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• Reactor in Action

  mosaicmerc • 01/06/2015 at 14:32 • 0 comments

  Well here's the video of it working!

  
  

• The Test

  mosaicmerc • 12/12/2014 at 22:36 • 0 comments

  Well, I did the music tests with it and added a low pass filter to isolate the bass response.

  I'll do a video of it soon....pulsing to a few songs like Break Free - Ariana Grande & the old school Gloria by Laura Branigan.

  It's great with distinct percussion.

  There's a one hour 'enable' SLEEP timer that's automatic so you don't have to remember to shut it off. Wake occurs by a touch of the button and reset's the timer until the next SLEEP trigger.

  Manually setting SLEEP & then Waking also resets the Timer for an Hour.

  Working on the housing now
  

• The Build

  mosaicmerc • 12/12/2014 at 04:38 • 0 comments

  GOOD NEWS:

  Electronic build and firmware tweaking is about done. I'm running about 4 regular selectable modes plus the sonic trigger and sleep.

  Mode 1: All LEDS ramp Pulse (not flash) at about once per sec.

  Mode 2: Centre LED on fast pulse, perimeter LEDS on slow.

  Mode 3: Staccato pulsing on all LEDS => stuttering energy look.

  Mode 4: Smooth pulsing ...random patterns.

  Mode 5: Robust Sonic Trigger with AGC.

  Sleep mode - can take place while any of the above modes are running. Wake from sleep continues last mode.
  

  Using Red Piranhas onhand. (1.8Vf)...so War Machine! Can swap them to white (3.2Vf), no biggie. Current mirror tech in action. So LED Vf not that critical.

  I am making one resistor optional....toggles LED current from 20 to 30mA. About 10% brighter but 33% more power cost = less run time.

  Tuned the sonic triggers to respond to PARTY decibel levels. It will trigger with a nearby (inches) clap or finger snap.

  The sonic mode will give you a 3/4 sec blinky sequence every 8 seconds if it doesn't hear anything. This is the most power economical mode. Could stay this way for many hours.

  Estimated lifetime of the 700+mA Li Ion is prob 7 hours or so. Triple that in sonic 'quiet' mode.

  The sleep mode is awesome... 0.8 mA .... Well, that's like over a month on a full charge!.

  Time to start the housing and bezel bits. Might do a 'raw' video showing the electronics in action though.
  

• Musings....

  mosaicmerc • 12/10/2014 at 22:48 • 0 comments

  The PCB is designed and fabricated using my Apache AL13P hackaday mod system. I am doing assembly tonight. Don't have any white/blue Piranhas on hand so I may have to sub parts in for this version. Might have red...war machine style.

  The firmware is done. The system can handle up to 8 lighting modes. I have 5 encoded right now. Once they're running I'll be able to tweak the timings better.

  For a housing...it uses a trimmed down aerosol spray can cover...from bug spray or spray paint etc. Ya gotta have these around, not so?

  All discrete, through hole parts. That made the board a little tight but all's good.

  I plan to use some kind of diffuser...scissors cuttable lexan @ 1 mm or .040 stacked two high sandwiching the laser printed transparency as a custom bezel is where I am headed here. A bit of sandpaper to frost the lexan or some Christmas frost spray can diffuse things. it might be simpler to just print the Bezel pattern onto parchment which can already act as a diffuser!

  There are 3 pan head 6-32 x 3/4" screws inside the unit to affix the completed bezel with a bit of clear epoxy. The screws allow for 3 point leveling of the PCB and the bezel in the plastic case. you can spray pain the case 'metallic' if you care. Or you may already have a silver or chrome paint aerosol can on hand to snipe the matching cover.

  The PCB will be hot glued or epoxied to the inside of the cover. It's flush fit so no lateral movement. Getting a 'button' for the side mounted tactile push button is interesting. I think a dab of epoxy and a trimmed toothpick section (cylindrical) is good here. I might make a nicer button (1/8" dia) by a cutting or paper punching it it out of a disc (1/8" thick) of hot glue rod.

  more to come...
  

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