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Auto Xylophone with Homemade Solenoids

rachad47.github.io

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Re: Auto Xylophone with Homemade Solenoids

#11

Post by Palomides »

jstanley wrote: post #9
bambax wrote: post #4

Very cool project! But I would dispute this: > buying 24 Solenoids is quite expensive They're about $1-2 apiece on Aliexpress; I doubt making your own can cost much less? In my experience, making one solenoid is fun just to see how it works (and how simple it is, really); but making more than one is a little painful and not fun.

Personally I avoid buying direct from China whenever possible because I want parts quickly so that I can make progress on the project. The cheapest solenoids I can see on Amazon Prime are about £5 each. 24 of those would be over £100. Plus, the stated goal of the project is to learn a bit more about electromagnetism, so making your own solenoids is not even a bad idea.

why would you buy solenoids from amazon instead of an actual electronics distributor?

Re: Auto Xylophone with Homemade Solenoids

#13

Post by worldmerge »

dtgriscom wrote: post #12

I have a full octave of organ pipes, and I've always dreamed of making an instrument out of it. I've just never figured out how to make the electrically-actuated valves.

Have you seen Look Mum No Computer’s series on making an organ midi controlled?

Re: Auto Xylophone with Homemade Solenoids

#14

Post by jstanley »

Palomides wrote: post #11
jstanley wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally I avoid buying direct from China whenever possible because I want parts quickly so that I can make progress on the project. The cheapest solenoids I can see on Amazon Prime are about £5 each. 24 of those would be over £100. Plus, the stated goal of the project is to learn a bit more about electromagnetism, so making your own solenoids is not even a bad idea.

why would you buy solenoids from amazon instead of an actual electronics distributor?

I pretty much always buy components from either Amazon or eBay. Is that unusual?

I just looked on Farnell and the cheapest solenoids that I could find in stock have a weird housing (and they're £6.38 each which is already more than Amazon), the cheapest sensible ones that are in stock are £12 each, which is way more expensive than Amazon, plus you have to pay VAT and postage on top, plus you have to faff around with their enterprisey order form, compared to one or two clicks on Amazon.

Re: Auto Xylophone with Homemade Solenoids

#15

Post by jstanley »

grishka wrote: post #10
jstanley wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally I avoid buying direct from China whenever possible because I want parts quickly so that I can make progress on the project. The cheapest solenoids I can see on Amazon Prime are about £5 each. 24 of those would be over £100. Plus, the stated goal of the project is to learn a bit more about electromagnetism, so making your own solenoids is not even a bad idea.

I had most of my Aliexpress orders arrive in something like 10 days. Is it much slower in the UK?

That's almost 2 weeks! Amazon Prime comes the next day.

Re: Auto Xylophone with Homemade Solenoids

#16

Post by qkucy »

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #3

Pat Metheny made an album called Orchestrion using an entire orchestra/band of real instruments played by solenoids over MIDI. Great music. (If you like Pat Metheny.) It was an insane project. He even took it on tour. The actual build was by Eric Singer and his team. https://www.wired.com/2010/01/orchestrion/

Although I missed seeing the Orchestrion tour in the 2010s, Pat still takes a subset of these instruments on tour with him. Both of his two previous tours, Side Eye and Dream Box had parts of the concert that had robotic percussion and wind instruments.

Re: Auto Xylophone with Homemade Solenoids

#19

Post by thrtythreeforty »

Palomides wrote: post #11
jstanley wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally I avoid buying direct from China whenever possible because I want parts quickly so that I can make progress on the project. The cheapest solenoids I can see on Amazon Prime are about £5 each. 24 of those would be over £100. Plus, the stated goal of the project is to learn a bit more about electromagnetism, so making your own solenoids is not even a bad idea.

why would you buy solenoids from amazon instead of an actual electronics distributor?

Sometimes, because you Just Don't Care™ about any particular manufacturer spec, and you're unwilling to pay egregious Digikey/Mouser markup times 24.
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