New to electonics and want to build a slightly complicated 'useless box'

[Jonbord]

I've been looking into building a useless box to give to my niece as a joke present.
I want to expand on the idea of it, making it more complicated than my extremely
limited knowledge will allow me to accomplish myself. The goal will be to:

-flip switch on, music starts (some sort of piano, as she's taking lessons)
-after a 5-10 second delay, the normal action of it turning itself off proceeds,
but at a fairly slow speed.

I'm thinking of making the arm that turns it off that of a grumpy box troll that doesn't
appreciate classical music.

If anyone is interested in helping me design the working portion of the box, and possibly
giving advice on where to acquire the components it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance. (apologies if this isn't the right place to post for this)

 

[k7elp60]

I would be happy to help you with your box. It will be helpful if you can tell us which country and city you are in.

 

[Jonbord]

Thankyou for the quick replay k7elp60

I guess where I am would be helpful for sourcing components. Cambridge, Ontario, Canada. I edited my profile to reflect that.

I'm not really sure where to start. I've never done a project with electronics before. I wanted to build the actual box myself, but I figure I should find out what all is needed to fit into the box and how
it will be laid out so I don't make it too small. What are your suggestions for starting?

 

[k7elp60]

I recently made a music box for my wife that used some of the motor powered music box devices. They are located at this website **broken link removed** The part numbers ar G18177, G18179 & G185537 and they sell for about $10 US dollars.They are run from a 1.5 volt battery. This is one solution. This seems like the easiest way to generate some music. An other way is to record some music on an integrated circuit and then when you push a button the music is played back. The control circuits for the last type can get complicated. You may have to solder some wires with either type. The first thing you need to do is determine how you are going to generate the music and go from there. If you have some wood working skills and the tools you could build your on box. There are craft stores tha have wooden boxes already made, or you can use a ready made plastic box.
Your thoughts?

 

[Mr RB]

You can buy greeting cards that play a little tune, when the card is opened it activates a tiny switch.

People have extracted the electronics and tiny battery from the card and easily modified it to work from any other switch or button.

 

[k7elp60]

Yes Mr RB is correct, I forgot about that.

 

[Jonbord]

Okay, I've put some thought into how I want this to go. I was reading another post regarding a music box with something called a mircocontroller, and another post where they used a sound generator (with a 4gb memory) for the music.
I was wondering; would it be possible to use those, in conjunction with a normal 'useless box' to have the following functions.

Flip switch on 'useless box'
a song plays from the sound generator. (The first movement from Beethoven's 5th symphony, for example)
when the song completes, the arm from the useless box turns the switch off.
The next time you flip the switch, a different song plays, but the function is the same.

Am I getting ahead of myself and making this extremely complicated? I would need a lot of help with the wiring and which components to use together and most likely the programing. /sigh Once I have everything I can assemble it easily myself.
I am capable, my experience is more into woodworking though. My budget is somewhere around $150.

 

[k7elp60]

Jonbord,
To do as you described in your last post is a little beyond my capabilities. Yes you can use a MP3 or smililar player to do the sound part. It may take an external amplifier to drive the speaker in the box. To have an arm move to turn off the switch is way beyond my capabilities, you may need some help with robotics. At this point I will remove myself as a help to you. Good luck!
K7elp60