Requesting the help of AM community and devs...

[gameroms]

i recently had a neighborhood kid lose a arm, and i would like to make him a guitar for guitar hero, so that all he has to do is press the colored buttons and it would strum also.  i know the strum is up/down on the d-pad.  so if anyone is interested in helping please contact me.  i allready purchased a guitar. and im sure i have any parts that are going to be required.

im not sure if this will require a custom code for a pic chip or what, any info is appreciated.

[Ghost In Black]

I feel bad for him but I don't think there's anything I can do
Anyways, this is an interesting idea and if you can get it to work I'm going to probably do it too.

[robin1989]

i will ask around some ofthe members incase they dont see this as im sure we will fond someone to help - i do have an idea of how it could be done (not knowing the extent of his other arm etc)

idea 1

move the strum mechanism up to by the buttons so that he just needs to use one arm

idea 2

add a port on the bottom of the guitar and wire that up to the strum and then create a foot peddle (maybe even use the guitar hero one if you can) so that he controlls the strum with his foot

[bustinthejustin]

Yea. If he wants to only use  frets to control strum and fret, then you could wire strum up with the fert too couldnt u? so when u use a fret, the strum is grounded too, thus having both fret and strum hit? Idk the extent of my electronics knowledge is limited so yea.. Anyway sad to hear about the kid.. Good luck!

[PspKicks316]

This should be very easy to do, wiring wise. The strum is not the dpad, btw.

Take the guitar and wire one of the legs of one of the buttons on the strum bar and connect that to the common ground trace on the fret board. Take the other leg of the strum bar button and wire that to each of the 5 fret key traces.

Problem solved. I was going to do something along these lines so I could use a 360 controller with GHWT instead of the guitar, but I never got around to doing it. I might now, though.

[gameroms]

This should be very easy to do, wiring wise. The strum is not the dpad, btw.

Take the guitar and wire one of the legs of one of the buttons on the strum bar and connect that to the common ground trace on the fret board. Take the other leg of the strum bar button and wire that to each of the 5 fret key traces.

Problem solved. I was going to do something along these lines so I could use a 360 controller with GHWT instead of the guitar, but I never got around to doing it. I might now, though.

if strum is not up/down on dpad why does the strum move you up and down when on your friends list??

[Ghost In Black]

if strum is not up/down on dpad why does the strum move you up and down when on your friends list??

I think both the strum and d-pad move on the friends list, but only the strum works in the game.

[Hazer]

I believe a simple PIC program would work best, and here is why:

If you simply run the fret sginals right to the strum (I have no idea if up->down->up is a required thing in these games) then the moment you press any fret, the strum is triggered. But what if you need to press 2 frets? The strum is triggered wit a single fret, so the chances of pressing both frets EXACTLY at the same time are slim. But if you use a PIC, you can make it delay a small amount of time (100 milliseconds or so) before it triggers the strum and gives you just enough time to fully press both frets before the game see the strum signal.

As far as the PIC program is concerned, its an easy program.

[gameroms]

I believe a simple PIC program would work best, and here is why:

If you simply run the fret sginals right to the strum (I have no idea if up->down->up is a required thing in these games) then the moment you press any fret, the strum is triggered. But what if you need to press 2 frets? The strum is triggered wit a single fret, so the chances of pressing both frets EXACTLY at the same time are slim. But if you use a PIC, you can make it delay a small amount of time (100 milliseconds or so) before it triggers the strum and gives you just enough time to fully press both frets before the game see the strum signal.

As far as the PIC program is concerned, its an easy program.

the reason im doing this is because the kid came over to jump on the trampoline with my son today, and when they were finished he was watching me play guitar hero metalica and i ended up turning it off becuse of a comment he made to me.  so i talked to his dad to be sure it was ok to do this project, and he said yes.  so this is going to be a suprise for him, and i will hopefully make a video of him playing to let the community see.  if his parents ok the video idea.

if you have the time to help it would be greatly apprecaited by me and his family. 

also if this project turns out good, i would like a acidmods decal to put on the guitar for the pic or video, if the shop has any.  if not ill get local decal shop to throw one together by looking at site logo.

[802Chives]

So I have been thinking about this one a bit and It seems there are a couple good solutions that could be attempted.  The one you guys are already thinking about where the strum is activated by the fret seems like it will be the quick and dirty solution whether it is hard wired or there is a Pic that deals with the buttons being pressed.  I call that the quick and dirty solution as it is functional but it will effect the game play as it will require the frets to be hit in time with the strum line.

What I think will be a more robust solution is an auto sensing fret that will use the images on the screen in order to activate the strum bar.  More robust and far more difficult as it will require some sort of sensor to watch the screen and activate the strum when a note crosses a certain point.  It will maintain the same game play as he will be able to hold buttons and slide his hand around without having to be in time with the beat like what is required at higher difficulties. Cyber made a similar auto-matic guitar hero device I believe, so the work may already be done for us. Did cyber ever post that work? I havnt seen it I only remember the what he told me one time so I am not even sure he did it the way I think he did. I also remeber seeing someone doing and automatic GH player with a web cam.

EDIT: just saw the foot pedal idea that robin posted, that also would work so that game play won't be altered.  I bet it can be done very cleanly by just adding a jack in parralell to the strum and connecting the GH foot pedal to the guitar.  That would be a solution that will get him rocking today.

[Modded Matt]

the foot peddle seems to be the best way to go here. it dosnt require any manipulation of the gamplay. just move the strum to the foot pedal. this will involve some internal wiring to rewire the jack on the guitar, but I am sure you can do it.

I think the auto sensing deal would be way to complex, I have seen a video of this on the internet, and it just seems too much like cheating. don't take that wrong, I understand, my wife is missing one hand, below the elbow, and I have done somethings for her, but she dont want sympathy and she doesnt want to feel like a cheater, the best thing that can be done is to make it assessable for people with disabilitys, NOT do it for them. and trust me chad can vouch for her skills..LOL (dont get excited chad, its not an excuse she uses the regular controller to do what she does to you LOL..no mod needed)

[robin1989]

http://www.google.com/products?hl=en&safe=off&client=safari&rls=en-us&ei=YgPRSZmiLozMjAftv9S3Bw&resnum=0&q=guitar%20hero%20pedal&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wf

the peddles are pretty cheep as well

[gameroms]

i getting ready to go look for a jack to add to the guitar, for a pedal.  so we'll see how this works out...

[802Chives]

The sensing of the buttons on Screen can be done very simply, I remember being suprized by how simply cyber did it(even tho I dont remember what he used).  the simplest way I can think of is to use 5 photo sensor/transistors eached hooked up to it's own comparator with the comparitors outputs OR'ed together to a single shot 555 circuit connected to the the strum switch.  That way you place the sensor right on the TV or close to it where its respective color crosses the strum line and dial it in using a potentiometer on the comparitor's comparing voltage.  Might take a little amplifying of the photo sensor signal depending on what sensor you use. So ya I guess it isnt that simple, but in terms of analog signal processing that is easy Like I said earlier, I believe cyber has solved that problem even more simply than my suggestion, I will ask him when he gets back.

You are also right that that method does give someone an advantage, but on the other hand it would be a good "trainer" for people that have trouble with the Frets reguardless of disability or not.  The peddle is still probably the best way, as it can be done really cleanly and simply by just installing another jack on the guitar, and the game play will remain the same.

EDIT: I vaguely remeber cyber saying something about LVCs or LVOs from imagesco. Light To Voltage Converters or something like that, they were more of a stand alone sensor then a phototransistor.