In the Adafruit Arduino Lesson 10, Pseudo-Theramin, an Arduino Uno is combined with a light-sensitive cadmium sulfide (CdS) photocell to make a light responsive music machine. This project allows you do do the same with an Adafruit Trinket or Gemma mini-microcontroller. This project costs less and works in smaller circuits or wearable projects.
Changes in light intensity on the photocell will change the pitch of a note on the piezo speaker as you wave your hand in front of the cell. While not a true theramin (which uses changes in a circuit’s reactance), this project is much simpler to build.
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
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