# Code Club - Mini Band Project
+<img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8338/8256708023_4a941566e9.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="photo (2)">
+
Make your own mini band!
You and your friends can form your own finger-sized band and rock out using Raspberry Pi and Arduino.
Learn how to build circuits with sensors and outputs and write a simple programme to control your instruments.
* Electrical tape
* Plastic drinking straw
* Pencil
+* Coloured pens (optional)
## Software requirements:
## Useful links:
* [Pictures](http://bit.ly/codeclubminiband)
+* [Ardunio code](https://github.com/KatJoyWhite/miniband/tree/master/arduino)
+
+
+
+## Pull-down Resistors
+
+You’ll find your analogue inputs receive signal when you don’t expect them to.
+This is because there’s electricty floating around in the system, or something like that.
+
+To fix this, you need to wire each input to ground, through a 10KΩ resistor.
+
+A better explanation can be found [here](http://arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/DigitalPins).
+
## Drum Kit
+<img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8074/8257699966_7585ca06e7.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="Code Club Miniband"><
+
### 1. Make your drums
Take your 4 piezo buzzers and attach a ring of Sugru (or other modelling material) as shown in the picture.
This will increase the flexibility and resonance of the sensors. Let the sugru set.
+<img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8353/8256628815_6c3872d3ac.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Code Club Miniband">
+
### 2. Connect the circuit
Repeat for each of your drums. It is easiest to use a bread board for making your circuit.
Look at the picture for an example.
+<img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8081/8256628955_f65a76b6fb.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Code Club Miniband">
-### 3. Progam the Arduino
+### 3. Program the Arduino
Find the appropriate code from the respository and upload to your Ardunio board.
## Guitar
+<img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8070/8257698984_8471e4cf57.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Code Club Miniband">
+
### 1. Make your guitar
Grab your strip potentiomater, a piece of thin card, and a pencil.
Signal will come from the centre pin, so connect that to one of your analogue inputs and you should be good to go.
-### 3. Set up in Scratch
+<img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8363/8257699194_a2645e0e06.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Code Club Miniband">
+
+### 3. Program the Arduino
+
+Find the appropriate code from the respository and upload to your Ardunio board.
+
+### 4. Set up in Scratch
+
+Find five different guitar sounds and upload to Scratch.
## Maracas
+<img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8346/8257698652_4a99ee24b4.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Code Club Miniband">
+
### 1. Make your maracas
Cut 2 short lengths of drinking straw for your maraca handles.
Connect lengths of wire to the connectors of the 2 tilt sensors and then push each sensor into a straw until it presses into the Sugru.
Leave the Sugru to set.
+<img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8222/8256627511_118192e52f.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Code Club Miniband">
### 2. Connect the circuit
Connect the +5V port on the Arduino board to one of the pins on the tilt switch (it doesn't matter which way round).
Connect the other pin to an empty digital input on the board.
+<img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8348/8257698572_4157db0b20.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Code Club Miniband">
-### 3.
+### 3. Program the Arduino
+Find the appropriate code from the respository and upload to your Ardunio board.
-## Pull-down Resistors
-You’ll find your analogue inputs receive signal when you don’t expect them to.
-This is because there’s electricty floating around in the system, or something like that.
+### 4. Set up in Scratch
-To fix this, you need to wire each input to ground, through a 10KΩ resistor.
+Find a maraca / shaker sound and upload to Scratch.
-A better explanation can be found [here](http://arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/DigitalPins).
+
+## Connecting to the Raspberry Pi
+
+Set up your Raspberry Pi with a power supply and monitor.
+Connect all your Ardunio boards (it's easiest to have one per instrument!) to the Raspberry Pi using USB.
+You will probably need a USB hub.
+
+
+## Python glueware
+
+Download the music-maker-hander.py file from the repository. Run it with
+ python music-maker-handler.py
+This program sets up a listener for each instrument. When it detects that an instrument has been played, it sends a couple of signals to Scratch.
+
+The first signal appears in Scratch as a sensor value and is the volume (for drums), pitch (for the guitar), or ignored (for the maracas).
+
+The second signal is a broadcast message that makes Scratch play the sound in the instrument.
+
+One problem we had was with how the operating sytem mapped the various Arduinos to devices. It seemed to be pretty arbitrary. In the end, we tracked the device names by running
+ tail -f /var/log/syslog
+in a separate terminal and watching what the devices were called when we plugged them in. We could then edit the various DEVICE parameters in to top of the Python script to fit.
+
+## Scratch front end
+
+The Scratch file, music-maker, makes the sounds. It responds to the signals from the Python handler above by playing the appropriate sounds. It also does some visual feedback for the insturments.
+
+Scratch on the Raspberry Pi is very slow, especially when it comes to updating the screen. Very often, Scratch would hang mid-way through a jamming session, only to start playing all the sounds after a short while. During the demos, people suggested that we minimise the Scratch window to reduce its workload.
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projects / miniband.git / blobdiff