Guitar Guardian

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Guitar Guardian

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Guitar Guardian

Neat idea

40% (12)

I would donate something towards development

10% (3)

I would be happy to test the beta units

13% (4)

I would be interested in buying one of these

20% (6)

Can't see it myself

16% (5)

Total Votes : 30

(last vote on : Sep. 12 2013 8:09:26)

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Escribano

Posts: 6417
Joined: Jul. 6 2003
From: England, living in Italy

Guitar Guardian

I'm developing some Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) circuits for use with smart phone apps. With this device from Texas Instruments, I thought I could build a Guitar Guardian.

The device transmits the following data: temperature, humidity, pressure, accelerometer, gyroscope and magnetic fields. It uses a single cell coin cell battery (low current consumption of 8uA) allowing years of battery life. FCC, IC and ETSI certified.

Only latest iPhone, iPod and iPads support BLE (no Android support in their phones as yet).

Possible applications if attached to inside of guitar case:

1. Humidity monitor
2. Temperature alert
3. Detect movement away from phone, in case of theft
4. With another small circuit of my own in the case, I could record humidity, temperature, rough handling and timestamp to a microSD card without a phone nearby.

Estimated cost $30-$40

The poll above, allows multiple choices and your feedback would be very welcome.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Mar. 27 2013 16:22:14

Miguel de Maria

Posts: 3532
Joined: Oct. 20 2003
From: Phoenix, AZ

RE: Guitar Guardian (in reply to Escribano)

Sounds like some great innovation!

Only problem is, what guards the guitar when you're talking on your phone? :)

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Mar. 27 2013 16:26:31

Escribano

Posts: 6417
Joined: Jul. 6 2003
From: England, living in Italy

RE: Guitar Guardian (in reply to Miguel de Maria)

quote:

Sounds like some great innovation!

Only problem is, what guards the guitar when you're talking on your phone? :)

BLE works in the background of an iPhone. One of the few things that can.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Mar. 27 2013 16:41:00

rogeliocan

Posts: 811
Joined: Nov. 23 2009
From: Canada

RE: Guitar Guardian (in reply to Escribano)

I am not a gadget guy and I have good humidity control at home so I would probably not buy it. But I know I am not representative of the majority buyers, not at all in fact.

I think it is a good idea. I think your price point might be a bit high. (I think of the cool little tuner I have and their marketing is 'one tuner for each of your guitars' and that is what I did at $20). You could also strike up deals with the mid-high end guitar case dealers (of all kind of instruments) if they want to include it in their cases, consumer can buy the app for cheaper than with the unit...

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Mar. 27 2013 17:54:03

Escribano

Posts: 6417
Joined: Jul. 6 2003
From: England, living in Italy

RE: Guitar Guardian (in reply to rogeliocan)

Pricing is very rough at the moment and would depend on functionality e.g. the Ti device is $20 for development and prototyping. If I build my own from the ground up, it may cost more to develop but the price point could be lower.

Good idea about the case manufacturers. I'll do some research.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Mar. 27 2013 18:05:08

n85ae

Posts: 877
Joined: Sep. 7 2006

RE: Guitar Guardian (in reply to Miguel de Maria)

I use German Shepherd dog for this, so far my guitars have never been stolen ...

quote:

Only problem is, what guards the guitar when you're talking on your phone? :)

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Mar. 27 2013 18:15:16

Escribano

Posts: 6417
Joined: Jul. 6 2003
From: England, living in Italy

RE: Guitar Guardian (in reply to n85ae)

It's aimed more at the travelling musician

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Mar. 27 2013 18:24:37

gerundino63

Posts: 1744
Joined: Jul. 11 2003
From: The Netherlands

RE: Guitar Guardian (in reply to Escribano)

Very good idea!

Would it be possible to set the distance too?
F.I. If my guitar is in the hotelroom and I want to go with my ipad to the swimmingpool, is it possible to set the distance to the swimmingpool to detect the movement?

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Mar. 27 2013 20:11:39

pink

Posts: 570
Joined: Jan. 8 2013

RE: Guitar Guardian (in reply to Escribano)

For humidity, temperature and possible theft security i don't think the price estimate is excessive.
Most guitarists I know are fairly anal about their gear so the market is there if the product is reliable and well supported by whoever manufactures/markets and distributes the product.
The big players in the UK for cases would be Hiscox (obviously) freestyle, gator protection racket and kinsman.
I guess all would be worth approaching. I have owned my own retail guitar store and now work for a large UK music retailer so may be able to help with contacts if that's of use to you?
Regards
pink

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Mar. 27 2013 21:48:50

Ricardo

Posts: 14862
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC

RE: Guitar Guardian (in reply to Escribano)

cool idea. Modern practical alternative to VOODOO which has worked for me for some time now.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Mar. 28 2013 5:56:44

n85ae

Posts: 877
Joined: Sep. 7 2006

RE: Guitar Guardian (in reply to Ricardo)

VOODOO doesn't require battery charging does it?

quote:

cool idea. Modern practical alternative to VOODOO which has worked for me for some time now.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Mar. 28 2013 13:43:10

Ricardo

Posts: 14862
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC

RE: Guitar Guardian (in reply to n85ae)

quote:

ORIGINAL: n85ae

VOODOO doesn't require battery charging does it?

quote:

cool idea. Modern practical alternative to VOODOO which has worked for me for some time now.

Not exactly...but it does come at a price.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Mar. 28 2013 18:42:46

Escribano

Posts: 6417
Joined: Jul. 6 2003
From: England, living in Italy

RE: Guitar Guardian (in reply to Escribano)

The device arrived today and I spent 10 hours figuring it out

This is a screenshot of my test program, showing the device reading inside my Anders Blanca guitar case. The case is about 5 meters away, in another room behind two thick stone walls (I'll be doing some more experiments on signal strength).

AmbTemp is ambient temperature of air inside the case and DevTemp is the temperature of the device itself.

More soon.

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Attachment (1)

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Apr. 1 2013 23:08:08

Escribano

Posts: 6417
Joined: Jul. 6 2003
From: England, living in Italy

RE: Guitar Guardian (in reply to gerundino63)

quote:

Would it be possible to set the distance too?

BLE has a very limited range. So I doubt it will be much use in your scenario.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Apr. 1 2013 23:52:49

rogeliocan

Posts: 811
Joined: Nov. 23 2009
From: Canada

RE: Guitar Guardian (in reply to Escribano)

Don't know why but woke up with that thought. Your app should be able to track multiple devices for your different cases, they could all be the same but also all different if they are located in different floors in your house or if some have humidity devices inside.

I also take back my price comment, your price range is good... not that I am an expert, just of looking at current price of stuff.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Apr. 13 2013 11:11:14

tele

Posts: 1464
Joined: Aug. 17 2012

RE: Guitar Guardian (in reply to Escribano)

quote:

3. Detect movement away from phone, in case of theft

so will it show the location on phones GPS in this case? could be very useful to those gigging and worrying about theft.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Apr. 13 2013 18:30:33

bernd

Posts: 680
Joined: Feb. 15 2004

RE: Guitar Guardian (in reply to Escribano)

Hi escribano,

imho all a careful guitarist need is a safe humidity control in the case and in the room where the guitar is being played during the heating period. Due to this subject I want to make clear that you can forget about all hygrometers that comes installed in a case. As far as I´m informed, all these small built-in hygrometers come from china. During the last 3 days I´ve been to the Frankfurt Music Show and also made walk through hall 3.0 visiting chinese case providers. I´ve asked them which type of hygrometer they use. None of them told something different than "I don´t know". I´ve also been to the Ortega booth to see their case. They didn´t have it at the fair. But they told me the cases come from china and there is no info on the installed hygrometer.

Theft protection is such point as well. I´ve worked for a German market leader in telematics solutions. Car theft is a (small) subject. It´s possible to switch off a car by sending a password via mobile phone. On the other hand you can use a jamming transmitter that´s half size of a cigarette box and stored in the trousers or jacket pockets, so in a radius of 30 meters no mobile phone will work. This means there is no communication signal between the case and the iPhone. So just opening the case and taking off the electronic device which is probably not hard to find, won´t give a real protection. A further point is the way of detection. I´m not convinced that BLE is a good option, because the signal range is very short. Other solutions based on GPRS or radio cell detection require bigger devices, a mobile phone provider contract incl a SIM card and have much bigger power consumption. In order of moving the case, the battery is empty after maximum 6 days and then there is no more detection signal. Not forget to mention that radio cell detection is very unprecise.

If you look at case providers such as Humicase, they invest a few cents for an installed hygrometer that puts safety behind the buyers mind very successfully. But a hygrometer needs to be adjusted all 3 months. For this procedure it needs to be de-installed what is not possible!
Although the idea is full of good intention, I´m not convinced that it will have a useful future.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Apr. 13 2013 20:02:08

Escribano

Posts: 6417
Joined: Jul. 6 2003
From: England, living in Italy

RE: Guitar Guardian (in reply to bernd)

Thanks for your thoughts.

The hygrometer sensor is Swiss and calibrated (with calibration memory) for normal use, but very extreme conditions will offset the sensor.

Leaving aside automotive hacking considerations (a guitar does not have any ECUs to tamper with), BLE is adequate for the mere existence of a close-range signal. The absence of a signal can indicate that a working device is out of range. If the phone has not moved significantly, (this can be monitored by the app) then the assumption can be made that the guitar has been moved. It can also mean the battery is dead, but this can be monitored as well.

Jamming BLE is rather difficult as it advertises across 3 frequencies and transmits adaptively on 37 channels (it is used extensively in medical applications) but even this would also indicate a loss of signal.

BLE will not be able to track anything, of course and I would not want to overplay the security aspects of this design. If a case is not locked, then any device could be removed.

A microcontroller circuit to monitor and record humidity, temperature and extremes in handling, to a micro-SD card could be built with a battery life of a year or so, if one implements a watch-dog.

Anyway, I am still researching and experimenting.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Apr. 14 2013 11:39:14