Stepper motors make beautiful music on this DIY organ
When a plant is up and running, the noises emanating from the machines can sound like an industrial symphony. But what if you could use those assets to play your favorite classical overture or chart topper? Josh Sheldon has done just that with this stepper motor organ.
According to Josh: "I've spent the last two months building this very strange instrument. The idea came a few months ago, when I was thinking about how stepper motors work and the idea occurred to me that steppers would probably generate alternating current when backdriven. I got an oscilloscope and I found that this was true, which was exciting because that meant that I could use stepper motors to generate sound. This is because AC is a wave, which is what sound is. If you amplify the signal and send it to a speaker, you can listen to it as sound. The frequency of the signal from the motor is proportional to how fast the motor is driven. So if you backdrive the motor at a high speed, you get a high pitch, and a low speed would give you a low pitch. The wave I got from my stepper motors was more or less sinusoidal, which meant I'd get sound similar to what you get from a sine synthesizer."
About the Author
Alexis GajewskiAlexis Gajewski
Senior Content Strategist
Alexis Gajewski is a manufacturing writer and editor with nearly 20 years of experience covering the people, practices, and technologies that keep industrial facilities running. For more than a decade, she served as Senior Content Strategist for Plant Services, creating content for plant managers, engineers, and maintenance professionals on a variety of industrial topics.
During her tenure, Alexis worked to develop the brand’s digital strategy and helped launch and produce Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast. She also created The Lighter Side of Manufacturing, a weekly blog that explored the inventive and sometimes humorous side of the industry.
Alexis co-founded Influential Women in Manufacturing, a recognition program that honored 49 women in its first two years, earned an industry award for Best Product Launch, and received a proclamation from Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and a commendation from U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth.
She also led newsroom operations and development at a large media company where she set editorial standards, developed training curriculum, and helped support AI adoption for more than 150 editors across 80+ brands spanning manufacturing, industrial processing, automation, and more.
Additionally, Alexis works as a freelance writer and editor, and her areas of interest include continuous improvement, the skilled workforce, and the role of emerging technology on the plant floor.
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