This is a selfmade project inspired by videos from pianist Rousseau on Youtube. With this project you can light up your piano just like rousseau and other people. This project is entirely written in Node.js and a bit of HTML. I take no warranties that the project works for you.
Please read the newest changelog (.github/readme_files/UPDATES.md) if you want to know more about the future of this project!
There are several Readme-Files for different purposes:
- Are you a beginner and have no experience in Linux, NodeJS or whatsoever? Click on this Beginner's-Guide
- You do have some knowledge about Linux and or NodeJs? Go to the normal Installation-Guide in this file.
- If you're interested in recent Updates just follow this Update-File
This installation-guide will provide you with information for setting up your own led-piano. I take no warranty for any damage in this process, loss of data or that the project won't work for you.
- A standard piano with 88 keys. Depending on what led-strip you will actually use you can have a piano with more or less keys.
- Your piano should have a USB-MIDI-Interace. If your piano doesn't have a USB-MIDI-Interface you can get a MIDI-to-USB-cable.
- An APA102 (Dotstar) LED-Strip. I used 144 LEDs/0.5m, but you can go with any length you want. Keep in mind that the LEDs should match the keys.
- A raspberry pi (version 3 or higher).
- A micro-sd card with atleast 16GB of storage.
- A Power-Supply for your raspberry-pi.
- A USB-to-HOST-cable.
- A bit of knowledge about node.js and linux.
- For use with the background-led-funtion: A 5V 10A power supply for your strip (144 LEDs/0.5m). If you are unsure what power supply you need:
- Expect each LED consumes up to 60mA. Then use this function to calculate your needed power supply: strip-led-length * 60 mA / 1000 = Amps
- With that in mind you need to search for a power supply of 5V and your calculated amps.
- For more information on additional materials refer to the wiring-guide
I recommend using the official installation tutorial for installing raspbian on your raspberry pi.
If you booted into raspbian successfully you need to get some packages before starting. Some of these packages might be already installed on your system. Open up a terminal and type in following commands:
sudo apt-get update && apt-get upgrade
sudo apt install curl
sudo apt-get install nodejs
sudo apt-get install npm
sudo apt install python3
sudo apt install gcc
sudo apt install g++
sudo apt install libasound2-dev
sudo apt-get install libudev-dev
If you're done installing verify the nodejs-package with those two commands:
node -v
npm -v
The outputs for node -v should be v10.15.2 or higher and for npm -v 5.8.0 or higher
Navigate into any directory you want to install this project. I recommend using the documents folder. Download the project into your directory using git clone https://github.com/SchnoppDog/piano-led.git. After your download change into the newly created directory called led piano. Delete the package-lock.json file. Now use the command npm install to install the project with its modules.
Rename the file called mainConfig.txt to config.js in the backend directory. Open the config.js file and change config.server.port to 8080. After that change config.server.ipPi to your pis ipv4-address. This should look like this example:
config.server.ipPi = "192.168.0.0"
Important: Quotation-marks need to be set!
User the file yourPianoName.js in folder backend/lib/test to list your piano-name and device-name. Change the directory to backend/lib/test and simply type node yourPianoName.js into the terminal. The first output you get should be something like:
Midi Through:Midi Through Port-0 14:0,Digital Piano:Digital Piano MIDI 1 20:0
Copy your piano-name, in this example Digital Piano:Digital Piano MIDI 1 20:0 and paste it somewhere save.
The second output you get should be a list of different devices. Search your piano until you find something like this:
locationId: 0,
vendorId: 1177,
productId: 5647,
deviceName: 'Digital Piano',
manufacturer: 'Yamaha Corporation',
serialNumber: '',
deviceAddress: 0
Copy your device after the deviceName-variable and open up main.js in folder /backend. Scroll down until you see this:
usbDetect.startMonitoring()
usbDetect.on('add',(device) => {
if(device.deviceName === "Digital_Piano")
Replace the Digital_Piano with your recently copied value. In this if-statemant you should also see this:
piano = new pianoMidi.Input('Digital Piano:Digital Piano MIDI 1 24:0')
Replace Digital Piano:Digital Piano MIDI 1 20:0 with your stored value from step one.
In my network I secured the website by using self-signed certificates, which is not mandatory. Chances are you don't have a valid certificate or a self-signed certificate for this applications web GUI. In order to make the application work you need to comment these code lines in main.js (should be near the top of the file):
const privKey = fs.readFileSync('/usr/local/certs/keys/pianoled.local.pem')
const pubKey = fs.readFileSync('/usr/local/certs/pianoled.local.pem')And:
const pianoServer = require('https').createServer({
key: privKey,
cert: pubKey
}, colorApp)Then un-comment the following code line:
const pianoServer = require('http').createServer(colorApp)If you want to use this applications website GUI over ssl you can simply create self-signed certificates. You can find many tutorials in the web or just use the README in .github/readme_files/Create_SSL_Certs.md. After changing these files don't forget to save them!
Now you are nearly done! All you need is to put the main.js-file into startup using pm2. This is used to make sure your script is running even if the pi unexpectedly shuts down or needs to be restarted. To install pm2 simply navigate into the root-directory and type sudo npm install pm2 -g. After the installation navigate to /backend and run this command: pm2 start ecosystem.config.js. Your output should be like this:
LED-Piano │ default │ 1.0.2 │ cluster │ 23556 │ 14h │ 1 │ online │ 2.6% │ 49.9mb │ pi │ disabled
To use this application you need to activate SPI. To do that go into your pi's settings and click on raspberry-pi-configuration. Then you navigate to interfaces and activate SPI. Close the window with OK.
If you want to use the background-led-function and you have the needed power supply then follow the normal-wiring-steps to wire up your strip with the power supply and the raspberry pi. If you don't want to use this function or don't have the needed power supply then follow the background-led-wiring to wire up your strip to your raspberry pi.
To wire up your strip you need four female-to-female wires:
- One for GND (Ground). Color is often black.
- One for +5V. Color is often red.
- One for DATA. Color is often green.
- One for Clock-Rate. Color is often blue
Now you need to connect all four wires to each correspondending color on the strip. After connecting the wires to the strip you need to connect them to the raspberry pi too. The pins needed for raspberry pi version 3 can be reviewed with this pinout. Simply connect GND to GND, 5V to 5V, Clock-Rate to Pin 23 (SCLK) and DATA to Pin 19 (MOSI) on your pi.
To wire up your strip you need these additional materials:
- 1x 1000 micro Farad 6.3V capacitor
- 1x 330 ohm resistor or better 1x 470 ohm resistor
- Depending on what external power supply you use you might need one of these: DC Barrel Jack Adapter
- Some more Wires (Male-to-Male, Female-to-Female, Male-to-Female)
- Maybe a breadboard
If you need a bit of context follow the beginners guide
Now you should be good to go. Plug in your power-supply for the raspberry pi, turn it and your piano on and have fun! To change colors simply visit the following website http://your_pi_ip_address:your_port/color-page in any browser you like.
If you have any problems you can contact me. But please keep in mind that this project was never intended to be public so errors and problems can rise.