theGIMMICK - pic-based guitar tuner

[nILS]

I built a small, cheap and easy to build guitar tuner around a PIC16F84A-04P:

In case someone is interested, it's documented here: http://schickt.de/index.php?entry=entry080606-004307

Have fun,

nILS

[stryd_one]

Wicked man.

[/tilted/]

That's awesome!

Can you do me a 6 channel version, for divided pickup use?

only kidding.

[nILS]

Can you do me a 6 channel version, for divided pickup use?

Hihi, um, not likely with the current hardware as the code space is ~95% full :-) But it should be rather interesting to make a little PCB that simply cleans up and squares the guitar input and hook it up to a mbhpCore - more code mem and way more processing power ;D

[sineSurfer]

the real deal... sort of:

[nILS]

Looks nice! But, okay, I get the point Freddy ;D I'll put together an update with BIG pads and make a little more room everywhere so it's a bit more DIY-friendly. I never tested the PCB as I use a perfboard version for now. I'll keep you guys posted!

[cimo]

hi

this brings back the same old problem of the different pads/trace size for diy etching or industry grade pcb.

My little-big "dream" would be to create a set of libraries and eagle setup so that you could easily change a "normal" .brd into a diy customized version.

Simone

Thanks Nils i ll build one, sometime..

[bugfight]

...with BIG pads...

aha! told ya so...

also: bug... upside down... funny!

-bugflip

[nILS]

I've modded the most common libs already to have big/small pads, so changing the footprints for that board shouldn't really be much work. The idea of having a "midibox" library has been tossed around a lot too - maybe someone needs to get started with it ;)

[Davo]

Does anyone here tune their guitar or other stringed instrument with an oscilloscope?

[/tilted/]

Does anyone here tune their guitar or other stringed instrument with an oscilloscope?

Not yet.

In any event, the waveform made by a guitar might be a bit tricky for oscilloscope tuning.

How would you do it? with a dual trace, and a reference pitch?

[nILS]

Bigger pads, bigger traces, more spacing. How does that look sS?

[sineSurfer]

that's better ;) where's the pdf? need to redo some of my boards anyway, don't ask why.

[nILS]

THe pdf will be up after I doube checked everything :-) Prolly this evening.

[Jaicen]

nILS, that is awesome, how well does it work??

I'll be adding that to my list of things to do for sure!

[nILS]

I've only tried it with two guitars (les paul copy with humbuckers and fender strat) and it works really well so far. Only problem is the low e-String of the les paul - as the lower strings have a lot more noise and overtones than the higher ones. I'm still tweaking the cap and resistor values for the low-pass filter a bit. It does work, and using a flageolett on the 12th fret of the low e-String "solves" the problem.

[stryd_one]

using a flageolett on the 12th fret of the low e-String "solves" the problem.

Workaround != "Solution" (even with the quotes) ;D

LOL

[/tilted/]

would it be worthwhile adding a high pass as well, to get rid of all sorts of ick, like mains hum, handling noise etc.

Also, maybe filtering out the fundamental and tuning to the harmonic would be better??

[nILS]

"solution" == workaround ;)

Apparently there's a lot of (better) alternatives. But most likely not any cheaper/simpler ones. And that was really the focus of that project. It works well and if you're lucky you can get all the parts for ~6EUR.

[sineSurfer]

you have to make it work without workarounds on the les paul fossi!!! otherwise I won't build it :D

[/tilted/]

potentially dumb question:

have you tried tuning using only the neck pickup? also, use fingertip rather than a plectrum, also pluck near the middle of the string.

fairly boring stuff I know, but it should help a bit

[doc]

... or tune 5 strings and use your well tuned ears for the last string  ;D

greets

Doc

[nILS]

... or tune 5 strings and use your well tuned ears for the last string  ;D

...which doesn't work well in a live situation ;)

have you tried tuning using only the neck pickup? also, use fingertip rather than a plectrum, also pluck near the middle of the string.

Yeah, I've tried all of the above ;) Doesn't make much of a difference though.

[nILS]

Whee! I just boxed it up and fiddled a bit more with the code (basically I just added some checks to keep the LCD update frequency down a bit to avoid flickering). I'll try to borrow a camera and take some pics as soon as possible ;D

edit: Crappy web-cam picture can be found here

[nILS]

More pictures, taken with a real camera can be found here ;-)

Sneak preview: