Published October 14, 2020

Rats Rock!

Learn the truth about rats! They are not evil monsters but hungry critters that mean no harm to people.

BeginnerShowcase (no instructions)203

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Adafruit Circuit Playground Express

Alligator Clips

Battery Holder, 3 x AAA

Speaker: 3W, 4 ohms

Software apps and online services

CircuitPython

Story

Intro

Rats Rock is a protesting device against the misinformation that people have about rats. It is meant to teach people some quick facts about them and to hopefully inspire people to do their own research on the topic instead of just blindly accepting the current stigma around them.

Remember there are only two types of people, people that love rats and people that don’t know enough about them.

Hardware and Aesthetics

I used an empty box I found as my main harness, it even included some metal pins that I used as connectors to the CPX. I also connected a small speaker to the CPX to increase the volume. Once all the wiring was completed I decorated the box with white paper on top of logos and images that were on the box already. I wrote some instructions and messages on the papers and then I added a toy rat on top of it all. I also covered the metal pins with white paper and drew some rats on them to indicate buttons.

Images

1 / 10

Software

Since it was my first time using Python I kept the coding simple. It has three button sensors that receive input when touched. There are three buttons and each one has three audio clips associated to them. The audio clip that plays from the three gets chosen at random each time a button is pressed. The audio clip will play through a speaker if connected, otherwise it’ll play through the speaker on the CPX. The voice on the recordings is my girlfriend’s and I have full permission to use them in my project.

Videos

Rats Rock Demo

Credits

Code I used to make this project:

Python --– examples --- circuitplayground_play_file_buttons

Python --– examples --- circuitplayground_touch_pixel_rainbow

Schematics

Code

code.py

# Circuit Playground 808 Drum machine
import time
import board
import touchio
import digitalio
from random import *


try:
    from audiocore import WaveFile
except ImportError:
    from audioio import WaveFile

try:
    from audioio import AudioOut
except ImportError:
    try:
        from audiopwmio import PWMAudioOut as AudioOut
    except ImportError:
        pass  # not always supported by every board!

bpm = 120  # Beats per minute, change this to suit your tempo

# Enable the speaker
speaker_enable = digitalio.DigitalInOut(board.SPEAKER_ENABLE)
speaker_enable.direction = digitalio.Direction.OUTPUT
speaker_enable.value = True

# Make the input capacitive touchpads
capPins = (board.A1, board.A2, board.A3, board.A4, board.A5,
           board.A6, board.TX)

touchPad = []
for i in range(7):
    touchPad.append(touchio.TouchIn(capPins[i]))

# The seven files assigned to the touchpads
audiofiles = ["1.wav", "2.wav", "3.wav",
              "4.wav", "5.wav", "6.wav",
              "7.wav","8.wav","9.wav"]

audio = AudioOut(board.SPEAKER)


def play_file(filename):
    print("playing file " + filename)
    file = open(filename, "rb")
    wave = WaveFile(file)
    audio.play(wave)
    time.sleep(bpm / 100)  # Sixteenth note delay


while True:


        if touchPad[2].value:
            x = randint(0, 2)
            play_file(audiofiles[x])

        if touchPad[3].value:
            x = randint(3, 5)
            play_file(audiofiles[x])

        if touchPad[6].value:
            x = randint(6, 8)
            play_file(audiofiles[x])

Credits

jack

4 projects • 0 followers

Rats Rock!

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Software apps and online services

Story

Intro

Hardware and Aesthetics

Images

Software

Videos

Credits

Custom parts and enclosures

20201011_183134_pyRPprOobO.jpg

Schematics

20201013_125620_daTeEGxDQg.jpg

Code

code.py

Credits

jack

Comments

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Rats Rock!

Rats Rock!

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Software apps and online services

Story

Intro

Hardware and Aesthetics

Images

Software

Videos

Credits

Custom parts and enclosures

20201011_183134_pyRPprOobO.jpg

Schematics

20201013_125620_daTeEGxDQg.jpg

Code

code.py

Credits

jack

Comments

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