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Step 6Microcontroller, Solder, Wire
Now we start to get into the actual electronics of the project.
First, find somewhere inside the guitar to screw in your Arduino. However, make sure you can still plug in the USB cable, so only use one screw, and screw it it lightly, allowing the board a little freedom.
Moving back to the neck side of things, we'll get the frets connected first. The fret wires will be inputs into the microcontroller, so they'll need to be attached to pull-down resistors. These resistors drain any extra current out of the frets when they're not touching any strings; otherwise the microcontroller will get confused. Use resistors in the 1K - 50K range, any higher and you'll start getting issues with multiple button presses.
Burning the ends of the lacquered wires again, join each fret wire to a length of regular wire. If you're using network cable, keep the wires together in their sheath for convenience. Using the breadboard piece, solder all the resistors together to a ground wire on one side, then solder each fret wire to the non-ground end of a resistor. Attach this breadboard to the inside of the guitar body.
*Optional*, but recommended, solder the free ends of the new wires to some connected standard pins; this way, they won't fall out of the Ardunio. Better yet, get an Arduino you can solder directly onto.
Now attach the fret wires to pins 2 through 6 on the Ardunio, with pin 2 being the first fret, pin 6 being the 5th fret. Also, connect the ground wire to one of the ground pins on the Arduino.
Onto the back side, we'll need to wire up the strings. if there is no hole through from the rear to the front, drill one, watching out for the microcontroller package you already attached there. Now solder wires onto each string, put the wires through the hole, then solder the diodes to each wire, such that current is only allowed to flow into the microcontroller; i.e., the bands should be on the side away from the wire. Now push the diodes into pins 14-19, with 14 being the biggest string, 19 the smallest.
First, find somewhere inside the guitar to screw in your Arduino. However, make sure you can still plug in the USB cable, so only use one screw, and screw it it lightly, allowing the board a little freedom.
Moving back to the neck side of things, we'll get the frets connected first. The fret wires will be inputs into the microcontroller, so they'll need to be attached to pull-down resistors. These resistors drain any extra current out of the frets when they're not touching any strings; otherwise the microcontroller will get confused. Use resistors in the 1K - 50K range, any higher and you'll start getting issues with multiple button presses.
Burning the ends of the lacquered wires again, join each fret wire to a length of regular wire. If you're using network cable, keep the wires together in their sheath for convenience. Using the breadboard piece, solder all the resistors together to a ground wire on one side, then solder each fret wire to the non-ground end of a resistor. Attach this breadboard to the inside of the guitar body.
*Optional*, but recommended, solder the free ends of the new wires to some connected standard pins; this way, they won't fall out of the Ardunio. Better yet, get an Arduino you can solder directly onto.
Now attach the fret wires to pins 2 through 6 on the Ardunio, with pin 2 being the first fret, pin 6 being the 5th fret. Also, connect the ground wire to one of the ground pins on the Arduino.
Onto the back side, we'll need to wire up the strings. if there is no hole through from the rear to the front, drill one, watching out for the microcontroller package you already attached there. Now solder wires onto each string, put the wires through the hole, then solder the diodes to each wire, such that current is only allowed to flow into the microcontroller; i.e., the bands should be on the side away from the wire. Now push the diodes into pins 14-19, with 14 being the biggest string, 19 the smallest.
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