DigiGurdy: electronic hurdy-gurdy keybox

thingiverse

Updates: Some .stl files and Build / User instructions updated on October 3rd, 2019. Extra notes added on which OLED screens to buy, as they are not all the same! May 31st, 2019. Extra notes on the various pin labels used by different OLED displays. May 31st, 2019. Feedback: www.DigiGurdy@gmail.com The hurdy gurdy is an ancient instrument with melody strings bowed by a rotating wheel and played by pressing keys. It also has drone strings and a buzzing rhythm section operated by varying the rotation speed of the crank handle. The hurdy gurdy has been described as the stringed equivalent of the bagpipes. Bagpipes are noisy, making it sometimes hard to find a good place to practice. Consequently, practice chanters exist, as well as electronic versions. No equivalent exists for the hurdy-gurdy, which is also noisy! I set about designing an electronic hurdy-gurdy keybox with correctly placed keys that outputs MIDI via a USB cable to an attached laptop or phone running MIDI player software. When used with headphones, this gives you a low-cost, portable, compact, and silent means of playing the equivalent of the melody strings. It does not even have a battery as it is powered via the USB cable - plug and play. It may also reduce the barriers to starting to play the hurdy-gurdy, as reasonable instruments start at around 1,500 euros and are built to order with waiting times frequently being around one year. There is a self-build kit by Jaap Brand called the Nerdy Gurdy (also on Thingiverse) which inspired this project after I built one. The entire structure is 3D printed. Although there are a lot of parts, these have been broken down into manageable modular sections. The keys press on microswitches and the brain of the device is an Arduino Teensy 3.6 microcontroller. An OLED display shows you which note you are playing at any time. There is also a Demonstration Mode that will play a selection of songs at the speed of your choosing while displaying the notes on the OLED screen as it goes. A build manual .pdf is included in the attached files and also the code for the Teensy to make this operate. This is a work in progress, and updates will be made in the future. The parts were printed on a Flashforge printer Makerbot clone. Note: October 3rd, 2019 - The keys have been updated from those in the pictures so they have a shorter travel distance before they hit the microswitches. Examples of players in many different styles (in no particular order) Nigel Eaton: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twX-ctnN8EQ Gregory Jolivet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhveCl4vivo Harry Wass: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVDkI6neSRE&list=RDfuSGZIqqW88&index=3 Efren Lopez: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtIyzMB4ELk Tobie Miller: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0chSbrBBKc Andrey Vinogradov: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naQopGoPnig Mr. Wehle street performer in Prague: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgKCLGascmg&list=RDMpe8YQVkdYE&index=4 Example of a younger player - Patty Gurdy: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSEOK9G-A2oCyZwdGesCpIg February 3rd, 2019 - I have added a document describing how to set up and use this with the SonoKinetic Hurdy Gurdy library which is a quite realistic sounding, although not free, MIDI HG emulator with drones and trompette that will run on a laptop. If you do go down this route, email me for the relevant Teensy Software.