Internet Radio Player Wins Propeller Design Contest

April 5, 2010 by Mike Szczys 33 Comments

It’s got a NIC, a remote, a character display, and can record and play back streaming audio. Thumper is [Harrison Pham’s] contest-winning Internet radio player.His finished board is roughly the same size as the 16×2 character display and piggy-backs the device for a small form-factor. It can be controlled via an infrared remote control, or through a remote web interface. Source files are available from the link at the top, but the really juicy details are included in the shockingly comprehensive PDF writeup.

The photo above is a bit misleading. The board has a micro SD slot on the back even though a USB card reader is shown. This project would need USB host control for Propeller chips in order to use that reader. Don’t forget to check out some of the other submissions to the the contest once you’ve had your fill of this one.

[Thanks Drone]

AVR Synth/sequencer

April 2, 2010 by Caleb Kraft 16 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHmhdiQ8Xko]

[kernelcode] has built this pretty slick looking sequencer/groovebox and shared the process with the world. At its heart you’ll find an AVR atmega168 along with a hand full of buttons and blue LEDs. He says the total cost was somewhere around £15-20, so that’s somewhere under $40 for the American readers. There are tons of great pics of the build and it looks like he’ll be uploading source code soon as well.

[via hackerfoundry.com]

Analog Tape Playing Glove

March 30, 2010 by Mike Szczys 14 Comments

The magnetic tape found in audio cassettes can be fun to play with. This installation, called Signal to Noise, relocates the heads from cassette players to the tips of your fingers in the form of a glove. An accompanying wall has vertical strips of tape which you run your fingertips along in order to play back the stored audio. Get the speed right and you can make out what’s on the tapes. Move back and forth and you’ll be scratching like the worst of DJs.

If this were teamed up with a Melloman it would make for quite a performance. See and hear this curious device after the break.

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Guitar Echo Pedal Built With Mbed

March 28, 2010 by Mike Szczys 14 Comments

[Vsergeev] built an echo pedal for a guitar or with other audio manipulation applications. He used an mbed microcontroller for the project. You may remember Hackaday writer [Phil] labeling the mbed an ‘Arduino on steroids’, and it certainly handles this audio processing quite well. We’ve included a clip of the echo effect after the break. During the design process, [Vsergeev] used LTspice to simulate the analog circuitry and make things right before committing to the physical circuits.

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Didgeridoo, Now Does Real Time Video

March 23, 2010 by Jakob Griffith 8 Comments

Some of you may remember when we introduced you to [Kyle’s] Electronically Modified Didgeridoo. Those same members will have their hearts warmed knowing he’s still playing and advancing on his Didgeridoo, now including real time video processing. There isn’t too many details aside from it being controlled by an ATMega168 and an unknown analog switching chip, and in its infancy it just looks like a bunch of dancing white lines but we expect this to turn into one amazing display.

Oh, and those determined on making their own Electronically Modified Didgeridoo should keep an eye out for the April ’10 issue of Popular Science where the instrument will be featured.

Beach Stereo

March 12, 2010 by Mike Szczys 36 Comments

[Adam] wanted a stereo that could stand up to rain and keep sand out. He ended up building this beach stereo out of a cooler. The cooler’s already made to be water tight. He cut holes in the front and back for marine speakers and added a water-tight bezel and cover for the controls on the deck. Inside you’ll find a marine battery to power the unit. Now he and his friends can rock-out even in poor weather thanks to this portable and rugged unit.

Sponge Music

March 12, 2010 by Mike Szczys 23 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4cYpf9zwkg]

[Aaron] calls this project “Stochasticity”. It uses two sponges as a musical interface. The performer wears a wrist strap and then draws on the table with water from the sponge to play different notes. You really need to watch the video to fully understand what’s going on here.

We’re guessing that this is Arduino based since some of his other projects are as well. You can try out another quick project of his, an Arduino electromagnetic field detector. Check out video of that after the break.

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