HackSpace Magazine Issue 55: Build a guitar games controller #CircuitPython @HackSpaceMag @Raspberry_Pi
HackSpace Magazine — Issue 55 shows you how to make a guitar games controller with Raspberry Pi Pico and CircuitPython.
In this tutorial, we’ll build our own controller. If you don’t have a broken 3D-printed guitar, don’t worry: this is just what holds everything together. You could use almost anything. The simplest would be a wooden plank, but you could be
creative. An old tennis racket would give classic air-guitar vibes, or you could cut a guitar shape out of sheet material (such as plywood or MDF) with a jig-saw. If
your really want to go the whole hog, you could also 3D-print your own guitar –
the design files are at thingiverse.com/thing:486731, but we wouldn’t recommend using the same alignment that we used.
Since our game takes input from the keyboard, we just have to set Pico up as a keyboard, then we can get our program to send keystrokes to the computer and
the game will interpret them as though they’d come from any normal keyboard. It’s actually very easy for some microcontrollers to behave like keyboards, and you can do this in a range of languages, but we find CircuitPython to be just about the quickest and easiest option for this. Since Wireframe’s game is also written
in Python, this mean that both the game and controller are in a single language, which helps keep things simple.
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Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
Python for Microcontrollers — Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: MicroPython Pico W Bluetooth, CircuitPython 8.0.4 and much more! #CircuitPython #Python #micropython @ThePSF @Raspberry_Pi
