An odd idea that hopefully doesn't end up with me in the ER

[Confuzzled]

interesting. my original inspiration was a video that i can no longer find of a kid putting a spring on a magnet and it generating a low hum which made me want to build off of it and mount it in an enclosed tube to make it amplify and output the sound from the cheap single coil. ultimately, i'm just looking to create something, and not wind up being that electronics dude on youtube who has the montage of everything he touches shocking him.

think i'll hit spencer's tomorrow and see if they have super cheap vibrators or some vibrating novelty item.

i was going to try floating the springs on iron screws with the copper wire going around the inside of the pvc to see if i could create a magnetic field but what the hell.... ill try anything at this point so long as my medical insurance covers the hospital visit!

[crochambeau]

Anything under 25 volts (be it AC or DC) will be largely ignored by the human body unless in extreme circumstances (keep the leads out of your mouth), and even when you can feel it the currents generated by such a low potential will probably not do harm.

[BetterOffShred]

Anything under 25 volts (be it AC or DC) will be largely ignored by the human body unless in extreme circumstances (keep the leads out of your mouth), and even when you can feel it the currents generated by such a low potential will probably not do harm.

This

[eatyourguitar]

Yeah, don't actually do any of this experimenting until you know what you're doing.

I would counter with "you don't actually know anything about this stuff until you do some experimenting". you can read ALL the books and have no ability to translate that into a workable plan of action. being the first to build a new hybrid electro-acoustic instrument or building something that is completely undocumented is %100 dependent on trial and error through working prototypes and partial prototypes. if you have it in your head that a static magnetic field or a DC current/voltage will induce oscillation in a metal spring then I would suggest you prove your idea with a much simpler experiment. I know that the only excitation and therefor the only oscillation will happen when the device is switched on or off. the spring itself has a natural dampening factor due to wind resistance and internal stresses that create heat in the metal. without a guitar pickup, a piezo pickup, a microphone or an electric switch activated by the movement of the spring, there can be no indefinite oscillation of the spring. I would guess that the video you watched had a feedback loop that puts the spring in the loop. keep in mind that noise instrument hackers are sometimes super luck and lazy. a spring can be activated by mechanical, acoustic, electric, or magnetic effects if they are done in a manner that can induce spring vibration. likewise the vibration of the spring in some specific range of motion can be picked up through mechanical, acoustic, electric, or magnetic effects. through the use of transducers and electric AC amplifiers, you can put enough gain in your hybrid feedback loop to have sustained oscillation for an arbitrary length of time controlled by the user/musician/operator. pitch is usually very easy to manipulate by changing any variable in the experiment. the range and control may not be what you are looking for so you will eventually need to be some kind of scientist to make anything more than a cheap trick.

[Chankgeez]

I just meant "as far as playing with higher voltages".

[eatyourguitar]

yeah I would agree that you should not play with 20,000V neon sign power supply. you should NOT open your amp to probe 240VDC with a probe in each hand. you should never touch 12VDC with - in one hand and + in the other hand since it would cross your heart with 0.1mA and that is actually enough to cause cardiac arrest. however, if you want to connect one of your probes to your amp with an alligator clip with one hand in your pocket and then turn it on and then probe 240VDC with one hand in your pocket then go ahead. the book "handmade electronic music" by nick collins says do everything with a 9v battery. I say do whatever is free from dumpster diving. we usually don't work on things with the mains power connected so we usually don't die. I would be more concerned with fire since someone with no engineering background is about to start connecting power supplies to metal springs that have a resistance of 0.1 Ohms. an amateur improvised noise device should never be plugged in and left unsupervised even if it is turned off. the same can be said for some of the crap consumer electronics people bring into their expensive homes.

[Confuzzled]

I'm not doing anything above battery power. I've been considering all of the input, most of which I can't wrap my head around but I've been reading the circuit bending book and Make: Electronics and taking it slow.

The other night I took a mini hand vac that plugs into a car cigarette lighter and wired it up to a battery and switch with success. I figured I might be able to use the motor to agitate the springs and cause a drone but the motor is a bit noisy.

Ultimately, I want to create a sound chamber inside a PVC tube (like my second illustration) with springs vibrating and possibly mounted to something that I can adjust their tension for pitch. I wanted to put solid PVC cap on top and one of those rubber flat caps on the bottom with a circular pipe clamp for some percussive fun.

The video that I can no longer find (I swear this fucker existed) showed a kid placing a spring upright on a neodymium magnet and it started vibrating and making a low drone like sound. That was it.

I have other ideas since all the feedback:

1. mount the springs on two bolts centered within a copper pipe sleeve that's connected to a battery supply.
2. wrap copper tubing around the inside of the pvc pipe with maybe copper wire or a bass string threaded through and have the springs mounted inside the PVC pipe on bolts (trying to create a magnetic field). Connect the tubing to a battery source to power it up.

I came across this:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUgaFoj1nQs&t=290s[/youtube]

and this:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pcw6vH0Eiug[/youtube]

My idea is constantly evolving but I appreciate the feedback (whatever I can understand) and hope you'll all still pitch in.

[Confuzzled]

and my youtube links didn't work. fuck my life.

[multi_s]

I'm not doing anything above battery power. I've been considering all of the input, most of which I can't wrap my head around but I've been reading the circuit bending book and Make: Electronics and taking it slow.

The other night I took a mini hand vac that plugs into a car cigarette lighter and wired it up to a battery and switch with success. I figured I might be able to use the motor to agitate the springs and cause a drone but the motor is a bit noisy.

Ultimately, I want to create a sound chamber inside a PVC tube (like my second illustration) with springs vibrating and possibly mounted to something that I can adjust their tension for pitch. I wanted to put solid PVC cap on top and one of those rubber flat caps on the bottom with a circular pipe clamp for some percussive fun.

The video that I can no longer find (I swear this fucker existed) showed a kid placing a spring upright on a neodymium magnet and it started vibrating and making a low drone like sound. That was it.

I have other ideas since all the feedback:

1. mount the springs on two bolts centered within a copper pipe sleeve that's connected to a battery supply.
2. wrap copper tubing around the inside of the pvc pipe with maybe copper wire or a bass string threaded through and have the springs mounted inside the PVC pipe on bolts (trying to create a magnetic field). Connect the tubing to a battery source to power it up.

I came across this:



and this:



My idea is constantly evolving but I appreciate the feedback (whatever I can understand) and hope you'll all still pitch in.