I’m sorry to report it, but it looks like we’re not going to be able to get our device FCC approved before PAX. I were hoping we could get it tested here in Spokane, but the lab that used to be here closed down, and besides, there might be tricky things about the guitar that make it’s current configuration hard to test.
A little bit of background, basically anything that has a chip inside it that runs faster than 1.705 megahertz needs to be tested to make sure that it complies with Chapter 15 of FCC regulations, ensuring that it doesn’t accidentally create electromagnetic interference (i.e., it doesn’t mess up your radio, TV, cell phone, etc. signals). This is because chips really draw their power every time the clock swings, instead of a constant drain, so the electricity going into the chip is rapidly going on and off. That on-and-off current is basically a tiny radio transmitter, hence the FCC wants to make sure that that little radio signal isn’t strong enough to jam your roommate’s radio. So you have to get it tested, and it’s why you see a little FCC logo on anything you plug into your computer.
What’s hard about the guitar is that I’m not sure how valid our testing becomes if, say, we use a different model of guitar, which we do a lot, or if we revised our circuit board at all. However, we are looking into the possibility of breaking up our design into a fast-clocked USB/Wii communication circuit, that would get approved once, and a slow-clocked guitar-reading circuit, which doesn’t need approval at all, since things going slower than 1.705 MHz are exempt. Or maybe we only have to get FCC verification instead of a declaration of conformity, which means that we can possibly self-test our equipment.
I’ll keep you posted,
Alan Chatham
Lead Developer
