Some play Lead Guitar, but I play LED Guitar

So last time I posted, I said I was starting a small LED project, and I think it's the first time in while I've actually finished something. I added LED's to and old crappy guitar of mine!

I last time I said I wanted to re-purpose a PCB in really crappy roomba knockoff I bought. I basically ripped apart all the plastic keeping only the plastic battery compartment.

After that I proceeded to 3D print a housing for the circuit board and the additional components I'd need for this project.

So with that all in place I needed to dive into the electronics for getting the LED's driven. I purchased this simple voltage booster breakout board, and it was simple enough to get everything working. There is a small potentiometer that can control the output voltage based off of the input voltage. This allowed me to take the 3.7-4.2V battery and boost it to the 12V the LED's need. 

After I did the voltage calibration. I got to work on the meat of the logic. I decided to repurpose an old perfboard fom a project from a long time ago (it might have dated all the way back to undergrad 5 years ago?). I didn't do as good of a job taking photos of this process, but basically I connected the MSP430 microcontroller to some MOSFETs I purchased. 

Right at the end of the timelapse, disaster struck. I fried something really bad. I completely burned out a transistor on the original vacuum PCB. The current was so high that the insulation on one of the wires melted

I realized shortly that I wired up the terminals to the voltage booster backward, and probably caused the control loop in the circuit to "blow up". Fortunately, there was a separate transistor aboard the original vacuum PCB that wasn't fried. and after I fixed that bad connection we were in business!

After that I was able to stick the LED strip to an old crappy guitar that I have to make it look cooler than it actually is. I specifically put the LEDs only on the bottom edge because you probably wouldn't want them blinding you while you played.

This was a fun short project. I think the box that powers the LED's is still a little bulky and I feel like it gets a little warm after a while, so I'd be hesitant to use it for long periods of time, but maybe for like 1 song during a performance could be fun... <segue>

Musical Endeavors

Speaking of performances, the two acts I've formed that I mentioned are going to be playing a small show on June 20th of this year and we're calling it Inside Lands. The details are on this Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/477514833167404/

In practicing in one of my bands, it's been tough to get a good mix of our sound for each one of our band members, and I've begun to get the ball rolling on probably the most ambitious electronics projects in a while... so I guess one could stay tuned for that!

Finally I've slowed down significantly with my recording covers because of my cover band obligations, but I've been trying to put together a cover that I would like to release as a single at some point in the first half of this year, but it's been tough to plan it out.