Alexa was easy – just get a nice smart plug – call it ‘piano’ and have alexa talk to it .. so the whole power bar in the back can be turned on and off for safety etc … #LOTSOFPOWERSUPPLIESINAWOODENBOXOVERNIGHT-ETC  🙂

 

the power button presser was a simple device – based on a small solenoid … the idea at some point would be to break out all the keys in this was BUT id preffer to use something cheaper like servos than solenoids or it could get a tad expensive ! 🙂 …. however – – luckily, once the power is on, the ipad/iPhone app can talk to the piano so all the rest of the functionality is a snap ..

 

it was just a pain having to open the front up and press the power on every time you wanted to play #FIRSTWORLDPROBLEMS 🙂

 

You’ll notice an elastic band on the unit .. .i popped this on during fabrication thinking that my design would not reset itself as i had intended (just by the angle and weight of the finger) but actually it was unnecessary, and, as it happens, the band provided too much resistance for the solenoid to overcome properly  and so was removed … the one addition that WAS required, was a slot in the front of the ‘finger’ to allow the insertion of an alan/hex key for easy adjustment of the mechanism … this will be added to the cad model.

 

 

manual operation still available

 

using the remote (hidden) switch/bell-push

The dangling cable is the one that is usually stowed away (and i left it dangling) which connects the piano to an ipad/ipod for break-out controls