Hey everyone, I'm new to the forum
I'm Chris
I'm having trouble getting my head around many things, this is my first ever time using an Arduino, And i would greatly appreciate your help
So here goes:
The project is to replicate Mathew Bellamays (from the band Muse) signature guitars that have a built in touch pad. http://www.mansons.co.uk/shopping/images/items/2375/2375_1_medium.jpg<--Image here
The touch pad controls a piece of audio sampling hardware called a http://www.kaosspad.co.uk/images/KaossPad_kp2.jpg<--(KAOSS PAD KP2 in my case) and it does this via MIDI - Wikipedia<--MIDI, the Kaoss pad already has a touch pad built in, along with all the other features I wish to place in my guitar. the point of this is to access all the pads features via midi commands from analogue inputs in my guitar(the touch pad, momentary switch, and a rotary encoder for the effect selection.) as the pad is fairly unusable to a guitarist in its regular state.
I am not the first to want to do this, in fact I know of 2 people who have already done this, here are their videos on youtube:
Kaoss Pad Touch Screen Midi Controller - YouTube"
<--bassman76jazz
Kaoss Pad Touch Screen Midi Controller - YouTube<--
gazlang81
Both examples are made in almost an identical way, although I prefer bassmans approach as although he hasn't revealed much, his came after gazlang and he told me some of the improvements he did on gaz's design.
The overview of the project is:
-To convert an analogue input of a resistive touch screen into midi output signals that the kaoss pad will read.
-To add a Hold Button on the guitar that does the same as the hold button on the pad
-To add a rotary encoder that will allow me to change the effects of the pad on the guitar.
-Have a LED backlight that has a color pattern when not used, but then is responsive to the input of the touch screen.
In the next few steps I'll explain how far I've gotten.
To convert the input signals and to regulate the LED effects I will do the same as the 2 guys I mentioned and I will use a Arduino, I have chosen the http://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoBoardProMini <--Arduino mini pro as it was bassman's recomendation. It runs on C++ (a language I know very little about) bassman has given me some tips over email about how the circuit board should be wired etc... so here is an extract of his email to me, and the schematics I have sort of done so far.
Email:
there is not really anything to the circuit, its just the screens four wires into the analog inputs of the arduino, the switch goes from ground to a digital input and the encoder connects to pin 2 and 4 (the interrupt pins) on the arduino the midi jack uses the tx pin and a ground and +5v pins and the led is connected to +5v and three pwm output pins. the pin numbers are arbitrary since they are controlled via the firmware. there are no extra chips, its just the arduino to control everything, the kit that gazlang81 makes uses the arduino mini, mine is the mini pro. as for the c code for the arduino I'm not willing to give this up just yet.
Schematics: (bare in mind I doubt very much that these are right)
If the wires are in the wrong place or not connected at all, Its because I literally don't know any better or where to put them.
here are the components I'd like to use:
for the LED I'd like to use a BlinkM — ThingM<--BlinkM smart LED
The http://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoBoardProMini<--Arduino mini pro
http://www.amazon.co.uk/NINTENDO-REPLACEMENT-BOTTOM-SCREEN-TOUCH/dp/B001AHJD3M<--nintendo DS lite touch pad
For the other components I don't know any specific things to buy etc...
Thats all I know about the hardware I need and how to build it.
now for the software for the arduino, I am literally clueless, although I have had somewhat experience with computer languages, I know close to nothing about C++. But what I have is a list of codes that will prove helpful to anyone who does know about C++
here are the links:
http://www.muselive.com/forums.php?m=posts&q=36686:<--Resistive strip midi input for the digitech whammy pedal
http://www.arduino.cc/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1197235191<--programing a touch pad as a midi input:
here is the manual for the Kaoss pad, In page 12 it has the midi chart(that will tell you what command each midi value is associated with).
Downloads | KORG (USA)<--Kaoss pad manual.pdf
This is as far as I've gotten and all I know.
Also im not sure on how to program the LED but i think that might be much simpler
What I would like to achieve is the same that those 2 guys achieved in their videos. Thankfully the rest I can do and I'm quite good at. I'd appreciate any help at all and thank you very much for your attention whilst reading this.
many thanks
Chris