BlocklyProp Theremin for the S3

This announcement got me thinking...

Theremin Musician Thomas Grillo Returns to the Biedenharn Museum & Gardens

Jackson Mississippi's, Thomas Grillo performs his long awaited encore performance at the Biedenharn Museum & Gardens, Thursday, September 7, 2017, beginning at 7:00 p.m. The Theremin concert will be held in the Biedenharn's Fountain Room and will include classical works by Rachmaninoff, Schubert, Gounod, Franck, and others. Tickets are $15 per person plus tax and can be reserved by calling the Museum Store at 318-387-5281 Tuesday - Saturday from 10:00 a.m. am to 5:00 p.m. Reservations are strongly encouraged as the concert is limited to 80 guests. A reception with Coke floats will be held immediately after the program in the Welcome Room. 

The Theremin, named after Russian inventor, Professor Léon Theremin, is played without discernible physical contact from the musician. The controlling section usually consists of two metal antennas that sense the position of the player's hands and control oscillators for frequency with one hand, and amplitude (volume) with the other, so it can be played without being touched. The electric signals from the Theremin are then amplified and sent to a loudspeaker.

Theremin music is associated with a very eerie, otherworldly sound, and is often heard on Sci-fi and horror soundtracks. The Theremin has been featured in the movie score for Bernard Herrmann's, The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) and The Big Bang Theory, in the "Bus Pants Utilization" episode. Classical symphonies have also been written for Theremin. 

There was a theremin program written for the Original Scribbler by Alex Seddon in PBASIC. See the code below.

These BlocklyProp versions are written for the S3.

There is a Simple Theremin and a Theremin 2, aka Charlize Theremin  - because a Theremin should have a name!

Simple Theremin - http://blockly.parallax.com/blockly/editor/blocklyc.jsp?project=10999#

Theremin 2, aka Charlize Theremin -
http://blockly.parallax.com/blockly/editor/blocklyc.jsp?project=10996#

They each work a bit differently - play with them, make them better, and show us how you did it!

Notes: In the interest of science, I have tickets for my wife and me to the concert too! ;-)
Information on Joseph A. Biedenharn is here.

History of Space Exploration

Cool poster! Read all about it here and study it in detail or buy your copy here. Lots of amazing robot history - of course.

VallejoBot

¡De una familia amable en nuestra Iglesia Latin@! 😉 - un nuevo robot brillante... El nombre es VallejoBot.

Coming Soon!

Coming soon to your local magazine stand and my mail box... Can't wait!  Way to go Carol Lynn Hazlett!

See my previous post here - https://roboticsunderthestole.blogspot.com/2017/06/art-with-blocklyprop.html - Guess I made the cover indirectly!

Old Bulletin Board Style Message...

From this image on Carol Lynn Hazlett's Facebook page...

I made the following...

erco's MP3 Player

My pal, erco (Eric Ostendorff, a.k.a. Mr. Roboto, from Servo Magazine) does it again. Cheap fun project. Eric says, "DIY this quick self-contained DIY MP3+speaker module for $4 plus your micro SD card. Search Ebay for a $3 Catalex YX5300 UART Serial MP3 Music Player Module and grab a Dollar Tree amplified speaker. For file format & serial commands, see http://geekmatic.in.ua/pdf/Catalex_MP... and numerous sites like http://www.amazingtips247.co.uk/2015/..."

and with a BASIC Stamp... Catalex MP3 BS2 Demo (with code!)

' {$STAMP BS2}
' {$PBASIC 2.5}
' {$PORT COM4}

PAUSE 500
SEROUT 15,84,[$7E,$FF,$06,$0c,$00,$00,$00,$EF] ' reset chip
PAUSE 500
SEROUT 15,84,[$7E,$FF,$06,$09,$00,$00,$02,$EF] 'Select TF card
PAUSE 500
SEROUT 15,84,[$7E,$FF,$06,$06,$00,$00,$1E,$EF] ' Set volume (0x1Eis30)
PAUSE 500

B0=01
Main:
DEBUG DEC B0
SEROUT 15,84,[$7E,$FF,$06,$03,$00,$00,B0,$EF]
PAUSE 4000
B0=B0+1
GOTO main

Robothon 2017 T Shirt

Above is this year's Robothon t-shirt design! The artwork was done by my good friend Carol Lynn Hazlett's nephew, Brent Rosenburgh. 

One of the T shirts will be on its way to Louisiana soon! ;-)

Robothon is annual robotic's competition of SRS, Seattle Robotics Society - seattlerobotics.org. They describe Robothon like this, "Robothon is a national event that showcases the capabilities and technological developments in robotics from the amateur robotics community. At this event, people from around the world come together to present new robotic technologies, share ideas, meet fellow robotic enthusiasts, show off their robotic creations and compete in many robotic competitions and activities."

More info is also available at the Robothon Facebook page.