What is it?

This is a small piano keyboard for your Arduino (or compatible) projects. It makes projects that require a piano keyboard a breeze to implement. You can use the buzzer on the board to play tunes using the Arduino tone command, or you can ignore the buzzer and use the Piano Board to control an external synthesizer such as the OPL2 Audio Board.

Why did you make it?

I made this board as a companion to my OPL2 Audio Board so that I can play simple tunes on the classic OPL2 synth chip. I've included a piezo buzzer on the board as well so it can also be used without is making it a gread learning tool.

What makes it special?

The Piano Board only requires 4 digital pins (3 if you're not using the on-board buzzer). It plugs into the SPI bus of your Arduino and requires one additional pin to enable. This leaves a lot of I/O for your projects!

It comes with software that makes it very easy to read the button states and changes. Besides the 13 piano keys the board has 3 user keys that you can use to assign your own functions. For example change octave, enable special effects or to change instruments if you pair the Piano Board with the OPL2 Audio Board.

The piano keys are soft push buttons instead of tactile buttons, so there is no clicking! Just your beautiful music to listen to.

The kit comes with the PCB and all the parts needed to assemble the kit. For the two ICs sockets are provided and two different pin headers are provided so you can choose what way of connecting the boards suits you best. The kit includes black and white button caps for the piano keys and blue ones for the user buttons. A small booklet with instructions on how to assemble, connect and where to get the Arduino software is also included.