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Type Timeline Class Tools
Packaging, Material 8 weeks Studio Cutting tools, Stovetop
Exploration, Product Design
Type Timeline Class Tools
Packaging, Material 8 weeks Studio Cutting tools, Stovetop
Exploration, Product Design
Type Timeline Class Tools
Packaging, Material 8 weeks Studio Cutting tools, Stovetop
Exploration, Product Design
नीर सुर which translates to the "rhythm of water" is an instrument that is inspired by the traditional Jal Tarang.
The instrument is designed to siphon water from one container to another in order to change the pitch of the audio that is affected by different levels and colors of water.
TYPE
Instrument Design
TIMELINE
7 Weeks
ANALOG INSTRUMENT
It all started with me creating an analog musical instrument inspired by the Indian classical Jal-Tarang. It consists of water-filled glasses at varying heights and shades of blue. Vibrations in the water resonate and create different pitches of sound when the user hits the edge of a glass with a wooden mallet.
I also created a control setup that contained water without the color enabled me to experience different sounds based on water levels and different color densities. Lastly, I used a piezo under the instrument to record different sound pitches.
DESIGN PROCESS
Before I began constructing my model I created a digital rendering to visualize my concept. My Idea for the final project was to create an instrument inspired by the traditional Jal Tarang as illustrated in the analog instrument using colored water. By using audio from a speaker and colored water to siphon liquid from one container to the order the intent was to affect the pitch of the sound with change in water level and color.
MATERIALS
For this project, I used the following materials:
1. Wood for Base
2. Clear Acrylic
3. Silicone Tube
4. Silicone Sealer
5. Plastic Solvent
6. Water + food coloring
7. 1/2 measuring cup
8. Breadboard
9. Adafruit Metro
10. Adafruit Sound Board
11. Adafruit Amplifier
12. Solder Iron
14. Jumper Wires
15. Speaker
16. Nuts and bolts
17. 5V power supply
FABRICATION PROCESS
STEP 1
Assemble wooden boxes. I created two heights since that would be required for the siphon to work. Since we are dealing with water and electronics both the boxes should be sealed with beeswax or any other waterproofing agent.
STEP 2
Use a sheet of clear acrylic to assemble the water containers. I then sealed the boxes with silicone sealer to ensure that there is no water leakage from the apparatus.
STEP 3
Test the apparatus with colored water using the siphon technique. This test allowed me to measure the volume of water for each container and the intensity of the colors for mixing liquids.
STEP 4
Before I started assembling my circuit I soldered the soundboard and amplifier to its pins. My next step was to complete the circuit diagram using the following reference and connect my Metro to a power supply.
Next, I connected .ogg audio files to my soundboard using my laptop to drag and drop them into the folder. My BIGGEST mistake was connecting my 12V power supply to my soundboard to play the audio which ended up frying my sound board.
STEP 5
I redid my circuit using a new soundboard. I uploaded a default code to my Metro board using the Arduino software,
File->Examples->Adafruit_Soundboard->menu. After successfully uploading the code and running the 115200 Baud I was still unable to upload a sound to my speakers.
STEP 6
I redid my circuit using another method which included directly powering the sound board. This method proved successful. I first tested the audio demo kit with each pin and then added my audio file name as T01.
TAKEAWAYS
I was able to detect some differences in the audio pitch. For the future, I would like to connect a water sensor to detect that different water levels affect the pitch of sound.
Overall, this project challenged me to explore different ways on how to power a speaker. Apart from the adafruit sound board and amplifier I was also able to explore and learn how to use the Adafruit featherwing and the adafruit music maker, two completely different methods to set up custom audio on speakers.
© 2022 Nihaarika Arora. Made with Love & Caffeine!
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