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Scanjet Music

Posted by Hemos on from the the-hills-are-alive dept.

Popadopolis writes "Hack a day is reporting that HP Scanjets have a hidden ability to play music. According to the article, "The HP ScanJet 3c/4c have a variable speed scan head that is driven by a stepper motor. The Play Tune command can be used to move the head at different frequencies." They also have a video of a scanner playing "Fur Elise.""

9 of 240 comments (clear)

  1. Old news guys... by herohog · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Old news... I discovered this some 8 years ago! There was some software on the install floppy that came with it that played several different songs!

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    1. Re:Old news guys... by uradu · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Yep, and I think they later removed it, since we lost the original floppy and I could never find that app again in any of HP's downloads. Mind you, I think this goes back more than 8 years--when was the 4c relased again?

  2. Isn't it amazing ... by Xserv · · Score: 1, Interesting

    It's it amazing how we've trained our ears to this rather loose form of "music". When my computer does a song and dance, I'll be entertained. Wow.

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  3. Re:My C64 floppy could do that! by Ed+Avis · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I remember there was a cricket game for the BBC Micro that used the 'click' of the relay used for the cassette remote control to approximate the sound of leather on willow. (If your cassette player had a remote control socket you could connect it to the computer and then pause/resume of the tape would be under software control.)

    Also, I saw a program published in 'ZX User' or something like that to play music on the ZX80. Despite the fact that the Sinclair ZX80 has no sound chip. I don't know whether it was an April Fool's joke.

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    -- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
  4. MP3 of Renault Making Music - Formula 1 Engine by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Renault did something similar to celebrate their world championship win with the RS25 V10 Formula 1 engine -

    http://www.renaultf1.com/en/car/engine/index.php?n ews=tcm:3-41673

  5. Latest in a long line of such hacks by Mostly+a+lurker · · Score: 3, Interesting

    For instance, as early as 1964, the IBM 1403 line printer was programmed to produce music. Here is a page with a song sheet. While I cannot find a reference, I remember someone else at IBM who used multiple tape drives as a kind of orchestra, also in the 1960s.

  6. So did Sinclair ZX80 by jsveiga · · Score: 2, Interesting

    In the 80's, the nerd thing to do was to write assembly programs for the Sinclair. IIRC, you would convert the opcodes (which we all knew by heart) to ASCII, write a REM line with that, and run it (which I don't recall how).

    I'd write loops inside loops, with changing and interdependent step sizes, and it would generate sounds on a FM radio sitting on the computer top (I KNOW my Z80 clock was 3.57MHz, way below FM; it was most probably due to harmonics interference or the radio IF).

    I could get beats and interesting disco-like effects, and make alien phony calls. Then computers started shipping with speakers and sound processors and spoiled all the fun.

  7. Old news: this was reported in the HP Journal! by rsclient · · Score: 3, Interesting

    HP was happy enough about this that their old "HP Journal" -- a monthly tech. magazine that would go in-depth into HP technology -- had an entire sidebar about the exact escape sequences needed to play the music. It was a sad day when they stopped publication; it was a fun read.

    The same issue had, as its cover story, an article about how strap-on heart monitors work. Very cool, and the cover picture, of a small baby with a monitor on its foot, was striking. The same technology was put onto my oldest several years later when she was in the hospital right after being born.

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  8. Tree Wave did this with a dot-matrix printer... by wikthemighty · · Score: 2, Interesting

    ...some time ago.

    Check them out here

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