Arduino Electronic Drumkit

Students build a simple electronic drum kit. Students work in groups of two or three to make the drum pads, build the circuit, and write the Arduino program for their project.

Project Image

Tools

Software, Mac: Arduino, Ardrumo, Java 6

Software, PC: Arduino, Hairless MIDI/Serial Bridge, loopMIDI, and LMMS (a music software similar to GarageBand)

Soldering Iron

Wire Strippers

Materials

Arduino Uno 

Microcontrollers

Piezo Sensors

Electronic Components

Project details

This project is based on this “Midi Arduino Drums” tutorial from Instructables with modifications by Michelle Kornberg, MIT 2020. The project was tested with high school seniors and college freshmen, most with some background in Java or in C++, some with circuitry experience. They completed the project in 16 total hours of work, so 4 hours have been added to the time estimate above to account for difference in age and experience.

Have a question or want to share your Makes with us? Contact us!

k12maker@mit.edu