Make a Music Box Punch Machine with Arduino
An Arduino Mega-based machine automates punching tape for programmable music box.
As hacker Pashiran notes in his project write-up, “You can make music by bunching holes in paper. But it’s really hard.” He found this out after purchasing a programmable music box — which plays music as punched cards are passed through this mechanical device — and actually programming it by punching the holes as needed. He was exhausted by this process and decided to automate things a bit.
What he came up with is an Arduino Mega-based machine that advances the music box’s tape underneath a punching mechanism using a stepper motor. A second stepper moves the punch into the correct note position, while a DC motor takes care of the punching action itself. Instead of analyzing the MIDI files that he wanted to play and producing coordinates for each hole, Pashiran was able to circumvent this difficult step via a site called musicboxmaniacs, which provides sheet music in a DXF format.
As seen in the video below, this information is loaded with a simple encoder/LCD user interface, and analyzed by the Arduino board. The device then gets to work, moving the paper into the proper position, then punching out a tune. Here Pashiran removes the music card, then transfers it to the mechanical music box, playing “Be Our Guest” from Beauty and the Beast.