Arduino Mini-Pops


I found on a side Korg Mini-Pops DIY Drum Machine and further on The O2 source code. I thought, I’d like to try that out.

I ordered all parts and do it for simplicity flying wire.

I made the housing from wood. The front and rear panels are 3 mm birch plywood and the sides are 8mm beech plywood.

Beech plywood 8 mm
1 piece 136 mm x 100 mm
2 piece 92 mm x 100 mm
1 piece 120 mm x 100 mm

birch plywood 3 mm
2 piece 120 mm x 84 mm

I only screwed the lid. That allows enough space to work.
I drill the front and back panels and then glued all parts except the lid. Then I mix gypsum and primed all visible sides. After drying everything was sanded off, so that a smooth surface could be formed and then painted black.
For the front I made a layout with the free front panel designer from Schaeffer and printed it as a PDF. Then I cut out the elements and glued it. Then I sprayed everything with clear lacquer.
I unfortunately have set the order of the instruments differently than they are controlled in the program, as you can see on the pictures

The correct order is:

  1. Quijeda
  2. Cymbal
  3. Maracas
  4. Cowbell
  5. Claves
  6. Bass Drum
  7. Bongo
  8. Guiro

For the feets I have used quite simple self-adhesive noise stops from a hardware store.

Here again the front and back panel at the finished instrument.

You can see that the labels are glued, but I think that is OK.

What does it cost:

1 x Arduino Nano Compatible 1,84 €
9 x Miniature toggle switch 1,99 €
2 x Potetiometer 10k Lin (hier 5 x) 1,82 €
2 x Rotary Knob 6mm Blue (hier 10 x) 1,16 €
1 x Built-In Jack 3,5mm 0,85 €
1 x Barrel Connector Socket Ø = 2,1mm 0,27 €
1 x Ceramic Capacitor 100N 0,07 €
1 x Electrolytic Capacitor 10 uF 0,11 €
1 x Resistor 1 kOhm 0,082 €
1 x LED, 5 mm, Red 0,06 €
1 x Resistor 680 Ohm 0,082 €
Wood cuttings ca. 5,00 €
Colour and small parts ca. 8,00 €
ca. 20,00 €

What is still needed is either a 9 Volt plug-in power supply or an adapter to connect to a 9 Volt block battery.

For a new version, I have created a circuit diagram with ExpressSCH and designed a board with ExpressPCB. In addition I have an LED and a connector for the reset signal as pulse display, and a MIDI output and a connector for the clock signal provided.

I do not like at all the patterns to be adjusted via a normal potentiometer. It would be more beautiful with a rotary switch. Maybe later on I’ll make a new version with a rotary switch.

I found on a side Korg Mini-Pops DIY Drum Machine and further on The O2 source code. I thought, I’d like to try that out. I ordered all parts and do it for simplicity flying wire. I made the housing from wood. The front and rear panels are 3 mm birch plywood and the sides…

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