stompbox for disabled

[Jdansti]

I might have some of those encapsulated LDRs. If I do, I'll include them with the gooseneck.

[Mustachio]

That would be great! Thanks John! I got the board etched, I'll drill it later on and try to start populating it asap . I got about ten projects going at once but the juggling act is working well !

[pinkjimiphoton]

hey legless,
i "liked" your son's band page too.. smokin'.

if you want to try a bassballs, which is a dual tuned auto wah for all intents, if ya wanna pm me and address, i'll ship one out.

in this case, it "Wahs" according to the "envelope" or shape of the sounds produced by your son's fingers

[Jdansti]

Some thoughts on the sensor tube:

I think that Home Depot sells food-grade tubing. It should stand up to disinfection and be healthy. Also, you might consider potting the LDR inside the tube with that Envirotex stuff you use to coat enclosures. Envirotex is used to coat bars and tables in restaurants and stands up to heavy use and cleaning. Also, it's clear.

I thought of another advantage to using a gooseneck. It's easier to maximize the light hitting the LDR than a sensor clenched in the teeth because you can back away from it.

Final (?) thought: just a suggestion. You might want to consider a mod that would allow him to switch between the LDR and a pot before starting a song. The pot would be the equivalent of setting the treadle of a regular wah in one position. Kinda hard to hold your mouth in one position for a whole song. 

[pinkjimiphoton]

shoot, just watched the video for blue sky day, makin' it a little hard to type right now...

ummm.... what about escobedo's autowah circuit? d'astro gave it a proper way to work , so the phunqgnosis has an up and down mode,
i bet could build the whole circuit into the guitar easily enough... a couple push on/off pots and you'd have a good wah onboard that may be less hassle than a soul kiss.
the thought of having to hold something between my teeth while playing sounds like it would be painful after a while, don't want that.

could add a momentary for a manual envelope trigger, on the pickguard too if need be maybe?

i mean it' looks more complex than it is to build



maybe i could paypal someone a couple bucks over there to build and install it for the young man?

[wavley]

As someone that spent a year learning to walk again after a car accident destroyed my left hip and is still working hard to get rid of my limp I really understand how devastating it is to be there in front of your beloved stomp boxes and not be able to turn them on.  When I first got out of the hospital the only thing that didn't cause me excruciating pain was to stand on my good leg, laying or sitting hurt terribly.  I was determined to keep playing with my band, but my left leg was not strong enough to work any of my pedals and I had to stand on my right leg like a flamingo.  I started putting a lot of things at hand level in front of me so I could turn them off, not that elegant, and certainly no expression style pedals were being used.  It was terribly frustrating, but I have a lot of wonderful friends that helped out.

It looks like you guys have a pretty good handle on this, but if you need anything at all with which I can help you just let me know.  You guys are so good with this that I don't really have anything to add to the conversation other than my support, but I will keep watching this in hopes of helping out somehow.

[Jdansti]

@Jimi-Good idea, but he mentioned somewhere that he has an auto wah, but would like more control like a regular wah. 

[pinkjimiphoton]

sorry, john, i guess i missed that part, duh!!..

i can see the soul kiss being good, but it just seems uncomfortable to have to clench your teeth that way!

being a card carrying cripple and the survivor of a spouse with lung cancer,  seeing people help other people out like this is VERY hip, and i thank all who
are trying to help... you guys rock.... wish there was more i could do

[Mark Hammer]

Again, I'll put in a word for the Source Audio Hot Hand III.  They run about $150, and are pretty dang impressive as far as expressiveness goes.  They are optimized for use with the Source Audio pedals, but they can also be used to control other things.

A potentially cheaper and less sophisticated option is the use of a guitar-mounted photocell.  When I found out the expression pedal for my Line 6 M5 unit (and any other Line 6 modeller unit) was simply a 10k variable resistance to ground, I wired up a suitable photocell to a cable, plugged it into the M5, stuck the photocell in a suitable location on the guitar's top with adhesive tape, and worked the darn thing by covering it and exposing it with my pinky finger while playing.  There are some issues with respect to  taper and learning how to adjust finger movements to acheive sounds on demand, but it works.  The M5 has a wealth of sounds in it (combines all the modeller pedals - MM4, DL4, DM-4, FM4, plus more - into one package.  Musician's Friend is currently selling them for $130.

The Hot Hand can be used to control as many as 3 parameters at once, though learning to move one's hand in space to use all 3 dimensions could be tricky.  The M5 allows one to use the expression pedal input to control as many as 5 parameters at once, though not independently.  That is, I could set the unit so that heel down gets me, say, slower speed, more sweep width, and more resonance, and a little less volume on a phaser setting, and toe down gets me faster speed, less resonance, less sweep width, and a little more volume.  I could SET it to do all of that in response to expression pedal position (or photocell resistance), but I would not be able to vary each of those separately in real time; they all come along for the ride.  Still, mount the box on a table-top or functionally equivalent easy-to-reach surface, so one can bang the momentary switches to change programs, adjoin a cable for the photocell to your guitar cable going to the unit, and you can work some minor miracles with your hands.

[Jdansti]

>i can see the soul kiss being good, but it just seems uncomfortable to have to clench your teeth that way!

Agreed!  Jim's going to mount it on a thin gooseneck so it'll be more like a talk box.

[legless]

Hi everyone,

Thanks again for all of your efforts and input- and also for the kind comments. I'm really impressed to see you all working together on this in such a "can do" way. It really makes a change to see and renews faith in human nature.

I was really impressed by the look of the source audio hot hand- I had missed it on the first posting. This system is considerably more expensive in the UK, but a supplier has been very generous to me and I've now ordered one. I'll let you know how he fairs with it.

Hope you will still complete the Soul Kiss.

Many thanks again for everything- Chris

[deadastronaut]

^ cool, hope he enjoys it, looks like a nice bit of kit...

[artifus]

http://hackaday.com/2013/06/20/building-custom-game-controllers-for-people-with-physical-disabilities/

http://thecontrollerproject.com/forum/

http://glovepie.org/glovepie.php

http://www.tobias-erichsen.de/software/loopmidi.html

[Mustachio]

Hey Chris! I sent ya a PM, I need your address or a place to send this when its done(and its getting close to done)!

Just got a few goose necks with leds in the mail from John yesterday(thanks John!)

Didn't realize you where in the UK but it shouldn't be a problem shipping it.

Cheers,
Jimmy