Hi Guys, Im new to this and everything else to do with circuitry (Fell asleep during physics class, the teacher was boring).

Anyways, I have had a wicked Idea about my guitar and was wondering if I could ask for some help. Again as the title suggests, I am an idiot.

Chaser Leds along the edge of the scratchplate of the guitar, which can be any colour and can change any colour (Dependant on the user). See attached for more info.

DETAILS:
INPUT: 9V battery
SWITCH: PUSH BUTTON
LED: 8000mcd
PCB: NONE
GROUND: Connected to Guitar Ground
IC: 24-28pin (If possible)
Variable capacitor: Controls rate of chaser
Timer: Either a 555timer or Pic programmable chip.

therefore a few questions:

1- is this possible?
2- How can I do this without having wires trailing to each end and each pin.
3- Is there any easier way of doing this at all?


If any one could reply to this it would be great! =) It was really just am idea which sprang to mind.

QUICK EDIT: THE BLACK DOTS ARE FOR THE OTHERSIDE OF THE PCB.

 

Something like this could be done with a microcontroller ( ic ) or two, but it would be hard to explain to a i..... If you want to do this I would suggest getting an arduino and see if you can complete a few basic projects with LED's then enough of you "idiot" brain cells will be upgraded and you may be able to do this project.

Maybe someone else can work the whole thing out for you, but would not count on it.

 

Something built around a PIC would be good as you could have some randomness built in (not really random of course).

Another idea: you could use a shift register (made out of CMOS logic chips) as many stages as you have LEDs. Clock it with a 555 at say a few pulses per second.

Feed the data input with the output of a zero-crossing comparator fed from the guitar signal. So, depending whether the audio signal happened to be +ve or -ve at the instant the clock occurred the first LED would be on or off. This pattern will then scroll around the plate at the clock rate.

What about a knob to adjust the clock rate?

Just an idea! Possibilities are endless.

Edit: Put a tiny bit of bias on the comparator input so if there is no signal the first LED always goes out. Then when you stop playing the LEDS slowly go out, one at a time. And v.v

BTW An idiot with ideas is a dangerous thing!!!

 

Guys,

Thanks very much for that two very different helps and JDT, that does sound like an awesome idea I might try that at another time.

So guys, my best (and easiest) bet would be then (as this is a first for me) to use a pic MicroController and therefore create a tiny program in order to acheive that?

What would you recommend at all, you know for pics. I know there's quite a number of interface systems out there but what is the best one?

Thanks again guys.