Some people claim that the sound of vinyl is superior to digital playback. While this hack wont win any awards for audio quality, [Ryan]’s LEGO Record Player is a unique use of one of our favorite toys. Most of the components including the tone arm, counterweight, and base, are built entirely of LEGO. A large gear from an educational construction set is used for the platter. Unfortunately, the rotation isn’t terribly smooth, and the playback is rather distorted.
The turntable uses a standard cartridge and stylus, which should allow it to be connected to any receiver with a phono preamplifier. Using these off the shelf parts, it’s possible to build the mechanical components a turntable out of a variety of things. As the video demonstrates, getting the platter to turn correctly is a bit of a challenge.
Check out a video of the wobbly playback featuring Cindy and Bert after the break.
Via Make
On the upside, it added some vibrato!
using multiple motors and having it be band driven would have solved that problem. Thats how the big boys do it.
well it has enough tortional force that he could possibly take advantage of a flywheel to stabilize the RPMs of the system. it would lower the noticeable distortion considerably but would still have a little “wa-wa” in it when the motor caught up with the fly wheel. not to mention the start up time would take longer as the platter would have to get up to speed. there is also a lot to be said about figuring out how to get a lego set to work into phased pulses. but I digress…
Actually the distortion is worse than you think, that song was in ENGLISH! A+ for awesomeness though.
I think if he speeds up the motor and adds some weight to the turn table he would smooth it out a bit.
Perhaps just a big capacitor on the +- leads of the motor could also help.(Why go mecca when Volta,Ohm and Tesla can help?). Also saw the first version :D perhaps an even more level platter could improve it even more? Great job!
nice break out idea AND room for improvement, I give it a week, maybe less, until there’s a better one out there