Overview

This week, I experimented with different materials to make different sounds. Unfortunately, It turned out that the servomotors were too weak to make sounds that were audible enough.

Yeseul gave me an advice that using actuators or DC motors could be more better. Since my actuators were still on delivery, I just experimented with the servos.

Attempt #1: Water cup

Initially, I thought about putting two servomotors in two water cups with different amount of water. However, it turned out the servomotors didn't have enough force to hit the water cup. I tried different methods of hitting the water cup, but it turned out that the servomotor's sound was louder than the cup sound. I decided I couldn't go with the water cups.

Attempt #2: Mint tins with screws

This is my favorite mint tin that I bought from the Tate museum some time ago. I put some screws inside the mint tin and attached it to the servomotor's wings with strings. However, it turned out that the servomotors were too slow to make a shaking kind of sound.

Attempt #3: Water cup with resin pendant

Another material I tried was resin. This is a purple unicorn pendant from a keyring. I tried attaching it to the servomotor and submerged it into a cup of water, hoping that it would make clear sounds. However, the servo was too slow to produce proper sounds.

Takeaways

• Servomotors do not have enough power to make a percussion sound. I need a stronger power source or a stronger motor, such as an actuator or a DC motor.
• Another problem with servomotors are that they keep jittering even when the sensor is not activated, and the jittering sound makes noises.
• FSRs are not that very good at capturing rhythm. Maybe changing it to a photoresistor can be better.