Introduction: Make an "Air" Drum Kit With Curie
Hi all,
I really like the Freedrum project and decide to do it on my own.
Below is a step by step guide, modified from the VO in the video. By the way, VO is an AI voice, made by Amazon Polly, which speaks in a English accent better than mine :D
If any questions, please feel free to comment below or contact us!
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Step 1: Get All Things Ready
You will need:
- Curie Nano board (Arduino101 can also do the trick, but it is too big for this project.)
- a 3.7V lithium battery
- a Velcro SD card module
- SD card
- SD card reader
- a drum stick
Step 2: Preparation
You should:
- Solder the pin header to the Curie Nano
- Insert the SD card into the SD card module
- Connect the SD card module to the Curie Nano
- Connect lithium battery to the Curie Nano
- Put them on the drum stick with Velcro
Step 3: Data Collection
Do some motions to let Curie identify.
Data from Curie IMU will be automatically stored into the SD card.
Step 4: Data Pre-processing
- Remove the SD card
- Insert the SD card into the SD card reader
- Insert it into the computer
- Open the motions data stored on the SD card with excel, generate a line graph, truncate the unstable waveform of the front end and the smooth line between each two waveforms, and the last invalid data
- Save the file!!!!
The pre-processed data will be put into QriNeuronPipeline - a feature extraction software by Maker Collider. Then generate several new csv files into the SD card.
Step 5: Curie Learning
Unplug the SD card and insert the SD card module again.
Curie will read the data from SD card and start learning!
Step 6: Pair With IPad/iPhone
- Open the GarageBand application on iPad or iPhone
- Choose Bluetooth MIDI Devices Item in Advanced Settings, and choose Curie to pair.
Now, you are ready to play the "Air" Drum Kit!
Enjoy the beat! :)

Participated in the
Microcontroller Contest 2017
11 Comments
6 years ago
For those who are looking for code and other detailed instructions for above project, please find the complete guide here:
http://cnk.makercollider.com/blog/complete-guide-f...
Reply 4 years ago
Hi
the cnk.makercollider.com site is not available anymore, do you have some code to share?
Thanks a lot
5 years ago
li liked freedrum till i met aerodrum you might check for that it's incredible... now im looking for an instructable for that
5 years ago
In air drum kit project after using neurons files and connecting to the iPad it is unable to recognize the pattern as shown on your tutorial video. Could you please help? working on my grad project.
6 years ago
Hi! Very nice project! Is possibile to replace the Curie board with normal nano board + 3 axis sensor? Thanks
Reply 6 years ago
Hello! The reason we used Curie for this project is because it has some neuron network abilities so as to deduce the length of code required for making the project work. You can access the code part for this project in this link: http://cnk.makercollider.com/blog/complete-guide-...(We just released it yesterday for tutorial translation took us a long time.)
6 years ago
Can this be made to play a different types of drum beats? Like a cymbal and drum?
Does that wiring come with the Curie?
Reply 6 years ago
Yes. You can select different types of sound on App to connect so your gesture can trigger different types of sound. The wiring doesn't come with CurieNano itself, some soldering is needed.
You can click below link to access the missing code part.
http://cnk.makercollider.com/blog/complete-guide-f...
6 years ago
I can't find anyome that has the NanoCurie in stock?
Reply 6 years ago
We bought the board in DFRobot https://www.dfrobot.com/product-1537.html, but it is now out of stock.
6 years ago
That's really neat!