Electronic Wind Chime

The Winduino II uses fins to pick up the movement of the wind and translate it into music. Each fin is attached to the main body using a piezo vibration sensor. The signals are processed by an Arduino housed inside and the resulting data makes its way to a computer via a Bluetooth connection to facilitate the use of Max/MSP for the audio processing. Included in the design is an array of solar panels used to keep the battery for the device charged up. Hear and see this creative piece after the break.

[vimeo=http://vimeo.com/8851870]

[via Tom’s Guide]

16 thoughts on “Electronic Wind Chime

  1. Because then you’d need to take account of the units speed and alignment with magnetic north to determine which direction the wind was coming from etc and get reasonable feedback on wind strength?

  2. @ James, not really, you just make the mount fixed (as I’d imagine it already is), get rotary encoder (along with an angular rate gyro if you like), and you know the mount’s relation to NSEW, you know the speed of the rotation, and you know the actual angle as well as which sensors along the edge are actually being activated the most. (I think that might work).

  3. Ordinary windchimes have a simple, but pleasing sound. This thing, albeit a lot more complicated, could sound like darn near anything, and that could also be nice, provided it’s not overdone.

  4. @Finger – yup, that’s another way of doing it, I was simply saying that to do that is an added complexity, and if the unit is fairly light and not mounted solidly, the magnitude of “fin” movement would be greatly reduced due to it already heading in the direction the wind moves (assuming an annemometer-like scoop arrangement).

  5. Seems pointless to power the device with solar when the computer it is communicating with is using up hundreds of watts of power.

    Otherwise, looks great and sounds quite nice, a cool project :D

  6. Powering the device by wind demands a certain amount of breeze above a particular speed over time in order to keep the system charged up. If wind flux (aeolian flux? surely there’s a real term for this!) is less than solar flux, then solar is better.

    Given that these devices will generally be used in areas which are relatively sheltered, the breeze will likely be sporadic, light and turbulent, and not so great for wind power.

    For a related device, look up ‘aeolian harp’. The guy at ixian.ca has made one (see here: http://ixian.ca/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=25) and many other impressive bits of engineering.

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