Marta Musik Maschine Is a DIY Audio Toy with Built-In RFID for Character Interaction

The Marta Musik Maschine (M3) is a DIY multi-purpose interactive toy for kids that uses RFID to activate sounds and an LED light show when characters are placed on top of its 3D-printed enclosure. According to Marta, the M3 is entirely open source and promises that it’s not a complicated build if you follow his greatly detailed blog posts.

Under the hood, the M3 is outfitted with a custom PCB mainboard [Meta] designed via KiCAD, which is equipped with a Raspberry Pi Zero W and an RDM6300 125kHz RFID reader. It also packs a PCM5102 soundboard, a pair of speakers, arcade pushbuttons, and a WS2812B RGB LED strip. Rounding out the M3’s hardware are an MPU6050 accelerometer/gyroscope, an on/off shim, and Intenso power bank to power the toy.

Marta 3D-printed two-piece enclosures that house the RFID tags, which snap together using magnets, and feature a smooth top surface for affixing (gluing) different characters. He then used his Python-based Marta POC main script to program the M3, which he states, “kinda works.”

When a character is placed on top of the M3, the RFID sends an event message that engages a particular sound, piece of music, and an LED light show. For example, when a little dog is placed near the RFID receiver, it starts barking while simultaneously driving an LED pattern. The arcade buttons let the user adjust volume, LED brightness, and animation, as well as song playback and speed control. Those interested in recreating the Marta Musik Maschine [Marta] provides an extensive walkthrough, complete with links to the files, schematics, and the code needed to get up and running on his blog linked above.