Vermes
Advanced Member level 4
It is a device that plays music in a very unusual way. The main things needed to make such a machine are floppy discs and drives. Although the floppy disc inside the driver is not necessary, sounds may be worse without it, because the head goes down, it is more stable and does not crackle.
First attempt:
And now duo:
The principle is very simple. The sound is emitted by the movement of the head, which is moved in steps with appropriate frequency.
The description of interface can be found for example HERE. Simply activate the floppy drive by providing low state on DRVSB0 or 1 (depending on whether the tape is with cross and to which plug the drive is connected). After that, choose the direction of the head movement (as low/high state on DIR) and the trailing edge of the STEP would cause one step movement of the head.
ATMega microcontroller controls the whole. The program was written in C. There is a two-dimensional array for each track – each box contains information about the frequency and length of tone.
The higher tones are not so easy to reach. The floppy drives do not play well from octave higher than in the video. Practically each drive plays a little differently.
Link to original thread – Dyskietkowa orkiestra