Arduino Lightsaber

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#417

Canobi: You can make it even shorter by chopping off the two ends in the centre to make a duel cell holder.

but then you have to have something now like a sleeve clip or retention clip to hold the center of the 2 batts tight together. No?

that will save a cm or so tho. i thought about it. i also thought about printing a custom holder with retension tabs for both batts, and just rape the metal connections parts from the batt holders to epoxt into the ends. that is a RAD costume by the way! Sweet. plus a good looking lady can sell water in a rain storm!

I understand it will not work in PVC. i am a 1" PVC hater. if you are gonna go cheap, then do it all the way and buy a walmart lightsaber $9 clearance, and pull its guts for the speaker, sound and LED button. add a mosfet, and LED, and 3 1.2v NiMH and your fave LED,.. done. cheap done cheap, and done cheap right. Cheaper than an arduino and WT buy about $25 me thinks.

All this arduino WT talk for PVC, im my mind is like slamming a Corvette Engine into a Cobalt. sure, you can talk about it, and maybe even do it... but you could just buy the corvette. Do saber builders really not have the $95 to buy the TCSS parts? If not? then it is by far cheaper, and VERY VIABLE to use the Hasbro method.

there is also 1 1/4" PVC, how come no one uses that? too fat on the OD?

#418

Protonerd: I saw that you connect the ADXL335 X/Y/Z outputs to the Arduino. Do you keep polling these outputs in each loop? How are the data arriving? Do you get a digital value or is it more like an analog value from 0 to rail? Is it possible to scale to different acceleration ranges?

For my build I use the MPU-6050 breakout board, it has a 2-line interface (DO/DI), Vcc and GND, so far I'm happy with the results for both swings and clashes, but I'm looking out for a 2nd option.

OMG, SIR! Excuse me, but i rly need ur help if it's possible ofc. Same as u do - i use MPU-6050, but i'm sooo nooby with code. This model is xtrmly difficult for me. Could you share the code, please?

#419

billpealer: I understand it will not work in PVC. i am a 1" PVC hater. if you are gonna go cheap, then do it all the way and buy a walmart lightsaber $9 clearance, and pull its guts for the speaker, sound and LED button. add a mosfet, and LED, and 3 1.2v NiMH and your fave LED,.. done. cheap done cheap, and done cheap right. Cheaper than an arduino and WT buy about $25 me thinks.

All this arduino WT talk for PVC, im my mind is like slamming a Corvette Engine into a Cobalt. sure, you can talk about it, and maybe even do it... but you could just buy the corvette. Do saber builders really not have the $95 to buy the TCSS parts? If not? then it is by far cheaper, and VERY VIABLE to use the Hasbro method.

there is also 1 1/4" PVC, how come no one uses that? too fat on the OD?

I get what you're saying, but in my mind anyone who has put in the time to build their own board can put it in whatever they want. They've earned the right. If Canobi provides a viable PCB, you could probably build one of these things in an hour, once your WT and Arduino programming are done anyway. Still, probably not many will do pure PVC with this setup. The 1" PVC and Poly pipe is great for make-shift chassis and sleds though, so probably lots of people will do that.

I do find the 1 ¼" PVC to be to thick for comfort.

#420

Canobi: Hi Dizzyua, I don't use PCB CAD, just my android phone to make PDFs.

You are design board on android phone? :) I thinks what you create design project in some software and after create real board :)

#421

JakeSoft: I get what you're saying, but in my mind anyone who has put in the time to build their own board can put it in whatever they want. They've earned the right.

dude of course.

if you bought the filet with your own money, you can eat it well done, cold, with ranch dressing, on paper plates with plastic silverware. that's your prerogative. but i will still shake my head, not understanding.

JakeSoft: The 1" PVC and Poly pipe is great for make-shift chassis and sleds though, so probably lots of people will do that.

educate me. what is this?

#422

billpealer: dude of course.

if you bought the filet with your own money, you can eat it well done, cold, with ranch dressing, on paper plates with plastic silverware. that's your prerogative. but i will still shake my head, not understanding.

educate me. what is this?

Go to your hardware store and find 1" polyurethane pipe. The OD just fits inside of MHS parts. If you look at my Mk. II video, that's what you are seeing when I take it apart to show the internals. I just cut shapes and holes in it as needed to accommodate the parts I was putting into the saber. You can't tap it, but it fits without the need to sand it down at all!

Lots of people, including some of the more prominent sabersmiths out there, use 1" electrical conduit in a similar way, however I have yet to find any that will fit in MHS without sanding. Easy enough if you've got a lathe, tedious if you don't.

#423

billpealer: but then you have to have something now like a sleeve clip or retention clip to hold the center of the 2 batts tight together. No?

I was expecting them to "pop" up due to the tab pressure as they do sometimes but the cells stayed in the holder pretty well as it happens.

billpealer: that will save a cm or so tho. i thought about it. i also thought about printing a custom holder with retension tabs for both batts, and just rape the metal connections parts from the batt holders to epoxt into the ends. that is a RAD costume by the way! Sweet. plus a good looking lady can sell water in a rain storm!

The sled is a neat idea actually but if you have the power to make it any shape you want, why not make holes for the pins to go through and tab retention slots like the holders?

I have the datasheet for these holders which has all the measurements, if it's not too big it should be attached below.

billpealer: I understand it will not work in PVC. i am a 1" PVC hater. if you are gonna go cheap, then do it all the way and buy a walmart lightsaber $9 clearance, and pull its guts for the speaker, sound and LED button. add a mosfet, and LED, and 3 1.2v NiMH and your fave LED,.. done. cheap done cheap, and done cheap right. Cheaper than an arduino and WT buy about $25 me thinks.

All this arduino WT talk for PVC, im my mind is like slamming a Corvette Engine into a Cobalt. sure, you can talk about it, and maybe even do it... but you could just buy the corvette. Do saber builders really not have the $95 to buy the TCSS parts? If not? then it is by far cheaper, and VERY VIABLE to use the Hasbro method.A

Methinks there has been a slight misunderstanding.

The 1" deal is all down to the stock alu tubing I use to scratch build some of my saber with. To make my life a bit easier in the workshop, I use a 30mm OD x 25mm ID tube for the main body as it's ID is the same size as the poly blades so also doubles as the blade seat. I then sleeve the main body with 30mm ID tubes of varying thickness (usually up to 34mm as its hard to find thicker tubing with the same ID) to make the emitter shrouds and/or other hilt details and other parts.

Having the board fit a 25mm hole also doesn't leave anyone out.

billpealer: there is also 1 1/4" PVC, how come no one uses that? too fat on the OD?

When I started out making sabers, I only ever used 1 1/4" PVC:

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I only have WIP shots of the silver ones but the blue one turned out like this:

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#424

Dizzyua: You are design board on android phone? :) I thinks what you create design project in some software and after create real board :)

I use a process called toner transfer where I print the artwork on gloss photo paper, then after cleaning the copper I place the work print side down on the copper and put them through a hot roll laminator set to max temp.

The heat and pressure from the laminator re melts the toner which sticks to the copper a lot better than it does the gloss paper.

It's then put in warm water to remove all the paper (and gloss layer) and put in the etch tank.

#425

Canobi: Methinks there has been a slight misunderstanding.

The 1" deal is all down to the stock alu tubing I use to scratch build some of my saber with. To make my life a bit easier in the workshop, I use a 30mm OD x 25mm ID tube for the main body as it's ID is the same size as the poly blades so also doubles as the blade seat. I then sleeve the main body with 30mm ID tubes of varying thickness (usually up to 34mm as its hard to find thicker tubing with the same ID) to make the emitter shrouds and/or other hilt details and other parts.

Having the board fit a 25mm hole also doesn't leave anyone out.

When I started out making sabers, I only ever used 1 1/4" PVC:

I only have WIP shots of the silver ones but the blue one turned out like this:

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Cool sabers! I should also amend what I said earlier. I don't like 1¼" thick-walled (schedule 40) PVC for anywhere I might need to wrap my hand around, but thin-walled is OK. If you look at my WT588D stand-alone video, that's a 1¼" thin-walled PVC pipe extension. In my PVC saber with cheap hasbro board, that's a combination of 1" and 1¼" schedule 40. So, 1¼" is OK as long as it's used somewhere other than where I'll hold it with my dominant hand.

#426

OK, the board is finished and I just need to export the PDFs to photoshop for a quick tweak.

I'll attach a high res pic of of the layout later but first I wanted to quickly go over the new power rail system.

I had to put my thinking cap on for this one but a comment made a while back about bridging gave me an idea.

The power rails are now regulated as requested and supports singular, or multi voltage setups for the pro mini and WT in any combination you wish using a new bridging system.

I made this set of pics to show which pads are bridged to achieve the various voltage options:

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#427

Canobi: OK, the board is finished and I just need to export the PDFs to photoshop for a quick tweak.

I'll attach a high res pic of of the layout later but first I wanted to quickly go over the new power rail system.

I had to put my thinking cap on for this one but a comment made a while back about bridging gave me an idea.

The power rails are now regulated as requested and supports singular, or multi voltage setups for the pro mini and WT in any combination you wish using a new bridging system.

I made this set of pics to show which pads are bridged to achieve the various voltage options:

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I like the concept.

A few notes (I know you love these):

1) You'll need to move the arduino power off of the RAW pin and move it to VCC. Giving 3.3V to the raw pin will never power any type of pro mini. It won't work because you''ll be feeding 3.3V into the 3.3V regulator on the board. Since the power rails are all regulated now, you should be putting it to the VCC pin anyway because it doesn't make sense to regulate the voltage twice.

2) I like the bridge concept, however I suggest spacing them out a little and using through-hold vias instead of closely spaced solder pads. This makes it easy for ham-fisted solder novices to put a jumper wire through and solder it more easily. I can see folks accidentally bridging 3.3V to 5V and the chaos that will cause.

3) The VCC pin on the WT588D needs to be connected to the 3.3V rail. Always, no exceptions.

#428

JakeSoft: I like the concept.

A few notes (I know you love these):

1) You'll need to move the arduino power off of the RAW pin and move it to VCC. Giving 3.3V to the raw pin will never power any type of pro mini. It won't work because you''ll be feeding 3.3V into the 3.3V regulator on the board. Since the power rails are all regulated now, you should be putting it to the VCC pin anyway because it doesn't make sense to regulate the voltage twice.

2) I like the bridge concept, however I suggest spacing them out a little and using through-hold vias instead of closely spaced solder pads. This makes it easy for ham-fisted solder novices to put a jumper wire through and solder it more easily. I can see folks accidentally bridging 3.3V to 5V and the chaos that will cause.

3) The VCC pin on the WT588D needs to be connected to the 3.3V rail. Always, no exceptions.

  1. I'm a bit confused, I keep seeing people using Vcc to power stuff, is it an input, output or both?

  2. Through hole vias may be too big for this to work and if I did use them, they would probably be very small anyway but I will look into it.

Spacing the pads out any further will make them hard to bridge so I might just pre bridge them and have the end user tell me which setup they want to go with when ordering.

  1. When I talk about the WT voltage I do mean it's main power, mem voltage stays at 3v3.
#429

Canobi: 1. I'm a bit confused, I keep seeing people using Vcc to power stuff, is it an input, output or both?

It's both. If you put battery power to the RAW pin then you are supplying power to the Arduino's on-board voltage regulator, which then regulates the voltage to the 3.3V rail on the Arduino itself (in the case of a 3.3V pro mini, it's 5V for a Nano or 5V pro mini).

The VCC pin on the Arduino is tied directly to the Arduino's 3.3V rail, so if you have a regulated supply at the right voltage then you can go right to that pin. By putting power to the VCC pin you are bypassing the voltage regulator on the Arduino board.

Now here's where it gets tricky. If you put power to the RAW pin, that will cause the voltage to be regulated to 3.3V (or 5V, depending on the flavor of Arduino). That VCC pin is still tied directly to the Arduino's regulated power rail, so it now becomes a source of regulated voltage!

So, if you power the arduino with regulated voltage, the VCC pin is an input. If you power the Arduino with the RAW pin, the VCC pin is an output. Neat, huh?

Canobi: 2. Through hole vias may be too big for this to work and if I did use them, they would probably be very small anyway but I will look into it.

Spacing the pads out any further will make them hard to bridge so I might just pre bridge them and have the end user tell me which setup they want to go with when ordering.

That sounds like an excellent idea.

Canobi: 3. When I talk about the WT voltage I do mean it's main power, mem voltage stays at 3v3.

Ok, I was just noticing on the diagrams that you posted that the 3.3v pin on the WT588D had nothing attached to it.

#430

Dude, I Love your job! I Came here thanks to your last video on youtube (Arduino Lightsaber Mk IV Breadboard) and i have this Things:

  • Arduino Pro Mini (3.3V & 5V version 8) )
  • 2 ADXL335 Accelerometer (Sparkfun & Analog Devices)
  • Wt588d-28p & WT588D Usb Interface -32MBits
  • 16-pin DIP socket :grin:
  • 1w Red Led
  • A Library of lightsaber sounds.wav :P

Like I see, I Have all to build the Lightsaber but... I an a Arduino Noob :disappointed_relieved: And I dont found a Assemble Schematic and Code to use assemble and test :'( ... You can do One like tutorial? I just want to make a bladebuilders modified Lightsaber with the standart sounds things like On/Off , Swing, Shock and "Wnnnnnnn" (Yeah, Sounds crazy Hahaha :sob: ) Like this: Lightsaber sound effects And like i say, Good Work on every Mark Haha :grin:

#431

JakeSoft: It's both. If you put battery power to the RAW pin then you are supplying power to the Arduino's on-board voltage regulator, which then regulates the voltage to the 3.3V rail on the Arduino itself (in the case of a 3.3V pro mini, it's 5V for a Nano or 5V pro mini).

The VCC pin on the Arduino is tied directly to the Arduino's 3.3V rail, so if you have a regulated supply at the right voltage then you can go right to that pin. By putting power to the VCC pin you are bypassing the voltage regulator on the Arduino board.

Now here's where it gets tricky. If you put power to the RAW pin, that will cause the voltage to be regulated to 3.3V (or 5V, depending on the flavor of Arduino). That VCC pin is still tied directly to the Arduino's regulated power rail, so it now becomes a source of regulated voltage!

So, if you power the arduino with regulated voltage, the VCC pin is an input. If you power the Arduino with the RAW pin, the VCC pin is an output. Neat, huh?

Well that explains it then, very neat :)

JakeSoft: Ok, I was just noticing on the diagrams that you posted that the 3.3v pin on the WT588D had nothing attached to it.

Ah yes, I hadn't reconnected it when I took the screen grabs, done now.

Sorry about this but I've had to reverse order the XYZ pin designation as I realised the ADXL was facing the wrong way round which would make it impossible to mount the 5v micro boost buck.

#432

Canobi:
Sorry about this but I’ve had to reverse order the XYZ pin designation as I realised the ADXL was facing the wrong way round which would make it impossible to mount the 5v micro boost buck.

That’s not a big deal, actually as my software doesn’t currently care which axis is which anyway. :wink:

I updated the code in post #366 to reflect this.

#433

MegaCorsair: Dude, I Love your job! I Came here thanks to your last video on youtube (Arduino Lightsaber Mk IV Breadboard) and i have this Things:

  • Arduino Pro Mini (3.3V & 5V version 8) )
  • 2 ADXL335 Accelerometer (Sparkfun & Analog Devices)
  • Wt588d-28p & WT588D Usb Interface -32MBits
  • 16-pin DIP socket :grin:
  • 1w Red Led
  • A Library of lightsaber sounds.wav :P

Like I see, I Have all to build the Lightsaber but... I an a Arduino Noob :disappointed_relieved: And I dont found a Assemble Schematic and Code to use assemble and test :'( ... You can do One like tutorial? I just want to make a bladebuilders modified Lightsaber with the standart sounds things like On/Off , Swing, Shock and "Wnnnnnnn" (Yeah, Sounds crazy Hahaha :sob: ) Like this: Lightsaber sound effects And like i say, Good Work on every Mark Haha :grin:

Hello, and welcome to the discussion! It looks like you've got what you need to get started. My best advice is to read this entire thread, although now that you mention it, I never did really post up a schematic for the Mk. III/IV systems that use the accelerometer. Oh well, maybe when I have time I'll create one. But if you're just starting out, you've got a while before you need to worry about that.

Step 1 is to get your Arduino talking to your WT588D. Once you get that, you're ready to move on to some buttons and sensors.

#434

JakeSoft: Hello, and welcome to the discussion! It looks like you've got what you need to get started. My best advice is to read this entire thread, although now that you mention it, I never did really post up a schematic for the Mk. III/IV systems that use the accelerometer. Oh well, maybe when I have time I'll create one. But if you're just starting out, you've got a while before you need to worry about that.

Step 1 is to get your Arduino talking to your WT588D. Once you get that, you're ready to move on to some buttons and sensors.

Thanks for the Response! I'm gonna try that meamwhile I wait for your tutorial dude :)

#435

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mini-Pro-Micro-ATmega32U4-5V-16MHz-Replace-ATmega328-Arduino-Pro-/191756162028?hash=item2ca58ed3ec:g:eWYAAOSwnH1WZ8IF

1cm shorter than the Nano.
a bit more “ready-to-run” than the Pro Mini

the 5v version is 16mhz

#436

All finished :)

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And here's a link to the high res pic as promised:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/e79t2a7bo8ggo4w/Spectrum%20saber%20board%20-%20ADXL%20varient.jpg?dl=0