There’s less than two weeks left until my housing on campus runs out, and after that, I’ll be heading home. This will give me a chance to learn how to drive, and to finish building a few version 7 Magnetic Cellos. The lumber prices are a bit nicer back in Pasadena, and my neighbor has a few power tools that I can borrow (big thanks Mr. H!), so I’ll probably be building the wooden body there.
But while we’re still in San Luis Obispo, me and Lawrence are making good use of something that home doesn’t have. Something in the Cal Poly Machine Shop. Something that takes in an image file, some CO2 gas, and a lot of power. Something that does this:
Laser cutters are very very useful, and pretty easy to use. Here, I’m cutting out a 1/4″ thick template for the body and neck.
We’re also using the laser cutter for the bow and coil housing:
To wind coil around the custom-cut housing, I put together a rig. I can now wind a coil in about 20 minutes, down from the two hours it took without any such setup.
I’ve also been making good use of the oscilloscope the EE department is lending me. The shape of the wave on the screen is the tone of the sound, and I’ve been able to actually see the waveform from the circuit. Here is an interesting tone that results at 5 nanofarads:
With the O-scope’s help, I finalized (for now) the Magnetic Cello’s circuit. I designed a custom printed circuit board around this circuit. The innards of the cello should be a bit neater and easier to solder now. The wires and tuners are actually labeled! I left a large ‘Prototype Region’ to add components–you know I’ll still find ways to tweak the electronics.
That’s quite a few pictures. But we’ve been getting quite a bit of work done. The design, both electrical and physical has, for the most part, been completed. Now all that is left to do is actually the building of the instrument. I should have three version 7.0 Magnetic Cello done by the time school starts up again in mid September. Glitches notwithstanding.
