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Cheap Melody. Dark Native. Electric Mallet. Gamma Meld 3. Typically a rod will have a much longer sustain time and in some environments this maybe desirable but annoying in others. Another difference between tubes and rods is their length for a given note. A rod is shorter than a tube to strike the same note for the same metal. In addition to smooth surface metal rods, I have tested steel rebar and the sound was awesome.
Because of the hardness, rebar exhibited a wonderful sustain time which helped to hold on to the overtones. I did not test the accuracy of the DIY calculator but I suspect it will be close. I would suggest selecting your notes based on steel, and while the notes probably will not be completely accurate, the ratio among the notes should remain the same.
Two additional issues to consider are the weight and loudness difference. Rods typically have a relative small diameter offering a smaller radiating surface producing a quieter chime, but on occasion the longer sustain time can offset the reduced loudness and sound quite acceptable. Select the number of chimes typically 3 to 10 for your set and the musical notes.
It is helpful to understand the limitations for effective note selection as discussed in the section on the bell-like chime. Keep in mind the physical size for the set.
Whether you use pre-calculated dimensions or a DIY calculator, observe the length for the longest chime as a guide for overall size. Remember to include extra length for the wind sail that hangs below the chimes. Read this caution. Select the metal for the chime tube. If you're new to cutting metal and looking for an easy method, I use an abrasive metal cutting saw blade in a radial arm saw and it works equally well with a cut-off saw aka chop-saw.
Make certain to use a cutting disk designed for the type of metal you plan to use. Using the wrong type of abrasive disk can cause a dangerous explosion The traditional tubing cutter or hacksaw also works well. Smooth the ends to remove sharp edges and to provide a professional appearance. Place an old towel or cloth on a table to protect the chime from scratches. Roll the chime back and forth as you file or sand the ends smooth.
Slightly chamfer or round the outer edge. Drill the support holes at the hang-point location provided by the p re-calculated table or the DIY calculator. Using a V-block, center the block before drilling by lowering the drill bit to the bottom of the vee and then clamp the block to the drill table. Flatten the band so a crease forms at both ends. Position one crease at your mark and then rotate the tube over to the second crease and mark that location.
Now you have drilling marks exactly opposite each other. Deburr the support holes in preparation for your support line. Using a drill bit larger than the hole, place the bit on the outside of the hole and rotate by hand. This is generally enough to chamfer the outside hole. Deburr the inside support hole. First, using a round or half-round file, remove the burr from inside the tube. Finish the task by using a section of coat hanger wire with a small bend approximately degrees at the far end, as shown right.
Place the wire in a drill and insert the bent end thru the hole. As you rotate the wire, lightly pull back on the drill and the bent wire will bend over any inside burr.
Thanks to Dennis Offner for a tip about deburring. An alternate approach for deburring could be the deburring tools available from the Cogsdill Tool Company. They manufactures several types of deburring tools that deburr the outside then collapse to pass through the hole and then expand to deburr the back side of the hole.
Using an electric drill, a set of chime tubes can be deburred in just a few minutes. Select the method or style for the top support disk or ring and the material to be used. For a long time, my favorite material has been treated lumber used for decking, although it did need a weatherproofing sealer. Also, white, or red cedar works well coated with a weatherproof sealer.
The engineered wood for decks makes an excellent support plate and striker. If you know of someone installing a new deck using engineered wood, perhaps you can get a few scraps. One board is expensive and may not be worth the cost, but scraps are useful. Also, a half-inch thick nylon cutting board old or new works well.
Some people will shop flea markets for that special circular disk made of most anything from metal to plastic plates, etc. In addition, wandering the aisles of Home Depot, Lowe's, Target, Mendelssohn's and your local drugstore have produced some surprising circular disk that can be drilled and are long lasting in the weather.
Select the top support disk cutout pattern for your specific tubing size and number of chimes in the set. Download the support disk and striker patterns from the website and just print the page specific to your tubing size and number of chimes in the set. You may need to print two copies, one for the support pattern and hole locations, and one for the striker pattern. Weather protect the top support disk or ring, the striker and the sail with a UV protective finish.
Decorate the chime tube as desired. A few suggestions here. Select the line, cord or chain for supporting both the chime tube and the top support disk. Select the style for hanging the chime tubes , i. Bottom aligned is best because it allows the striker to easily contact the bottom edge of all chimes, the ideal strike location. Top aligned may have a more aesthetic appeal and on occasion some like center alignment.
Also, you want to keep the distance between the chimes and the support desk quite short, no matter how they are aligned. This is to assist alignment during high winds. If they dangle too far below to the support plate, they can bump into each other and occasionally get mixed up with each other. A few inches would be best. Select the sequence for locating the chimes on the support disk or ring.
Attach the support line or chain to the chime using a simple jig you can make. You can use an appropriately sized darning needle for threading line through the top support holes and tubes during assembly. In your workshop, temporally hang the support disk or ring just above eye level. Depending on your alignment selection top, bottom or center hang each chime according to both the alignment requirement and the chime sequence diagram.
Or you can use an alignment jig as described here. Hang the striker according to the alignment diagram and avoid striking exact dead center for any chime. All three locations work well when you keep the striker away from the center dead zone for the first overtone. Don't worry about killing the first overtone with center placement. The first overtone dead zone is very narrow and easily overcome with a slightly off-center strike.
Metal Tanks Always try your local building supply store. In addition to visiting the hardware section in these stores investigate tubing used for closet hanging poles, shower curtain poles, chain link fence rails and post.
Yard or garage sales can yield surprising results, look for a discarded metal swing set, tubular shelving, etc. With permission look for discarded materials on constructions sites. Try your local metal recycler; they can yield very economical rod and tubing.
Online sources:. Amazon, eBay and the like can surprise you at times, offering small orders at good prices. Speedy Metals accepts orders for small quantities of tubes or rods. Titanium Joe Tubing Titanium is a silver color, low density and high strength metal that is highly resistant to corrosion in sea water, aqua regia and chlorine. You can use either grade 2 being pure titanium, which is softer and less popular, or grade 9 3AL The grade 9 numbers represent the percentage of Aluminum and Vanadium.
The DIY Calculators work equally well for both grades. Widener Metals is a small metals distributor supplying pipe, tubing and other misc. No minimum orders, offering material custom cut to length at no additional charge. A most likely source can be your local testing facility for each type of tank. Ask your local fire department, welding shop and scuba diving shop for their recommendation for a testing company. You may be required to provide a letter to the testing company stating that you will cut the tank in pieces and render it unable to hold compressed air or gas.
An enhancement to that scale can be the C9 Chord C E G B b and D which has a wider note separation for a good sound both close in and at a distance from the chime. With that in mind, we have DIY calculators for all musical notes or for specific scales such as the pentatonic or the C9 Chord.
You select the metal and the tubing size ID and OD and the calculator will provide the correct length and hang point for each note. The longer the chime the lower the notes will sound.
An octave is from C to the key just prior to the next C, which would be B. Below is a graphical diagram that may help clarify this. Another Must Read Caution: Ending your project with a successful and pleasing sound is important and setting the right expectations will allow that to happen. Selecting musical notes for a chime is NOT like selecting notes on a piano or other string instrument, or reed instrument.
When you strike C2 on a piano that is indeed what you hear but Not true for a chime cut for C2. Tuning implies exactness and exact tuning cannot happen when you do not hear the fundamental note for the chime. When a piano key for C2 When a C2 chime is struck you will NOT hear In fact.
Most prominent will be the third overtone at Hz which, on a piano, sounds like D5, but is not D5 because the mixing for all the overtones produces a completely new sound. The new sound is melodious, it sounds wonderful, but what note is it? Tuning charts on this site list dimensions for notes ranging from C1 to C9, that imply exactness, which you now understand can not happen with a chime when you can't hear the fundamental note.
Read more about the missing fundamental here. Why this happens is discussed in the section " The Science of Chiming ".
For example, an orchestra grade chime that is physically cut for C2 will actually sound about like C5. To see a visual representation for what a chime is apt to sound like, see this chart.
On the other hand, will the strike note for a chime sound pleasing and bell-like? Yes, absolutely, because of the large complement of overtones, even though the fundamental is missing. Selections from about C2 to C4 sound the most bell-like but will not adequately radiate the fundamental tone. Unfortunately this effect complicates note selection if you are trying to strike exact notes lower than about C5. Above C5 the strike note will actually be the fundamental and you can expect to hear the selected note, but less bell-like than the C2 to C4 range.
Thanks to a site visitor for providing this excellent emulation program from by Syntrillium. They are now defunct and we believe the software is considered "freeware". The zip file contains the main program, the registration codes and a help file.
The program is quite intuitive, full featured and should be easy to operate. Remember , the loudspeaker connected to your computer has the ability to play the low notes from C2 to C4 but a chime may not radiate those sounds.
Chime Emulation Software by Greg Phillips. Over the years much effort by many well-intentioned people has been placed on exactly what is the best chord for a set of wind chimes?
The striker only contacts one, maybe two chimes simultaneously. This whole concept of sequencing and giving chime sets a name like Corinthian Bells, Winchester or Pentatonic is a marketing exercise to sell more chime sets. They do not play in sequence and the listener will likely never identify what the random sounds from a chime set really represent. They're just notes. Selling chimes with an advertised famous sequence is marketing and advertising on steroids.
The good news is that with some of our innovative striker designs we can now almost strike a chord. More on this in the striker section. Also, if you dedicate a striker to each chime tube internal or external to the chime that configuration can ring several chimes at nearly the same time and approximate a chord. When using the traditional round striker it is much better to select notes that have a fair amount of separation allowing the ear to easily discern a variety of notes. This choice can sound pleasant close to the chime set but not so good at a distance.
The problem at a distance is the ear has difficulty discerning the closely spaced notes of the pentatonic scale. Caution at a distance I often hear the comment, "I have a set of chimes on my deck and they sound great. In fact, they sounded out of tune.
Why is this? As mentioned in the science section, a chime note is a combination of the fundamental strike frequency and the many overtones. Some of the overtones attenuate more rapidly than others at a distance. The original combination of strike frequency and overtones are not the same at a distance.
Remember, not always does the fundamental frequency contribute to the note and not always are there many overtones for a given note. The actual note depends on exactly where in the musical scale the chime is operating. When you have a chime that contains a larger number of overtones that are located in the higher frequencies, and mostly missing the fundamental, you can get this distance effect.
High frequency sounds attenuate more quickly in the atmosphere than do the lower frequencies. At a distance you are not hearing the same sound you hear close in. Some of the high frequency sounds can be greatly attenuated or missing. The chime can sound completely different under these conditions. Typically this occurs when you select notes in the lower part of the scale.
If your interest is making the chimes sound good at a distance of say feet or more, consider increasing the diameter of the tubing from the traditional sizes ranging from half inch thru two inches, up to at least 3 inch or more; 4 to 6 inches are better.
A set of chimes designed for the C2 to the C3 octave have good acoustic radiation properties close to the set but not so good far away because of this distance effect. Additional information later on this page HERE. Quieting the chime set : Chimes can easily become annoying so maintaining a subtle sound is important, particularly in high winds.
Softening the striker often helps in addition the use of the keeper-striker. Typical striker materials are a rubber hockey puck or other soft rubber coverings found in the plumbing section of the local hardware store. Here are a couple examples. The first example uses plastic aquarium tubing to cover the inside diameter of the keeper striker. Another solution from site visitor Troy is to drill holes at the top and bottom nodes.
Hang tubes so the bottom nodes line-up. Thread string through the nodes with spacer between tubes. He used 4 mm poly garden water tubes he had on hand.
Other spacers and line would also work. Also, you can thread a 50 monofilament fishing line or weed trimmer line around the outside tips of the star to keep the tubes from escaping and mixed up.
Drill a small horizontal hole at the tips for the monofilament line. Building Big! Whether you want a set of large chimes used in the sound healing and therapy arts, or you because of the anticipated lower frequency sounds, similar to a large diameter gong, or because you have a commission for an artistic display in a public location, building big may not accomplish all your goals.
Certainly, a set of long, large diameter chimes as shown to the right built by Chris from Wisconsin will sound awesome, but a few words of caution before you head in that direction. Since you read the caution statement above about the missing fundamental and the issues with the small radiation surface area for a chime tube, you can better understand how the insensitivity of the human ear at low frequencies contributes to our inability to adequately hear the low notes, mostly below about C4.
I am often contacted from the website when someone wants to Build Big. After completion of their large chime set they write to say, "My new chime set sounds wonderful, but not as low as I expected. Large diameter long chime sets are definitely worth the effort. Be mindful of annoying nearby neighbors since this sound travels far. Below is an attempt to demonstrate loudness and note selection at a distance. Choice of Metal Most often the chime designer considers cost, weight and aesthetics.
Your budget may not approve the cost of copper and aluminum may be more favorable than steel because of weight. Chimes from EMT electrical conduit are galvanized and resist rust but not the support hole or the ends. Rust could be an issue long term for EMT. For the purposes of chime design use the steel selection in the calculator if you're EMT thin wall conduit.. What metal sounds best? After the issues above are properly considered we can move to the question of what metal sounds best for a tubular chime?
The short answer is the thicker the wall and the larger the diameter, the better they sound, not necessarily the type of metal. However, what sounds best is a personal choice and I have not found a good answer for everyone. Some like a deep rich sound and other like the tinkle tinkle sound. Copper chimes have a different timbre than steel chimes.
The best I can advise is to visit a chime shop and test-drive a few chimes of different metals and different sizes. When selecting tubing size and you're undecided between two sizes, select the tubing with more mass. More mass will produce a better sustain time.
This selection may be the chime with a thicker wall or a larger diameter. When the wall thickness is large compared to the diameter, the extra stiffness can actually inhibit sustain time. Always test the sound of tubing before deciding, particularly if you are evaluating several sizes. Support the tube at the You may hear someone say they like aluminum best or copper best.
While each set will have different calculated lengths, they will both strike the same fundamental note, but sound completely differently. Why is that? Contrary to intuition there are only two variables that control the sound of a chime, i. Those two variables control the specific length dimensions to achieve a desired note for a given tubing size and wall thickness.
From the chart at the right you can see that aluminum has the lowest density and the lowest modulus of elasticity deforms easier than the others , while copper has the highest density but is only midrange for elasticity. What does all this have to do with what metal sounds best? The differences among metals cause a difference in timbre for the same note. Modulus of Elasticity p. That likely occurs because the lower modulus of elasticity for aluminum requires less strike energy for resonant activation and for a given input of strike energy.
The aluminum chime can be louder and have an increased sustain time. However, the difference among metals does not make one metal good and another bad. There are no bad sounding chimes when the notes are properly selected, tubes are properly tuned and properly mounted. It's impossible to have a set of chimes for the same note range made from aluminum sound the same as a set made from steel or any other metal, because of their difference in density and elasticity. If you want the smallest possible chime set for a given note range use brass.
Opposite to brass, EMT will provide the largest physical set for a given note range. For example, see the table below organized smallest to largest for middle C C4. Not all tubing is created equal : Be aware that some tubing may produce a beating effect when struck the wah-wah effect. Two closely spaced frequencies will interact to produce a third frequency. This is often due to variations in the cross section of the tubing caused by variations and inconsistencies in the manufacturing process.
The elasticity and the density of the tubing will be different, depending on where the tube is struck. The tube can produce two closely spaced frequencies and these two frequencies will produce the beating effect. Some people enjoy this effect and others may find it annoying. If you want to avoid this wah-wah effect, make sure you acquire high quality tubing — or test a small piece before buying in bulk.
While some tubing may be considered poor quality for musical requirements, it can be excellent for structural needs. The problem with tubing that exhibits this effect is that it makes precise tuning more difficult.. Listen HERE mp3 to the beating sound for the tube shown to the right.
If you know the exact material density and modulus of elasticity, enter those parameters into the DIY Calculator on the data page, when using the DIY calculator. I want to emphasize that good tuning will certainly help to accurately produce the appropriate overtones for the selected note, particularly for the higher note ranges.
About Tubing Dimensions: Aluminum and brass tubing tend to exactly follow their stated ID and OD dimensions while copper tubing does not. Wall thickness for copper pipe varies with the pipe schedule. Pre-calculated Lengths Pre-calculated tube lengths for some common metals used in chimes are in the table below. Also, orchestra grade chimes typically do not go below the C5 octave.
There are manufacturing dimensional tolerances that may cause slight inaccuracies in the actual results not to mention the effects of poor material handling, along with slight variations in material properties and impurities. You can measure frequency for verification using any number of software programs listed here.
Type L Copper Tubing. Values can vary slightly because of manufacturing tolerances for diameter, roundness, elasticity, density and poor handling. The shorter the chime the more the tuning will change. For example, here are the changes for a 5-chime set made from 2 inch OD aluminum with a wall of. Unfortunately, the rate of change was not linear, but a value specific to each length of tubing. Your notes may change more or less than these. Additional testing was performed for a number of different diameters and different lengths using aluminum, copper and steel tubing.
The results were very consistent. Short thin-walled tubing of any diameter changed the most and long thick-walled tubing of any diameter changed the least. It was impossible to predict the change other than the trend stated above for short vs. This was not surprising because shorting a tube will naturally increase the note frequency. If you are attempting to create exact notes for an orchestra setting, exact tuning is required and the use of an electronic tuning device or a good tuning ear is necessary.
On the other hand, if you desire a good sounding set of chimes but do not need orchestra accuracy, then carefully cut and finish to the length suggested by the pre-calculated table or the DIY calculators listed above. Frequency measurement: Measuring the exact frequency and musical note of the chime is challenging at best. Read the caution about chromatic tuners below! A few scrap pieces of wood to make two U-brackets, rubber bands and you're in business.
Mark the support nodes If you have just a few measurements to make, a quick and easy support suggestion is a string with slipknot positioned at the Caution : It can be challenging and often impossible for a chromatic tuner to measure a chime note correctly.
Non linearity of the human ear and a chime's non-harmonic overtones are two reasons. Chromatic tuners listen and display sound as it is being produced on a linear basis for both amplitude and frequency, but our brain process the same information using fuzzy logic. Why is this a problem? Unfortunately, the human ear is no doubt the most non-linear and narrowband sound listening device we know of. Similar to other percussion instruments, chimes do not produce fundamental frequencies and pure harmonic frequencies like string instruments, wind tubes and reed instruments, for which chromatic tuners are intended.
Instead, there are numerous non-harmonic overtones present which depending on their individual frequency and amplitude can be predominant to a tuner or analyzer, but make little or no difference to the human ear. A chromatic tuner may display the predominant amplitude and frequency, but that may not be what the ear actually perceives.
Wooden xylophone scales one note download sound file. Original sample for a "bell-like" xylophone instrument or synth. The xylophone is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets.
Inspiring Happy Jazz Corporate Blues. I made the jig from a kitchen cabinet hinge that I found in my junk box. Three things are important. Three, a centerline indicating the middle of the mounting holes must be marked at the top of the jig so that the jig can be lined up with the middle of the keys. The next step is to mark the middle of each key on the aluminum bar. Go back to the imaginary center line where the solenoid shaft hits the keys.
Divide the width of the bars by two and mark the spot on the bars then transfer the marking to the aluminum mounting bar. Then, align the center lines drawn on the bar with the centermark on the jig, then press the 90 degree bend of the jig firmly against the bottom of the bar and clamp it in place with vice grip pliers. If a drill press is not available, clamp the bar vertically in a vice, then, using the level in your hand-drill, drill the holes as square and true as possible.
The aluminum bar will probably be readjusted for best performance and tuning later so at this point use only one screw at each end of the bar. This completes the mechanical installation of the solenoids, our musical mini-robots.
Wiring the Control Box. Each solenoid has two wires. The other wire is brought into the control box and wired to the screw connector which in turn is connected to the port driver. The control box houses the brain of the project which is an Arduino Mega microprocessor, it is the muscle car of the Arduino family of microprocessors.
A shield is a PC Printed Circuit board that can be plugged into the connectors that surround the microprocessor. It is used to capture the outputs of the computer and turn them into usable functions. Looking at the photo of the Mega, below, we can see the connectors around the edges and we can imagine that if we turn the MPP Universal shield the following drawing clockwise 90 degrees, it will plug right into Mega Building this shield is our next job. Before designing the Universal Shield described here, I built one of each of these wired shields and I am happy to report that they both worked very well.
The real PC board shield that I subsequently designed can best be seen in the photo of the player piano's control box. The problem with my Universal Shield is that it has four mistakes.
Considering that it has traces and pads that's not bad for a beginner. Nevertheless, it has to be revised, a new batch of boards have to be ordered and the revisions have to be checked out, so it will take a couple of months to complete this job.
Meanwhile, the 51 key shield can be wired on a breadboard or a prototype board as we will describe below. To fit between the cover mounts of the 5. The bolt goes through the bottom of the case and is securely locked in place with a nut. The Mega PC board does not need to be attached to the case. Mounting the headers comes next. SHS headers They break easily, so I would order the extras. There are three 8-pin headers one on the left side and two on the right side , one pin header right side near U10 and one pin double row header ports 22 to 36 on the bottom to be installed.
Carefully cut the header stock as needed for the correct number of pins for each header. The components go on top of the board and are soldered on the bottom. But, the headers have to be installed from the bottom and can't be soldered on top because these are single-sided PC boards.
Three strips of PC board about 3 inches long are cut from a spare prototype board, two of them are 3 holes wide and one is 4 holes wide for the double wide header. If at all possible, before cutting out the strips from the breadboard, thin the stock down to about one half of its thickness. This job can be done with a belt sander don't even think of doing it on a table saw! With a minimal amount of super glue, attach each of the strips where the headers are to be located so that the header pins can be soldered on the topside.
Mark and double check to location of the headers. There should be 18 holes between the side headers and 8 holes from the edge of the prototype board to port Practicing the installation of a strip and soldering a header to it on a spare prototype board is worthwhile exercise.
Consequently, these pads are fragile: they have a minimal amount of strength and they detach from the board if too much heat is applied. When the components are inserted on the PC board, make sure that they are positioned correctly. Masking tape can generally position them tight and straight on the board so that they can be soldered correctly the first time. Use a low wattage 25 or 30 watt soldering iron to avoid getting the joint too hot.
Keep the soldering iron tip tinned and clean, wipe it clean after each 3 solder joints. Only four different components are needed for the full blown version of the shield: 3 resistors, 2 relays, 13 4-pin screw connectors and 13 pin sockets for the ULN ICs Integrated Circuits. The relays and two of the three resistors are not needed for the xylophone control box. The location of components shown on the diagram above is not critical: the components may be moved a few holes one way or the other if desired not the headers.
The resistor sizes are described in the player piano section. The components listed below are standard parts. By all means, buy them where you get the best deal. I bought them where noted but I did not do much shopping. As the chart above indicates, we start to wire at a port pin and go to the input pins of the ULN From the output pins of the ULN , we wire to the screw connector pin.
Note that 2 input pins and 2 output pins are connected together for each wire. We repeat this 53 times for the player piano and for as many times as there are keys for the xylophone players. A diagram of the driver circuit is shown below in the next set of diagrams. Note that this is a top view of the ULN There is a notch at the top of the IC to determine its orientation. The first pin on the left is pin 1. The numbering goes around the bottom so that pin 18 is on the right of the notch.
Note also that each wire goes to a pair of pins. That is done to put 2 driver circuits in parallel in order to handle the load. Each of the 8 circuits of the ULN can drive milliamps but our solenoids require ma, therefore, two circuits are needed. Twisting four color coded wires together through the hole makes makes it easier to connect to the correct pin of the driver.
The color coded wire mentioned above can also be obtained by stripping the wires from a cable such as All Electronics Cat CB The screw connector diagram shown next tell us that there are 4 pins in each connector and that each pin goes to an output of the ULN One wire from each solenoid is then connected to its assigned port when screwed in place. The two relay diagrams indicate which port 20 or 21 controls their operation the coil of the relay and which pins are used to activate the circuits.
In the case of the sustain relay, a normally closed circuit is opened when the relay is activated. In the case of the low volume relay, two normally closed contacts normally short out the resistors which were added in series with the speaker wires.
When they open, they allow the resistors to become active in reducing the volume of the speakers. The next set of diagrams show the wiring of the control panel and the control panel circuits. When the control box is used for a player piano, an additional hole with grommet is drilled for a cable which controls the Sustain and Low Volume functions. The 12 volt power comes from a 3 amp power supply such as the ones used for PCs.
These power supplies have a 2. A matching jack is mounted on the panel as shown. The last item to be installed is a plug connected to two 6-inch lengths of wire: one wire goes to the voltage dropping resistor R3 and the other one goes to GND as shown on the diagram.
The LED is connected between 12 volts and ground. Although the Mega's power source is rated for 12 volts maximum , I reduce this voltage to 8 or 9 volts to keep the 3. This completes the description of the circuits and of the wiring for the player xylophones.
A description of the wiring for the player piano comes next. Compared to the player xylophone, there are three main areas where the player piano differs substantially: a the mounting of the relays: a wooden crossbar replaces the frames and the solenoids are mounted in front to activate the white keys and in back to activate the black keys, b the use of the solenoids: instead of tapping the note bars, the keys are depressed for the duration of the note, c the circuits that simulate the operation of the pedals are activated.
These differences will also cause a considerable impact on the software. Another minor difference is that the solenoid plunger is returned to its starting position by the key rather than by the solenoid spring which is not used.
Without this base, the Casio sags enough to make the solenoids difficult to adjust. Towards the back, there are 2 embedded nuts that can be used to mount the base. In front, I screwed 3 8 sheet metal screws into the 3 plastic feet of the Casio. They can be filled with epoxy for better holding power. Be sure to cut a hole in the base to access the battery box. See the photo above from the same kind of installation on a Yamaha Keyboard. It will become the base for the two aluminum bars on which the solenoids are mounted.
The support brackets are in turn attached to the keyboard with 2 8 oval head screws. The two aluminum bars are drilled for the solenoids using the drilling jig in the same way as it was done for the xylophones. The bar for the white keys is 33 inches long, drilled out for 36 solenoids of which 32 are active. The bar for the black keys is 27 inches long drilled out for 20 solenoids of which 19 are active. After the solenoids are mounted on the aluminum bar, the bar is mounted on the crossbar with 8 oval head screws using rubber grommets so that the aluminum bar does not touch the crossbar in order to keep the solenoid noise from reverberating from the crossbar.
The other one forms a cable that goes to the control box. Because we need so many solenoids, we need a good quality device that is also inexpensive. The important specifications are as follows:.
I ordered and checked out a dozen solenoids that were close to the specifications shown above. Of these, I selected the best five.
I spent a lot of time testing the high quality Ledex, but finally concluded that its power was too low and that it would be too difficult to attach a foot to the end of the plunger shaft.
The curves below show the power of these five solenoids depending on the amount of electrical power that is applied to them. The x-axis shows the electrical power in watts. One watt is equal to one amp multiplied by one volt. So, if at 12 volts our test solenoid type JF draws one amp we find that it uses 12 watts and develops 9 oz. Since depressing a piano key only requires 4 oz, we are comfortably in the operating zone.
The tests revealed that there were two possible problem areas. According to the curves, this reduces the strength to depress the keys to about 7 oz. Fortunately, we are still well into the operating zone. The other potential problem has to do with the way we energize the solenoid. When we play a full note, the key will stay energized for 2 seconds when the beat of the song is beats per minute. I checked to make sure that the short pulses and the lower than expected power would still allow the solenoid to activate the keys correctly and it does.
Every indication shows that the JF will operate the keys of the keyboard properly but that there were noise problems to resolve. What noise level is considered too noisy and what is acceptable? I think that we should strive to keep the noise level equivalent to or less than the amount of noise created by the keys hitting bottom when they are played by hand. Just listening to the amount of noise that they make would be too subjective; we needed a better way of measuring sound levels.
Fortunately, the smart phone came to the rescue with a sound measuring app. Having settled on the JF as the best compromise as far as quality, size, power and price, the next step was to try various ways of reducing the excessive noise that the solenoid made when driving the keys.
Quiet solenoids do exist but they cost at least 5 times as much as the JF The drawing above shows the image of the solenoid, the operation of this simple device and the source of the noise. It should be noted that the noise is greatly amplified when the solenoid is mounted on a solid surface. When the solenoid is activated in one's hand there is little noise. On the other hand, the noise becomes unacceptable when the solenoid is mounted firmly on a solid surface.
We will therefore work on the mounting as well as on the solenoid itself. There are three sources of unwanted noise but the main one is caused by the seating of the plunger when it slams against its stop. As the diagram above shows the plunger cone comes to rest in a V shaped part of the body of the solenoid. The main trade-off here is to reduce the noise without reducing the travel of the plunger anymore than is absolutely necessary.
Nothing that I tried worked as well as simply stopping the plunger from hitting the cone at all. The fit should be tight so that the pad stays put on the plunger shaft.
I tried a number of other materials such as soft rubber, cork, foam, plastic, felt, balsa wood and Styrofoam ear plugs. I discovered the ear plugs late in the game but they work very well. The second source of unwanted noise occurs when the foot of the shaft is pushed back to its rest position by the key after it has performed its task of playing a note. Here again, after trying a variety of materials, I could not find anything that worked better than a Styrofoam pad. It only needs to be slightly thicker than the brass lock-nut that holds the foot in place.
It can be glued to the foot so that it will not ride up and down on the shaft. The third unwanted noise occurs when the end of the plunger shaft hits the keyboard key. We will describe a foot that reduces this noise in the next section.
The picture below shows a miter box-like jig to slice Styrofoam or other material such as cork, rubber or balsa wood. This mini-miter box has a nice feature to determine the thickness of the washer-like wafer being cut.
The material to be cut presses against an adjustable stop while it is sliced with a razor blade.
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