BUZZER PIANO

Play piano on a physical piezo-electric passive buzzer using a serial-connected MCU.

Features

• Computer application
  • Graphical piano interface and serial controller
  • Configurable number of piano octaves
• Microcontroller mpy script
  • Receives note data and controls the buzzer
  • User-defined MCU pin via REPL on Linux

preview.mp4

Running the project

MCU side

1. Copy the OS-appropriate mcu.py as the main script on the board.

   # example using mpremote, copying the linux script
   mpremote cp mpy/mcu_linux.py :main.py

2. Configure the GPIO pin used for the buzzer:

   • Linux
     • Open the REPL after flashing the script.
     • The program will prompt you to choose a GPIO pin.
     • Enter the number of the pin connected to the passive piezo buzzer.
   • Windows
     • On Windows, the serial port cannot be shared between the REPL and the running script, so GPIO selection must be hardcoded.
     • The script defaults to GPIO pin 2.
     • To use a different pin, edit mcu_windows.py before copying it to the board.

3. The microcontroller is now ready to receive note data from the virtual piano.

Computer side

1. Run the main script or executable. A GUI window will open and prompt you for the following information:
   • Number of octaves to display on the virtual piano (starting from octave 3)
   • Serial port, for example:
     • Linux: /dev/ttyACM0
     • Windows: COM3
2. After clicking DONE, the application will attempt to connect to the microcontroller.
3. If the connection is successful, the virtual piano interface will appear. The application is then ready to send note data to the microcontroller.

Building / Running

Microcontroller

• Micropython
• Passive piezo buzzer

Computer

Use the binary:

See Releases

Or run from source:

Dependency	Version	Notes
Python	3.13.11
PyQt6	6.10.2	GUI
Pygame	2.6.1	Virtual piano framework
Pyserial	3.5	Sending data to MCU
Mpremote	1.27	Sending script to MCU
Colorama	0.4.6	stdout coloring (debug)

# Linux
python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt
python main.py

# Windows (Powershell)
python -m venv .venv
.venv\Scripts\activate
pip install -r requirements.txt
python main.py

Or compile from source:

# Linux
pyinstaller \
--onefile \
--add-data "misc:misc" \
--add-data "game/assets:game/assets" \
--name "buzzer_piano" \
main.py

chmod +x dist/buzzer_piano

# Windows (Powershell)
pyinstaller `
--onefile `
--noconsole `
--icon=misc\buzzer.icon `
--add-data "misc;misc" `
--add-data "game\assets;game\assets" `
--name "buzzer_piano" `
main.py