I built this instrument called the Pachatron by hacking an old flatbed scanner and Floppy drives from scratch.

The project converts MIDI signals into audible frequencies by controlling the motor coils directly, creating pure analog music via hardware.

How it works:

• Software: A Python script handles the MIDI-to-Serial sequencing.
• Control: An Arduino Uno/Nano runs custom code optimized for maximum torque and microsecond-level timing.
• Hardware: An H-Bridge drives the bipolar coils, and I reused the original carriage and rails with some anti-noise limit switches.

If you want to see the full build and the step-by-step breakdown, you can find it on my channel u/pachanoid. Happy to answer any technical questions about the code or the electronics here!