What they don't tell you about starting a band is that the hardest part is organizing the people. So, why not skip that step and build a bunch of MIDI controlled robots to play music with?

In this project, you'll mount servo motors over the strings of a lyre. The servos will pluck those strings when they receive MIDI NoteOn messages via a Feather RP2040 running CircuitPython. You can control the lyre with an eternal MIDI controller or by sending MIDI out from your favorite DAW program.

A Note on Robotic Instruments

All acoustic instruments are slightly different and, as a result, if you build this project, you may need to do some fine tuning to the mechanical aspects of the design for best results. This lyre was used for the build because it seems to be a common shape for budget lyres and is from a known budget music brand (Donner).

The parts that were the most finicky to dial in were the servo horns and the acrylic pegs that lift the acrylic base. It's important to achieve a proper balance between these two measurements for the best timbre from the lyre, with less than a millimeter often making a difference. All of the design files are included and should work as-is, but the source files are also available if you find you need to adjust things.

Parts