My initial idea was to incorporate the bela into my design, but using digital along with a analogue/mechanical build proved to be tricky. The idea was to use the bela to control 10 3.3v dc motors individually to work like a 10 step sequencer. With this design I could then program to have each output of the bela send a 3v signal into a variable resistor which I had pre-set speed and have the motors turn when told to. The first problem I ran into was pulling enough voltage from the digital outputs from the bela, as I know the bela can power a motor from the 3v output but this output cannot be controlled remotely.
I was able to sequence a 1.5v buzzer with this design as a test which made me decide whether i could replace the 3v motors with these buzzers. But due to the size of them when used with a variable resistor the the voltage sweep didn’t have enough range to control the speed in detail, meaning I cannot dial in the pitch accurately.
My last resort to get this idea to work was to try a schematic from a forum online which uses external power and the bela as a signal sender to control the external power to the motor.
Yet this schematic did not work. The transistors were correct and so was every other part, even after checking the .pd script everything was in order. I even swapped to the big bela.
I think my first objective is to get the analogue/mechanical parts built first to see that I can in fact create a drone keyboard from 10 motors without any problems, and then find a possible way to hands free sequence the motors.
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