Pi-aser a Laser Piano

Hi, I am a student Multimedia & Creative Technology at Howest Belgium.

Have you always wanted to play music but not like everybody does? Then this might be something for you!

I've made a piano out of Lasers. You just have to put your fingers above the lasers and you have music. You can choose what sounds it makes trough the website and you can also see how loud you are playing and for how long.

Step 1: Materials Electronics

I used the following items:

- Raspberry Pi 3

- Arduino UNO

- LCD display 16*2

- RFID module

- LDR sensors (7x)

- 3.3V 5mW laser diode (7x)

- SparkFun Sound Detector

- Resistors

- a bunch of jumpwires

- 2 breadboards

You can find a detailed list of the items below:

Step 2: Housing

For the housing I used a flight case, wood and aluminium U profiles.

Step 3: Case

For the case I've got some help of my dad and his best friend. We started with stripping a flight case and placing locks on the backside of the top and added some wooden rods at the back for a fake back wand where I could put my wires for my lasers. On the bottom side of the case we've added 4 rubber feets because the case will be rotated 90 degrees. For the aluminum U profiles we've made 3 holes with a little screw and used a bigger screw to make a little notch so the wooden planks can easily move.

Step 4: Wooden Planks

For the wooden planks that will come inside the U profiles we lay the 2 planks exactly on top of each other so if we made the holes with the little screw the lasers would point directly on the ldr's. For the ldr's we have made some notches and 2 little holes inside it for the legs of the ldr so they came trough the bottom of the plank for the circuit below it. We didn't make any holes in the bottom plank because this one is for the components.

Step 5: The Front

For the front we started making holes for the components. For the ldr we drew it out on the wood and then drilled holes in the drawing and used an engraver to make a beautiful rectangle where my lcd fits in. for the decibel meter we just made a hole and for the RFID we've made a little rectangle so the wire could pass trough it. On the left side there is a hole for the power supply and a hole for the jack. We have added some handles so if there is something wrong with the circuit I can easily get to it.

Step 6: Adding the Circuit to the Case

When i added the circuit to my case i used velcro tape so if there is a part broken its easily replaced.

Step 7: Wiring

For the wiring I used the Arduino to send the decibels and the rfid value to my RPI trough serial communication. The lcd is connected directly to the RPI and i used an MCP3008 to read the values of my LDR's. In the case I used a lot of isolating tape between the extenders and so they wouldn't come loose.

Step 8: Database

My database isn't that big i just needed to get my play time history the decibels when I was playing. I added a column users where the RFID key is stored. I didn't use a login so i didn't use the password and email.

Step 9: Github Code

You can find my code on github: https://github.com/RaevensRobbe/Pi-aser/blob/master/README.md