A steampunk record player.
November 30th, 2010I finally finished off the last few details on the steam powered record player and gave it the first full test on live steam! The engine and base and other hardware are complete but the software could use some work. It does however run.
Finished steam punk record player.
Before I bore people with details and photos here is a film of it in action on YouTube.
Yes, it’s a steam powered record player. Playing a punk LP. The Sex Pistols – God save the Queen (Victoria obviously).
You can’t really get more steam, or punk, than that!
And yes, I know it sounds terrible.
For those who haven’t followed the whole story here is a brief catchup. This all came about when I decided to build my own small steam engine from bits of junk around my garage. I built the engine first (named Nigel after Sir Nigel Gresley) then I made a boiler from some copper water pipe. After making the boiler and a small throttle valve I was able to test the engine running on steam. Now I knew the engine ran I started on the next part of my scheme – to use it to turn a record. I made up a firebox and heavy wooden platter. By this stage I already had it in mind to create the only true steampunk project on the Internet.
Now steampunk is an odd thing. It’s not really my cup of tea and I got somewhat annoyed after I posted details of my Google Maps Brass Wristlet Navigator that people called it steampunk. That wasn’t the intention! It just happens to be made from brass. But I thought well, if people want steampunk then let’s do something that’s really steampunk. Hence the steam powered gramophone.
My original plan was to use an old fashioned gramophone style pickup and horn. Unfortunately this didn’t work! So I went instead for a more conventional tone arm and pickup arrangement with the sound played through my phono pre-amp and stereo. That was tested and worked well so I next moved onto how to measure and regulate the speed. For this I used some magnets, a coil as a pickup and an Arduino driving a servo to move the throttle to control the speed.
Once I knew that would work I pulled everything apart, finished up a few details like a wooden drawer in the base to hold the electronics and batteries and I made a small brass meths burner to provide the flame. I varnished all the wood and reassembled everything. The visible wires are run through shoelace to give that fabric covered wiring look. All the brass and copper was polished then left to tarnish again to give a nice patina of age and the wooden parts were deliberately varnished in a rather slap dash fashion to give the impression of age (well that’s my excuse).
I also uploaded a film of the first actual test with steam using a different LP before I risked my Sex Pistols one which I have actually grown rather fond of.
The whistling of the safety valve was totally serendipitous, it wasn’t planned that way but it make it handy to know when it is venting steam pressure. You adjust it by changing the tension on the spring.
Anyway, some pictures of the finished device. I don’t have any plans for this thing. I basically made it up as I went along and experimented to see what would work and what wouldn’t.
The Arduino is a bare bones breadboard version I made up after I had things working well on my Duemilanove following the instructions here.
What’s next? Well, the software still needs some work. One problem is as soon as the platter starts to spin the PID controller immediately pulls the throttle to the minimum RPMs. The throttle should remain at the half way point until things stabilise for a while otherwise the throttle setting can be too low for the engine to continue running. The PID also needs tuning some more to make it run well. With a bit of work I should be able to get the speed regulation a bit more constant.
November 30th, 2010 at 7:19 am
[...] New Zealand, wrote in to share his Arduino-controlled, steampunk (literally!) turntable. This is my steam powered record player built to play a Sex Pistols LP. Yes, it is true steampunk. The engine was made mainly from bits and [...]
November 30th, 2010 at 10:02 am
Very well done. I love it.
November 30th, 2010 at 10:04 am
[...] http://www.asciimation.co.nz/bb/2010/11/30/a-steam-punk-record-player [...]
November 30th, 2010 at 1:11 pm
Good evening, sir, you have won an Internet for being so effin’ nerdy. I am still gathering my thoughts from the inimitable nerdiness of this contraption.
November 30th, 2010 at 3:57 pm
[...] New Zealand, wrote in to share his Arduino-controlled, steampunk (literally!) turntable. This is my steam powered record player built to play a Sex Pistols LP. Yes, it is true steampunk. The engine was made mainly from bits and [...]
November 30th, 2010 at 4:15 pm
[...] From creator Asciimation: [...]
November 30th, 2010 at 6:18 pm
I think I would have tried to have the steam engine load a spring, like in a clock, and have the speed controlled through gears, and abandon all of the electronics. Or run the electronics off of a steam dynamo, and use a stepup transformer for the phono preamp. Otherwise, this is great.
November 30th, 2010 at 8:38 pm
[...] schreibt: This is my steam powered record player built to play a Sex Pistols LP. Yes, it is true steampunk. The engine was made mainly from bits and [...]
December 1st, 2010 at 12:34 am
[...] From creator Asciimation: [...]
December 1st, 2010 at 3:28 am
[...] turntable made by Simon Jansen of Auckland, New Zealand. Built to play a Sex Pistols LP, the steam powered record player has its small engine made from bits of junk from the maker’s garage. The boiler is made from some [...]
December 1st, 2010 at 5:22 am
Hi –
Would you like to exhibit your work in the U.S.? Please visit http://www.steampuffin.com and http://www.modvic.com and let me know your thoughts. I look forward to hearing back. Thanks, Bruce
December 1st, 2010 at 5:28 am
[...] record player really adheres to what steampunk really should be: powered by steam! It was made by Simon Janson from Auckland, New Zealand, who mated steam-power with an Arduino processor. The engine was cobbled [...]
December 1st, 2010 at 7:49 am
[...] creator Asciimation: The engine speed is controlled by a throttle being driven from a servo controlled by an Arduino. [...]
December 1st, 2010 at 8:35 am
[...] Read more about the project at asciimation’s blog. [...]
December 1st, 2010 at 10:09 am
[...] Asciimation Musica giradischi (5), Simon Janson, steampunk (71), vapore (2), vinile (17) [...]
December 1st, 2010 at 2:34 pm
[...] the above video, it plays “God Save the Queen” by The Sex Pistols. Amazon.com WidgetsLink via Technabob If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed! Tags: god [...]
December 1st, 2010 at 8:14 pm
Hello there,
This is a fantastic device! I happen to be working on a Steampunk project and museum exhibition and thought it was interesting that you don’t like Steampunk, yet have created such a very Steampunk device!
Would you be willing to answer a few questions about your steam-powered record player and thoughts on Steampunk for my project? If you are interested, do e-mail me at the address I have included. I would greatly appreciate it!
Thank you for your time and consideration,
- Samantha Morel
December 1st, 2010 at 10:31 pm
[...] Asciimation, Make, technabob Tags : record players, [...]
December 2nd, 2010 at 5:33 am
Great work! This is very cool.
One question: to improve audio quality, why not have the engine drive a heavy cylindrical weight mounted on a bearing and then attach the belt to this weight (a la VPI HRX: http://www.vpiindustries.com/static.php?page=HRX_Turntable). This would act as a low-pass filter to the variation in speed.
Congrats on such a cool and visually stunning project!!
December 2nd, 2010 at 8:10 am
[...] aber mal in echt! Simon Lanson hat diesen Dampfbetriebenen Plattenspieler gebaut und auf seiner Seite findet ihr mehr Infos über das [...]
December 2nd, 2010 at 8:25 am
Hi Jason, the platter was deliberately made nice and thick and heavy for just this reason. But yes, a steel one like the one in the link would be good. Fantastic looking machine that one! Also, you have probably guessed audio quality wasn’t high on my list of design criteria!
December 2nd, 2010 at 8:53 am
[...] for that classic steampunk look. For more information on all of the technical aspects, check out Lawson’s blog here. The blog has several photos of the record player and all the technical specs your heart desires. [...]
December 2nd, 2010 at 12:16 pm
[...] Simon Jensen has created something astounding and beautiful out of an old turntable. Not only is it fully functional, but it also runs on steam. The build is a feat in engineering really, and it uses plenty of clever solutions to drive the servo to control the throttle speed. [...]
December 2nd, 2010 at 4:50 pm
[...] Asciimation has unveiled an interesting musical concept–a steam-powered vinyl player that echoes influences of the steampunk genre. The creator explains: The engine speed is controlled by a throttle being driven from a servo controlled by an Arduino. The RPMs are measured by a coil detecting the passing of six magnets in the edge of the platter and the approximate revs are displayed on an analogue meter. [...]
December 3rd, 2010 at 5:34 am
[...] Read it. [...]
December 3rd, 2010 at 5:38 am
[...] is a steam-powered record player; awesome. But wait, that’s not all. Watch the video after the break for about two and a half [...]
December 3rd, 2010 at 6:14 am
Hi,
Excellent work!
I am no big fan of Arduinos but I am doing some work with dsPICs atm and there is a DSP library for the compiler that includes an entire PID controller function, you just state your coefficients and it will do all the work for you in theory.
Could be worth looking into for a more embedded soloution.
- A x
December 3rd, 2010 at 6:17 am
Finally, live steam! So glad to see a kindred soul eschewing the “more decorative gears!!!!111″ ethos that pervades retro functional art these days.
Do you have any plans to implement a mechanical governor? The whirling flyball has always been a hallmark of steam power for me, and I think it would not only jazz up the project, but eliminate the electronics from the control loop.
Besides, who wants to tune PID loop parameters, when you could just adjust a screw instead?
December 3rd, 2010 at 6:30 am
EXCELLENT WORK!
Some suggestions:
You’ll get better stability if you can measure and adjust the speed of the driving motor flywheel than the turntable itself.
The spool-up time for the motor and the time-lagged nature of the physical linkage to the turntable can cause a lot of feedback problems in the control system.
Holding the flywheel speed steady (as was done with the old hand-cranked phonographs) will stabilize the turntable and the system will be more tightly coupled and have a faster response. The non-linearity of the control valve position can be compensated somewhat, but it’ll be a pain to calibrate.
December 3rd, 2010 at 6:35 am
Extremely cool.
Now, get rid of the arduino. A flyball/brake disk mechanism is fairly simple to build and was standard equipment on wind-up phonographs. It works great, even with widely varying loads and spring torque.
December 3rd, 2010 at 7:18 am
Awesome design.
But I think having the little spindle to the large turntable via string (band), is a waste of a lot of mechanical energy…
Instead, if possible create a gear system, where the small spindle connects to a small spindle on the turntable side that connects to a series of gears, that can mechanically give you the 35rpm needed while using less energy initially, which could also allow it to run a longer duration, this is done with gear ratios.
December 3rd, 2010 at 12:31 pm
[...] Simon Jensen has created something astounding and beautiful out of an old turntable. Not only is it fully functional, but it also runs on steam. The build is a feat in engineering really, and it uses plenty of clever solutions to drive the servo to control the throttle speed. [...]
December 3rd, 2010 at 12:59 pm
[...] is a steam-powered record player; awesome. But wait, that’s not all. Watch the video after the break for about two and a half [...]
December 3rd, 2010 at 5:47 pm
So let me get this straight, you don’t like steam punk, and audio quality wasn’t high on your list of design criteria? hmm.
December 3rd, 2010 at 11:31 pm
damn kids, record players were electrical devices and were never steam . Don’t they teach anything in school anymore?
No wonder you are struggling you fools should use electricity and all problems disappear and it is still primitive but because of the records and not electric
December 4th, 2010 at 12:57 am
[...] Thing of the Day: An Arduino-controlled steampunk record player that is powered by an honest-to-goodness steam [...]
December 4th, 2010 at 12:42 pm
[...] is a steam-powered record player; awesome. But wait, that’s not all. Watch the video after the break for about two and a half [...]
December 4th, 2010 at 3:16 pm
[...] Steam-powered Record Player [via Galen Carol,an audiophile with a sense of humor] [...]
December 4th, 2010 at 3:20 pm
[...] is a steam-powered record player; awesome. But wait, that’s not all. Watch the video after the break for about two and a half [...]
December 5th, 2010 at 5:56 am
Dear #25 & 26, Imbeciles! You couldn’t create something half so cool with Jules Verne holding your hand. It’s so like the benighted and resourcefully crippled to criticize the curiosity-inspired and ingenuity-enabled. Blast you for your transparently green-eyed jealousy. For shame!
December 5th, 2010 at 10:42 am
[...] Jansen built a beautiful steam-powered record player, which looks much better than it [...]
December 5th, 2010 at 12:31 pm
the ramones would have been better as they actually started the punk movement.
December 5th, 2010 at 2:08 pm
Hmm. Should drive it with a turbine for smoother power.
December 5th, 2010 at 4:20 pm
[...] manage to create this from spare parts in a garage, well, damn, that must be one helluva garage. [Asciimation via Laughing [...]
December 5th, 2010 at 4:37 pm
[...] manage to create this from spare parts in a garage, well, damn, that must be one helluva garage. [Asciimation via Laughing Squid] [...]
December 5th, 2010 at 9:35 pm
[...] manage to create this from spare parts in a garage, well, damn, that must be one helluva garage. [Asciimation via Laughing [...]
December 6th, 2010 at 2:00 am
Why haven’t u used a centrifugal governor to control the speed? IMHO it would fit perfectly to the machine…
December 6th, 2010 at 9:55 am
Old steammachines uses a speed and stability regulator who looks like this:
http://www.history.rochester.edu/steam/thurston/1878/f29p115.gif
It has a name, but I have forgotten the name of the unit.
December 6th, 2010 at 10:33 am
[...] A mi todo esto me ha dado ganas de comer lentejas. Más detalles de su construcción en la fuente. — Javier G. Pereda [Asciimation] [...]
December 6th, 2010 at 2:01 pm
[...] is my steam powered record player built to play a Sex Pistols LP. Yes, it is true steampunk. The engine was made mainly from bits and [...]
December 6th, 2010 at 3:55 pm
[...] is a must-have if you find yourself in the woods with no power and a bunch of LPs. The steampunk-o-phone was design by Simon [...]
December 6th, 2010 at 5:31 pm
[...] asciimation Share Tags: New Zealand, Simon Jansen, steam record player, steam tunrntable, steampunk record [...]
December 6th, 2010 at 8:08 pm
[...] Simon Jansen built this fully functional steam-powered record player out of a desire to make something authentically steampunk. His attempts at making a true gramophone, horn and everything, went awry, and so he settled on a turntable that was spun by the power of steam. [...]
December 7th, 2010 at 10:05 pm
[...] of (among other things) the world’s first Jet-powered Beer Cooler, has built a lovely steam-powered turntable. In the video above he demos his steam-punk player with “a punk LP. The Sex Pistols – God [...]
December 11th, 2010 at 1:12 am
[...] Die plattendrehende Zunft darf endlich erleichtert aufatmen. Nachdem in den letzten Wochen zum wiederholten Male der endgültige Tod des Technics 1210 verkündet wurde, ist nun endlich eine praktikable Alternative gefunden. Besonderes Sahnehäubchen: die Energieversorgung durch ein integriertes Verbrennungskraftwerk. Hier lassen sich dann auch gleich die während der Session anfallenden Kippenstummel oder etwaiger Verpackungsmüll schnell und umweltfreundlich entsorgen. An einer Verbesserung der Gleichlaufstabilität wird derzeit noch gearbeitet, der erste Prototyp macht aber bereits einen sehr vielversprechenden Eindruck. Weitere Details verrät der Hersteller auf seiner Website. [...]
December 11th, 2010 at 7:45 pm
I describe this as “zany”. God it sounds awful!
Seems a shame to control something steam-powered with something as modern as an arduino, even if it can be made to regulate speed better….
So here’s a thought: check your local library, or buy a copy (Amazon) of: “Mechanisms and Mechanical Devices Sourcebook” 3rd. Edition, (by Neil Sclater & Nicholas P. Chironis, published by McGraw-Hill). Pages 362-366 provide various ideas for speed governors. The book is now in its 4th Edition.
Another book: “Ingenious Mechanisms For Designers and Inventors” Vol. 4, (Edited by Franklin D. Jones, published by Industrial Press).
On page 299 (Ch. 13) “Speed Regulating Mechanisms”. On the same page, “Instant Acting Centrifugal Governor”. While this device is used with a steam turbine, maybe it could be adapted to your (insane) application.
This is really demented.
December 13th, 2010 at 4:40 am
[...] Read more about this and many other cool inventions on: Asciimation [...]
December 17th, 2010 at 3:34 pm
[...] Powered Record Player This post comes form Asciimation. He has created a steam powered record player. This one also comes with a video break down, so I do [...]
December 28th, 2010 at 2:19 pm
[...] A geek in New Zealand posted his blog entry about making a steampunk record player. [...]
January 19th, 2011 at 5:01 pm
[...] via Asciimation [...]
July 20th, 2011 at 7:56 pm
[...] that not use parts applicable to the imagined time period, but are also completely functional. This Steampunk Record Player is a fine example of [...]
July 22nd, 2011 at 2:39 am
[...] die! Auf der neuseeländischen Seite Asciimation lebt ein Bastler seine Retro-Freuede aus, und der Plattenspieler ist echt super geworden. Zwar hört er das Wort Steampunk nicht so gerne, aber wer auf einer [...]
July 23rd, 2011 at 7:23 am
[...] asciimation via redferret [...]
July 27th, 2011 at 6:48 pm
[...] The radiator is a honeycomb one and seems in good nick. The surround is brass and quite wonderful. I think that will have to stay as it is despite the danger of people claiming it’s steampunk. [...]
July 28th, 2011 at 8:31 am
[...] This was made with small steam engine with a boiler crafted from a copper water pipe and carved some wood for the custom platter and base. Add some magnets, a coil for a pickup and a servo that is controlled by Arduino. [...]
August 6th, 2011 at 12:32 am
[...] steam-powered record turntable made out of juck & re-used things. This was made with small steam engine with a boiler crafted from a copper water pipe and carved some wood for the [...]
August 6th, 2011 at 7:30 pm
[...] steam-powered record turntable made out of juck & re-used things. This was made with small steam engine with a boiler crafted from a copper water pipe and carved some wood for the [...]
September 22nd, 2011 at 3:20 am
[...] steam-powered record turntable made out of juck & re-used things. This was made with small steam engine with a boiler crafted from a copper water pipe and carved some wood for the [...]
July 15th, 2012 at 3:26 pm
[...] New Zealand, wrote in to share his Arduino-controlled, steampunk (literally!) turntable. This is my steam powered record player built to play a Sex Pistols LP. Yes, it is true steampunk. The engine was made mainly from bits and [...]
October 24th, 2012 at 3:48 am
Hi,
Can we please reproduce pictures of your steam turntable in Hi-Fi World? This is for a News feature.
thanks
best regards
Noel Keywood, publisher
January 16th, 2013 at 7:46 am
[...] http://makeprojects.com/Project/One-Ton+Linear+Servo/882/1#.UPWhoqFxe_C Steam-punk record player http://www.asciimation.co.nz/bb/2010/11/30/a-steam-punk-record-player This may seem out-of-place, but it's basically a servo control with hall effect sensors to control [...]