lullaby machine

The lullaby machine is a computer controlled xylophone! It plays songs using a computer and an arduino to drive a set of solenoids.

It can also be driven manually using a computer keyboard. In this mode, you can also record your keys and timing to play back automatically later.

The original reason I wanted to build this was to use it to signal events -- different notes or melodies to signal different online events like a new email, tweet, etc.

It's built from a simple toy xylophone and equipped with one solenoid per key. The solenoids are driven by an arduino. Most of the logic is currently handled by a tethered computer.

Here's a video of it playing the opening to Brahm's Lullaby:

The xylophone can be manually controlled by the computer keyboard. The asdf row maps to C, D, E, F, etc. on the xylophone.

Using the manual control, there's a play/record function. You can capture your manual sequence of keys and timing and have the xylophone repeat it back.