Arduino

I have pretty much made up my mind that I will use Arduino to input sensor data to the computer. There are several reasons. Its reasonably priced. It has a good reputation. There seems to be a good community and lots of tutorials. It comes with its own coding language and environment with plenty of help and examples. People have created similar projects. It uses a simple USB interface which also powers the board.

The Arduino Uno seems like a good choice. It is their newest product and is being billed as setting the standard for Arduino. Here is the Arduino Uno available from RS. The Duemilanove is also a popular modal so may be worth comparing. Here it is from RS.

Here is an application of a (frustratingly) basic drum machine using two piezo elements a speaker and an arduino. Not a lot of tech details but just for interest.

Here is an arduino forum entry by a guy building some thing that looks horribly similar to some of my very first ideas (very similar to the nukulele). They have a conversation regarding preamps for his piezo pickups which may prove useful later.