How to vibrate a cymbal using Arduino

Projects General Guidance
1

Hello,

I am new to Arduino and would like to vibrate a cymbal using an arduino. I am not sure how to go about it? Piezo? Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Many thanks

2

Noisey_Parker:
Hello,

I am new to Arduino and would like to vibrate a cymbal using an arduino. I am not sure how to go about it? Piezo? Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Many thanks

Well one approach is to use a servo, and attach a drum stick to the servo's horn. You would need to experiment to find the appropriate values for your servo.

3

Sounds like you're looking for a "vibrating" motor; basically a small motor with a lopsided wheel on it.

A cheap, electric toothbrush would have the motor you'd need.

4

A simple sloenoid would work, the plunger spaced to hit it, thatll probably be nice and loud too
then just a transistor, base resistor, and flyback diode and your set

5

Thanks for the ideas, I don't want something to repeatedly hit the cymbal, rather to vibrate it and create a swell/ drone type effect. I need something that vibrates with enough power to stimulate the metal. I'm not sure a piezo will do it?

6

Your looking more for like a transducer, basically a speaker but the instead of the cone its a weight so it tranfers that movement to watever you mount it too

7

Google vibration transducer.

There was the exact same thing at last weekends BEAM festival. You had to wear ear plugs to prevent damage and it was simply a 6" and 9" symbol mounted on to of each other.
http://www.beamfestival.com/open-call-2012/#McLoughlin

8

Do you know what the natural frequency of the cymbal is? I'd have thought you could get a speaker which covered the right frequency range, remove the cone and attach it mechanically to the cymbal. You'd need a digital-to-analog converter circuit and an amplifier to drive the speaker from the analog output. Your sketch would then control the DAC to produce a wave with your desired frequency and amplitude.

Alternatively you could just set up a hardware oscillator to generate the required frequency and control the gain in hardware to produce a fixed output, without involving Arduino.

9

I've seen people use a violin bow against the edge of a cymbal. You could simulate that with a wheel mounted at the edge.

10

I'd have thought you could get a speaker which covered the right frequency range, remove the cone and attach it mechanically to the cymbal.

No once you hit a resonance the speaker will be destroyed you need something much more robust but electrically the same as a speaker. You will also need a power amplifier to drive it, at least 20W.

11

Grumpy_Mike:
No once you hit a resonance the speaker will be destroyed

You think so? I'm proposing to just used the coil, and attach it to the cymbal rather than to the speaker cone.

12

You think so?

Yes indeed.

I'm proposing to just used the coil, and attach it to the cymbal

Yes I know. Speaker coils are held in place by the cone. Remove that and you remove most of the support. But that is besides the point, a speaker coil is very delicate, it will not be able to stand the mechanical energy that will be reflected back once you hit resonance. There are industrial transducers that can do this but not a speaker coil.