Remember the famous floppy drives? They’re back… with multiplied force (yes, THAT „force”) and some friends!
I have bought some more drives in order to expand the previous project back in 2012, which spent four years in a carton box. Together with new floppy drives, some more hardware has arrived: hard disk and optical scanners. Now I have the whole computer hardware orchestra – 64 floppy drives, 8 hard disks and 2 scanners – The Floppotron.
How does it work? The principle is simple. Every device with an electric motor is able to generate a sound. Scanners and floppy drives use stepper motors to move the head with sensors which scans the image or performs read/write operations on a magnetic disk. The sound generated by a motor depends on driving speed. The higher the frequency, the greater the pitch. Hard disks use a magnet and a coil to tilt the head. When voltage is supplied for long enough, the head speeds up and hits the bound making the „drum hit” sound. The disk head coil can also be used as a speaker to play tones or even music, but… that would be too easy and too obvious.
Every column of 8 floppy drives is connected to one 8-channel controller built on ATMega16 microcontroller. One controller acts as one voice with envelope simulation – the higher the volume, the more drives are playing. This allows to make ADSR-like shape and simulate a musical instrument, like a piano (exponential decay) or string instrument (sine, „vibrato”). The boards which were made a few years ago, were designed as a stand-alone „players” with optional USB-to-UART bridge and was not intended to be chained. My goal was to re-use old stuff and get the job done as fast as possible, so I used the on-board ISP (which in fact is a SPI interface) connector to link 8 drivers in a SPI chain. Long SPI chain with unidirectional communication is not an example good and reliable design, but it did not require any hardware modification and took a minute to build a controller network, so let’s call it… good enough for this kind of project.
Scanner and disk head controllers share the same base with floppy controllers, but have a different „instrument interface”. For driving the coils, I used 2 push-pull outputs (H-bridge) built with discrete SMD MOSFETs. Scanner head controllers were built using of-the-shelf boards – an Arduino Uno (firmware also builds for ATMega328 using AVR-GCC / Atmel Studio; none of this Arduino crappy software and libraries was used) and L298 breakout to save time needed to draw and etch the boards. PC interface (another Arduino board) receives the data over UART (USB-UART), buffers the messages and keeps the timings while passing packets to „musical instruments” over SPI interface, so a Windows hiccup will not affect the playback. It can also be driven by anything else like Raspberry Pi, Android smartphone (with USB-UART or UART-over-Bluetooth adapter) or another microcontroller.
Host application was written in Python 2.7. I wrote it mostly on some boring lectures when I was still studying at the university, so it’s a one big mess, but… at least it does the job. It parses the simple language used for writing note sequences arranged in tracks tied to a specific controller / channel and merges those parallel tracks into one command list which is transferred over COM port. It can also partially generate „song script” from MIDI file which speeds up the „song porting” process.
[…] « Chaque appareil équipé d’un moteur électrique est capable de générer un son. Les scanners et les lecteurs de disquettes utilisent des moteurs pas-à-pas pour déplacer la tête avec des capteurs qui balaient l’image ou effectuent des opérations de lecture / écriture sur un disque magnétique. Le bruit généré par un moteur dépend de la vitesse d’avancement », explique Paweł Zadrożniak sur son blog. […]
[…] « Chaque appareil équipé d’un moteur électrique est capable de générer un son. Les scanners et les lecteurs de disquettes utilisent des moteurs pas-à-pas pour déplacer la tête avec des capteurs qui balaient l’image ou effectuent des opérations de lecture / écriture sur un disque magnétique. Le bruit généré par un moteur dépend de la vitesse d’avancement », explique Paweł Zadrożniak sur son blog. […]
[…] hardware They also do the Knightrider theme, Game of Thrones theme and more. How it works: Return of the Floppies » Silent's Homepage Kinda intrigued by their rotary dial for smartphone project – would make a great steampunk […]
I often visit your blog and have noticed that you don’t update it often. More frequent updates will give your
website higher authority & rank in google. I know that writing articles takes
a lot of time, but you can always help yourself with miftolo’s
tools which will shorten the time of creating an article to a few
seconds.
Paweł, nie wiem jak mają się tu prawa autorskie, czy można prosić o
The Floppotron: Cannon Fodder ?? (moze The Floppotron: Pinball Fantasies)
a czy próbowałes jakieś retro 8bit melodie ?
Czy planujesz obchody 100lecia okrasić The Floppotron: Mazurek Dąbrowskiego ?
Prawiam i 3mam kciuki za dalszy rozwój w wolnej chwili 😉
[…] Zadrożniak created a musical instrument from floppy drives called the Floppotron to play tributes to some of his favorite songs, including this new homage to the band Toto’s […]
[…] Zadrożniak created a musical instrument from floppy drives called the Floppotron to play tributes to some of his favorite songs, including this new homage to the band Toto’s […]
[…] Zadrożniak created a musical instrument from floppy drives called the Floppotron to play tributes to some of his favorite songs, including this new homage to the band Toto’s […]
[…] Zadrożniak created a musical instrument from floppy drives called the Floppotron to play tributes to some of his favorite songs, including this new homage to the band Toto’s […]
[…] Zadrożniak created a musical instrument from floppy drives called the Floppotron to play tributes to some of his favorite songs, including this new homage to the band Toto’s […]
[…] Zadrożniak created a musical instrument from floppy drives called the Floppotron to play tributes to some of his favorite songs, including this new homage to the band Toto’s […]
You’re invention and passion are amazing. Thank you for bringing this to all of us that have fond memories of the forgotten technology. I love it. Keep up the work and keep being awesome!
Thank you for building this orchestra. The vibrato, glissando and timing must be difficult. You should present at NIME conference. Everyone would love this. It is great to see the equipment we loved re-purposed instead of junk.
[…] a while now, Paweł Zadrożniak has been treating us to some classic tunes played on his Floppotron— a musical instrument built from 64 floppy disk drives Frankenstein-ed together. His latest work […]
[…] a while now, Paweł Zadrożniak has been treating us to some classic tunes played on his Floppotron— a musical instrument built from 64 floppy disk drives Frankenstein-ed together. His latest work […]
[…] a while now, Paweł Zadrożniak has been treating us to some classic tunes played on his Floppotron— a musical instrument built from 64 floppy disk drives Frankenstein-ed together. His latest work […]
[…] a while now, Paweł Zadrożniak has been treating us to some classic tunes played on his Floppotron— a musical instrument built from 64 floppy disk drives Frankenstein-ed together. His latest work […]
[…] a while now, Paweł Zadrożniak has been treating us to some classic tunes played on his Floppotron— a musical instrument built from 64 floppy disk drives Frankenstein-ed together. His latest work […]
[…] a while now, Paweł Zadrożniak has been treating us to some classic tunes played on his Floppotron— a musical instrument built from 64 floppy disk drives Frankenstein-ed together. His latest work […]
[…] some time now, Paweł Zadrożniak has been treating us to some traditional tunes performed on his Floppotron— a musical instrument constructed from 64 floppy disk drives Frankenstein-ed collectively. His […]
[…] a while now, Paweł Zadrożniak has been treating us to some classic tunes played on his Floppotron— a musical instrument built from 64 floppy disk drives Frankenstein-ed together. His latest work […]
Hi!
Pavel, we are organizing Java Day event in Ukraine, 4-5 november and want to invite you with your installation on our event.
We are interested in music on hard disks.
How much will cost your performance in Kiev?
Best regards, Anastasia
Good dayy I am so grateful I found your webpage, I really found you by error, while I was browsing on Google ffor something else, Regardless
I am herre now and would just like to say many thaks for a inmcredible post and a all round
entertaining blog (I also love the theme/design),
I don’t have timne to read it aall at the minute but I have book-marked it and alsdo added your
RSS feeds, so when I have time I will be back to read a lot more, Plese do keep up the awesome jo.
Can you do a tutorial about how to code these I found a matrix printer and some disk drives in my grandmother’s hour and would like to attempt music
On it
I think you’re a genius for coming up with using hardware in this fashion, I’ve know about the floppotron since early on and I’m very glad to see you’re still going on.
Have you thought about doing art exhibits with it (or a TEDx)
[…] possibile scoprire come funziona il Floppotron (questo il nome della peculiare orchestra meccanica) di Paweł Zadrożniak e […]
[…] « Chaque appareil équipé d’un moteur électrique est capable de générer un son. Les scanners et les lecteurs de disquettes utilisent des moteurs pas-à-pas pour déplacer la tête avec des capteurs qui balaient l’image ou effectuent des opérations de lecture / écriture sur un disque magnétique. Le bruit généré par un moteur dépend de la vitesse d’avancement », explique Paweł Zadrożniak sur son blog. […]
[…] « Chaque appareil équipé d’un moteur électrique est capable de générer un son. Les scanners et les lecteurs de disquettes utilisent des moteurs pas-à-pas pour déplacer la tête avec des capteurs qui balaient l’image ou effectuent des opérations de lecture / écriture sur un disque magnétique. Le bruit généré par un moteur dépend de la vitesse d’avancement », explique Paweł Zadrożniak sur son blog. […]
You should make a drawing on how u wired all the hardware up for the floppatron or make a video on how to wire the floppatron up.
My chill describe:
http://ida.web1.telrock.net
[…] hardware They also do the Knightrider theme, Game of Thrones theme and more. How it works: Return of the Floppies » Silent's Homepage Kinda intrigued by their rotary dial for smartphone project – would make a great steampunk […]
I often visit your blog and have noticed that you don’t update it often. More frequent updates will give your
website higher authority & rank in google. I know that writing articles takes
a lot of time, but you can always help yourself with miftolo’s
tools which will shorten the time of creating an article to a few
seconds.
Paweł, nie wiem jak mają się tu prawa autorskie, czy można prosić o
The Floppotron: Cannon Fodder ?? (moze The Floppotron: Pinball Fantasies)
a czy próbowałes jakieś retro 8bit melodie ?
Czy planujesz obchody 100lecia okrasić The Floppotron: Mazurek Dąbrowskiego ?
Prawiam i 3mam kciuki za dalszy rozwój w wolnej chwili 😉
now you need to use UTAU and add vocals to your computer band
Why Not Try Yes roundabout
[…] He goes through the process on the blog Silent.org.pl: […]
[…] He goes through the process on the blog Silent.org.pl: […]
[…] this project, we took great inspiration from this writeup—I highly recommend you read it; it’s great! Posted on March 17, 2018Author […]
Are you available for doing a concert?
In the autumn we have an art festival in Copenhagen. If you are interested, I will see if we can invite you.
T O T A L L Y A N D U T T E R L Y A W E S O M E ! !
I am in awe of your hardware and programming skills to have come up with this.
I love it! If I can make a couple of requests…?
REQUEST 1 : Gimme Gimme Gimme, ABBA
REQUEST 2 : Popcorn, Muse (amongst others)
Awesome!
Alice Cooper – Teenage Frankenstein, please!
Request: Tears for Fears: Everybody Wants to Rule the World.
[…] y sus sonidos únicos se derivan de “motores que funcionan a diferentes velocidades”. En su sitio web, Zadrożniak explica cómo […]
[…] and its unique sounds are derived from “motors running at different speeds.” On his website, Zadrożniak elaborates on how it […]
[…] and its unique sounds are derived from “motors running at different speeds.” On his website, Zadrożniak elaborates on how it […]
[…] and its unique sounds are derived from “motors running at different speeds.” On his website, Zadrożniak elaborates on how it […]
[…] Zadrożniak created a musical instrument from floppy drives called the Floppotron to play tributes to some of his favorite songs, including this new homage to the band Toto’s […]
[…] Zadrożniak created a musical instrument from floppy drives called the Floppotron to play tributes to some of his favorite songs, including this new homage to the band Toto’s […]
[…] Zadrożniak created a musical instrument from floppy drives called the Floppotron to play tributes to some of his favorite songs, including this new homage to the band Toto’s […]
[…] Zadrożniak created a musical instrument from floppy drives called the Floppotron to play tributes to some of his favorite songs, including this new homage to the band Toto’s […]
[…] Zadrożniak created a musical instrument from floppy drives called the Floppotron to play tributes to some of his favorite songs, including this new homage to the band Toto’s […]
[…] Zadrożniak created a musical instrument from floppy drives called the Floppotron to play tributes to some of his favorite songs, including this new homage to the band Toto’s […]
You’re invention and passion are amazing. Thank you for bringing this to all of us that have fond memories of the forgotten technology. I love it. Keep up the work and keep being awesome!
You are genius!
I can’t help sharing your video to my friends here lol!
This is very fun for we guys working in IT.
Thank you for building this orchestra. The vibrato, glissando and timing must be difficult. You should present at NIME conference. Everyone would love this. It is great to see the equipment we loved re-purposed instead of junk.
Keep going with your magic.
Best wishes,
vixmedia
Ho Pawel!
Great work, I like your channel a LOT!
If you have time, could you analyze this song and play it on the Floppotron please?
Thanks,
It’s the main theme song from The Game Theorists.
https://youtu.be/quxzJ5xyuC4
Can those Floppies sing Toot, Toot Chugga, Chugga Big Red Car?
[…] a while now, Paweł Zadrożniak has been treating us to some classic tunes played on his Floppotron— a musical instrument built from 64 floppy disk drives Frankenstein-ed together. His latest work […]
[…] a while now, Paweł Zadrożniak has been treating us to some classic tunes played on his Floppotron— a musical instrument built from 64 floppy disk drives Frankenstein-ed together. His latest work […]
[…] a while now, Paweł Zadrożniak has been treating us to some classic tunes played on his Floppotron— a musical instrument built from 64 floppy disk drives Frankenstein-ed together. His latest work […]
[…] a while now, Paweł Zadrożniak has been treating us to some classic tunes played on his Floppotron— a musical instrument built from 64 floppy disk drives Frankenstein-ed together. His latest work […]
[…] a while now, Paweł Zadrożniak has been treating us to some classic tunes played on his Floppotron— a musical instrument built from 64 floppy disk drives Frankenstein-ed together. His latest work […]
[…] a while now, Paweł Zadrożniak has been treating us to some classic tunes played on his Floppotron— a musical instrument built from 64 floppy disk drives Frankenstein-ed together. His latest work […]
[…] some time now, Paweł Zadrożniak has been treating us to some traditional tunes performed on his Floppotron— a musical instrument constructed from 64 floppy disk drives Frankenstein-ed collectively. His […]
[…] a while now, Paweł Zadrożniak has been treating us to some classic tunes played on his Floppotron— a musical instrument built from 64 floppy disk drives Frankenstein-ed together. His latest work […]
Im doing this as an independent study for cs in university! Much harder and more tedious than poster takes credit for!
Hi Pawel,
for when a Jean-Michel Jarre / Daft Punk / Kraftwerk song ?
Love your work,
keep-up 🙂
Hi!
Pavel, we are organizing Java Day event in Ukraine, 4-5 november and want to invite you with your installation on our event.
We are interested in music on hard disks.
How much will cost your performance in Kiev?
Best regards, Anastasia
Good dayy I am so grateful I found your webpage, I really found you by error, while I was browsing on Google ffor something else, Regardless
I am herre now and would just like to say many thaks for a inmcredible post and a all round
entertaining blog (I also love the theme/design),
I don’t have timne to read it aall at the minute but I have book-marked it and alsdo added your
RSS feeds, so when I have time I will be back to read a lot more, Plese do keep up the awesome jo.
[…] some background: How does it work? The principle is simple. Every device with an electric motor is able to […]
[…] Here’s some background: […]
Can you do a tutorial about how to code these I found a matrix printer and some disk drives in my grandmother’s hour and would like to attempt music
On it
Do you take requests? I would love to hear Bizarre Love Triangle by New Order on the floppotron!
Could you mimic a talking voice with this setup?
I think you’re a genius for coming up with using hardware in this fashion, I’ve know about the floppotron since early on and I’m very glad to see you’re still going on.
Have you thought about doing art exhibits with it (or a TEDx)