A couple of months ago we were asked by Ward Weiss if we wanted to participate in his Art's Birthday Project called Planktijd.

Once, in the deserted streets of seized Leningrad, the synchronized ticking of metronomes served as a powerful symbol of resistance against oppression and a beacon of hope for the future. Through its regular ticking, PLANKTIME reminds us of the enduring spirit of those who refuse to be silenced and continue to fight for freedom, free thought and democracy. On the Tokelau atoll, where each new day commences, a PLANKTIME server selects 24 random “tick” intervals at midnight. These intervals can range from a single tick to a maximum of one minute of continuous ticking. The active replicas have the autonomy to either adhere to or disregard these designated moments.

On the https://planktone.be/planktijd/DIY.html website it is fully explained how to make one. Of course we could not refuse his beautiful offer!

• order the right ESP32
• solder an ESP32 and relay, install the code and play
• change/extend the relay with a solenoid that can tick against objects (wood, glass, metal, etc..), and stream that sound online
• use this device to make our own rhythms/timings, algorithmically generated but based on the participants from ButtuLab, and use a streambox to transmit this, but that is a matter of sitting together and do some programming sessions, I am sure we can come up with a nice distributed composition!
• same thing as above, but this time go outside and play with 'found resonating objects' in nature, and connect/transmit/stream via streamboxes, maybe we could at that moment try to develop a new streambox?

Some general links and things:

ESP32 (the newest one is ESP-S3 but that is overkill for this I think). There are many models available, even from Espressif, and keep in mind to check the right pins, the Chinese clones can be quite different, watch out! You need a 38 pin model…

• https://dratek.cz/arduino/51547-esp32-devkitc-development-board-38pin.html
• https://www.laskakit.cz/iot-esp-32s-2-4ghz-dual-mode-wifi-bluetooth-rev-1--cp2102

Check the pdf, we can use a transistor and solenoid and make different sounds… Solenoids exist in all voltage ranges, we could use the relay above but still you would need extra power externally, to avoid it we look into 3V or 6V

• https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004982948044.html
• https://dratek.cz/arduino/149066-tazny-elektromagnet-6v-20n-jf-0826b.html)

Guides for solenoid 5V (no relay needed?) (esp32 and arduino):

• https://www.instructables.com/Control-a-Solenoid-With-a-D1-Mini-Micro-controller/
• https://www.adafruit.com/product/2776#description
• https://forum.arduino.cc/t/how-to-activate-5v-relay-with-esp32/1218042/3
• https://core-electronics.com.au/guides/solenoid-control-with-arduino/
• https://bc-robotics.com/tutorials/controlling-a-solenoid-valve-with-arduino/
• https://www.circuito.io/app?components=9442,11015,360217

It's an ESP32 so we can run it on a solar panel, but need a new lipo-rider-pro

• https://dratek.cz/martin/7842-napajeci-deska-lipo-rider-pro.html

I guess we are having a 5V one and also some regulators, keep it easy though using a simple Low-dropout or LDO Regulator MCP1700-3302E ??? check circuitry for connecting to ESP32

• https://randomnerdtutorials.com/power-esp32-esp8266-solar-panels-battery-level-monitoring/

relate the speed to the amount of light?

• (LDR) https://esp32io.com/tutorials/esp32-light-sensor
• (BH1750) https://randomnerdtutorials.com/esp32-bh1750-ambient-light-sensor/