LENSTo ‘tune’ your instrument, make a copy of the
current sketch and adapt it to help you figure out
which note is at which angle. Try replacing the Ode
to Joy melody found in the noteSequence array with a
simple repeating scale, then start tweaking the values
in the notePositions array until you get a good result.
For reference, the number 0 in our build corresponds
to the lowest C on the glock, while the number 7 is
an octave higher. The number -1 denotes a pause in
the melody.
Finally, mount the glockenspiel itself on the
baseboard using wood screws. You now have a robot
glockenspiel that can play any melody you can think
of! But wait, there’s more...
The build detailed here is one relatively simple way to
make an electronically controlled glockenspiel, but there
are plenty of other methods, each with their own pros and
cons. One alternative strategy is to use a solenoid for each
key of the glockenspiel, as shown in the ‘Glock-O-Bot’
made by the Mather family at Fab Lab Manchester – this
design allows for multiple notes to be played at once
(polyphony) and is more space-efficient than our design,
although there is a lot more wiring!
Another approach that we tried previously, with some
success, is to remove the metal bars from the glockenspiel
and rearrange them in a semicircle, meaning that more of
the notes are within range of the beater’s arc of movement,
including the sharps and flats.Other approaches