I made acrylic frames for music derby
project with a laser cutter.
The one created with the 3D printer
was for experimenting with the
operation.
It is important to design the robot as
cute as possible.
When I assembled parts,I found some
design errors such as conflict of
parts.
I assembled seven bodies somehow.
I found an article on the net saying
"green animals don't exist in nature",
but I don't mind.
1月27日
Art Market
I exhibited my robots at Artist Market
of Buddhist Museum.
The Buddhist Museum is located close
to the famous shrine, Kitano Tenmangu
in Kyoto.
--
Most Japanese are considered as
Buddhists, but most of them are not
religious on the other hand.
My family has been involved in
Buddhism for generations but I do not
know much about Buddhism.
Perhaps the most important thing is
that there is a family tomb in a
Buddhist temple.
We need a grave even if we are not
religious.
I go to shrines and temples on New
Year's Day. I also celebrate Christmas
and enjoy Halloween.
----
There were several booths of
steam-punk in the Art Market.
I forgot to bring a table, so I put
robots on close to the floor.
The good thing to put the robots close
to the floor is that Children can see
them well.
1月24日
Music Derby
Look at the video, and can you tell
what I am doing?
This is an attempt to operate the
robot with the sound of musical
instruments.
- The robot on the left moves when I
make the sound of "Do (note C)" with a
whistle.
- The robot on the right moves when I
play the sound "Re (note D)".
- "Mi (note E)" does not make any
movement. (Because there are only two
robots.)
It doesn't have to be a whistle.
Eventually, I will make 7 robots and
assign the sound of "Do,Re, Mi, Fa,
Sol, La, Ti (note C, D, E, F, G ,A
,B).
The components are
(1) arduino pro mini
(2) Small microphone
(3) Two AAA batteries
(4) Tamiya's small gearbox
(5) 3D printed frames
I uses a module called ArduinoFFT for
analysis of "Do,Re,Mi" sound .
The motor of Tamiya seems to be
necessary about 150mA, and it does not
work if the output from one pin of
arduino (40mA).
It works by turning on four pins at
the same time. (I should use a relay?)
I'm thinking of a game in which seven
robots are arranged and predict which
robot goes farthest after one song is
played.
This game is also good for learning
music scales as well as learning
robotics.
I was going to make the robot a little
smaller, but it was bigger than I
expected. Each robot needs a width of
9 cm, so if I put seven robots
horizontally, it needs 63cm. Most
display tables are 45cm to 60cm wide.
So, I have to think of a device for
the exhibition.
I will make acrylic robots as the next
step.
1月18日
Ｍｕｓｉｃ Derby
I made
a quadruped walking robot for music
derby project.
Final production will be made with
acrylic, but I made it with 3D printer
for the prototype.
It will load arduino, motor and two
AAA batteries.
I am going to use arduino pro mini
ATMEGA328P, and it will work with 3v.
Transparent gearbox is made by TAMIYA
and the motor also work with 3v. (So
walking will be much faster than
video.)
I tested FFT program with arduino pro
mini and it worked fine.
This prototype should be much smaller
than TAMIYA's elephant kit, but it was
bigger than I thought.
The arduino pro mini is much smaller
than arduino UNO and little bit
smaller than arduino nano, but it does
not have USB connection, and it has 6
large pins on the front, instead.
There are no holes for mounting.
Anyway I have to use arduino pro mini
if I want to make it working with two
AAA batteries.
1月15日
Arduino
Various
improvements raised the recognition
rate of pitch,
but also increased the delay.
I used AnalogWrite to light the LED,
but by changing to DigitalWrite,the
noise to the microphone was reduced.
When the same pitch is detected twice
in a row, detection is considered
valid. Although the recognition rate
improved, the delay from sounding to
judgment increased.
If the controller is used for servo
motors, instead of turning on the LED,
I can perform like Arabian snake
charmer with whistle. For the time
being, I will add this function to the
steam-panda that is I am working on.
1月14日
成人の日
Yesterday, it was coming‐of‐age day in
Japan.
Some young people (20-year-old) wore
kimono at the ceremony.
I exhibited my robots at the subway
station shopping mall.
There were some hand-made shops and a
stage, that includes steampunk band
and steampunk goods shop.
Some shops sold Japanese traditional
crafts.
Tatami band booth sold some small
Tatami and had stage performance.
1月12日
Schedule
Participation in Kshitiji has been
canceled (likely financial reason, but
not sure). Instead, I am going to
Bethlehem the steampunk event on
August.(Bethlehem is next to
Allentown, Pennsylvania.)
I also might visit several Asian
countries in this year.
1月12日
Music Derby
I made
pitch analyze system with arudino for
Music Derby.
The sound from the instrument is
picked up with the microphone,
and the name of the note (A, B, C, or
Do,Re,Mi ) is displayed using
ArduinoFFT.
The analysis becomes unstable as soon
as another output (such as LED turn
on) is used.
The cause of the problem might be that
the microphone is powered from
Arduino.
I used Arduino UNO this time, but it
should be smaller one such as Arduino
Nano.
Arduino UNO does not work with 256
samples because of shortage of memory.
So I made it with 128 samples for FFT.
It also requires 32KB of flash memory.
So I have to find a smaller Arduino
with these requirements.
I purchased decorative gears for a new
steampunk robot. Since it is made of
brass, the color changes to a good
feeling over time. . The brass gear
will be used as shown in the picture.
The photo shows the head and chest of
a steampunk-style robot that I made
earlier. Although not shown, it has
four Nixie tubes around the waist.
The back side of the head is like the
movie. Even though the gears are for
decoration, they can be rotated. For
this robot, the joints were made with
a 3D printer, but after all they were
weak. So I decided to replace them
with metal joints. I also want to
replace the eyes, so I will make a new
head from an aluminum frame.
1月8日
Music Derby
I am working on the new project called
"Music Derby".
Seven animals proceed by music.
Prototypes are created using TAMIYA's
kit. Connect a small microphone to
arduino and analyze pitch with FFT.
Arduino nano has only 16K bytes of
flash memory, so FFT does not fit. I
thought about using Arduino UNO, but I
found Chinese Arduino nano with 32K.
It should be as small as possible. I
have to find a small mobile battery
and LED for eyes.
1月3日
Electrical Town
I went to the Electrical Town in Osaka
and bought some parts for steampunk
robot. There were retro-designed
meters.
Another robot has nixie tube, so this
time, I use these meters.
I am designing frames for the robot,
this task is fun part of robot making.
When I finish design, the frames are
cut from aluminum plates.
