Back to business - little guitars again

It's been a disruptive couple of weeks - the move from Brighton to North Wales was ok, but finding everything in the aftermath has proved a nightmare! So what better way to find out what's here, what's missing, and what's still somewhere in the depths of our monster Transit Van than to actually get making stuff.

Not having access to the tools (nor even the internet for most of the last few weeks) means quite a bit of software development has been going on. We've been working quite a bit of late on
Setting up HackLlan - a new "hackspace" in the mountains
Creating a time-line-driven sequencer for players to create and share music over the 'web

But now we've got some of our stuff out of boxes and into the hack-cupboard, it's time to get making again.

 a state of chaos in the new cupboard-come-office

if you can't find it, look in one of those stacking boxes...

We're actually quite excited about how well the software development is coming along, even though it's not much more than an array of samples and a piano-roll style screen. Our current guitar prototype works quite well with the software, but we're still having a few teething problems. Whether this is the software, the hardware or the firmware, we've yet to resolve. So in true "hacker" style, we've attacked all three at once.

Here's the new pcb layout, etched and ready to solder.

Before we left Brighton we were working on using a solder pot to connect the tiny fine-pitch multi-core wires to the circuit boards. We've got everything ready to go - except the components box with all our SMT stuff isn't immediately to hand. That doesn't mean it's not here. But it could just as easily mean it's somewhere in the back of a van, under a heap of household items and bedding....