Tron Legacy - Sam Flynn's Identity Disk

RiCor I really appreciate the level of detail you've provided and will be following this thread with great interest.

And thanks Erv for contributing to the discussion. Your build is very impressive and a great reference.

I think the 144 LED per metre strips will be very bright. I'm wondering if the 60 LED per metre strips would look ok considering the reduced power usage. Or do you think the PWM dimming off the LEDs in the higher density strips will reduce the current enough to make the batteries last for a while?

Erv it looks like you used an Arduino Pro Mini in your build. Was this a 3.3v or 5v board? Do you think this is still a good choice?

I think I might go with Pro Mini for control and lighting and try out the Music Maker for sound. RiCor looking forward to your sound experiments.

I have two of the Sam discs so I will be looking to use the top halves from each one so I don't have to cut out the back C-ring, fill battery cover etc. I also have a Kevin Flynn white disc which has some a clear (not blue) ring parts which I might use.

I want to use the push buttons on each top half for control and avoid having a slider switch. Probably one button for power-up, blade activation, blade deactivation and power down...the other button to toggle the sound on-off. I'd also like to use magnetic contacts points on a display stand to feed the charging voltage...to avoid the need for an external usb socket.

RiCor the 'Adafruit M0 Basic Proto board' seems to have a LiPo charging circuit built in. Would you still need the separate USB LiIon/LiPoly charger v1.2 (https://www.adafruit.com/products/259)?

The5thElement said:

RiCor I really appreciate the level of detail you've provided and will be following this thread with great interest.

And thanks Erv for contributing to the discussion. Your build is very impressive and a great reference.

I think the 144 LED per metre strips will be very bright. I'm wondering if the 60 LED per metre strips would look ok considering the reduced power usage. Or do you think the PWM dimming off the LEDs in the higher density strips will reduce the current enough to make the batteries last for a while?

Erv it looks like you used an Arduino Pro Mini in your build. Was this a 3.3v or 5v board? Do you think this is still a good choice?

I think I might go with Pro Mini for control and lighting and try out the Music Maker for sound. RiCor looking forward to your sound experiments.

I have two of the Sam discs so I will be looking to use the top halves from each one so I don't have to cut out the back C-ring, fill battery cover etc. I also have a Kevin Flynn white disc which has some a clear (not blue) ring parts which I might use.

I want to use the push buttons on each top half for control and avoid having a slider switch. Probably one button for power-up, blade activation, blade deactivation and power down...the other button to toggle the sound on-off. I'd also like to use magnetic contacts points on a display stand to feed the charging voltage...to avoid the need for an external usb socket.

Click to expand...

Thank you. I appreciate it!
Erv has indeed been a great help / source of inspiration.

Using the 60LED/m strips could be an option but you will have less granular effects. It is of course possible.
I have recorded power consumption information on my website and currently it is quite high. But I do expect lower values because the eventual setup will not be using the strips in the same configuration as the Adafruit test sketch. As soon as I have further results from my sketch / setup I will let you know. I do think that dimming will get it done.

I don't know if the Pro mini can control the Music Maker because of the pins required. But again, I'm no Arduino expert so I could be wrong here.
I believe Erv used a 3,3V version as the bateries work at 3,7. If you then use a 5V Arduino you have to use Logic Level shifter for the data lines that control the NeoPixel because of the voltage difference between the power on the NeoPixels and the operating voltage of the Arduino. Long story short, because your almost almost limited to ~3,7V because of the batteries, stick to 3,3V (or 3V) Arduino boards.

Currently my sketch uses 27052 bytes of memory, it is still quite bulky with the double functions for the LED strips but I like the fact that this is only 10% of the available space on the Feather M0. The Adafruit Pro Trinket I was thinking about before would be almost full with that sketch. So I like the fact that I have plenty of storage space on the M0 Feather, and also plenty of horse power.
I do think that my final sketch will require the same or less then my current sketch because the current sketch is a combination of a test sketches from Adafruit for the Music Maker and the NeoPixels. And to get both NeoPixels controlled seperately (because of the different lenghts) I implemented the functions for the NeoPixels two times (to control the outer and inner ring seperately) to get things up and running quickly.

Your plans for your own modification sound really cool, you have a cool way of thinking about it.
I still have to see how many buttons I will be using / require in the end. I'll work that out as I work on the sketch. As soon as I get to that.
The USB jack is also still a point of concern for me bacause of the mechanical forces on it and the amount of room that the plug has. But I definitely want it as I will be implementing a storage feature.
Looking forward to seeing your build in the future!

The5thElement said:

RiCor the 'Adafruit M0 Basic Proto board' seems to have a LiPo charging circuit built in. Would you still need the separate USB LiIon/LiPoly charger v1.2 (https://www.adafruit.com/products/259)?

Click to expand...

It has at charging circuit but I consider that a useless feauture in this case because it charges at 100mA max. This would make charging the disc take way too much time. The USB LiIon/LiPoly charger v1.2 in conparison can charge at 1A max in comparison which would greatly reduce the time it takes to charge the disc.
Since the USB LiIon/LiPoly charger v1.2 is to big for the disc I have already ordered all the required parts to make it myself on a smaller PCB. For now I am planning on hacking the Adafruit charger to a smaller footprint, thankfully I was able to look into that because Adafruit has the Fritzing files/images on their site.

Now that I'm getting the Feather M0 Basic Proto I'm thinking about implementing the charging circuit of the USB LiIon/LiPoly charger v1.2 onto the "Proto-section" of the Feather so I will require less space in the disc. I have and adapter PCB for the MCP73833-FCI/UN charging chip but it will require a certain amount of tinkering. More on that to come at a later date
I am not sure if the batteries I have now will fit well inside the disc so I might be going with 3 smaller batteries in the end. Battery life will certaintly be an issue but my primary focus if more on accuracy then on battery life. Thankfully I have my trusty Xtrorm 15600mAh battery bank

Been a bit busy and have worked on the disc of and on. Finally made real progress in the last week.

All the hardware has been installed except for the Feathers as I had to order a different Feather, the M0 Basic Proto, as of today that is finally on it's way to me.
I also had to order different batteries as the 18650 batteries I have are simply to big, unfortunately.
Because I wasn't able to get the latching switch installed correctly I decided to order the Adafruit Power Switch Breakout to get around the issue and use momentary switches which are easier to install.
One of the switches got ruined when I used epoxy to install it, I used hot glue for the rest which worked both easier and better.
I updated the wiring diagram with all the new stuff and also added the status LED's for the Li-Ion charger which I forgot before.

The charger was hacked to fit inside the disc. Thanks to Adafruit publishing the PCB files I was able to figure this out beforehand. Everything else has now been installed so it's starting to get to the end of all the hardware stuff. Still have to work on the Arduino sketch but I'll figure that out too
All the nitty gritty details are on my website.

*crowd noises* "make it sound make it sound make it sound"
chopped PCB thumbs up !

erv said:

*crowd noises* "make it sound make it sound make it sound"
chopped PCB thumbs up !

Click to expand...

Hi Erv, thank you for the great crowd noises
Chopping up that PCB indeed felt very fulfilling. "Doesn't work this way?, then lets make it work that way" ^^

This morning I got all the remaining hardware parts except for the Power Switch Breakout which finally got back into stock yesterday. Tomorrow I will be installing all the other hardware in its final position. Unfortunately I have a previous engagement today in the form of a Roller Derby match. Which also isn't a bad way to spend the day

I did make two videos during the build when I was running my first tests. Wasn't sure about sharing those as there is stuff in them which was still changing and I was still learning about certain aspects that I understand better now. But hey, what the heck, in later videos I'll show the final setup.
so, for sound, click below
- RiCor #1 - Tron Legacy Identity Disc - Sound test
- RiCor #2 - Tron Legacy Identity Disc - Sound & Light test

so cool it's alive !

Wow, you guys are incredible! Keep it going RiCor! :thumbsup

Great update thanks RiCor.

What batteries are you going with?

Thanks everyone
I'm glad it's al coming together. Especially getting the sound and the lights up and running was a great feeling. Just making real what you envision is one of the best feelings there is. ^^

The5thElement said:

Great update thanks RiCor.

What batteries are you going with?

Click to expand...

Currently I got 3 "Emmerich 14500 3,7V 800mA batteries" Unfortunately battery capacity is limited in the 14500 size range...

Glad to report that all the hardware has been installed. The only thing missing for now is the Power Switch breakout board which is on order but it’s a non-critical part for now.
Usually I keep my posts in this thread shorter than the updates on my website but I felt this update should be posted in all its glory on both places.

I finally got to install the correct Feather M0 since I wasn’t able to use the Bluefruit version because that required pins needed by the Music Maker FeatherWing, which is of course more important.

Since space is at a premium I removed the capacitor for the right channel on the Music Maker and also removed the headphone jack since I could maybe use that on another project someday. On the Feather M0 I removed the JST connector since it’s charging circuit will not be used. It could charge at my desired 1A by changing a resitor but the power controller on the M0 has a 500mA limit for the entire board.
Having the charging circuit completely separate made it easier for me to use a switch to disconnect the load from the charger/batteries whenever I charge the disc or just want to turn it off.



With that done I went on to getting the boards in the disc and hooking up power to both boards, the amplifier to the Music Maker and the function switches and NeoPixel data pins to the Feather M0.
Almost forgot the resistors on the datalines for the NeoPixels but that was quickly corrected and heatshrinked. Hot glue got everything installed.

I have not yet glued in the Feather M0 since I require some wiggle room to access it’s USB port until I get the final sketch done. I’m thinking about looking into some kind of USB hub thing so I can access both the disk’s storage and the Feather M0 with the disk sealed up. Not important for now but it’s on my mind.



I continuously test everything to see if the hardware works correctly. Should I make a mistake I can easily retrace my steps instead of taking the disc apart.



Since I now have the correct-size batteries I moved on to installing those. I wrapped them in a piece of aluminum foil (matt side out) to prevent there greenish color from interfering with the LED-strips. Then proceed with hooking those up in parallel since I want to increase the total capacity but keep the voltage at 3,7V.



Next up was installing the USB-stick. Like Erv said when he created his Identity Disc; “It’s a freankin’ storage disc or WHAT?”. Exactly Erv, Excatly!
I took a 32GB Sandisk stick apart with a screwdriver, a quick twist and it was open. Not much to see inside but it will do just fine.



I now hooked the chargers status LED’s on a breadboard with two 470Ω resitors. The yellow LED indicates “charging”, the green on lights up when it’s done charging. I plan on replacing the yellow LED with an orange LED but didn’t have one lying around. The LED’s final location will probably end up being on the battery side of the speaker.

I plugged it into my Antec charging hub with my USB power meter and saw it drawing just over 1A when charging which is perfect (load disconnected). Since I want to connect it to my PC I bought a Y-splitter cable so I can plug one end into a PC and the other into a charger. With this cable the black plug is meant for the PC. Once I plugged the red plug in as well the draw on the black plug went down to ~400mA which is well inside the official maximum of ~500mA that most USB ports on a computer can supply. Nice!



Right now the disc looks like this. As soon as the Adafruit Power Switch Breakout arrives I can install that final piece. But for now a breadboard will do to light it up



While I worked on the disc I noticed I forgot to add the resitors for the charger’s status LED’s on my wiring diagram and also screwed up the orientation of the LED. I had in my mind that the charger had the positive side but it turned out to be ground. Oeps
So, new version of the diagram:



The batteries were already charged so I tested the disc out right away without it umbilical cord (a.k.a. the connection to my LAB power supply. Really great to hold it in my hand and move it around without having the cable restricting my movement!

[ A new video showing the Identity Disc in its current form is the works! ]

almost finished, congrats ! can't wait to see it spin. Cool addition for the USB flash drive. Indeed a must-have IMO !

erv said:

almost finished, congrats ! can't wait to see it spin. Cool addition for the USB flash drive. Indeed a must-have IMO !

Click to expand...

Thanks!
It's a great feeling to get to this point. Working on the sketch for the disc will also be easier now as I don't need my power supply to supply power to the NeoPixels. I can now use the batteries. Love it

- - - Updated - - -

Wednesday night I finally connected the disc to my computer for the first time. I proceeded with copying al the files related to the project to the disc ^^
I also made a before and after comparison using my second disc which is still original. I must say I like the darker black on my modded version better



Also made another video showing of the disc’s current state, how looks when lit up and I hook it up to my laptop. It’s not spinning yet but that will come soon.
Enjoy!

Huge Tron fan here, and this is just jaw dropping man. Outstanding work!

aeseven7 said:

Huge Tron fan here, and this is just jaw dropping man. Outstanding work!

Click to expand...

Thank you for the compliment! Glad you like it!

Wow that's looking great! Thanks again for sharing.

Gradually getting the parts together for a similar build. Settled on an Arduino Pro Mini 3.3v, Audio FX Mini soundboard (plus mono amp) and a PowerBoost 500 charger board.

Good luck with the spin coding.

The5thElement said:

Wow that's looking great! Thanks again for sharing.

Gradually getting the parts together for a similar build. Settled on an Arduino Pro Mini 3.3v, Audio FX Mini soundboard (plus mono amp) and a PowerBoost 500 charger board.

Good luck with the spin coding.

Click to expand...

Thanks The5thElement

Cool to hear more people are modding discs and making them better / bringing them to life ^^

You're hardware is similar to an earlier version of my disc (when I was still planning, etc). I did go for a Adafruit Pro Trinket 3.3V which has a little more clock speed and storage. Don't know if it would matter for this project though.
The soundboard will definitely be fine for the disc's main function

Good luck with your project!

I plan on making a rational video to explain what I did, why I made certain choices, etc.
Also have a technical video in mind which I will make as soon as yet another part (nothing big) arrives later this week.

This rules and I hope someday I can upgrade my disc to do sound too! Great work man.

Also, any chance I could get some measurements off of that stock disc? Diameters, angles, etc. I want to make a 3d print that is compatible with SoulInertia's kits so people don't have to drop $60 on a toy from ebay, and I screwed up my original disc when I failed at dremeling.

Maybe Magpie said:

This rules and I hope someday I can upgrade my disc to do sound too! Great work man.

Also, any chance I could get some measurements off of that stock disc? Diameters, angles, etc. I want to make a 3d print that is compatible with SoulInertia's kits so people don't have to drop $60 on a toy from ebay, and I screwed up my original disc when I failed at dremeling.

Click to expand...

Thanks!

I still have the coding to get done which will require some tinkering, haven't been able to work on that because my schedule filled up again.

Finally worked on getting the charging status LED's installed yesterday. Forgot to measure the disc for you but I should be able to do that later today.



Verstuurd vanaf mijn HTC One_M8 met Tapatalk