An Arduino Music Box with TV Output
This device brings a giant stuffed animal to life on an old CRT screen.
Creator “er13k” was inspired by his girlfriend’s stuffed teddy bear Tobias, to build a music box to go along with its made up personality. What was originally meant to be a simple Arduino/piezo speaker gift eventually morphed into something much more.
The unit is powered by an Arduino Nano and uses a speaker salvaged from an old radio to output notes from a pre-programmed array. Volume control is via a rotary potentiometer. Er13k also designed a 3D-printed case for the musical device, with faux keys that light up using LEDs underneath to show the notes being played. The Nano is situated on top of the box, blinking away itself to the tunes.
The “extra special” feature, however, is that it’s wired up with two RCA female connectors, and employs the TVout library to show a cartoon version of Tobias through composite video on a CRT television. Images are converted to black and white and scaled to 95x95 resolution with GIMP.
You can see and hear the music box in action in the video below, as well as a preview of the “Tobias Channel.” Apparently this plush toy has a lot going on during the day while his human is away at work!