I am trying to get this one () to work with my Arduino
I am using the sandisk 4GB micro SD card.  The light comes and goes.  It looks like it is doing something.  I ordered a 1GB SD card.  I should probably get it in a month

In case I can get one working, what will I need to do to get 3 working at the same time so that I can play 3 sounds at the same time?  I will be using the Teensy 3 at 96Mhz so I will have alot more speed available if that is an issue.  Will I have to use 4 pins for each module?  It almost looks like I might be able to share at least the reset pin for each module so then I will have to use 3 pins per extra module.  Does that sound about right?

I am working on creating laser tag gear.  I will have phasers/guns and headsets/suits.  My headsets and suits will be wireless using the RadioBlock RF module.  I have been working on using NFC to pair any number of phasers to the headset.  The weapon will have an NFC reader and the headset will have an NFC card inside of it.  When you swipe the weapon against the headset it will know the ID of the headset and contact the headset using that ID to tell the headset it wants to pair.  I am thinking of dropping this idea.  Only other idea I can think of to have easy pairing is to have a small stub on the headset and a small hole on the weapon.  If you then insert the headset into the weapon it can use "one wire" to communicate and pair.

Any better ideas?  An 8 year old will do the pairing

I created my first ever pcb design for this project

http://www.flickr.com/photos/92380311@N04/8554650598/in/photostream

Sorted

I need to learn to follow drawings.  I had the transistor on the positive line before going into the motor not after the motor.  Not sure why it makes a difference.  I now have 6.6V going through.  I will work on lower the voltage now

I added the 2N2222 transistor and I created the code to control the motor
I tried it on a Teensy 3 and an Arduino.  The motor runs a little faster on the Arduino than the Teensy, but I am still not at full speed.  I tried values of 250 and 1000 for analogWrite.  I tried a 1.5k ohm resistor and a 470k.  I am getting 3.3V through the motor if I have the transistor one way and 1.2V the other way.

Please have a look at what I am doing wrong.  I know it is difficult to see from the photos
http://www.flickr.com/photos/92380311@N04/8551601050/in/photostream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/92380311@N04/8550499775/in/photostream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/92380311@N04/8551603084/in/photostream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/92380311@N04/8551602452/in/photostream
I have ground from the battery going to the breadboard and ground from the Arduino.  I watched this video http://www.jeremyblum.com/2011/01/31/arduino-tutorial-5-motors-and-transistors/ and thought I need to somehow get the ground from the battery and the Arduino onto the board.  I am losing 3V somewhere.  I don't feel anything heating up.  I placed the multimeter black onto the battery ground and the red on the transistor's leg that supplies the voltage.  I believe it is the emitter and I have voltage coming in on the collector

Code:

//const int motorPin =  14;
const int motorPin =  A0;

void setup()   {               
  pinMode(motorPin, OUTPUT);
}

void loop()                     
{
  analogWrite(motorPin, 1000);
}

Thank you for the info.  I will make a note to always use this type of circuit for a motor

I actually need a voltage drop, because the motor has a max voltage of 6V.  Currently I have 6.6V normally or 7V directly after a charge.  I might try adding 1 or 2 diodes in series from V+ to the motor to reduce the voltage.  Is that a good idea?

Is the circuit supposed to have a 0.6V drop?

I have my multimeter on the negative where the battery goes into the circuit and then on the positive side of the diode or positive side of the capacitor and I measure 6.5V.  The battery voltage out side of the circuit measures as 6.6V

Cancel that   Just did some more tutorials on diodes.  Seems I wired it incorrectly.  Why should the negative of the diode go to the positive of the battery?  That seems to make it work perfectly

Please help.  I started building the circuit.  I can't really read the diagrams so I just tried to build it as I see the diagram

I had a 6.6V battery connected to the motor through the circuit and I drained it down to 3V in about 20 seconds.  The wires became so hot I couldn't touch it anymore so I am doing something wrong.  I know the diagram shows the motor connected directly to the Arduino, but the manufacturer recommended not doing that, because the starting Amps will be too high for the Arduino to handle it so I connected the motor to the battery

Hopefully it is possible to see from the photos what I did, but I will try to explain
Red wires are positive
Black wires are negative

V+ goes to V+ of motor.  V+ from motor goes to + of 1N4001.  + from 1N4001 goes to 100nF capacitor

V- goes to V- of motor.  V- from motor goes to - of 1N4001.  - from 1N4001 goes to 100nF capacitor

http://www.flickr.com/photos/92380311@N04/8548673472/in/photostream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/92380311@N04/8548675214/in/photostream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/92380311@N04/8547577285/in/photostream

Oh no I wasn't soldering it onto the laser tag weapon.  I was soldering it onto the terminals of the button I was replacing.  The photo was just the cleaned off wires after I cut it off the bad button.  I normally put soldering on the terminals and then some on the wire.  I then place the wire against a terminal and then heat it all up so that the soldering on both parts become liquid and that seems to bond nicely.  Just when I was trying to add soldering to the wire it didn't get absorb like when I use copper, it became more of blobs

The wire question is related to my button question (http://arduino.cc/forum/index.php/topic,149006.0/topicseen.html).  My thinking was to focus on one component and trying to find out from people that know more than me on what would be the best way to go forward when building my own weapons.  Wires not being copper made me worry since the button had to be replaced with less than probably 1000 presses so it makes me wonder about the quality of everything in our weapons

It was difficult to get the soldering to stick to the wire

So what kind of wire would you suggest I use?  This is for outdoor laser tag gear being used in the bush

We have laser tag gear from a large manufacturer, but the buttons on their weapons don't seem to last.  We have had the weapons for 4 months and  I had to replace a button this week that was probably pressed less than 1000 times since we bought the gear.  I see some of the microswitches on the triggers are also starting to have problems.

I am working on designing our own weapons and I want to have the highest quality.  The manufacturer told me buttons are considered a consumable.  Normally the printing on my PC keyboard is typed off before I break a button.  That is quality.  I want to have the same type of quality and I want to make the weapons truly water proof.  Our weapons are supposed to be water resistent, but when the rain comes down the LCD screens stop working.  The trigger will be the only moving part on the weapons.  Are there any buttons/microswitches that I can look at to use?  Maybe I should try and use the same principle as a keyboard?

What kind of wire is in the photo?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/92380311@N04/8473561583/in/photostream

Could it be steel? 
Why would a manufacturer not use copper?
Is copper too expensive?
Are they just trying to save every cent and that that means they don't give the best product possible?
Does copper make a difference in something like laser tag gear?

Thank you.  Ordered and paid.  Now to get the motor sent.  That will probably take a month from the UK to Australia

I changed the order (changed resistor)

Carbon Resistor, 0.5W ,5%, 1k
Capacitor,Metallized Polypropylene,Axial,Z5U,Axial,20%,50V,100nF
Diode,rectifier,1N4001
Transistor,bipolar,NPN,600mA,40V,TO92,P2N2222A

Is this right?