Piano LED Visualizer

Sat, 03 Apr 2021 11:46:14 GMT

Every so often I take a fancy to the idea of taking up the piano again. I was going through one of these spells when I came across this project, the Piano LED Visualizer. How could I not give it a go?

I ordered the suggested Waveshare LCD TFT 1.44" 128x128px, WS2812B LED Strip (144 per metre), 5V 6A power supply, silica tube strip in T0515 for 12mm in 2m length, and iConnectivity mio midi-to-usb cable. (I had a cable already, but thought it wasn't working. Turns out the port labels on my piano are backwards. (If I keep writing it everywhere maybe I'll actually remember next time.)) I already had the Raspberry Pi Zero, and miscellaneous components. As well as a digital piano. Time to get soldering.

I know the instructions say there's no need to solder, but I did anyway. I used a Pico hat hacker board and soldered the connections on to it. The idea is to wire up the power between the LEDs and Pi as in this article. Checking the pinout that looks like Data out on pin 12, and I used pin 34 for common ground. Then soldered a few connectors/adapters, before seating the Waveshare on top, installing the software, etc.

At this point it all works, but it's a loose bundle of components, so let's make that case. The instructions really gloss over this part. The case is this model, but it's based off this original case for PinkyPi. Which is where I found the guide that finally told me I needed M2.5 screws, standoffs, and nuts to assemble everything together. (The direction pad button is wonderful, but the other ones did not work for me at all. At least I can still reach the buttons through the opening in the case.)

I also ordered the midi usb-to-usb adapter needed to try the Synthesia feature, but haven't had a chance to try it out (due to a major mix up in shipping, that the seller was great at getting sorted out, but it took a while).

Overall the LEDs lighting up next to the key you pressed is neat. And you can set the LEDs to play animations if you just want background lighting, say for a video chat. But the LEDs don't line up well. I don't know if it's just because I got a cheap set of LEDs, but they are off at each edge of the keyboard by a couple of keys. Overall this feels like an early version project, but all the important parts are there. Including the software which is fairly solid. And it's very fun to play with.

( Photos )

Piano LED Visualizer in rainbow demo pattern
Photo by chebe

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Busy hands | Disquiet mind

Piano LED Visualizer