In the electronic instrument building module I had the opportunity to examine electronics. We were required to build two instruments with the use of integrated circuits. I had a chance to study electronic oscillators and ways to modulate the sound by changing components. I have designed and built two fully working instruments, prepared the documentation, and created schematics for both of them.
"Bed of nails" is an electronic instrument played by touching two nails thus closing the circuit what makes the oscilation. It is possible to modulate the sound by weting the fingers or squeezing the nails harder.
We were given a task to build a "bed of nails" with the use of LM358 - an operational amplifier. The idea was to find a piece of wood, hammer the nails into it - and with the use of wires, resistors, capacitors, and the chip itself - assemble the instrument.
However I went a step further and found myself a speaker as a base.
With all techniques learned during the course, I have upgraded my instrument with more oscilators.
The speaker of nails has been upgraded by copper tape oscilator which works on the same principal as the bed of nails. Touching two separate copper tapes closes the circuit causing the chip to start oscilating. Moreover, I have added the LDR (Light Dependant Resistor) oscilator. Depending on how much light hits the LDR the oscilator changes the pitch (the brighter it gets, the higher the pitch).
To complete my documentation I have used ProfiCAD. With this complete schematic you can recreate my Speaker of Nails.
