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[on:]

I've never dabbled in electronics before, let alone Arduino. Please forgive me for any mistakes and misconceptions I present.

I wish to build an electronic irish whistle - essentially a sine wave synthesizer that:
1. gets its frequency from your finger layout and a breathing-related factor (when breathing hard enough, woodwind instruments go up an octave)
2. gets its amplitude from breathing

The fingering sensors are not binary - keying combinations include half-covered holes, and gradually covering a hole results in a sliding effect.

I'd have to interface with 6 sensors for fingering, and one for breathing - 7 in total.

My questions are:
1. What kind of sensors should I use?
2. What hardware will I require, Arduino-wise?
3. What else am I forgetting?

Thank you very much,
Miki

[Reply #1 on:]

Thanks

These will probably do the trick.

Will I have to get a sensor shield, or can I connect these sensors directly to an Arduino board if it has enough connections?

[Reply #2 on:]

Merci!

c'est bien ça - get a sensor shield, or c'est bien ça, you don't have to get one?

[Reply #3 on:]

Only very loosely related, so I hope you guys don't mind, but I hope you guys will enjoy this:

.

To hear an audio sample, click here:


A mechanized one of those would be a heck of a project.  ] 

[Reply #4 on:]

The fingering sensors are not binary - keying combinations include half-covered holes, and gradually covering a hole results in a sliding effect.

How will you deal with the fact that covering/uncovering a hole is non-linear? That is, a constant "motion of a finger over a hole" results in a non-constant "area of hole covered" value.

[Reply #5 on:]

The capacitive sensing scheme suggested appears to accomodate analog measurement of finger position.

Right. But the measurement (input) is linear, where the output (the audible effect) is non-linear. I want to make sure that OP understands this.

[Reply #6 on:]

Flute reaction of finger position is non-linear? It is, however, a continuous function. Hopefully, this could be closely emulated by using a suitable function on the sensor's input?

[Reply #7 on:]

Flute reaction of finger position is non-linear?

How can it be? The flute reaction is based on the area of the opening. As the finger moves over the hole, in a linear fashion, the area not blocked does not linearly decrease.

It is, however, a continuous function.

Of course. At no point can the function jump in values, so it must be continuous, Just not linear.

Hopefully, this could be closely emulated by using a suitable function on the sensor's input?

Most likely. Just needs to be given some thought. Some experimenting will be necessary to determine if the Arduino-based whistle really does sound like a real one.