Laser Harp - Success!

[tony220171]

Has any one been successfull building one of the laser harps with the bought plans and how much did it all cost and where can you find all the parts.
Or easier can we buy a ready made one hehehehe


cheers

[shobley]

So far about 4-5 people have been successful, that I know of...

Cost depends upon how powerful a laser you need, but the rest of it is less than $400.

Steve

[QUAZAR]

Regarding the use og the Wii mte. Am I correct in assuming you dont have any receiver in the main base unit and the notes are "chosen" from your hand position in free space as opposed to where you break the laser beam?

[Carl B]

Quazar

I think Shobley has modified the Wii mote by removing the IR filter for a green filter so the Wii mote still detects which beam is struck but also has vertical detection along each beam for modulation.

Carl

[shobley]

Regarding the Wiimote - yes I removed the IR filter from the front and replaced it with a notch pass filter - tuned to the laser frequency.

This is a software only add-on to the original harp. Detecting reflection intensity didn't seem to work inside the harp so I looked for another way of adding modulation control to the sounds.

The Wiimote alone is not fast enough to track note on/off messages, this is still being done by the Arduino inside the harp body.

The Wiimote sends out a stream of continous data that can be mapped to any MIDI continous control parameter. (Pitch bend, modulation, after touch etc...)

This is merged with the MIDI stream coming from the harp before it reaches the synthesizer.

All this occurs using freely available software for Windows. (You will also need a Bluetooth stack that can talk to the Wiimote).

Eventually I'm going to de-solder the Pixart sensor from my Wiimote (or buy one) and wire this straight into the harp. I've made some progress in determining the support hardware to get this sensor running, along with decoding messages on the bus. [I2C - IIRC]

But that's a way off at the moment...

Steve

[allthatwhichis]

You know, it sure has been a while since a picture of that beast was posted...

[Jem]

It's great to see you here on the forum again Steve, it's been a while since you were around.

One day i'll find enough time to start this project. In the meantime please keep visiting and keep us all up to date with this fascinating project

Oh, and I agree... Pictures would be good, especially of the layout etc.

Cheers

Jem

[Master]

this is nice way to get laser harp without having trouble with buying laser modules and scanner. Just plug your existing projector. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lamXXZEEqRU&feature=related

[shobley]

Or you could build one at home for the cost of an Arduino and some bits from Radio Shack...

2 axis full color ILDA compliant, MIDI IN and OUT with realtime note assignment.

...and X,Y and Z realtime gesture tracking with the updated synchronous Pixart sensor:

But then I've always been a bit of a DIY guy

[shobley]

Forgot to post these - tried out the 445nm laser - but I think I prefer the extra visibility you get with the 532nm...







Maybe I'll just mix 'em for a cyan beam.