Published November 17, 2019 © MIT

Arduino Sea Shells Light/Music Box

Nice little gift idea :) Harder to build than you think! :D

IntermediateFull instructions provided4,343

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Arduino Nano R3

Speaker, Piezo

Tactile Switch, Top Actuated

Texas Instruments TLC5940

Resistor 2.21k ohm

Resistor 10k ohm

Slide Switch

LED (generic)

Story

Last week I saw some sea shells in a dollar store close to my home and suddenly came up with an idea to build a cute little Christmas present for my partner. As simple as the idea sounded like in the beginning, it almost killed me to actually make it!

First have a look at the final product (turn on speaker):

Sea Shells Light/Music Box!

I realized I have to use a TLC5940 to expand the number of PWM pins on an Arduino, and later realized something that nearly killed the project: using the tone function interferes with the PWM timers, therefore I couldn't have the light dance and the music working simultaneously using one Arduino Nano. The result was using two separate Nanos, both feeding from the same power source but one handing the lights and one playing the music.

I later on decided to add a tactile button between the piezo speaker and the second Arduino, to make it play the music only if you press the button.

Two Arduino Nanos on a prototyping PCB board

The soldering on a prototyping PCB and gluing the lights inside the shells was also quite the challenge, but all in all the result was well worth the time :)

I drilled a hole on the back of the box, and connected the VIN of both Arduinos (as well as their grounds) and passed them through the hole, so the power source could stay outside of the box as we need to be able to change it from time to time.

The power source will stay on the back of the box.

Then I glued the board and the speaker to the botton of the box. And after that I glued one or two LEDs inside each shell, and then kept gluing shells inside the box to cover the board, speaker and all the wires:

Gluing LEDS inside shells and covering the electronic parts

It works best to put LEDs inside bigger shells, and then have some tiny little shells to cover all the holes to make sure the wires and devices aren't visibly underneath them.

The final result looked like below, the smaller shells came very handy. On the top left corner, the switch is also covered with a little shell glued on it! Also on the bottom right, the tactile switch is placed that triggers the song playing:

Final Look

I must also mention that the code for the playing the music was taken from this Github Repository, so especial thanks to the person who wrote it!

Code

#define NOTE_B0  31
#define NOTE_C1  33
#define NOTE_CS1 35
#define NOTE_D1  37
#define NOTE_DS1 39
#define NOTE_E1  41
#define NOTE_F1  44
#define NOTE_FS1 46
#define NOTE_G1  49
#define NOTE_GS1 52
#define NOTE_A1  55
#define NOTE_AS1 58
#define NOTE_B1  62
#define NOTE_C2  65
#define NOTE_CS2 69
#define NOTE_D2  73
#define NOTE_DS2 78
#define NOTE_E2  82
#define NOTE_F2  87
#define NOTE_FS2 93
#define NOTE_G2  98
#define NOTE_GS2 104
#define NOTE_A2  110
#define NOTE_AS2 117
#define NOTE_B2  123
#define NOTE_C3  131
#define NOTE_CS3 139
#define NOTE_D3  147
#define NOTE_DS3 156
#define NOTE_E3  165
#define NOTE_F3  175
#define NOTE_FS3 185
#define NOTE_G3  196
#define NOTE_GS3 208
#define NOTE_A3  220
#define NOTE_AS3 233
#define NOTE_B3  247
#define NOTE_C4  262
#define NOTE_CS4 277
#define NOTE_D4  294
#define NOTE_DS4 311
#define NOTE_E4  330
#define NOTE_F4  349
#define NOTE_FS4 370
#define NOTE_G4  392
#define NOTE_GS4 415
#define NOTE_A4  440
#define NOTE_AS4 466
#define NOTE_B4  494
#define NOTE_C5  523
#define NOTE_CS5 554
#define NOTE_D5  587
#define NOTE_DS5 622
#define NOTE_E5  659
#define NOTE_F5  698
#define NOTE_FS5 740
#define NOTE_G5  784
#define NOTE_GS5 831
#define NOTE_A5  880
#define NOTE_AS5 932
#define NOTE_B5  988
#define NOTE_C6  1047
#define NOTE_CS6 1109
#define NOTE_D6  1175
#define NOTE_DS6 1245
#define NOTE_E6  1319
#define NOTE_F6  1397
#define NOTE_FS6 1480
#define NOTE_G6  1568
#define NOTE_GS6 1661
#define NOTE_A6  1760
#define NOTE_AS6 1865
#define NOTE_B6  1976
#define NOTE_C7  2093
#define NOTE_CS7 2217
#define NOTE_D7  2349
#define NOTE_DS7 2489
#define NOTE_E7  2637
#define NOTE_F7  2794
#define NOTE_FS7 2960
#define NOTE_G7  3136
#define NOTE_GS7 3322
#define NOTE_A7  3520
#define NOTE_AS7 3729
#define NOTE_B7  3951
#define NOTE_C8  4186
#define NOTE_CS8 4435
#define NOTE_D8  4699
#define NOTE_DS8 4978
#define REST      0


// change this to make the song slower or faster
int tempo = 80;

// change this to whichever pin you want to use
int buzzer = 5;
int key = 9;
int key2 = digitalRead(key);

// notes of the moledy followed by the duration.
// a 4 means a quarter note, 8 an eighteenth , 16 sixteenth, so on
// !!negative numbers are used to represent dotted notes,
// so -4 means a dotted quarter note, that is, a quarter plus an eighteenth!!
int melody[] = {

  // The Godfather theme
  // Score available at https://musescore.com/user/35463/scores/55160

  REST, 4, REST, 8, REST, 8, REST, 8, NOTE_E4, 8, NOTE_A4, 8, NOTE_C5, 8, //1
  NOTE_B4, 8, NOTE_A4, 8, NOTE_C5, 8, NOTE_A4, 8, NOTE_B4, 8, NOTE_A4, 8, NOTE_F4, 8, NOTE_G4, 8,
  NOTE_E4, 2, NOTE_E4, 8, NOTE_A4, 8, NOTE_C5, 8,
  NOTE_B4, 8, NOTE_A4, 8, NOTE_C5, 8, NOTE_A4, 8, NOTE_C5, 8, NOTE_A4, 8, NOTE_E4, 8, NOTE_DS4, 8,
  
  NOTE_D4, 2, NOTE_D4, 8, NOTE_F4, 8, NOTE_GS4, 8, //5
  NOTE_B4, 2, NOTE_D4, 8, NOTE_F4, 8, NOTE_GS4, 8,
  NOTE_A4, 2, NOTE_C4, 8, NOTE_C4, 8, NOTE_G4, 8, 
  NOTE_F4, 8, NOTE_E4, 8, NOTE_G4, 8, NOTE_F4, 8, NOTE_F4, 8, NOTE_E4, 8, NOTE_E4, 8, NOTE_GS4, 8,

  NOTE_A4, 2, REST,8, NOTE_A4, 8, NOTE_A4, 8, NOTE_GS4, 8, //9
  NOTE_G4, 2, NOTE_B4, 8, NOTE_A4, 8, NOTE_F4, 8, 
  NOTE_E4, 2, NOTE_E4, 8, NOTE_G4, 8, NOTE_E4, 8,
  NOTE_D4, 2, NOTE_D4, 8, NOTE_D4, 8, NOTE_F4, 8, NOTE_DS4, 8, 
   
  NOTE_E4, 2, REST, 8, NOTE_E4, 8, NOTE_A4, 8, NOTE_C5, 8, //13

  //repeats from 2
 NOTE_B4, 8, NOTE_A4, 8, NOTE_C5, 8, NOTE_A4, 8, NOTE_B4, 8, NOTE_A4, 8, NOTE_F4, 8, NOTE_G4, 8, //2
  NOTE_E4, 2, NOTE_E4, 8, NOTE_A4, 8, NOTE_C5, 8,
  NOTE_B4, 8, NOTE_A4, 8, NOTE_C5, 8, NOTE_A4, 8, NOTE_C5, 8, NOTE_A4, 8, NOTE_E4, 8, NOTE_DS4, 8,
  
  NOTE_D4, 2, NOTE_D4, 8, NOTE_F4, 8, NOTE_GS4, 8, //5
  NOTE_B4, 2, NOTE_D4, 8, NOTE_F4, 8, NOTE_GS4, 8,
  NOTE_A4, 2, NOTE_C4, 8, NOTE_C4, 8, NOTE_G4, 8, 
  NOTE_F4, 8, NOTE_E4, 8, NOTE_G4, 8, NOTE_F4, 8, NOTE_F4, 8, NOTE_E4, 8, NOTE_E4, 8, NOTE_GS4, 8,

  NOTE_A4, 2, REST,8, NOTE_A4, 8, NOTE_A4, 8, NOTE_GS4, 8, //9
  NOTE_G4, 2, NOTE_B4, 8, NOTE_A4, 8, NOTE_F4, 8, 
  NOTE_E4, 2, NOTE_E4, 8, NOTE_G4, 8, NOTE_E4, 8,
  NOTE_D4, 2, NOTE_D4, 8, NOTE_D4, 8, NOTE_F4, 8, NOTE_DS4, 8,
   
  NOTE_E4, 2 //13
};

// sizeof gives the number of bytes, each int value is composed of two bytes (16 bits)
// there are two values per note (pitch and duration), so for each note there are four bytes
int notes = sizeof(melody) / sizeof(melody[0]) / 2;

// this calculates the duration of a whole note in ms
int wholenote = (60000 * 4) / tempo;

int divider = 0, noteDuration = 0;

void setup() {
  pinMode(key, INPUT);
  // iterate over the notes of the melody.
  // Remember, the array is twice the number of notes (notes + durations)
  
}

void loop() {
  
  int keyPress = digitalRead(key);
  if (keyPress == HIGH){
    for (int thisNote = 0; thisNote < notes * 2; thisNote = thisNote + 2) {
      
      // calculates the duration of each note
      divider = melody[thisNote + 1];
      if (divider > 0) {
        // regular note, just proceed
        noteDuration = (wholenote) / divider;
      } else if (divider < 0) {
        // dotted notes are represented with negative durations!!
        noteDuration = (wholenote) / abs(divider);
        noteDuration *= 1.5; // increases the duration in half for dotted notes
      }
  
      // we only play the note for 90% of the duration, leaving 10% as a pause
      tone(buzzer, melody[thisNote], noteDuration * 0.9);

      // Wait for the specief duration before playing the next note.
      delay(noteDuration);
      int key2 = digitalRead(key);
      if (key2 == HIGH)
      {
        delay(1000);
        break;
      }   
      // stop the waveform generation before the next note.
      noTone(buzzer);
       
    }
  }
}

#include <Tlc5940.h>

void setup()
{


   Tlc.init(0);//initalizes all LEDs to off at first
}

void loop()
{

  updateLight(random(16), random(4096));

  
}

void updateAllLights()
{
  for(int i=0; i<16; i++)
    Tlc.set(i, random(4096));
  Tlc.update();
}

void updateLight(int pin, int light)
{
  int current = Tlc.get(pin); 
  int diff = light - current;
  if (diff == 0) return;
  
  if (diff > 0)
  {
    for (int i=current; i<=light; i+=10)
      {
        Tlc.set(pin, i);
        Tlc.update();
        delay(1);
      }
  }
  else
  {
      for (int i=current; i>=light; i-=10)
      {
        Tlc.set(pin, i);
        Tlc.update();
        delay(1);
      }
  }
}

Credits

behrooz66

0 projects • 11 followers

Arduino Sea Shells Light/Music Box

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Story

Schematics

TLC5940 Schematic

Code

Music Player Code

Lights Code

Credits

behrooz66

Comments

Embed the widget on your own site

Arduino Sea Shells Light/Music Box

Arduino Sea Shells Light/Music Box

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Story

Schematics

TLC5940 Schematic

Code

Music Player Code

Lights Code

Credits

behrooz66

Comments

Related channels and tags