If your DIY computer and electronics projects come with a good dose of electric guitar, then you probably want to take a closer look at the Pedal-Pi project. It's a fairly simple pedal to build thanks to its open-source design, while the Raspberry Pi Zero handles all the digital processing. You can also buy the pedal as a complete kit if hunting for each component separately feels too inconvenient, and write your own effects in the C language.
The DIY path is critical for audio lovers in some regions, simply because it saves money. In a perfect world, we'd all love to get professional (almost) gear without thinking twice, but the price-performance ratio is very powerful, and sometimes it's definitely worth picking up the soldering iron. One company that makes this process easier is ElectroSmash, and among its recent projects we discovered Pedal-Pi, an open-source guitar pedal based on the very popular Raspberry Pi Zero.
Inside Pedal-Pi
On its official page we find all the technical details, including the circuit analysis, the full materials list, and an assembly guide so clean it can serve as a reference for other projects. The heavy lifting is done by the Raspberry Pi Zero, which takes the digitized audio and generates different effects. If you're only interested in the software side of Pedal-Pi, then you're in luck, because ElectroSmash has enabled downloading the related material, whether it's just the effects or an entire Raspbian image prepared to write and compile your code.
Ready-Made Options
If you need a bit more help, don't worry. In the official store there are three options: the ready-to-use PCB (£10 plus shipping), the PCB with an acrylic cover (£15), and the complete kit with all components (£50). In each case you'll need to add your own Raspberry Pi Zero or Zero W, which by the way remains as difficult to get as ever. Some users might see a Linux computer in the role of a pedal as a bit of "overkill," but if we can learn something new and save money in the process, why not?
