Hello!
The Office I work in has a large 4-foot gong. We think it would be pretty sweet if a robot would swing a mallet and hit the gong! I’m thinking automated Kick Drum Pedal, something mounted on top or below?
We’re hoping for something we can automate with an API call, Slack Message or some other trigger.
Curious if anyone has any tips, advice or encouragement to make this project a reality!
Thank you!
How hard does one hit a 4 foot gong in an office environment?
My own home’s doorbell has a mechanical wig-wag solenoid that strikes a set of long brass chime tubes, one for ding, one for dong. I jump out of my skin every time it rings without warning, it really grabs your attention.
If you need more thump, maybe repurpose an automotive windshield wiper. Plenty of power and the one-shot mist built in might make things easier.
More? Baseball pitching machine. Batter up!
I would personally recommend having the bot just play a gong sound, as striking a gong in an office environment can be loud an distracting
Thank you for the response @brow
When we manually hit the Gong, like a bunch of Stone Age apes, it requires a decent amount of force.
We’re thinking a modified Kick Drum Pedal from a Drum Set or something similar? I wonder if anyone here has made a Robotic Drum set before? The Baseball pitching machine is a scrappy solution haha, but I’d be the one picking up all the balls! haha
@GongMaster a Gong Master is what we need!
We currently have a bot that plays a realistic Gong sound from a nearby speaker, when a Slack message is received.
I’ve talked it over with the bosses and we have accepted your terms: you pick up the balls.
Realistically, a 4 foot gong isn’t tolerable for more than a few playful gongs. They’ll be done with it in a week, if it’s not banned from the premises altogether by then. You might as well get a baseball pitching machine out of the deal.