Backstory

A couple of weeks ago, I walked into a music store in Munich, thinking about picking up a decent metronome for a reasonable price. It turns out, metronomes can be expensive, anywhere from 50 euros to over 200. That would be worth spending for a musician. For someone developing music-related projects, and only remotely interested in picking up any musical skills, I decided that building one would be a better option. After all, it is only a matter of keeping count of time and sending out a signal. With that inspiration (and a mild snorty attitude toward expensive musical tools), I walked out of the store and picked up my breadboard.

Download from GitHub Repo

Components

  • ESP32 or equivalent
  • Buzzer/Speaker
  • Two buttons - BPM up and down
  • Pull up resistors
  • LED for visual - optional
  • Adafruit SSD1306 display module
  • Breadboard and wires

Builds

Digital metronome, prototype 1

The 0.25W speaker clicks when the HIGH is sent out from the GPIO. The LED flashes with every tick, for added visual cue.

Digital metronome, prototype 2

Improved build. The two toggle switches rise or lower beats per minute by 10 with every press. The information is displayed in the 0.96" OLED.

Improvements

The audio output leaves much room for development. A dedicated module programmed with a quality sound signal triggered upon signal would be an ideal component.

The BPM switches could be replaced with a potentiometer knob for finer adjustments and reduced components.

Housing

I did not design a housing for this, as it is going to be included in another project. But I would be curious to know what you came up with as a housing design. Do share. If you would like to add the designs to the repo, send a request.

Have fun!

Cite As: Umadi, Ravi (2023). A Digital Metronome, Retrieved from https://biosonix.io/A-Digital-Metronome