Interest Holocron Kit

[The Ninja]

Thanks for all the hours you have put into developing the Holocron Kit and the very detailed update and options, most are beyond my technical understanding, but for me, I will be displaying the holocron as a prop with my other Star Wars items and would only see activating it for short periods when showing to friends, so good even lighting & the sound option discussed some time back interests me, but the inclusion of a micro SD card that could display "Jedi Achieve Information" on a computer would be way cool... but again I am not that sure how often it would be accessed...

I kind of like the simple idea, you pick it up the tilt switch turns it on/off the LED's & sound do their pre-programmed thing and you put it down... buttons & programming is not my thing, I just want to display & enjoy...

 

[nomuse]

I'm a little confused, I'm going to have to check tonight. Is there still a run list?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sorry I'm being confusing. Run is still on with my existing stock of boards. I should have enough on hand to fulfill existing orders.

I just want to move up the schedule to design and fab the next order of PCBs to fix the issue I'm having to hand-correct on the most recent batch.

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Thanks for all the hours you have put into developing the Holocron Kit and the very detailed update and options, most are beyond my technical understanding, but for me, I will be displaying the holocron as a prop with my other Star Wars items and would only see activating it for short periods when showing to friends, so good even lighting & the sound option discussed some time back interests me, but the inclusion of a micro SD card that could display "Jedi Achieve Information" on a computer would be way cool... but again I am not that sure how often it would be accessed...

I kind of like the simple idea, you pick it up the tilt switch turns it on/off the LED's & sound do their pre-programmed thing and you put it down... buttons & programming is not my thing, I just want to display & enjoy...

Thanks. That's a good vote for leaving off the complexities of USB hosting and user buttons and just keeping the core quantifies of lighting control and battery recharge.

 

[xl97]

maybe stick with the current set-up...

but add a $2.00 HC-05 bluetooth module to it.. (allowing external user interaction)

or

(what I have done recently a few times).

is using an ESP8266 module to add wi-fi capabilities..

I then make the ESP8266 module serve up its own 'web page' as a captive portal

ie: if you take your cell phone.. search for local wi-fi networks.. you would see 'holocron' (or whatever you named it).. you can 'connect' to that 'wireless network'..

(kinda like when you are at a hotel.. and you connect to their wi-fi network.. but when you open your browser.. all you can get is there default 'home page' asking you to pay or enter in password..etc)

same concept.. except this 'home page' is nothing but an HTML/CSS gui/interface (a bunch of buttons/links to click on)

makes for a nice interface for projects (this seems like another great example case scenario)

my last use of this was to use a Pro-Micro acting as HID (human input device) connected to a PC..

I then used my cell phone to 'connect' to it.. and get my 'admin page'.. whenever I clicked on any of my buttons/links (more or less macro/pre-sets)..

it would then do things to the PC this device was connected to

such as type keystrokes... move the mouse around.. open a browser/tab and go to pre-defined youtube video....etc.. (this was a great trolling device/prank we played on a co-worker).. but could easily have delivered a malicious payload/virus..etc..


ESP8266 modules are only a couple of bucks as well..



As far as some cool 'app' that plays once connected.. I may be of help with that.. (I used to be an Adobe Flash developer for many years.. and have written a lot of apps with it)

I actually had started my own 'holocron project' long ago.. (before I had a laser cutter..etc)

and worked on a 'timeline' app to be triggered/played once connected to a PC... the only downfall is I am not up-to-speed on the availability on if these things can 'auto-play' on current machines or not?

(could still just manually click an executable or something to start it though)


so after all this wall of 'make you go to sleep' text... maybe just sum up the CORE functionality you want v1.0 to have.. and then figure out the best way to let user have control (if at all)


---------------

cripes! I have more to comment on! HAHA

As far as working with the SMD version of the ATMega328 chips...etc

I can also help with that..

you can get set up pretty quickly and for cheap if you want to.

I do all my (SMD) pcb assembly at home.

examples:

these were TINY (but fun) to do!
barely bigger than the size of a MICRO sd card socket.. (spider man webshooter pcbs)




these are just (basically) Arduino compatible circuits/clones..etc.. with custom footprints/shapes and maybe some other components.. (microSD, DAC/AMP..etc)

what I did was went to my local wal-mart and bought a $17 toaster oven.

I order my solder paste off ebay (from China..takes a while to get here)

and then I cut my own solder paste stencils/masks and smear/squeegee the solder paste over the mask.. remove mask.. leaving only solder paste on the pads of the pcb.

take some tweezers and populate board with components..

pop it into the toaster over @ 225-250 degrees for roughly 3-5 minutes..

you will see the solder paste go 'dull' (like its drying out or something).. once you see that.. it will only take a short moment for it to melt and turn bright silver/liquid like..

once at that point I maybe a few more moments and turn off oven.. couple minutes later I removed boards and fun stuff!

I can cut you some solder paste stencils for free (you pay shipping).. saves you $30 a pop I guess!

or maybe even just make them here if you only wanted a few.

 

[nomuse]

Just on the last... all of my boards have had SMD components. I also picked up one of the Chinese ovens (the old T-962) but the only mod I've done to it is the kapton tape one. Each board I do is a little tighter and a little more intricate, but I haven't touched the big chips yet. (BGA is way, way down the road.)

Baby steps. The reason I'm running off a new batch of boards in a hurry is the last batch I spec'd too small a drill size on the neopixels (most of my parts are custom or customized by me). I'm hoping I can ream them then solder top and bottom to restore the through-hole connectivity, but I'd really rather have clean new boards.


On the bluetooth et al -- I've kept an eye on that tech (my own host-side work has all been in Processing) but because my primary target was theater most of the available tech is out. Not designed for the long, cluttered, indoor transmission paths. When I left off I was using the higher-power XBee modules, but meant to switch over to a lower frequency radio with better penetration (punching that 2.5 GHz signal through a close-packed chorus of sixty sweaty bodies not fun. Besides, that band is getting terribly cluttered -- also why there's no way sixty performers, a fifteen-piece orchestra, and tight choreography happening in front of 2500 people is not going to wait while a lighting effect negotiates to restore a flailing Wifi link!)

So I'm woefully inexperienced with the short range stuff. Did think about HID, but the downside is that there is just so many interesting options possible with even just four RGB LEDs, and there's no simple way to offer that flexibility to an end-user without a programming-like framework. And that's COMPLICATED.

 

[E Williams]

2) Neopixel or Cree? I have a rather nice little controller board for 1-watt "Cree" LEDs. This would be visually about 2x brighter -- but have a third of the battery life. The other drawback is 320 degree coverage; there would be a shadow on the bottom face of the holocron (the face that's usually sitting on the table).

3) USB hosting? Aka the ability to stick a thumb drive (if it is physically small enough) so it can be used as a USB storage device. Cute, but is it really getting used? Alternatively, I could put a micro-SD card slot inside the holocron; you can stick a 32 gig card for not much more than a thumb drive costs. It does up the complexity of the circuit board a bit, though.

4) Fully Arduino compatible? the boards I've been making are programmed via a standard 6-pin ICSP header. It would be a bit of a headache but I could switch over to USB-native or a V-USB stack that would allow programming via USB cable instead of needing an adaptor.

5) User option buttons. Is anyone really going to try to tweak the small number of variables? About all I can do is change the pulse rate, the brightness, and move the color center around. There are simply too many options for kinds of lighting animation to put them all in the code. Even making the button functionality described above is proving a chore to stuff into the chips I'm using.

Your previous examples looked plenty bright enough, so I would prioritize even light coverage over extra brightness. Unless there is a way to add a reflector to more evenly distribute the brighter LED's light?

I wouldn't use the USB hosting, and do not plan to reprogram it. As far as option buttons, if having multiple variables exposed on multiple buttons is difficult, would picking a handful of configurations and assigning a single button to cycle through them be easier? Something like the behavior of the program box on a string of Christmas lights.

 

[nomuse]

Sounds good. Seems no reason to prioritize a new board design as yet, then.

The Cree experiment board I did I tapped a trim pot to dial between six or eight looks. That was using software PWM, though; the NeoPixel library is a bit bloaty. Was a good experiment; I ended up doing the same thing for the selector dial on the Retro Raygun I posted up here last year. Even used a comparison loop to run a subtle clickity-clickity sound as the dial is turned.

The change that made surface mount or other LEDs a plausible option was putting an internal diffusor in. So inside the 4" diffused acrylic shell is a second 2" translucent white cube. The circuit board sits inside there.

I'm gifting the prototype Stolen A and Stolen B models. One has already gone to the recipient. Gluing and painting shells right now and will make the first half-dozen myself before shipping any in kit form; I want to make sure I've tracked down the majority of the trouble spots.

 

[StarWarrior]

I am joining in kindof late in the game here, but wanted to add a few comments:

1) I read through the postings and may have missed it, but would mounting leds on both sides of the PCB help with light distribution?

2) I strongly favor NeoPixels, Arduino, and BT or Wifi. Would only need a USB port to be accessible for charging and programming.

3) I am available to assist with programming.

4) I would like to be added to the run if possible.

 

[nomuse]

Here's the current trick;



Using four through-hole 3mm neopixels; they are bent over at the top and I get pretty smooth coverage.

Not quite enough to get by without the internal diffusion cube I added late in the game, though.

I've been tempted to switch to surface-mount neopixels to save a few bucks, but besides trying to do a double-sided PCB on my cheap reflow oven, they are notorious for failing in the reflow process. Better to use surface-mount RGBs and go back to PWM (I'm pretty good now at writing State Machine code that can run without interrupting software PWM). Experiments so far, though, have been that the edge of the PCB shows up as a narrow shadow line. But that was without the internal diffusor -- it might work with that in the mix.

In any case, I'm happy enough with the neos as a discrete LED solution. At some point you have to say "Good enough to start production."



I'll add the existing names to the list some time this weekend then put a temporary hold on new names until the first of the current order are shipped. I have a big project at work AND am going into tech week on "Earnest" so will be a couple weeks yet.