[sdiy] Circle Machine prototype

[Steve Carter]

Great job Dave - impressive blend of old vs new and the stepper motor idea is ingenious.  Maybe replacing the LDRs with phototransistors would sharpen up the response times or use 16 optoslots and rotate a vane through them?

Steve

On 16 Aug 2010, at 04:34, David Brown wrote:

> I've been working on building a working model of Raymond Scott's circle machine.  I thought it would be fun to build something with motors and lamps.
> 
> The only information I have is the picture on the Raymond Scott site.  I used a Hammond vibrato scanner base as the base for the circle machine and mounted it on a plate with 16 potentiometers around it.  I only have 8 lamps installed but I have it playing an octave scale (the output is quantized).  I've got a thread going on Muff's in the Music Tech DIY but thought I'd post a link here as well.  I'm not sure how practical it is but it's kind of fun to watch.  It's also been fun to prototype.
> 
> I'm using incandescent lamps, rheostats (e.g. potentiometers) and a CdS sensor.  All the control and processing electronics are done in a microprocessor (I know it's not original but those are the electronics *below* the panel).  This will be a stand-alone module as it takes over 12 watts of power.
> 
> Details, photos, and videos are at
> http://modularsynthesis.com/modules/DJB-circle/circle.htm
> 
> Dave