Mini piano, neither coding nor soldering required. © DR
To compose your own nasal melody to accompany the opening of a birthday card, there’s only one solution: the low-tech electronic piano. Here’s the recipe.
Do you hesitate to build a real piano and want to try to make a barebones version first? Want to brush up on your basic electronics skills? Want to bug your friends? All this is possible with the simple electronic piano by Joshua Brooks, a contributing maker to the tutorial sharing website Instructables. Video demonstration.
To build your 8-note (one octave) keyboard, you will need:
– no lines of code
– no soldering
– 10 minutes of free time
– 1 555 timer
– 8 pushbuttons
– 1 100nF capacitor
– 1 resistor assortment (390Ω, 620Ω, 910Ω, 2 x 1kΩ, 1.1kΩ, 1.2kΩ, 1.5kΩ, 6.2kΩ) to revisit the resistor color codes, click here
– 1 Piezo buzzer (can be salvaged from another nasal toy)
– wires
– 1 9V battery
– 1 9V battery connector (optional)
– 1 large breadboard
Wire it all together, like this:
Now all you have to do is stand up and play piano. Or online with this circuit simulator.
Complete tutorial on Instructables