Mario Theme played on Stepper Motors with an Arduino

Now that I've figured out how to store song information in flash memory on the Arduino, I can actually play full songs. This is a little suite of Mario Brothers themes that I put together. Enjoy!

The sound you're hearing is coming entirely from the motors. The song information is taken from a MIDI file that I composed. An Arduino provides the necessary commands to spin the motors at the required frequencies.

Note: See my earlier video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8L8hY8siUMQ

Motor #2 buzzed a bit on the table this time. I'm going to find a better way to hold the motors still while still allowing them to vibrate.

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Answers to common questions:

Q: Will you give me the computer code you used?

A: Apparently I will because everyone seems to think I'm asshole for not wanting to. Ask for the code and I'll be happy to email you a copy.

Q: Where are the other videos?

A: Sorry. I am quite busy with my PhD work and don't have an enormous amount of free time. I promise to get around to these videos in the next few months (by the end of the Summer at the latest).

Q: What hardware did you use?

A: The stepper motors are bipolar NEMA 17 motors. The microcontroller is the Arduino Deumilanove. The power supply is 24 V, 4 amp. I am also using a 3-axis stepper motor driver board manufactured by Xylotex (xylotex.com). I actually don't recommend the Xylotex board anymore. Instead, try the drivers available at Probotix.com.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• mario
• MIDI
• music
• stepper
• motors
• arduino
• microcontroller
• mechatronics
• video
• games

[cmhiekses]

@mampfo666 Yes, thank you for pointing this out. I think you will find that the sounds produced by these motors are rich in their harmonic content. While the step signal consists of a single frequency, the actual mechanical sound generated by the motors will have plenty of audible overtones. You should check out my other videos where I explain some of the details of how this works. Oh, and I spend plenty of time listening to the world. I conducted an orchestra for 5 years. :)

[Delocaz]

0:08 Overworld

1:12 Flag Music

1:19 Underground

1:36 Underwater

2:02 Starman Music

2:19 Overworld (again)

2:31 Game Over Music

[MegaSmiley]

I had a nerdgasm. Great work!

[MissGrafin]

Now that's impressive!!

[mskaka52]

Great work! Please can you send me the code. Thank you very much. tasneemmkaka@gmail.com

[desktopgeek98]

I'd like the code please! email is petermwellman@gmail.com

Will this work if you combine the channels to a piezo speaker?

[bpmakings]

Can I please have the code, blanepark@gmail.com. Soo cool

[SkYjUmPeR5015]

niccceee

[Gmoooba]

10 play mario, fur elise, tetris or imperial mach with some weird device combo

15 go to next video

20 goto 10

[hansenzhanghy]

So cool! And would you send the code to me? Thx!!! 940633654@qq.com