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Drummy - Full Documentation

Drummy

Introduction

Drummy is a portable musical instrument incorporating a drum sequencer that is extremely simple and easy to use. It is designed as a mini controller for kids to get familiar with basic tempo in drumming and develop a better sense of rhythm. It has a slick and clean look with comfortable light-emitting silicone buttons that can easily catch the kids' attention.

Team Members

Siyuan Hu: CS Major NYU '17
Zack Kimelheim: CS/French Major NYU '18

Main Parts

  • 16 LEDs
  • 4 potentiometers
  • 4 decorative caps for potentiometers
  • 1 Leonardo microcontroller board
  • 1 Trellis board
  • a few wires for soldering

3D-Printing for Drummy

We decided to 3D print the enclosure case for our final project. There are 4 design pieces (base, frame, tray, lid) that house the components and keep them secured with machine screws. The Arduino is mounted to the bottom cover with 4 screws. 4 potentiometers are mounted to the top panel and secured in place. The Trellis board is mounted to the tray that is secured to the enclosure with another set of machine screws. A total of 14 screws makes this pretty solid and durable box. 






    Preparation


    • Insert the 3mm LED's to Trellis
    With the top of the Trellis facing up, we inserted the 3mm LED into the Trellis PCB with the longer leg going into the +positive pin. We had to bend the legs apart to secure the LED in place.




    • Solder LEDs to Trellis
    We flipped the Trellis over with the back side facing up. We had to make sure that the LEDs should be secured in place. Then, we soldered the 16 LEDs to the Trellis PCB.






    • Solder LEDs onto Trellis
    We used flush diagonal cutters to trim the excess wiring on the LEDs 


    • Solder Jumper Wires
    We took 4 different colored male jumper wires and removed the plastic part from the one end of all 4 jumper wires. Trim off half of the exposed terminal, leaving just a small portion.




    • Tin Trellis PCB
    Next we soldered tin on the GND, SLC, SDA and 5V pins on Trellis. There are four different groups of each, and we learned the hard way that it doesn't matter which one you choose as long as they are in the same group. 




    • Potentiometers
    Next we moved on to the potentiometers. We installed the four potentiometers to the cover part with the knob facing the printed surface of the cover. We then needed to wire up the 4 potentiometers so they share common ground and 5V. 








    • Solder Jumper Wires to Potentiometers
    Solder one jumper wire to each of the middle terminals of the 4 potentiometers. This makes it easier to arrange and connect the wires.

    • Connect Trellis to Arduino
    Hook up the jumper wires on the trellis to the headers on the Arduino to make the following connections:
    SCL to SCL
    SDA to SDA
    GND to GND
    5V to 5V





    Failure & Improvement

    At the beginning, we planned to create a personal Midi instrument combined with processing to create a fun object for users of any age. It was designed to be a musical object with the capabilities of sending MIDI signals to synthesizer software to create music pieces. However, due to a variety of hardware issues, we could not get the synthesizer recognize the controller as a MIDI input device and thus did not fulfill the initial goal to make it a MIDI controller. Nevertheless, this is definitely an aspect on which we need to put more effort during future improvement because the having the MIDI functionality can largely enhance the interactivity and practicality of our portable music instrument, as well as widen the target audience.


    Project Demo



    Testing Demos








    Presentation








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