Category: Music

Guitar Tuner for the Blind (using an Arduino)


Guitar Tuner for the Blind (using an Arduino) is designed for individuals who are visually impaired. It uses Arduino Pro mini microcontroller, (all code is provided). This project was undertaken for the charity Remap, which provides custom-made equipment for people with disabilities.

Technical Specifications: 

Begin with an LED electronic guitar tuner. The author used a Cherub Guitar Mate (WST-550), which cost about $10 from eBay. Use a microcontroller (Arduino) to read the LED's then output the information as a series of tones through a headphone.

Step 1: Using the tuner. When it is turned on, the tuner will play a scale to let you know it’s on. If the tuner is set to semitone tuning mode it will play 4 low-frequency flat tones. When a guitar string is sounded, the tuner will play the note it believes the string is playing before either playing three sharp or three flat tones, depending on whether the string is sharp or flat. The duration of these three tones will depend on how sharp or flat the string is (long tones if the sounded string is very out of tune, short tones if it is nearly correct). If the string is in tune, the tone associated with the string will be repeated. A specific string can be selected by pressing the button on the back of the tuner, the tuner will cycle through the strings to be tuned. It will then only give feedback tones (as in default mode, above) once the correct string is played.

Step 2: Make some space. In order to make some space in the guitar tuner, you’ll need to do the following:

Modify the plastic case: You have the option to use a knife or a small file with wire cutters to clear space for the Arduino in the back of the guitar tuner. One of the screw holes in the case will need to be removed, as well as some of the plastic that holds the battery in place.
Modify the circuit board: Remove the black foam battery pad and de-solder the battery contacts. Some of the through-hole components may have wires sticking quite far out of the back of the board, so tidy them up and clip them down to make as much space as possible.

Step 3: The circuit. In order to use slightly fewer Arduino input pins, some of the very high and very low tuner signals were combined with diodes. Please refer to the author's websited for instructions on how to construct the circuit. The other additional components (headphone, button etc.) will be discussed in step 5.

Step 4: Add the Arduino. Solder the Arduino to the back of the guitar tuner circuit. To insulate the Arduino from the guitar tuner circuit, I used a piece of plastic from some packaging and held it in place with a sticky foam pad. This build uses up most of the Arduino IO pins (even the analogue inputs have to be used as digital inputs). The author used a fairly thick enamel copper wire for this job; its insulation can be melted off using a soldering iron. However, it’s best to use plenty of fresh solder. Starting from the open (cut) end of the wire also seems to help.

Step 5: Add the backpack. Some of the components won’t fit inside the tuner casing. The author placed the battery, button, power-smoothing capacitor and headphone on the back of the tuner. The author made the backpack arrangement detachable from the main circuit so that I would still be able to open the tuner for re-programming if required.

Feedback problems: A resistor has been put in series with the headphone; it can't be seen on these pictures as it is surface mounted and located under the circuit board. Use the highest value resistor you can that will still give loud enough tones. Using a large-value resistor and a big power capacitor helps prevent the output tones from interfering with the tuner; if this happens, it can cause it to interfere with itself and go a bit mad. I used a 470uF 16V capacitor and a 470Ohm resistor. However, you may need to experiment in order to find what works for you.

Capacitor placement: If the capacitor remains permanently charged (that is, if it is in the circuit before the power switch) it may be bad for battery life as it will have a leakage current.

Step 6: Programe - Arduino Code. Please refer to the diagram on the author’s website for instructions.

Step 7: Tidy up. To protect the external components, cover them in Sugru; it's an awesome self-setting rubber that starts off a lot like plastic.

Step 8: Lessons Learnt and Notes. Here are a few lessons I learnt along the way:
The giant capacitor: The author upgraded the capacitor as it was getting feedback issues; the Arduino would output a audible tone and noise. Put it on the power supply would be picked up by the tuner, causing it to give false readings. Analogue inputs: My original plan for this build was to put resistors between all the LEDs, thereby building a basic digital-to-analogue converter. I could have then used an AT tiny (basically, a mini Arduino) to read the analogue voltages. The problem was, however, that even after a lot of modifications and very careful soldering of surface-mount resistors, the author reports difficulty to get the the device to work reliably. Other options the author is considering changing: (1) Redesign the back case (possibly 3D-print it). (2) Use a bigger button on the back.



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Guitar Tuner for the Blind (using an Arduino)