Since I have already assembled the electrical parts necessary to be able to play the instrument, next semester will focus mainly on the realization of the physical prototype through the following steps:
- Implement PlatformIO[1] to connect the Arduino´s codes together and have a better and more fluent programming environment;
- create a GUI that communicates with the instrument via Wi-Fi. Through OSC messages, I will map the following parameters:
- the time interval between the beats of the solenoid;
- velocity;
- the degrees of rotation of the lever to vary the pitch;
- the degrees of rotation of the tuning screws;
- build two wooden sticks to support two hammers for each string. At this point would be interesting to implement additional DC motors, like for a 3D printer, to control the movement of the sticks along the strings to get timbral variations;
- change the tuning system of the “Hackbrett”, similar to a guitar´s one, to decrease the required torsion force for the DC motor to rotate them;
- create different supports that fits the servos in order to change the tuning of the strings;
- regarding the performative aspect of this instrument, I will implement one IR sensor to control the lever. I will map the movement of the hand to the steps of the motor to change the pitch through movement,
- implement a small DC motor to control a sort of mute rail of the piano, damping the strings.
[1] PlatformIO (no date) Platformio is a professional collaborative platform for embedded development, PlatformIO. Available at: https://platformio.org/ (Accessed: January 26, 2023).
