| Name | NetID | Section |
|---|---|---|
| Mankeerat Sidhu | mssidhu2 | ECE 120 |
| WonJong (Peter) Lee | wonjong3 | ECE 120 |
Final Report -
Youtube Demo Link -
Statement of Purpose
We were inspired by this device that produced musical sounds as we move our hands after seeing it at the ISR ceremony one day at lunch. After inquiring the musicians, they said its called a ‘Theremin’. After doing more research we found that such a device could be made and it involved logic! This project would allow us to really know how capacitance and inductance works and go in depth about this cool instrument. We would make it unique by implementing our own circuit design and also make a volume changer which is not present in any of the DIY theremin tutorials on the internet. In the end it would be very pleasing to showcase this project to the performer who first introduced this to us and see their thoughts towards it.
Background Research
A theremin basically has two parts to it - Resonant frequency and capacitance. Basically and inductor and a capacitor are places in parallel to make the frequency oscillate. Then through the use of antennas and combing different capacitance’s would produce this frequency which is still outside the possible hearing range for human beings. We deal with this through the use of various circuit components and through using capacitance between the antenna and ourselves, we can make a device that changes its pitch with different hand movements or area. Throughout our discussion as we wanted to make this project unique we want to implement something that changes the volume of the theremin and not just the pitch. This definitely was a project that got our attention and motivated us to make something similar for our honors lab.
Block Diagram / Flow Chart
System Overview
The change of capacitance on the pitch antenna would be responsible for the changing in frequency change. The pitch part of the circuit is the most integral to the Theremin since this is the part where capacitors and inductors work together to produce the resonant frequency which is then amplified and played onto a speaker. To make the volume part of the circuit we are planning to use an arduino and an ultrasonic sensor. The ultrasonic sensor will measure the distance between the hand and the sensor and change the volume of the theremin accordingly. This would be the change part of our lab and would add an innovative touch to it. We would use a regular old speaker to produce the sound and also hook it up with the arduino to change the volume. The power supply would be different for the arduino, the pitch antenna section and the amplifier section. We are planning to come up with a schematic of the real circuit soon which might be different from the block diagram.
Parts
Variable capacitors, inductors, JFET (TiS58 transistor), LM386 chip (for the amplifier component), wires and resistors, arduino, ultrasonic sensor for arduino.
Possible Challenges
A possible challenge would be to make the volume changer for this theremin, however we would try to work on that using arduino and other components.
References
R. Moog, “Build the EM Theremin,” Electronic Musician, Feb-1996. [Online]. Available: cs.nmsu.edu/~rth/EMTheremin.pdf. [Accessed: 19-Sep-2021].
F. Kolmar, “My new Year gift to TW: A NEW theremin circuit,” Theremin World, 2013. [Online]. Available: http://thereminworld.com/Forums/T/29231/my-new-year-gift-to-tw. [Accessed: 20-Sep-2021].
Keystone Science, “How to make a Theremin” YouTube, September 2017, Available: https://youtu.be/oRhO0MJIl58 [Accessed: 20-Sep-2021].
Posted by dbycul2 at Sep 23, 2021 17:02