Arduino Uno – Music Player with IR Motion Sensor

I’ve started experimenting with Arduino lately (a bit late in the show, I know).
But at least, now I have access to so many resources out there and a huge community.

As for my first project, I have made a Music Player based on Motion Detection, mainly intended for bathrooms to play funky jazz, but it can be used in many other situations as well.

Components used:
– Arduino UNO R3 (Does not have to be the original one, you can get cheap arduino clones for a few dollars each from ebay or aliexpress, however, buying the original arduino supports the project and the love we get from its creators)
– Breadboard
– PCB (circuit boards)
– Infra-Red based motion sensor component
– Dfplayer component + an sdcard
– RTC component
– 16×2 LCD component
– 8 Ohm Speaker
– Potentiometer (I used one with 10k)
– Push buttons
– Many wires
– 10+ Female to Male wires
– 220 and 1k Resistors
– Solder with flux

The links are just for reference, you can get any other you’d like!
I recommend you to get an arduino starter kit, that has most of the basic stuff, like resistors, breadboard, wires, pushbottons, leds etc Buying these individually ends up a whole lot more.

Enclosure:
– Any plastic, wood or carton box you want, as long as everything fits in and you have the tools to cut with all the holes you need. I used a carton box and a multi-purpose dremel.
– 2mm and 3mm screws and bolts to attach the arduino and the components to the enclosure

Tools:
– Soldering Station
– Wire Cutter
– Diagonal Cutter

Advices:
– It’s normal to fail, screw up, resolder, burn etc especially for the first few projects
– Buy things in a larger quantity than what you need. You don’t want to burn your LCD or any other component and then wait weeks until a new one ships in (or until you have to go buy a new one from your nearby electronics store)
– Don’t be a poker face, enjoy every step in the process, be curious and question everything, like why stuff happens the way it does :)

How to put it all together you ask? Well, that’s like getting the answers to a puzzle :)
Online there are tons of resources and tutorials on how to use any of the components in this project.
But if you need any kind of guidance, hollah at me down in the comments.

Enjoy!

Catalin

My name is Cătălin Berța and I'm a front-end web developer. I was born in Focsani, Romania and currently living in Bucharest. Started playing with some good old html tables ever since 2004 as a hobby, turned out to be a full-time career! :) I've had the chances to experience and witness web development's rapid growth over the years where I've mainly focused on front-end web technologies.

4 thoughts on “Arduino Uno – Music Player with IR Motion Sensor

  1. I’m interested in buying one of these from you already built. I just want to plug in my SD card and play the motion activated music. It has to be 9v battery operated like yours. It needs the biggest and best quality speaker possible. Please tell me how much to make one for me. Thanks.

    1. Hi Steve,

      I’m glad you like the idea! Unfortunately I do not build these commercially, it’s just a hobby for me and right now I am already working on some new projects.
      However, if you ever decide to take the challenge on building it yourself, be sure I will assist you in any way possible in the little free time I have :)
      All the best!

  2. Hey Catalin this is cool, I am interested on doing something similar, like controlling led lights using the music waves, I believe I need a good receptor or mic and then translate the sound waves to specific colors, maybe I will look for the color waves (from the visible spectrum) as well and match the frequencies with the right colors. My only first try with Arduino was like one year ago, it was an arduino fully compatible with .net core and focused on IoT applications, we were using Node-RED (a visual wiring tool for the Internet of Things.) as well, was a very interesting and cool experience, maybe you could check it out (or even give it a try) a try and see what’s your thoughts on it, thanks!

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