Fork me on GitHub

Project Notes

#575 Motorized Music Box

A quick test of motorizing a hand-cranked music box.

Build

Here’s a quick demo..

clip

Notes

Some timeback I purchased a Mini Hand Cranking Movement Music Box from a seller on aliexpress with a view to incorporating it into a model of some sort.

I cut the handle off the music box and connected a geared DC motor to drive it.

parts

Construction

Breadboard

Schematic

Result

The motor is actually geared for 60rpm at 6V, but I’m driving it at a very low 1.5V. This slows the music down, but is not ideal as the torque is a bit low and leads to warbles.

There is too much motor noise for this to be a nice idea, so I’ve shelved it for now and it won’t be making an appearance in the kit I had planned.

Credits and References

About LEAP#575 AudioMotor
Project Source on GitHub Project Gallery Return to the LEAP Catalog

This page is a web-friendly rendering of my project notes shared in the LEAP GitHub repository.

LEAP is just my personal collection of projects. Two main themes have emerged in recent years, sometimes combined:

  • electronics - usually involving an Arduino or other microprocessor in one way or another. Some are full-blown projects, while many are trivial breadboard experiments, intended to learn and explore something interesting
  • scale modelling - I caught the bug after deciding to build a Harrier during covid to demonstrate an electronic jet engine simulation. Let the fun begin..
To be honest, I haven't quite figured out if these two interests belong in the same GitHub repo or not. But for now - they are all here!

Projects are often inspired by things found wild on the net, or ideas from the many great electronics and scale modelling podcasts and YouTube channels. Feel free to borrow liberally, and if you spot any issues do let me know (or send a PR!). See the individual projects for credits where due.