We always like to use Halloween as a chance to show off neat homemade electronics to the general public. In this special Halloween video tutorial, we have recreated the idea behind a musical instrument called the theremin, and built one into a Halloween costume. This not only gives you the ability to wear a costume that is loud and very likely obnoxious,
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but also to have a costume that is fun for others to interact with. The project uses two infrared distance sensors, as well as PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) and a piezoelectric buzzer to create a sound, and brings together quite a few concepts to make the whole thing work. This project recreates the properties of a musical instrument called the theremin. A theremin is played without the performer having physical contact with the instrument. A "normal" theremin uses two antennas and changing electric fields to sense the position of the players hands (not unlike our previous Capacitive Proximity Sensor from last Halloween); one hand controls the pitch of the note, and the other hand controls the volume or amplitude of the note. The idea behind this costume is to recreate the function of a theremin and build it into a Halloween costume, giving someone that approaches you while trick-or-treating the ability to wave their hands and make music with your costume like a theremin. For our theremin, we need two distance sensors: one to control the volume of the note being played, and the other to change the pitch. We decided to build two simple IR reflectivity sensors which measure how much infrared light is reflected from a nearby target. When a target (like the player`s hands) is brought closer to the IR LED and phototransistor pair, more light is reflected back into the sensor. As shown in the photos above, the IR LED and...
This project fits more for custom made battery casing that can have more space to hide things inside. This switch with few alterations can be used for any other project as well but is designed based on e-bike needs! This project use a clever functionality of....
The circuit described here uses ultrasonic oscillations and operates based on the propagation velocity of these oscillations in the air. Thus, we can easily determine the distance of two points if the time within which the wave travels this distance is....
Sometimes the precious metals are hidden too deep and are not detected except with complicated devices. In many cases, however, small pieces of precious metal buried near the surface can be detected by relatively simple means. Everyone is very attractive to....
Many times for various reasons we forget or can not water the plants that we have in our homes. And many humidity sensors units just notify us with a beeping sound or with a flashing light, that the pot needs watering. But what if we are away from home? This....
The principle behind a metal detector is really very simple. Proof of this is the circuit that follows, in which it proves that the construction of a metal detector can be done in the minute, with few components that we find very easily everywhere. With the....
The sub-harmonic bass generator is a sound producing unit for guitars. The sound it produces looks very much like that of the bass guitar. The octave generator is sometimes quite unusual since it does not produce any of the usual ways of coloring the sound,....
In the past the sounding (sea bottom measurement) was done with the "bullet", that is, with a heavy lead object that the seamen plucked into the sea hung from a calibrated rope. As soon as the "bullet" reached the bottom, the depth appeared directly from the....
This Amplifier was designed to have the following specifications: Distortion less than 0.1% at full power of 100W even at 20KHz. Power has to be attributed to an extended bandwidth. The output transistors must be protected against short circuits. The power....
A series of LEDs serve to alert the gardener when plants need water. Using two conventional digital integrated LEDs and a series of LEDs, we make a very useful device for gardening. The device detects the amount of water in the pot and alerts the grower.....
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