Comments on: I got rhythm, I got music...

I got rhythm, I got music...

krautland — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 07:54:08 -0800

Yellow Drum Machine (google video), one of the robots that you can learn to build via Let's Make Robots (.com). This little guy finds a surface to tap a beat onto, then taps a beat on it. The fun starts at about 35 seconds in (via b3ta).

By: rongorongo

rongorongo — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 08:00:20 -0800

For Christmas please Santa!

By: DU

DU — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 08:16:21 -0800

Now THIS is a robot! And a damned cool one! And cute! And what a great site!

By: iamabot

iamabot — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 08:27:03 -0800

Made from 100% pure awesome.

By: DU

DU — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 08:29:18 -0800

Not servos? That's a little bizarre for this application. Some great resources on that site. Why is everything Picaxe? Just a random choice? Oh and the belt drive kit reminds me of a question (that maybe I should put in AskMe): I harvested some stepper motors out of an inkjet printer. The steppers are perfect for a project I'm doing, but they have gears on the shafts. If it was a bare shaft, I could couple it right to the shaft of my application, but I can't get the damn gears off! There's no set screw. Do they weld these on or what?

By: uncleozzy

uncleozzy — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 08:29:41 -0800

This is fantastic. I would buy it. Or build it. I mean, I wouldn't build it, as my construction skills begin and end at cheesecake, but I'd get someone to help me build it. Ba-doompa-doompa-dum-ping! Ba-doompa-doompa-dum-ping! Shwee-shwee-shwee-shwee, ba-doompa-doompa-dum-ping!

By: chimaera

chimaera — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 08:55:08 -0800

WANT.

By: krautland

krautland — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 08:59:17 -0800

you know, the cutest thing for me was how the robot kind of grunted twice at the very top of the video. it's prolly just going over some rough patch but hey, it sounded like a little boar in anticipation of some action. which it got. with a vase. I'll stop now.

By: Eekacat

Eekacat — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 09:02:44 -0800

I WANT!! Seriously, I want to build this, and 120 bucks in parts! I'm THERE. Just, I don't know anything about robots and stuff, so I have some reading to do...

By: DU

DU — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 09:03:52 -0800

Answering myself: Picaxe vs Arduino There's a lot of nitties there, but it seems to boil down to Picaxe having more hardware options and fewer software options (i.e. great for non-CS EEs) while Arduino is the opposite (great for non-EE programmers). Fair enough, that's exactly why I chose Arduino.

By: ludwig_van

ludwig_van — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 09:13:29 -0800

Gah, I came here to post this. So badass.

By: darksasami

darksasami — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 09:36:18 -0800

This is cool, but AAARGH, the words "Yellow Drum Machine" two posts down from the word "Beatles", AAAARGH. We all live in a yellow drum machine, a yellow drum machine, a yellow drum machine...

By: nicolas léonard sadi carnot

nicolas léonard sadi carnot — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 09:41:10 -0800

Great blog. I'm working on an undergrad robotics problem at the moment and some of this is surprisingly helpful.

By: misha

misha — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 09:58:04 -0800

First ceiling cat papercraft, now the ultimate cute little drumming robot?! It's Christmas on Mefi. Best post of the day (so far. Competition is stiff around here!).

By: quin

quin — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 10:07:33 -0800

I really enjoyed how at about 3:25 it rolls into frame and, despite the fact that it's little sensors are flicking back and forth, it crashes into the glass with the red liquid in it, almost tipping it over. It's a great design which would only be made better by the addition of some Mr Magoo styled glasses.

By: The Power Nap

The Power Nap — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 10:30:22 -0800

I'm going to form a band of these things, and perform on street corners. It's like "Stomp" got knocked up by "Short Circut" during a night of drunken debauchery.

By: chrominance

chrominance — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 10:33:02 -0800

I really like the idea of having one running underfoot all day long, pausing every so often to rock out on the kitchen floor or by the leg of the coffee table or whatever.

By: pracowity

pracowity — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 11:27:33 -0800

I want a composer robot: have it go around collecting sounds that just happen and sounds it can make by hitting things, and then let it sit in the corner at night and dream music to play for me in the morning when it's time to get up.

By: ardgedee

ardgedee — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 11:32:52 -0800

> I really like the idea of having one running underfoot all day long, pausing every so often to rock out on the kitchen floor or by the leg of the coffee table or whatever. Roomba + Yellow Drum Machine. The world needs this, as of yesterday.

By: -harlequin-

-harlequin- — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 12:08:12 -0800

if it was a bare shaft, I could couple it right to the shaft of my application, but I can't get the damn gears off! There's no set screw. Do they weld these on or what? They're normally pressed on by machine. To get them off, you need to sit the gear on something (or really, two somethings, so there is a gap between them for the shaft and motor to hang through) that will take a pounding, then use a rod and hammer to punch the shaft out of the gear. (These mechanical stresses need to limited to the gear and to the shaft in the immediate vicinity of the gear, because the force required to remove the gear is usually more than enough force to destroy the motor, should the motor accidentally become involved in the process)

By: Guy_Inamonkeysuit

Guy_Inamonkeysuit — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 12:16:06 -0800

Yes! Yes! God, yes!

By: DU

DU — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 12:20:04 -0800

(Thanks, harlequin! I thought that might be it, but I didn't want to ruin my only two steppers.)

By: revmitcz

revmitcz — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 12:49:54 -0800

The guide isn't quite step-by-step, so apparently I'd have a lot of reading to do. But, I wonder if it can rock certain beats. Even better if it can respond to voice commands to play certain beats. Like maybe I can fashion a cymbal out of something and have a roving robot ready to do a cymbal crash every time I crack a good joke. Or, hell, if it can play the drum fill from Sepultura's cover of Symptom of the Universe, I'd be tickled friggin' pink.

By: emelenjr

emelenjr — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 13:18:47 -0800

I'd like to see that guy team up with this guy.

By: The Power Nap

The Power Nap — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 13:20:06 -0800

You could add some MIDI processing to their little robo brains, so they could speak music amonst themselves and other computers. Little robots running around thinking in Arpeggios. I'm kinda tearing up thinking about it, it's so beautiful...

By: sebastienbailard

sebastienbailard — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 14:30:14 -0800

Q: How many drummers does it take to change a light bulb? A: None, they've got machines to do that now.

By: stenseng

stenseng — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 17:03:29 -0800

A buddy of mine's had one of these for years...

By: chrominance

chrominance — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 17:12:40 -0800

If you read the how-to article you'll find some hidden features, like:

Also it can be used to detect a foot stumping on the floor or someone clapping, and so the robot can find the speed of this after four beats, and play along / fall in to your clapping or stumping. And.. It can be used when there are kids playing with the robot; Signals "Record", the kids shout, and the robot then plays music / a beat with their shouting as a part of "the music" :)

By: Durn Bronzefist

Durn Bronzefist — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 18:04:07 -0800

That was delightful.

By: Freen

Freen — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 20:52:40 -0800

I always had a feeling the future would be funky.

By: MikeKD

MikeKD — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 00:24:03 -0800

ehh, I was expecting something more....yellow.

By: pkerr1975

pkerr1975 — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 11:15:24 -0800

very very niffty! but can't help but think that some people have an awful lot of time on their hands.