Toriton

Recently, i have had a number of people asking me how Toriton works. For youtube.com viewers, Toriton corrresponds to the video "Water surface as a cheap music controller ".

Hardware

1. Solar panel: 2.0V,200ma.
   
2. Audio connector: 3.5mm mono w/solder points.
   
3. Laser module: 1mW, 4.5V.

The solar panel can also be 1.5V or 1.0V. The solar panel is simply wired directly to the audio connector. I do not believe that it matters which wire (red or black) goes where. However, I connected the red to signal and the black to ground. The audio connector will need to plug into the computer, so the correct type must be chosen.

Setting up is quite simple. The laser module is pointed diagonally downwards through the glass vase that the water is in, so that it pierces the water's surface and hits the solar panel on the other side.

Software
The simplest type of software that can be used as an interface is by modulating the amplitdue of another signal with the audio input of the solar panel.

In Max/MSP, this would appear like this:


Notice that the audio path input requires a multiplier. This is to bring up the audio input signal level, as the signal straight from the receiver is quite weak. Depending on which wiring and which solar panel is chosen will also determine if some sort of audio filter or filters are needed.

Of course, the audio signal can be converted into data and used in other ways also. Naturallay, programs besides Max/MSP can be used.