Just before Christmas (the evening before?) 2006 my sister in-regulation asked me what I would like for a present. I requested a DualShock-like controller and Guitar Hero II for the Playstation 2 so that I could build my own Guitar Hero controller. After Christmas day I spent some time trying around for a toy guitar that I could hack however didn't see anything appropriate. I then remembered that throughout my childhood I'd typically leap in regards to the lounge room with the stereo turned up whereas pretending to play guitar with a tennis racket. Now in Thailand they not solely have tennis rackets but they also have excessive-voltage bug-zappers that appear to be tennis rackets. They are nice for chasing down probably life threatening mosquitos (utilizing one is clearly a case of self denfence) which disappear in a vibrant blue flash accompanied by a satisfyingly loud bang. Now you can discover an enormous number of DIY Guitar Hero controllers on the net made from LEGO, real guitars, and erector sets and even Guitar Hero enjoying robots.

Given my fond childhood memories, the tennis-racket-esque (and due to this fact guitar-like) shape of the bug-zappers, their prepared availability and low price I resolve to use a bug-zapper for the body of my Guitar Hero controller. I purchased a racket with a groovy lightning-bolt motif and started by gutting the handle and pest control removing the prevailing electronics. Despite being powered by only two 'AA' batteries it delivers a surprisingly large kick - although at a very low present. I also removed the circuit board from the DualShock controller and de-soldered the rumble motors and Right analogue joystick. The printed circuit board (PCB) has what look like small check-pads positioned near every of the buttons and i soldered wires for my guitar immediately onto these pads using the mapping in the desk under. Some time after my guitar was completed I came upon that shorting the Left D-pad button makes the sport suppose that you are utilizing a Guitar controller. I used two small tact switches for "select" and "back" and these had been mounted using scorching-melt glue at the base of the guitar's neck.

Using some facet-cutters I fastidiously lower by way of the mosquito-frying mesh to make a hole just giant enough for the left joystick and pest control hot-melt glued the board in place. Then by trimming the mushroom off the highest of the thumb stick and punctiliously slicing a vertical slot I was capable of mount a plectrum in the top of the joystick. A small screw via the shaft held the plectrum in place. It was a novel contact but just a little complicated because the joystick acts as the whammy bar when you play Guitar Hero with a DualShock controller! The rest of the DualShock PCB was housed in a single-half of a venture field which was additionally glued to the again of the mesh. Within the 1987 film Lethal Weapon, Mel Gibson's character realises that they're coping with professionals because they used mercury switches. Martin Riggs is inspecting a twisted hunk of metallic as Murtaugh walks up beside him. MURTAUGH: What'cha bought? RIGGS: Part of the gadget.

Holy cow. MURTAUGH: What? RIGGS: Artwork. This is @! MURTAUGH: Swell. I'm glad you favored it. RIGGS: You do not understand. That is real professional stuff. MURTAUGH: Come again? RIGGS: C.I.A. That's right folks - mercury switches. I needed to be a professional and that i also wanted some form of tilt switch within the guitar to activite star power so I went looking for a mercury swap. Having solely been in the country for pest control about six months at that stage my Thai wasn't excellent. On the native electronics retailer I spent a while making an attempt to elucidate what I was in search of and after many drawings of thermometers and pest control attempts to appear like Mel Gibson they instructed me that they didn't have any mercury switches. It is a small device that you just match over your ear whereas driving. Should your head fall ahead it then emits an ear piercing beep that causes you to get up while simultaneously deafening you. I think is a really catchy identify.

There was obviously some type of tilt-sensing mechanism inside and sure enough once i opened the case what I saw was artwork - there was a mercury swap inside. Now we had been ready to rock. At first my son was just a little reluctant to attempt the guitar because he was afraid of being zapped. I should have left the high-voltage electronics intact and the guitar could possibly be used for operant conditioning. If B.B. King's guitar is named "Lucille" then an acceptable nickname for this guitar is perhaps "Frank", "Dweezil" or Zap Zone Defender maybe even "Moon Unit". While making the guitar I was shocked at how troublesome it was to seek out acceptable buttons - actually the guitar has now been by three different generations of buttons. I found these stunning trying buttons at the identical electronics store that offered the succinctly named "Cure Sleepiness Immediately" and thought they can be excellent for this hack.