Arduino Based Midi Keyboard
Playing keyboard has always been a challenge for me, something I’ve never quite mastered. But after watching this video, I thought, maybe I could build a MIDI keyboard like this and play the same song. Challenge accepted! I did some research and learned how to create a similar device using Arduino. There was a wealth of information online, and the basic requirements were:
- A proper key set with a key matrix.
- An Arduino Uno or Mega.
- A suitable casing.
I searched online and scoured flea markets until I found a key set that would work for my project. It had 64 keys, so I needed to expand the Arduino’s digital pins using a semiconductor. I found a lot of help on Jen Shen’s Site, where he had built something similar. I even asked him a few questions about the issues I encountered, which you can see in the comments on his blog post. I also modified some parts of his code to fit my design. You can find my code here: Link to code.
For the casing, I sketched a simple design and built it. It’s nothing fancy, but it works well. In the end, I might not have learned to play the song from the video, but at least I built the keyboard! Here’s a video of me testing it for the first time:
