You can do a lot of things with a lot of old hardware. But if you have talent, knowledge and programming, you get miracles like in Floppotron 3.0, orchestral music playback computer with 512 floppy drives, 16 hard drives and 4 scanners..
As its creator, Polish engineer Pavel Zadrozhniak, explains in his blog, any electronic device that has a motor and moving parts creates some kind of noise. And if you know how to skillfully combine this noise, you can also turn it into music.
In this video you can see Floppotron 3.0 in all its splendor, interpreting the classic play Enter the Gladiators by Julius Fucik. A miracle of technology and programming:
It is important to understand that these are not computer peripherals that produce music, but the music itself is created by the noise generated by the rotation of the engine or some of its moving parts.. As you can see, floppy drives, hard drives, and scanners were quite noisy in the 90s.
From a technical point of view, the Floppotron 3.0 is a complex machine that requires perfect coordination between the nearly 550 devices involved.
To make this possible, use controller cards capable of sending precise commands to dozens of devices simultaneously. One for scanners, one for hard drives, and three for 512 floppy drives.
These cards, in turn, interact with five RS485 controllersthat connect to the gateway. This front door gets music in MIDI format, and converts it into signals for the controller boards.
Finally, USB to MIDI converter allows you to connect everything to a PC. This diagram shows it very well:
Just as important as the hardware is the software that converts MIDI music into movements of motors or moving parts floppy diskshard drives and scanners corresponding to each note.
The result is amazing as you can see in the video.
If you would like to know more about the construction process of this incredible Floppotron 3.0and the rest of his creations visit Pavel Zadrozhniak’s blog.
Source: Computer Hoy
I am Bret Jackson, a professional journalist and author for Gadget Onus, where I specialize in writing about the gaming industry. With over 6 years of experience in my field, I have built up an extensive portfolio that ranges from reviews to interviews with top figures within the industry. My work has been featured on various news sites, providing readers with insightful analysis regarding the current state of gaming culture.
