Floppotron facts for kids

The Floppotron is a super cool musical instrument! It was created by a clever engineer from Poland named Paweł Zadrożniak. It's made from old computer parts that work together to play music. The newest version, called the Floppotron 2.0, uses 64 floppy drives, eight hard drives, and two flatbed scanners.

How the Floppotron Was Made

The First Floppotron

The very first Floppotron was built in 2011. It used just two floppy drives and a special computer chip called an ATMega microcontroller. The sound comes from the floppy drive's magnetic head. This head moves back and forth using a motor. To make different musical notes, the head has to move at just the right speed.

This instrument became famous because of a YouTube video. The video showed the Floppotron playing the "Imperial March" from Star Wars. It has been watched over 6 million times!

The Floppotron 2.0

In 2016, Paweł Zadrożniak made a much bigger and better version. This one has 64 floppy drives, 8 hard drives, and two flatbed scanners. Each group of eight floppy drives is controlled by its own ATMega16 microcontroller. The hard drives make sounds using special electronic parts called MOSFETs. The moving parts of the flatbed scanners are controlled by Arduino Uno boards, which are small, easy-to-use computers.

How It Makes Music

Any device with an electric motor can make a sound! Scanners and floppy drives use special motors called stepper motors. These motors move the parts that scan images or read data from disks. The faster the motor moves, the higher the pitch (or note) of the sound it makes.

Hard drives make sound in a different way. They use a magnet and a coil to quickly move a reading head. When electricity is sent to them for a short time, the head speeds up and hits a stop. This makes a quick "drum hit" sound.

The Floppotron works by taking MIDI music files. These files are like digital sheet music. The Floppotron then turns the MIDI notes into commands. These commands tell each computer part when to buzz, click, or be silent to play the song.

Songs Played by the Floppotron

As of April 2019, Paweł Zadrożniak's YouTube channel has over one hundred songs played by the Floppotron! Some popular songs include Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody", Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit", The White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army", Eurythmics' "Sweet Dreams", and Michael Jackson's "Thriller".

See also

In Spanish: Floppotrón para niños