The TapeScape Audio Robot
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introThe TapeScape Audio Robot
It seems to me that if you're of at least drinking age, you've got an
old tape deck and a box full of old cassettes collecting dust somewhere
in your house These audio artifacts of yesteryear have been eclipsed
many times over, but for some reason so many of us can't seem to part
with these old treasures. We decided to give them new life by creating
TapeScape and the BoomBot. Now this obsolete media can be re-used and
given new life instead of ending up in the garbage.
The idea was to make a robot almost entirely out of tape player parts, and mounting a tape head that continually drags itself over a flat field covered in audio tape (the TapeScape). So you're not playing a tape, you're playing on a tape. The resulting audio output is a glitchy sound experience with enormous opportunity for creative expression.
Check out how it was done.
Materials:
-Old boombox
-2 Servos
-XBee
-Discarded Chalk Board
-Rubber Bands
-Anchor Bolts
-Audio Preamplifier
-Twine
-FM Transmitter
-Rubber Washers
-Audio Cassettes. Lots of em!
The idea was to make a robot almost entirely out of tape player parts, and mounting a tape head that continually drags itself over a flat field covered in audio tape (the TapeScape). So you're not playing a tape, you're playing on a tape. The resulting audio output is a glitchy sound experience with enormous opportunity for creative expression.
Check out how it was done.
Materials:
-Old boombox
-2 Servos
-XBee
-Discarded Chalk Board
-Rubber Bands
-Anchor Bolts
-Audio Preamplifier
-Twine
-FM Transmitter
-Rubber Washers
-Audio Cassettes. Lots of em!
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step 1
Make the TapeScape....Just pick some old tapes that you never quite cared for (your Mom's old Aerobics workout tapes, Raffi, have some fun with it). Find a nice big flat …
step 2The Sacrificial BoomBox
This one here was an oldie but a goodie. A GE AM/FM Stereo Radio Dual Cassette Recorder Model # 3-5635A. After loosening no less than a dozen screws, we entered the mechani…
step 3Simply Fold in Half
The assembly was cut into three pieces- one holding the motor, and two with the tape player mechanisms. All other accoutrements were stripped. We were lucky to have frames…
step 4Usurp the Governors
Some things that are handy and useful in a tape player are quite the opposite in a robot that needs to roll around. Wasn't it neat how when you played a tape and it got to …
step 5Givin' It Juice
Sometimes it can be daunting to open up a piece of electronics equipment and find gadzillions of diodes, transistors, capacitransforminometeriodes etc. But its great to ju…
step 6Rollin'...Rollin'...Rollin' on a TapeScape
In the spirit of the project, how could we not build wheels from tape spools?Seems like this would be one of the simplest steps, right? But you'd be amazed at the complicat…
step 7Mount the Head
Since the tape head has to remain in contact with the TapeScape to generate sound, some very careful measuring was done to get it just so. The tape head already convenientl…
step 8Pump Up the Volume
Next we had to get the TapeScape sound out to the world. The first idea was to take the speaker from the boombox and mount it on the robot itself, but once we tried this it…
step 9Making it Autonomous
The eventual plan for the TapeScape Robot is to make it remote-controlled. We knew servos would be needed, but mashing down those heavy buttons was a real head scratcher, s…
step 10Now Play With It!
Just another happy kid enjoying a toy made from retro junk. (Ilan's son, Ouri)
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 | May 28, 2009. 2:51 PMoliver1986
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 | Apr 21, 2009. 12:40 AMSparkington
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 | Apr 21, 2009. 3:04 AMPlayPatterns (author)
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| Apr 21, 2009. 10:37 PMfarthernick
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| Apr 21, 2009. 2:02 PMbuggityboo
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