Banjovi by the 4 idiots

Music is the picture of the soul

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Inspiration: We as a team were inspired by the theme rockstar. Our goal was to build something fun and accessible that captures the spirit of making music, expressive, and completely your own. As a team, we wanted to channel the excitement, creativity, and energy into creating an interactive hand-held device that can be played as a musical instrument.

What it does: Aims to create an intuitive and interactive hand-held device that can be played as a musical instrument. By integrating sound synthesis and touch-sensitive controls, the device will allow users to create and manipulate musical synth sounds. Featuring scale selection, dynamic pitch modulation and differing synth settings, it offers a unique and engaging way to explore music making.

How we built it: Utilizes an ESP32-WROVER as its primary core, with eight buttons and two analog joysticks. It has a single speaker outputting sound, all encased in a custom-designed 3D-printed case.

Challenges we ran into

Friday:

  1. Challenge 1: The esp32 kept crashing when we tried to utilize multiple buttons and the sound was breaking up, being very irregular.
    • Solution (if found): Utilized demo code from Mozzi while abandoning the initial program
  2. Challenge 2: Certain pins were not working, we were worried that pins were being fried one after the other from testing
    • Solution (if found): After trial and error, the issue was found to be in the breadboard we were utilizing for testing. It did not have a consistent ground line, leading to error in testing.

Saturday:

  1. Challenge: Utilization of the ultrasonic range finder
    • Solution: No-go, because of ESP32 pin constraints (This particular model has flash memory which takes up two pins, reducing input items)
  2. Challenge: Utilization of the LCD
    • Solution: No-go, because of ESP32 pin constraints (This particular model has flash memory which takes up two pins, reducing input items)

Accomplishments that we're proud of:

  • Able to play happy birthday with the new instrument created
  • Created a combination of guitar and keyboard.
  • Spend half the day creating a breadboard from scratch and able to build an instrument.

What we learned

  • How to use Mozzi to create songs
  • How to code c++ in esp 32
  • Using 3D printer to print the controller/case.

What's next for Banjovi by the 4 idiots

  • Learn about how to use ML Arduino and take this instrument to learning music on its own.

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