Thought you guys would like to see this light and sound kit I developed.
Video here:
Proton Pack Kit for the Mighty Microcontroller Demo 2 - YouTube
Photo of the kit:
The board controlling the lights is a programmable light, sound, and motion control board for props which I developed using funds I raised on Kickstarter:
The MIGHTY? Microcontroller by Shawn Swift ? Kickstarter
The programmable part isn't quite ready yet, so I've decided to start selling kits which I've programmed myself in C. Most of the folks who contributed to the project were really more interested in having a really sweet light and sound kit for their proton pack than in programming the boards themselves anyway.
The boards can be programmed/debugged directly through the Arduino IDE in C/C++ as is, which is what I am doing. The bit that I'm still working on is making it so you can program them via scripts written in basic that you stick on the MicroSD card. It will probably be another six months before that's ready though.
After the Kickstarter was successfully funded I ended up having to spend the next several months making some major design changes to the boards, like upgrading the processor to one which had more IO ports and more ram, so that I could put the SD card, DAC, and LEDs on seperate data busses since they don't play nice with eachother. I also realized I had made a mistake in my power dissipation calculations and I needed to replace the on board linear regulator with an efficient switching regulator. That though turned out to be an advantage because the regulator is only needed when running off 7-12V, and by bypassing the regulator the board can be powered off 3 AA or AAA batteries, which is perfect for using it in small handheld props like these PKE meters I make:
http://www.therpf.com/f9/my-ghostbusters-pke-meters-trap-goggles-90889/
The redesign also saw the removal of the two LED drivers from the main board, which was also a good decision because it meant those $5 chips would not be wasted when the boards were used in props like the proton pack where a custom LED module with a socket for a ribbon cable that connects to another board with LEDS on it was a much cheaper and more efficient way to wire things. The orange bargraph and blue powercell in the image above are examples of this. Rather than two wires and a connector for every LED, there's just one wire for each LED's cathode (-), along with a common anode (+).
You might also notice a vibration motor in the photo above. I didn't mention it in the video, but that's also installed inside the thrower, and it pulses with the strobe to make the effect even more convincing.
Here's a clearer pic of the boards:
You can see the main board has a slot for a microSD card on it. That holds the sound effects, configuration files, and eventually, the scripts. Firmware updates can also be applied through it. The board also has a 2W amp onboard for small props like the aforementioned PKE meters, and a line-out for attaching external amps as seen in the Proton Pack kit demo.
If you have any questions about the boards let me know.
Video here:
Proton Pack Kit for the Mighty Microcontroller Demo 2 - YouTube
Photo of the kit:
The board controlling the lights is a programmable light, sound, and motion control board for props which I developed using funds I raised on Kickstarter:
The MIGHTY? Microcontroller by Shawn Swift ? Kickstarter
The programmable part isn't quite ready yet, so I've decided to start selling kits which I've programmed myself in C. Most of the folks who contributed to the project were really more interested in having a really sweet light and sound kit for their proton pack than in programming the boards themselves anyway.
The boards can be programmed/debugged directly through the Arduino IDE in C/C++ as is, which is what I am doing. The bit that I'm still working on is making it so you can program them via scripts written in basic that you stick on the MicroSD card. It will probably be another six months before that's ready though.
After the Kickstarter was successfully funded I ended up having to spend the next several months making some major design changes to the boards, like upgrading the processor to one which had more IO ports and more ram, so that I could put the SD card, DAC, and LEDs on seperate data busses since they don't play nice with eachother. I also realized I had made a mistake in my power dissipation calculations and I needed to replace the on board linear regulator with an efficient switching regulator. That though turned out to be an advantage because the regulator is only needed when running off 7-12V, and by bypassing the regulator the board can be powered off 3 AA or AAA batteries, which is perfect for using it in small handheld props like these PKE meters I make:
http://www.therpf.com/f9/my-ghostbusters-pke-meters-trap-goggles-90889/
The redesign also saw the removal of the two LED drivers from the main board, which was also a good decision because it meant those $5 chips would not be wasted when the boards were used in props like the proton pack where a custom LED module with a socket for a ribbon cable that connects to another board with LEDS on it was a much cheaper and more efficient way to wire things. The orange bargraph and blue powercell in the image above are examples of this. Rather than two wires and a connector for every LED, there's just one wire for each LED's cathode (-), along with a common anode (+).
You might also notice a vibration motor in the photo above. I didn't mention it in the video, but that's also installed inside the thrower, and it pulses with the strobe to make the effect even more convincing.
Here's a clearer pic of the boards:
You can see the main board has a slot for a microSD card on it. That holds the sound effects, configuration files, and eventually, the scripts. Firmware updates can also be applied through it. The board also has a 2W amp onboard for small props like the aforementioned PKE meters, and a line-out for attaching external amps as seen in the Proton Pack kit demo.
If you have any questions about the boards let me know.
