The Musicdrawer

The Musicdrawer is a school project for interaction design and was created by Emile Henckaerts and Bram Van Langendonck.

PARTS NEEDED:

- 4mm MDF wooden plate

- 1 Arduino with motorshield

- 2 motors (preferably strong engines, we used motors from an electric bed)

- 1 9V Battery

- 1 Clothespin

- Lots of bolts and nuts

- 1 Pen (preferably inkt pen)

Step 1: Create the Box

We used a lasercutter to create the 2 boxes (the turntables), the top decks and the drive shafts. We used the MakerCase.com website to create a nice box with finger edge joints.

Step 2: Construct the Boxes

Construct the boxes and leave one side open to work inside. The rest you can glue with wood glue.

Before we placed the motors inside we had to make screwthreads on the drive shafts of the motors. Place the motors in the center. We placed an extra block of wood in the center with a hole to support the motor. Also we used a nut on the drive shaft under the top deck to really tighten the motors.

Step 3: Electronics

We wired everything up and used an Arduino Motorshield to connect the 2 motor with the Arduino. Next we wrote a simple piece of code to control the motors. This code, and the values, are easy to modify, depending on your motors.

Please note: The values of the motor rotation speed may vary on your motors and on the materials you use. Try to create as less friction as possible.

Step 4: Connect the Drive Shaft

For our drive shafts, or arms, we tried many different materials. The key here is to find a balance between strong (non flexible) and light material. Eventually we used little wooden sticks. At the endpoint we used a clothespin, which we fastened. We attached our pen on the clothespin and used a rubber elastic to secure it.