Stumbled upon one really mindblowing project, a wonderful famicom-cart sized digital harmonica made to sound like a famicom! Have only this video:
https://youtu.be/pLpDXkMQmcc
If anyone can get their hands somehow on the schematics or a shop where to buy, do let me know! Thanks!
Ha! I want one. But seeing as how the video's from 2013 and nobody's posted any links where they could be purchased, I'm guessing those three are the only ones made. Also, from the creator's website:
QuoteI tried to make a harmonica from the Famicom that I used to use a lot. I was particular about producing a more NES-like sound by using the audio chip that is also used in the actual NES. We have created three types of harmonica: a harmonica that produces a higher sound from left to right, a harmonica that produces a sound effect when you blow it, and a harmonica that produces a nice melody of the game no matter where you play it.
Couple that with the fact that it's not really a digital harmonica (you can't pull in air through it), you can't exactly use one to actually play any music. Still, it'd be a neat curiosity.
Yeah it's just a bunch of microphones that activates the tones/sounds, but still neat.
It doesn't really use a Famicom APU either. It's a Yamaha YMZ294-D which is one of many variants of the General Instruments AY-3-8910, the PSG in the MSX and many other systems, and used as the expansion audio chip in the Sunsoft 5B that is used in Gimmick!. So it doesn't have the triangle wave and DPCM channels that the Famicom APU has. But the square wave and noise are close enough for a project like this I guess. One harmonica has only 8 tones and the other two has preprogrammed SE and BGM sounds respectively.
BTW what are those two empty battery holders?