I’m in the process of building a laser harp, and rather than play it myself, I would like to have a robot play it. I’m also building the robot, which will actually be a mannequin with step motors in the arms to enable the arms to move and make the hands break the appropriate laser beams according to what music is input… I’m planning on using software such as Smartscore to convert sheet music into MIDI commands which would then be used to operate the stepper motors in the arms. My problem is, not being very smart electronically, I’m trying to figure out how to do that. It seems like it should be something that can be done with an Arduino, but I don’t know how to operate a stepper motor using MIDI as an input. I’m planning on maybe 8 or 10 separate laser beams Any help would be appreciated.
Hello.
That sounds like an interesting and ambitious project. For a project of this complexity, my recommendation would be to break it down into smaller pieces that you can build and test individually. You might search for some Arduino libraries out there that can convert MIDI files into animatronic related motor movement you could use to get started.
Perhaps someone else on the forum will have more input for you.
-Derrill