anybody good with electronic wiring?

clayhillpeak

hi, here what im trying to accomplish; i want to make it so when you push a button a sound plays. trouble is i have to fit it in a small space. im painting this thing right now and i want to make it so you can push different spots, pushing a button behind the canvas, then playing the sound. anybody have any idea for a cheap way to do that? thanks people.

PorkChopSandwiches

More info would probably help you out here. Pictures? Right now I can't tell if it's a painting or some weird love toy you're making.

clayhillpeak

ok, so ive made a picture in mspaint that might help out a little



you see, when you push those circles it will push a button located right behind the canvas. pushing that button will cause a sound to be played. make more sense? maybe im just trying to do something too confusing

edit: now i realize that what im trying to do is somewhat what a casio keyboard does, you push a button and it plays a corresponding sound. (and no, thats not what the painting looks like.)

MKR

You need some way to store the sound, and play it back. You can't just press a button and have sound come from nothingness.

You could probably do it with one of those $10 note taker things, but you would need to know how to solder, and how to find out where the play button connects to (the wires in it probably wouldn't be long enough for what you're wanting).

DrFrylock

What about those gimmick greeting cards that let you record a sound and play it back? Those should be tiny and relatively easy to extract the hardware.

Ashaman42

Do you have any Teddy Bear Factory type shops near you?

A while ago I made a bear for my ex and they had chips you could record the sound you wanted onto and they played it back when you pressed them.

The only problem is they're quite thick (a centimetre or so I think), depends how deep the frame for the canvas is I guess. Or you may be able to disassemble the chip thingy.

EggyToast

DrFrylock wrote: »

What about those gimmick greeting cards that let you record a sound and play it back? Those should be tiny and relatively easy to extract the hardware.

If you're OK with low quality sound, this is probably the best way to do it for very little money. A professional installation would wire up buttons that respond to MIDI, and trigger the sound from a sampler or computer hanging out nearby. It would not, though, be easy to self-contain and would cost quite a bit.

MKR

DrFrylock wrote: »

What about those gimmick greeting cards that let you record a sound and play it back? Those should be tiny and relatively easy to extract the hardware.

Depends on whether or not he wants to be able to change the sound. They're probably permanent in those.

xxhennersxx

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2102855&cp=2032062.2032398.2032405&parentPage=family

three of these will be perfect.

PatboyX

I found a rather technical (to me) PDF by atmel that describes how to make one:
http://www.atmel.com/dyn/resources/prod_documents/doc1456.pdf

I found it through a google search and a short forum discussion it turned up. Other suggestions were Yak-Baks (made with the same AVR models.)
At the very least, DIY AVR kits or something like that may be what you are looking for.

clayhillpeak

thank you all for your help. i think that radio shack module will work best for what i want. thanks again

clayhillpeak

so i went to radio shack and those 9V recording modules are terrible. the quality absolutely sucks and the volume on the playback is so low you have to hold it to your ear to make anything out. looks like im starting over from square one

xxhennersxx

clayhillpeak wrote: »

so i went to radio shack and those 9V recording modules are terrible. the quality absolutely sucks and the volume on the playback is so low you have to hold it to your ear to make anything out. looks like im starting over from square one

talk to the guys at radio shack about how to get a better speaker in for them.

Blake T

Have you tried those buttons someone suggested?

What you'll want to do is tear them up and find the two contact points.

Next with your painting you'll need to offset it off something so when you push there will be a little travel.

Then mount to thin pieces of metal on either side.

Connect either contact point to a piece of steel.

Now when you push it in the steel will touch and you will complete the circut and make your painting talk.

All it is is a very basic switch.

Willeth

For the switch I recommend a piezo transducer. They respond with very little pressure and are extremely flat - you could probably even glue them onto the canvas and paint over them and they'd still work, although I'd ask someone with more experience than me if that would be a wise idea. Covering them with something would probably be a good idea.

clayhillpeak

those piezo tranducers look pretty interesting. though im a bit confused on how they work. i understand its like a drum trigger, but what are the wire coming out of it and how would i set up what sound to play?

The Cat

oh god. I'm thinking back here, but when I was about 13 I did an after-school electronics class on account of being a huge nerd. We soldered together listening devices and things that go beep and all sorts. Basically, you need to go and buy a magazine for electronics hobbyists or find a website that publishes circuit diagrams, find a suitable plan, and then grab the bits at radioshack or somewhere. You'll need little more than a basic chip with a particular code-name, a few resistors and capacitors and wire and such, and a small speaker, plus a board to mount the bits on, a battery, and a soldering iron+wire. Its pretty easy, the only thing to watch out for is heating the connector wires to the speaker for too long, because they're easy to fry. It only takes a little touch from the soldering iron to do the job. Sorry that's not more specific :P

Willeth

As far as I remember, a piezo is just two layers of conductive material that are just far enough apart not to transmit a current. When it's tapped, it allows current to pass through, completing the circuit. It would then trigger another device that had the sound stored in it, set up to a speaker. The piezo itself is just a switch, nothing more.

Although I seem to remember that they can also be used as low-quality speakers for beeps and such, but I don't know whether that's useful to you.


We did a similar project in high school, but I can't for the life of me remember the name of the sound chip. I do know that it came with a tune pre-installed - some sort of nursery rhyme jingle - and we needed special software/hardware to change it.