William Sun Petrus shared this video demo of his custom, Arduino-based Remington Portable Drum Machine/MIDI Controller.

“This is a Remington Portable typewriter, made in the 1920’s,” he notes. “I’ve attached a lot of wires, an arduino and plugged it in. It now makes cool noises.”

Here’s what he shared about the technical details:

“Whenever a typewriter hammer contacts with the “live plate”, it sends a signal to an Arduino microcontroller. The Arduino recognizes which hammer has been pressed and sends a MIDI signal into his PC and into Ableton Live, where it triggers specific sounds.

The song is composed of 17 difference sounds, played live.”

The Arduino code for the project is available on Github.