• 25Jul

  V1 for the Wii Beta!

  New Release Comments Off

  So after another month of no news, we’re pleased to announce that we’ve finally been able to get the V1 to work with the Nintendo Wii®!  We’ve tested it with Rock Band® 2 and Guitar Hero World Tour®, and so far, it seems to work perfectly. Also, the design has been updated to allow you to use the guitar like you would any other electric guitar.

  We’ll be trying to get a video up in another few days, along with instructions for you to build your own.  It’s a little more complicated now, since we’ve switched from the Arudino to just the raw ATMega AVR microcontrollers, but not too much more complicated. Mostly, just more soldering..

  Also, we’re now offering a beta version of the V1 for Wii® to buy! For $169,  you’ll get one of the very first OpenChord.org controllers, suitable for both guitar games and playing real music.  As is our philosophy, with any of our products, you’ll also be buying the right to buy any future upgrades at the cost of materials, so if and when we upgrade the guitar, you’ll be able to send us a message and we’ll help you make sure your guitar remains top-of-the-line.  Check out more details on the “Buy” page, or e-mail us at buy@openchord.org.
• 24Jul

  L-Series

  Development, New Release Comments Off

  *cough*

  So I’m an idiot, and wrote this all up a few weeks ago, but forgot to actually post it.

  For the past week or two, this is a little something that we’ve been working on-

  

  The OpenChord.org L-Series

  The OpenChord L Series.

  This project is an easier, simpler version of the V1, and it converts the Ashely Rock Axe guitar into a stringed instrument by modifying only the neck. It’s a project that takes fewer supplies, no string-insulation, and stays looking good fairly easily. Also, it doesn’t require 2 guitars. In the next couple of days, we’ll be posting instructions on Instructables.

  Oh, and with the L-Series, we’re going to be making some significant updates to the code, the biggest being the start of a project to do more advanced things with note-recognition. Basically, we’ll be looking into settings that will let you map notes and chords to guitar hero buttons, so for example, if you finger a C-chord, the controller will register that as the Green button, and so on. Or map the buttons to a scale, so you can play Guitar Hero or Rock Band and actually be practicing chord changes and scales.

  Also, other big news on the technical front. While the L-Series will be using the Arduino microcontrollers, we’re shifting the rest of the line over to the Atmel AVR processors. For more information about this switch and the reasoning behind it, check out the Developent page.
• 23Jun

  What we’ve been doing

  Site Updates Comments Off

  Sorry for the lack of recent updates.. These last 2 weeks have been kinda busy.
  First, we’ve been spending a lot of time trying to build a chip to allow us to interface directly with the PlayStation 2, which has gone a lot worse than expected. We’ve had some success; we’ve gotten our chip to work, but unfortunately, it only seems to work with games OTHER than Guitar Hero. Awkward.
  Second, and more exciting, we’ve also been working on a simpler-to-make version of the V1, one that’s just a mod of one of those “Guitar Hero Controllers in a Real Guitar Body” things. Still working on a few things, but that should be out soon…
  So thanks for bearing with us! We’ve been doing stuff, we swear!
• 10Jun

  Foot Pedal Star Power!

  New Release Comments Off

  Just a little update to the V1, we now offer simple instructions for making a star-power activating guitar foot pedal.  Instructions are here on Instructables.

  Here are some pictures:

  

  
• 09Jun

  V1 Out!

  New Release 4 Comments

  As of today, the OpenChord V1 is ready to rock. Instead of playing Guitar Hero or Rock Band with a controller that simply looks like a guitar, you can now play on the real deal – moving your fingers along the strings of a real guitar, making real chords. Which makes playing so, so much more rewarding.
• 09Jun

  Welcome to OpenChord.org

  Site Updates Comments Off

  Welcome to OpenChord.org. Our goal is to turn a regular electric guitar into a Guitar Hero/Rock Band controller while retaining as much of the original guitar-playing experience as possible. Right now, we’re probably about halfway to the dream, but what we’ve already got is pretty rockin’. So check out the site, see what we’ve got, and let us know what you think at contact@openchord.org.

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