Hi laura,
Thanks for the email. I think it’s easier to convert punched cards into
sound electronically (use an arduino) than mechanically but then I’m a bit
biased as an electronics engineer! I have worked with Asa in the past and
believe I would be able to assist you. I’m guessing you want to make a
device that reads old style pianola rolls and plays them?
The feasibility of the computer related stuff is difficult without an idea
of what you are looking to achieve. I think the best thing to do is for
you to come and visit us at the Hackspace at No.44 Edge street - near to
Madlab on our open night - which is on Wednesdays from 19:00 and we can
chat further.
Cheers
AlexOn 15 January 2013 15:50, Laura Blake laurajaneblake@live.co.uk wrote:
I am part of Manchester arts collective, MidConversation, who have been
commissioned by MOSI to make a large scale installation this summer. We are
hoping to transfer data from punch cards into sound either through the use
of an arduino type mechanism or something more mechanical. We have
technical making ability, but have been adivsed by Asa from Madlab, that
one of you wonderful people may be able to tell us if the computer related
ideas we have would be possible.
If anyone would be interested in collaborating with us on technical advise
and or development, please do get in touch!
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Thanks for the email. I think it’s easier to convert punched cards into
sound electronically (use an arduino) than mechanically but then I’m a bit
biased as an electronics engineer! I have worked with Asa in the past and
believe I would be able to assist you. I’m guessing you want to make a
device that reads old style pianola rolls and plays them?
My guess is Jacquard loom cards 
The feasibility of the computer related stuff is difficult without an idea
of what you are looking to achieve. I think the best thing to do is for
you to come and visit us at the Hackspace at No.44 Edge street - near to
Madlab on our open night - which is on Wednesdays from 19:00 and we can
chat further.
I’d convert it to MIDI and then feed that into Processing or a DAW to
process it further before feeding it to an output device.
Alan Burlison
This isn’t a million miles away from what you are looking to do. it is
actually a piano roll here, but the principle should be the same. It
uses a camera to detect the holes, and then converts them into
something usable. This is slightly beyond a plain ol arduino, and
would require a PC to do the vision detection.
http://www.ece.mtu.edu/~jarau/piano-scroll.html
If you want to stay super simple, then I would glue a load of switches
to a board and make some sort of feeding mechanism to sync this up.
I agree this isn’t the easiest project, and I completely agree with my
hacker comrades above.
All the best,
BazOn Tue, Jan 15, 2013 at 4:25 PM, Alan Burlison alan.burlison@gmail.com wrote:
On 15/01/2013 16:23, Alexander Lang wrote:
Thanks for the email. I think it’s easier to convert punched cards into
sound electronically (use an arduino) than mechanically but then I’m a bit
biased as an electronics engineer! I have worked with Asa in the past and
believe I would be able to assist you. I’m guessing you want to make a
device that reads old style pianola rolls and plays them?
My guess is Jacquard loom cards
The feasibility of the computer related stuff is difficult without an idea
of what you are looking to achieve. I think the best thing to do is for
you to come and visit us at the Hackspace at No.44 Edge street - near to
Madlab on our open night - which is on Wednesdays from 19:00 and we can
chat further.
I’d convert it to MIDI and then feed that into Processing or a DAW to
process it further before feeding it to an output device.
–
Alan Burlison
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If you want to stay super simple, then I would glue a load of switches
to a board and make some sort of feeding mechanism to sync this up.
Yes, or a light source and a row of photodiodes. And I suspect the
feeding part will probably the hardest part to get reliable.
Alan Burlison
The mechanics is the hard bit, We could use an ARM SOC for the image
processing…job for the rPI?
Just thoughts…to be honest I’m inclined to wait and see what is
requested before commenting furtherOn 15 January 2013 18:58, Alan Burlison alan.burlison@gmail.com wrote:
On 15/01/2013 18:38, Barry Carter wrote:
If you want to stay super simple, then I would glue a load of switches
to a board and make some sort of feeding mechanism to sync this up.
Yes, or a light source and a row of photodiodes. And I suspect the feeding
part will probably the hardest part to get reliable.
–
Alan Burlison
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hmm…just had a look at the twitter feed for the group! There is a
picture of a lady pulling the feed from a pianola…On 15 January 2013 19:25, Alexander Lang alexanderlang1980@gmail.comwrote:
The mechanics is the hard bit, We could use an ARM SOC for the image
processing…job for the rPI?
Just thoughts…to be honest I’m inclined to wait and see what is
requested before commenting further
On 15 January 2013 18:58, Alan Burlison alan.burlison@gmail.com wrote:
On 15/01/2013 18:38, Barry Carter wrote:
If you want to stay super simple, then I would glue a load of switches
to a board and make some sort of feeding mechanism to sync this up.
Yes, or a light source and a row of photodiodes. And I suspect the
feeding part will probably the hardest part to get reliable.
–
Alan Burlison
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hmm…just had a look at the twitter feed for the group! There is a
picture of a lady pulling the feed from a pianola…
I thought it might be Jacquard loom cards as MOSI, the venue, has a
substantial textiles section. Just a guess 
Alan Burlison
It depends on the level of whimsy that’s needed,but what about something
physical based on something falling through the holes on to something else,
e.g. ball-bearings falling onto the keys of a glockenspiel?
Just a thought.On 15 January 2013 19:38, Alan Burlison alan.burlison@gmail.com wrote:
On 15/01/2013 19:36, Alexander Lang wrote:
hmm…just had a look at the twitter feed for the group! There is a
picture of a lady pulling the feed from a pianola…
I thought it might be Jacquard loom cards as MOSI, the venue, has a
substantial textiles section. Just a guess
–
Alan Burlison
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That would be cool, but would take a quite a bit of tweaking as to make
sure that the balls only hit once, then bounce off, else the repeated
bounces / rolling ball would muffle the sound. The would also be a problem
with a lot of background noise in moving the balls back up to the top to
start again, and any other ball moving stuff (like where they would bounce
into). Not impossible, just if I were doing this there would be no way I
would be bothered to do all of this 
Anyways, just random thoughts.On 15 January 2013 21:30, Dave Potts dave@goopot.co.uk wrote:
It depends on the level of whimsy that’s needed,but what about something
physical based on something falling through the holes on to something else,
e.g. ball-bearings falling onto the keys of a glockenspiel?
Just a thought.
On 15 January 2013 19:38, Alan Burlison alan.burlison@gmail.com wrote:
On 15/01/2013 19:36, Alexander Lang wrote:
hmm…just had a look at the twitter feed for the group! There is a
picture of a lady pulling the feed from a pianola…
I thought it might be Jacquard loom cards as MOSI, the venue, has a
substantial textiles section. Just a guess
–
Alan Burlison
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Anyways, just random thoughts.On 15 January 2013 21:30, Dave Potts