Julie Android

22nd of June 2012 by liz

Mike Cook has rigged up a solenoid-controlled glockenspiel to play some of Rogers and Hammerstein’s finest. Just brilliant.

He’s hand-built a simple buffer board to intermediate between the Raspberry Pi and his robot glockenspiel, which you can read all about on his blog; there are instructions for making a similar board at home, which sounds like a great weekend project. Give me a shout if you make one yourselves!

Pi Plays Poppins from Mike Cook on Vimeo.

News Archives

- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- 2013
- 2012
- 2011

Supported by

In the forums

elatllat, 29 seconds ago: General discussion • Re: SD, SDHC, SDXC
If you don't want to follow the link; yes all 8 SDXC cards tested work.exFAT works fine on OSX, W7-8, and Linux. Windows XP has troubles with exFAT and a lot of businesses have not moved from XP to linux…
star777, 3 minutes ago: Bare metal • Re: ARM Assembler Bare Metal
To RPI, you're nothing compared to Z77. I'll rape your team of 1,000s of programmers without trying.
Mandac, 8 minutes ago: Networking and servers • Re: BerryTerminal (Edubuntu/LTSP terminal)
Hi,I'm working successfully on BerryTerminal/Pi as a thin client with LTSP. Currently the sound comes from the a speaker plugged into the HDMI screen. All works fine so far but I'm planning on using lower cost VGA screens. How do…
piglet, 9 minutes ago: CSI camera module • Re: Preview: Variable opacity possible?
I guess not!
ToOnS, 9 minutes ago: Français • Re: Reconaissance vocale
ici http://www.cs.rochester.edu/u/lxiang/ il dit utiliser PocketSphinx

Follow @Raspberry_Pi

On Twitter

pimoroni, 7 hours ago
Got some lovely Raspberry Pi Swag? We'd love to see photos of you wearing it/using it etc! E-mail pics to swag@raspberrypi.org :-) Sheffield, UK
theuberchad, 13 hours ago
Thanks to @Raspberry_Pi for the awesome camera http://t.co/423s2IAmem Winnipeg, MB
VXShare, 12 hours ago
Just test deployed a @Raspberry_Pi as a malware crawler and indexer. All I had to add was an external HDD. Internet tube #1203437748.
disco_v8, 1 day ago
【拡散希望】もういってもいいでしょう(ﾟдﾟ)！ RaspberryPiの開発者、Ebenが大阪にも行くよ!!(5/27) http://t.co/XxxDLeGe7b 東京のBigJAMはいけないけど大阪なら!!という人は急いで申し込みしないと!! TOKYO

Friends of Pi

31 comments

AndrewS on
June 22, 2012 at 3:19 pm said:

Cool!
Just to be pedantic and correct a couple of errors in the write-up – the RPi-PCB is a 6-layer board rather than just 2-layer; and the “virtual” GPIO numbers were put forwards by the Foundation http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/384 before we knew what the “real” GPIO numbers (as seen by Linux) were. Which leads to the confusion of real GPIOs, virtual GPIOs and physical pin numbers! All nicely clarified in the spreadsheet by RaspberryPiBeginners http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/1417

Comment ↓
William H. Bell on
June 22, 2012 at 3:21 pm said:

A create example of some fun interfacing, thanks Mike. Are projects like this one going to be collected together into a set of links or pages for schools? While it is good to see on the blog, in the longer term a project page would be a better reference. Thanks and best regards, Will

Comment ↓
- William H. Bell on
  June 22, 2012 at 6:06 pm said:
  
  Errata : create -> great
  a good reason why blog posting from the control room is not a good idea.
  As other have said, thanks again Mike.
  
  Comment ↓
alex on
June 22, 2012 at 3:27 pm said:

That’s very cool. Picky point, but “Doe a dear” comes from the sound of music, but at least it was the same actress.

Comment ↓
- David R on
  June 22, 2012 at 3:48 pm said:
  
  Wasn’t ‘The Sound of Music’ originally a Rodgers and Hammerstein broadway show that they then made a film of (obviously based on Maria Von Trapp’s book)?
  
  Must say, THIS is the sort of eccentric, inane brilliance I wanted for the Raspberry Pi.
  
  Comment ↓
  - liz on
    June 22, 2012 at 3:57 pm said:
    
    It was. I think Alex is referring to the fact that the video is called “Poppins Pi”; I also pointed out the error because I am a musicals pedant too, but by that time Mike had already committed the title to Vimeo.
    
    And I totally agree; this is exactly the sort of project we like to see! Brilliantly entertaining, kind of useless, and still makes you giggle. And it has LEDs.
    
    Comment ↓
- Martyn Jones on
  June 24, 2012 at 10:36 am said:
  
  If you’re really going to be picky it’s Doe a DEER actually!
  
  Great project from Mike, I remember him from my BBC Micro and Micro User magazine days – built a few of his projects then, most memorably one to control mains lights from the Beeb’s user port -happy days.
  
  Comment ↓
SN on
June 22, 2012 at 4:10 pm said:

Love it – will definitely check out the board construction as hopefully it’ll provide a simple ‘isolating setup’ for the GPIO pins to ‘other stuff’

Comment ↓
Jules Winfield on
June 22, 2012 at 4:19 pm said:

“Mike Cook? I recognise the name”, I thought. “Could it be the same Mike Cook who used to write those hardware articles in ‘The Micro User’ magazine for BBC Micros, and later in ‘Acorn User’ for subsequent Acorn machines?”

One quick visit to his web site later, and it is indeed the same Mike Cook. His articles were always fascinating, but as I was a child at the time, most of them went straight over my head.

It’s lovely to see him still doing this. And not at all surprising to see that it’s (to borrow a word from Liz) brilliant.

Comment ↓
- liz on
  June 22, 2012 at 4:32 pm said:
  
  Oh good grief – you’re right. I hadn’t made the connection when corresponding with him, but *I* remember those too from when I was a kid (I’ve been trying to buy a complete set of Micro User for years; hint hint, readers). Thank you again, Mike; you should be less self-effacing in your emails!
  
  Comment ↓
  - Wombat on
    June 22, 2012 at 5:15 pm said:
    
    Liz,
    
    I wish I had know I threw out my set and 16 years of back issues of Byte, 6 years ago on our last house move (on the grounds that they had been in unopened boxes for at least 2 house moves). They went along with my a original (working) PET 2001!
    
    Comment ↓
    - liz on
      June 22, 2012 at 5:25 pm said:
      
      Aargh. That is all.
      
      Comment ↓
    - AndrewS on
      June 23, 2012 at 11:51 pm said:
      
      It’s too late now, but for anyone else finding themselves in a similar position – I’m sure http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/ would gladly accept any donations
      
      Comment ↓
      - Darren on
        June 24, 2012 at 5:59 pm said:
        
        Or indeed http://www.tnmoc.org/ my preference as they are open to the public.
  - Ian Smallshire on
    June 24, 2012 at 2:16 am said:
    
    Liz,
    
    I have the majority of the Micro User and Acorn User that I need to go to a good home as I no longer have the space.
    
    I do want to scan the Mike Cook – Body Building Course articles as they are where I got my love for electronics and computing back in the 80′s.
    
    I have sent you mail with a few more details.
    
    Comment ↓
  - Mike Cook on
    June 26, 2012 at 12:30 pm said:
    
    You can get a DVD set with them all on from here:-
    http://www.acornelectron.co.uk/mags/mu/top_lvl.html
    It is odd but I still hold the copyright on my articles as I only sold first publication rights to my stuff, so when I got these I was paying for my own stuff.
    Note however that the discs only go to the change in title to Acorn computing
    
    Comment ↓
Robin J. on
June 22, 2012 at 4:37 pm said:

Now that’s an awesome project :p

Comment ↓
Andy on
June 22, 2012 at 4:56 pm said:

Can it play nirvana “smells like teen spirit”?

Comment ↓
- Mike Cook on
  June 26, 2012 at 1:38 pm said:
  
  Well as that is in Fminor and the glock is only one octave in C, I don’t think it is on.
  
  Comment ↓
alex on
June 22, 2012 at 4:57 pm said:

I think if you’re into computers, particularly programming, you’ve got to be a pedant to survive. I remember typing in Beebug magazine programs, discovering the hard way that O and 0 are different. I think this project is absolutely fantastic. I was almost reluctant to say anything about the Poppins issue.

Comment ↓
- David R on
  June 22, 2012 at 5:52 pm said:
  
  I for one enjoy a modicum of pedantry, especially if it’s about something that few people know or care about. Makes us programming types useful in the pub quiz General Ignorance round….
  
  Comment ↓
jOHN on
June 22, 2012 at 6:20 pm said:

I am NOT a copyright a__h___, but I’ve been bashed over the head by TechDirt and SlashDot with the CopyRights of music for so long, that I just had to ask.
Were the UK music people paid for this “performance”?
And yes this should be “fairuse” or what ever the UK version of that is.

Comment ↓
Patrick on
June 23, 2012 at 12:07 am said:

I just got my email to order my pi! The only problem is I don’t have a credit card… Now I have to convince my parents to order me one if I pay them. I can’t wait!

Comment ↓
Reggie on
June 23, 2012 at 2:56 am said:

Fantastic little project, a few more instruments and you’ve got a wurlitzer or a compton!

Comment ↓
tony kempton on
June 24, 2012 at 3:54 pm said:

nice one, was thinking on similar lines to interface to a stylophone.
once I work out the notes should be able to play “Telstar”

Comment ↓
reiuyi on
June 24, 2012 at 9:52 pm said:

Projects like these remind me I’d still want to convert an old 85/88 key piano to a midi-controlled player piano similar to how the Yamaha Disklavier is controlled. Though in my case I was more looking into using cheaper atmel’s and software-PWM for solenoid control, and maybe using raspi as a “master switch” for interpreting midi from various sources and sending signals to an atmega which in turn controls the cheaper atmels.. Either that or whatever else cheap chip comes up in the next couple of years

Comment ↓
- finnw on
  July 4, 2012 at 12:47 pm said:
  
  Similar idea but on a larger scale:
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZgPx37vT1g
  
  Comment ↓
Stephen Kirby on
June 25, 2012 at 10:35 am said:

Don’t think that’s a Glockenspiel, it’s a small xylophone .

Comment ↓
- liz on
  June 25, 2012 at 1:12 pm said:
  
  Xylophones are the ones with the wooden chimes. (Greek ξύλον = xylon = “wood”.)
  
  Comment ↓
Mike Cook on
June 26, 2012 at 1:39 pm said:

Were the UK music people paid for this “performance”?

No indeed they were not. I look forward to being sued.

Comment ↓
- Kate on
  July 11, 2012 at 11:38 am said:
  
  Hi Mike, We would love to see projects like this at the Bristol Raspberry Jam, fantastic work!
  http://www.raspberrybristol.eventbrite.com
  
  Comment ↓

Buy a Pi!

News Archives

Supported by

In the forums

On Twitter

Friends of Pi