Custom Arduino Guitar

Hi all, I have been working on a guitar project for my brother-in-law who is currently learning how to play the electric guitar. I wanted to build him something that would help him learn but is also really cool at the same time so without any doubt it had to have some cool electric circuitry inside it which had to include an Arduino.

So basically what the guitar has is a small stepper motor which is pulling belt connected to a small frame housing the guitar pickup. The motor is controlled by the X axis of a small Arduino joystick module. When the pickup gets to the optimal location of the guitar such as the neck position or the bridge position it lights two LED's. The whole point of having it move is that he can experience the sound of both positions as well as any position he wanted along the way creating different types of sounds.

The Arduino is powered by a Android Tablet 3.7v 3000mah Lipo battery which is in turn charged by a PowerBoost 500 Charger is got from Maplin. And a small micro usb to 2.0 usb cable runs to the edge of the guitar to enable him to charge the battery once it dies however as the battery is so large and the Arduino is only pulling 5v it should last a decent amount of time between charges.

So basically i have built the body out of 3 pieces of 15mm pine (purely for the look and weight of the timber). I built it using 3 pieces so i could make all the necessary cuts to each piece easily and effectively. As you can see from the first picture i decided to have step effect on one side as this houses the linear pots which you can see in the image.

Once the cuts had been drawn and mapped out and the cuts had been made to the middle piece i glues this to the back piece to keep it strong as you will see in the third image. As you will see ive also made the tunnels which the wiring will flow through.

At this point i measured the neck and made the cut for this to sit.

Linear pots:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/290961682921?_trksid=p20...

So basically here the pickup is mounted in a small frame which still allows the pickup to be raised and lowered and then attached to two sliders (using small zip ties) which are mounted onto to pieces of 8mm aluminium tubing which runs through the body which is the first image.

The second image is a small mount i created which mounts the small GT2 pulley for the belt to go around. It has a 5mm bore with a 5mm bolt running through so it spins freely.

Aluminum pole:

8mm from B&Q

Sliders:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/151726574718?_trksid=p20...

Pulley:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/371321215016?_trksid=p20...

Belt:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/161839814083?_trksid=p20...

So to fit everything in i needed to map the wiring as best i could. So...... The Arduino has a 2 LED array, a joystick module, the 5v stepper motor connected and is being powered by the Powerboost 500 connected to an old tablet Lipo battery.

The LED array runs two 10mm LED's with 1k resistors that can be turned on by two separate switches mounted at each end of the pickup run (my finger is on one of them) and once either switch is hit the LED's turn on and are bright enough to give of the effect of small flood lights which is really cool.

The Motor is a small stepper motor which is coded to run using the X axis of the joystick module. In the coding you can set how many steps the motor takes however i have coded for many more than needed to give my Brother-in-law the control over the motor and to stop it when it lights the LED's.

The powerboost board is charged using a micro USB however i wanted to mount a 2.0 usb connection which you can see in pictures 3&4. This is mounted using a custom made mount from aluminium. The holes arnt amazing but i dont have the tools to make them perfect. I then used a very fine sandpaper to take the shine of the aluminum to give it a cool look.

I used Hot Glue to keep all of the wires in place and i must say it worked like a charm!

Arduino UNO:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Genuine-Official-Arduino...

Powerboost;

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/191510718509?_trksid=p20...

Battery:

This is a 75mm x 90mm x 3.7mm Android Tablet 3.7v 3000mah battery i got second hand on ebay for just over £6.

Motor:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/141228411970?_trksid=p20...

Joystick:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/121704932533?_trksid=p20...

LED's:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/261299227987?_trksid=p20...

Switches:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/261765312716?_trksid=p20...

Resistors:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/251790747922?_trksid=p20...

Aluminium:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/111379898202?_trksid=p20...

Usb to 2.0 usb cable:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/271232387804?_trksid=p20...

I wanted to add a little extra so i used the blow tripod and too most of it apart and left the small ball joint with the round mount attached. I attached the small mount to a small angled piece of wood and then onto a Galaxy note 4 phone case (his phone). I then mounted the ball joint into the body leaving only the screw fitting showing but then didnt want this sticking out of the guitar so i dug a small channel for the screw fitting to be able to fall into. Then the case is able to screw onto the fitting and hold the phone in position allowing him to use his phone for tutorial videos and apps while playing at the same time.

Also, i didnt want the Arduino to be on constantly, as in when hes not playing so i installed a switch in the neck which cuts the power to the Arduino so the battery will last longer. I bought a torch from wilko and took the push switch from the bottom and mounted in the head of the neck.

Mini tripod:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mini-Adjustable-Tripod-S...

Phone case:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/151714273500?_trksid=p20...

Once i put everything together and screwed the top piece in place from the back it looks like this. I didn't glue the top piece on just in case i need to get to something inside.

All i need to do now is string the guitar and put the joystick head and pot knobs on. If you want the Arduino code for this, let me know and i can send it to you.

I hope you all like the finished project and this has helped with some of your own. Any questions im more than happy to help if i can.

Thanks

Mr A