluttering up this thread with more comments unrelated to this 'ible.