This is the first generation crankscale instrument. It worked, but had lots of issues: It was very hard to hold. The buttons weren't good for playing, and the instrument body did a poor job resonating the sound. It allowed the handcranking to resonate much better!
This is the inside of the crankscale I instrument. You can see the generator, microcontroller synthesizer, speaker, pushbottons, etc. Unfortunately, this prototype was lost or stolen!
This is a peek into the guts of the electronics inside the handcrank. I slowly reverse-engineered the circuit, and found the place to tap off the most power. I also had to disconnect certain components.
This was another instrument idea which was never completed. It was based on having a body in each hand, with the cranks festooned to one another. It turned out to be very hard to press the buttons on the body. Perhaps this idea could be revisisted, but it would involve a thorough, ground-up design of the bodies.
Going along with the homebuilt variable transformer, this box and switches were proposed to quickly vary impedances. Unfortunately, the overall transformer range wasn't large enough and losses were too high, so the use of transformers has been backburnered.
This was an attempt to generate electricity using a yo-yo form. The peak measured power was very high - about 10 Watts! And it's a simple design. The problem is that it's hard to control the rhythm - it's mostly a half-note rhythm. Also, button/slider/knob placement is a challenge, so this idea was backburnered.
These next few slides show various attempts at creating drum sticks to spin a wheel/crank/spokes etc, as seen on the "TwoDrum." This thick wooden stick was much too light.
One problem with hitting a moving crank/wheel spoke is trying to connect with it. If the axle is moving too quickly to see, there is a great probability of missing it. Therefore, I use a handlebar grip to make a very floppy contact point. It connected better, but was still clumsy.
This is the best drum stick so far. Again, it uses handlebar rubber to make contact with the spokes, and conduit metal for decent bulk, but connecting with the spokes is still an issue.
This is a somewhat dangerous and reckless toy that creates a lot of momentum from a single, swift movement. I'm still trying to figure out a way to get all the energy out of the device.