brainstorm work
design work in progres.....
intro
I’m a big fan of modular synthesisers, animatronics and furbies. For that reason it makes sense to combine all three in the final project: the tortured furby modular synth module - moreover because I take the subject(s) very serious in a very non-serious manner. I have been working every now and then on a modular synth in a casing which I originally intended for a laptop-arcade. The sides have been laser cut, some of the modules are bought, some are based on a kit and some are designed myself, such as the arcade-control board and the Hall-9000 module-with-the-big-red-evil-eye. I am probably not the first fabacademy student interested in torturing furbies, rebuilding furbies or modular synthesisers - too many to list here. However, I can be credited with being the first (in 2009) to hook up a Furby to the internet. So there is that…
Fab Arcade Modular Synth project.
RULE # 1 No Actual Furbies May Be Harmed Nor Used During This Project
Important goal is that for the design of the module no actual furbies will get harmed, converted or (re)used, that the module design can be re-used for other tortured-character-style modules. The servo’s have to be far away from the sound, with mechanical coupling only.
Furby face, 3D print model from thingiverse, doll-eyes and high-voltage generator.
The furby has to tortured by applying a high-voltage spark through its head/brain. Not sure yet whether design and use of a real 15kV generator is a smart move, or whether I will emulate the effect using faux-sparks using a noise generator and neopixel LEDs. The design of a furby face I found on thingiverse is not good enough, not in measures/size nor controllability, so first up will be a good 3D design of an animated furby face. Perhaps I also have to work on a nice miniature knife-switch…
sketch of the module (and first thoughts on the interface design)
The synth will consist of a sample bank (from archive.org) of original Furby sounds (salvaging an original furby sound-board might be interesting, but does not comply with rule 1). Building a good audio looper with start-end point control, seemless looping, frequency (pitch) control, modulation etc. will be quite a challenge (at least for me). I’m curious to whether an RP2040 or SAMD11 would be up to the task, or whether I have to fall back to Arduino Teensy.
mechanical side
- standard modular synth compatible form factor - laser cut (write base plate script)
- foil cutter sign and txt
- model small 3D printed animatronic furby face. Use scan of original furby for size. Parametric model in openScad?
- design a tendon drive system with flexible (servo actuated) tendons so the motor unit placement is flexible
- base plate shape with face-frame: milling? or use milling and vacuform?
- eye-ball casting using clear acrylic, iris painting… realistic read veins?
- bare versions and furry versions -> use fabric
- what about ears? and different models for grocu (the child) and other creatures
electronics
- custom PCB
- comparison of controllers for audio capabilities
- load wav from file (sd card, menu, file selection SSD1306 Oled)
- loop (seamless), set begin and end point marker (visualise)
- control playback frequency
- analog modulation inputs for trigger, gate, frequency, modulation
- standalone midi input
background
I have been refurbyshing furbies for quite some time now. The project started when, after a debating event on the role of AI in arts, one of the hosts of the event wanted to buy one of my Robot-Generated-Paintings. In line with the Monky-Selfie-Copyright-Dispute we neede a ‘Good Cause For Robots’ to donate part of the proceeds. Since no such thing was available (and the guy from ‘Look Ma No Computer’ had this furby-torturing organ released) I thought that a care-home for old (1998 style) furbies might be the thing. Currently the home comprises 37 CNC cut furby appartments and more than 80 furbies.
refurbyshment project on show at CODA, Apeldoorn, Netherlands (2019)
other ideas
Other project ideas (in random order - I might even use them for intermediate assignments)
- haptic piano key controller: module with vibration motor, small (attiny) uC, hall-effect sensor, 4-wire connection (power, gnd, data in, data out) - shift register - neopixel style control (but now for an INPUT device)
- most awesome wireless control system (custom bamboo handheld, >20 channels, multi protocol investigation project)
- big project: self-driving grand-piano case for digital piano