This robotic kalimba performs melodies with an Arduino Nano

With roots in Africa, the kalimba is a sort of hand piano that includes an array of keys which are every tuned for a particular word, and upon plucking or placing one, a nice xylophone-like sound will be heard. Taking inspiration from his mini kalimba, Axel from the YouTube channel AxelMadeIt sought to automate how its keys are struck and produce classical melodies with precision.

The design course of began out with Axel figuring out the most effective mechanism for interacting with the small keys, and after hitting/plucking them utilizing a spread of objects, he settled on plucking particular person keys with a small plastic actuator. Two servo motors have been utilized to carry out the motion, with one motor sliding a gantry left-and-right, and the opposite shifting a small plastic decide throughout the keys. Axel’s design underwent a number of iterations to get the sound right since materials thickness, the shortage of a resonant backing, and a loud servo motor all contributed to lowered high quality initially.

After perfecting the bodily format, Axel assembled the digital parts right into a customized 3D-printed case, which incorporates areas for the Arduino Nano, battery, charging circuit, and pushbuttons. The primary two buttons trigger the kalimba to play preprogrammed melodies, whereas the final one performs random notes with a random quantity of delay in between.