The “Paranormal Music Box,” by ParaForce has been featured on many ghost hunting shows including Ghost Adventures and Destination Fear. The PMB has a price tag ranging from $199.00-$299.00 so we decided to see how hard it would be to build a low-cost homemade version.
First and foremost we want to thank Para Force and all paranormal inventors for helping to give new technologies to our field of study. We at San Diego Haunted believe the best way to understand new tech is to reverse engineer it.
Paranormal Music Box Components
The main components of a possible paranormal music box are as follows
- Main box -coffin shaped
- Music box
- Motor
- Pulley assembly
- Ultrasonic Sensor
- Microcontroller
- Low voltage signal relay
- Two 9 volt DC batteries
Our music box build was pretty straightforward only after working out the motor to music mechanism. The pulley system used to power the Music box by Para Force is really awesome and mechanically quiet. We can tell by looking at photographs the pully system is roughly at a three to one ratio, and we know it takes about 45 rotations per second of the music box crank to get a consistent sound.
For our build, we opted to use a geared high torque 6 volt DC motor with 45 rotations per second. We trimmed the hand crank for the music box creating a straight shaft. The motor and shaft of the music module were connected using a 3mm-3mm coupler. Our method works but mechanically is louder than a pulley. The ultrasonic sensor is attached to an Arduino microcontroller and the output is routed to a signal relay. We use two 9 volt batteries just as ParaForce, one is to power an Arduino, and the other powers the motor and led lights. The schematic and Arduino code used for our project is available at Instructables.
The end product is much cheaper than the version produced by ParaForce, but is mechanically louder. Our Music Box for Paranormal Investigations works just the same and costs about $50.00. There are other variations of the paranormal music box all over the net some can be built for under $15.00.