I'd like to build my own sound card, any schematics?

[Banaticus]

I have to build a project at the end of the semester for an electronic circuits class and I thought I'd build my own sound card. Any schematics floating around out there? I did find http://diy4fun.blogspot.com/2010/01/make-sound-card-with-pcm2704.html this nifty little guy, but I'd want to wire it to run off batteries instead of USB and then how do I "save" the sound? I guess I want something like http://soundexpressiongreetings.com/musical-greetings/recordable-sound-modules.html but I don't know how to build that -- any schematics for something like that floating around? I guess what I really want is something like a battery recharge port? I want to be able to connect it to my computer, save sound to the card, then unplug it from my computer and have it keep playing the sound. I have a USB headset and I was thinking that something like this: http://www.techradar.com/us/news/computing-components/peripherals/how-to-make-a-usb-soundcard-679211 would plug into my computer, then I could run a headphone jack cord from that and plug that into the hilt-based sound card. Again, though, I have no idea how to even start building something like that, but I do have to build some sort of final project for the class. Any suggestions?

[Silver Serpent]

What you're proposing is not something you're likely to accomplish in your limited timeframe. The last person to build a sound board from scratch in our hobby took over 5 months from his initial announcement until he had working prototypes. I don't know how long he'd been working on his board before he made the announcement.

I'm not saying you couldn't try, but it'd be very difficult to complete your project before your class ends.

[Banaticus]

I could see it taking a very long time if I was indeed working from scratch. With a working schematic on the other hand... I'd love to give it a try.

[Silver Serpent]

Well, seeing as how the few people who have succeeded in building their own sound boards are now selling them to the community, I don't imagine they are likely to just give away their schematics. Bad for their business and all that.

You could probably whip up something using an Arduino or similar hobbyist electronics kit. I doubt your prototype would fit inside a saber, but you should be able to make something functional.

I don't know how complex of a project you need to build. Assembling a lightsaber's internals is pretty basic stuff. Switches, LEDs, resistors, and not much else until you add in sound. Building an LED string blade is time consuming and tedious, but not particularly complicated. Then again, if you go all out, you can have accent LEDs, sound boards, rumble motors, capacitance touch switches, etc. all in a single saber.

The hardest part about the electronics in a saber is not putting them together. It's about putting them together in a REALLY TINY SPACE. :) Seriously, you run out of room stupidly fast inside a hilt.

[Forgetful Jedi Knight]

Ummm, yeah.. as SS said, the people who developed their product(s) now SELL them within the community. Also there is programming involved with all of this. So, not to burst your bubble, but there are no readily available schematics to "do it yourself", so unless you are prepared to start from scratch... there you are. And if you do start from scratch, I wish you lots of luck.

[Banaticus]

Well, there are also people selling lightsabers, but that hasn't stopped people from posting wiring schematics for LED's, etc. I don't see why the sound board DIY'ers would be more secretive, but I guess they're just not really in tune (pun intended) with the idea of open source.

[Silver Serpent]

If you're unhappy with the sound board designers keeping their product designs secret, then just start from scratch, design your own board, spend all the money necessary on R&D, and then give away your schematics to the community. I'll wait.

Open Source is nice for some things, but remember that work has value. Designing and building these sound boards is not an easy task, and it is one I'm glad to pay someone else to accomplish.

Wiring schematics for lightsabers are simple. Our diagrams for lightsabers amount to slightly complicated flashlights. I can fix someone's wiring diagram in a couple minutes, and they'll be happily on their way to building a working saber. Ten minutes working out a saber schematic on paper is not the same as 5+ months of R&D using real components. It's not that the designers are secretive. It's that they have invested a great deal of time and money into their project, and feel that they deserve some kind of monetary compensation for it. It's their product, and they're entitled to do with it as they please.

[Banaticus]

Of course they're entitled to do with it as they please, I never said otherwise. I do wish that they'd do otherwise, but I guess I'll just have to put my money where my mouth is. :) In the meantime, I still think they're more like Gates than Torvalds.

[Silver Serpent]

Given the option, I'd much rather be Gates than Torvalds. :)

[slothfurnace]

Given the option, I'd much rather be Gates than Torvalds. :)



Amen.

I spent months designing circuitboards, and I don't give out the diagrams. Know why? I put the work into it so I could sell the circuitboards, not give away the hard work. It's also why I don't explain every step of a build (though I do show many steps). Hard work is worth something.

[Forgetful Jedi Knight]

Well, there are also people selling lightsabers, but that hasn't stopped people from posting wiring schematics for LED's, etc. I don't see why the sound board DIY'ers would be more secretive, but I guess they're just not really in tune (pun intended) with the idea of open source.

While this is a DIY community for the most part, this community wouldn't be where it is without the hard (and tireless) work of many, who spent countless hours of research and money to design and develop things like sound cards, etc. etc. Why would they be so secretive, it's called Intellectual Property (otherwise known as IP). The fact that we tend to share quite a bit of what we know is to help spread the joy. Those who work hard deserve some reward for their efforts, since they spend the money and time to produce said soundboards. And some of the people who sell lightsabers spent lots of time designing and creating these "functional works of art" for others to enjoy, who don't have the skills, machinery or abilities to build for themselves. We don't HAVE to share what we know, many of us help new people to the community out of the goodness of our hearts...

As SS said, if you're so into open source, go ahead and crank out a sound card design of your own, we'll wait... I'll check back with you in a year or so...

[Skottsaber]

I might add that soundboards are not simply circuits that you connect together. I could give you a schematic for a working soundboard right now, and you could buy all the parts and connect them up correctly but it wouldn't do anything.
You'd need to know how to write firmware for the microcontroller and how to place the sound data onto the storage medium. This isn't the kind of project you do in a circuits class, it's embedded design.

[Weaver]

I think the misconception here might be more fundamental than we're thinking. Wiring diagrams and schematics are for connecting components, not creating them. If I put up a wiring diagram for an LED Engin 10W RGBW, that would tell you how to supply power to the finished component, but...would it tell you how to form the silicon chips? Would it tell you how to dope either side with the impurities necessary to create the charge imbalance which leads to the emission of light when electricity is applied? How about forming the protective dome? The star? The traces?

What I'm saying is that electricity needs to be told what to do. There's a reason there are programmable chips on these boards. For example, if there were only one type of LED possible, then we wouldn't need a configurable LED driver; we could just plug 'n' play. But this is not the case. The driver needs to be designed, then built, then assembled into a working product. You can't just "get one" and expect it to work. If you could, I'd have done so three years ago when I started this hobby.

Same thing with the MHS hilt parts, although they are tons simpler to produce than a working soundboard. You may notice that Tim does not post his production process for his proprietary hilt parts system. That's because he developed that product not only as a means to provide neat sabers to the public, but also to get compensation for the time he spent in doing so. If he just gave away the information, we'd all make them ourselves. Bills don't pay themselves, hence we buy the parts from Tim.

There is a member who built an Arduino-based soundboard, but again, it's going to take study. You've got to adjust and program every part of it. You've got to write the software that interprets the sound files stored on the SD card. You've got to write software to instruct the LED driver to supply power to the LED, and instruct that power to fluctuate in interesting patterns to produce the shimmer. Everything has to be configured.

With apologies, I'm going to suggest that your first step in this project be to read up more on what it takes to create something like this. It's far more complicated than "plug this here, connect that there, presto". I can identify some of the components on my PC 1.5, but that doesn't mean I know how to get one built.

[xl97]

I might add that soundboards are not simply circuits that you connect together. I could give you a schematic for a working soundboard right now, and you could buy all the parts and connect them up correctly but it wouldn't do anything.
You'd need to know how to write firmware for the microcontroller and how to place the sound data onto the storage medium. This isn't the kind of project you do in a circuits class, it's embedded design.

winner winner chicken dinner!..

(bingo)..

wiring diagram != schematic

schematic != firmware/code

IMHO.. just from going off your posts.. Id say this is BIG bite you'll be taking if you decide to start from scratch.... and would be more of a personal goal/adventure..then something you'd be able to complete by the end of the school year.

Also if you just took someone else's schematic... built it.. and took someone else's firmware... what would YOU have done for your class project? (assembly?)


I vaguely recall an Arduino based lightsabe board (Lightduino I think it is called.. actually have one of these on my desk)..

and not to be 'mean'.. but its junk. (at least version I have in hand is).. its HUGE.. very spaced out.. components on both sides.. and uses a SD card.. (large).. not microSD card.. like most newer tech.

Also.. the reality of that board is.. is nothing more than a custom Arduino + Waveshield...

Hes not the only one who has done this.. (and done it better) ;)

however.. in the end.. is still JUST a sound board.

(doesnt loop 100% perfect like a PLECTER board... more like a Igniter I guess?).
has no LED driver on it.. no accelerometer...etc..

Its an Arduino (which I love very much. great platform).. which is a more general/generic platform... where as a PLECTER board (for example) is a PURPOSE designed/driven board..


That being said.. you have all your answers and open source 'right there'.

Arduino's are open source hardware.. tons of schematic/board lay outs..

same with the Adafruit Waveshield..open source and schematics all over.

(or maybe looking using PWM for audio output instead of a DAC type set-up)? (quality isnt that great..still need an amp)

what you'll need to do/learn is how to merge these two together, in a small footprint so that it fits in your desired props..

(myself.. I'd buy a plecter product for anything saber related... no joke.. just great tech.. and purpose built).. for FUN though do whatever you like.. and dont let others discourage you..

Heres a quick example of some CUSTOM arduino boards.. and a custom Arduino/Waveshield merged board.. :)


a REAL Arduino dev board.. with the Adafruit Waveshield stacked on top of it..


the small board in the same pic is my custom 'merger' of those two boards tweaking some things.. and using all SMD parts..etc..


http://dmstudios.net/misc/scab_assembly/all-in-one_1.jpg

http://dmstudios.net/misc/scab_assembly/all-in-one_2.jpg

http://dmstudios.net/misc/scab_assembly/all-in-one_3.jpg

http://dmstudios.net/misc/scab_assembly/all-in-one_4.jpg

http://dmstudios.net/misc/scab_assembly/all-in-one_5.jpg


Flashing bootloader.. then uploading firmware:
http://dmstudios.net/misc/scab_assembly/flash_board.jpg


other variants:

usDuino.. (SMD Arduino with built in microSD card.. no amp/dac..etc.. but can be used for simple PWM audio output)

http://dmstudios.net/misc/uSduino_board_pics/uSDuino_top2.jpg

http://dmstudios.net/misc/uSduino_board_pics/uSDuino_top.jpg

http://dmstudios.net/misc/uSduino_board_pics/uSDuino_bottom.jpg




I more or less used the same thing in my Spider-Man webshooter pcb's.. (but stripped them down even more!.. bare bones Arduino w/SD card.. to play PWM audio output.. not great.. but better than static prop)

http://dmstudios.net/misc/TASM_pcb/TASM_pcb_previewPic-006.jpg

http://dmstudios.net/misc/TASM_pcb/TASM_pcb_previewPic-002.jpg

http://dmstudios.net/misc/TASM_pcb/TASM_pcb_previewPic-005.jpg

http://dmstudios.net/misc/TASM_pcb/TASM_primed_mockUp2-004.jpg







anywho.... from what I have read.. (and guessing about your experience level here).. "I" suggest maybe starting with the Arduino platform.. its geared toward entry level,, with an easy to get-up-and-running learning curve.

most thing 'are' open source hardware.. and most code/libraries are public use (free)..

Hang out at the Arduino forum.. and READ every topic that looks interesting.. or asks a question you could also learn from.



good luck! :)

[JoongYin]

If you have an amazon account, you should buy one of those old telescoping lightsaber blades and change their design so you're not plagiarizing. Make sure you have a small screw driver though.

[Forgetful Jedi Knight]

If you have an amazon account, you should buy one of those old telescoping lightsaber blades and change their design so you're not plagiarizing. Make sure you have a small screw driver though.

That wasn't what he was asking about.

[JRD1]

Amen.

I spent months designing circuitboards, and I don't give out the diagrams. Know why? I put the work into it so I could sell the circuitboards, not give away the hard work. It's also why I don't explain every step of a build (though I do show many steps). Hard work is worth something.

I built my own sound board as a EE it was not too hard, though I had to call in a favor or three for the coding I needed from a CSE. The things I learned were, A. I would only build it once, Why? It's easier just to buy what's out there. Then why build one to begin with? Because I could and wanted to for the fun of it (but not practical). B. It's a lot of work for someone who's not in the industry or familiar with this type of work. C. Lots of tools and software are involved to do it right, typically not stuff a person has in the garage. I had mine laid out and had a working model on a bread board in three weeks, but getting from that stage to an actual board /card I could use in a custom saber took forever (laziness). I did think of mass producing it, but mine did the exact same thing as most of the others here, and they could sell them cheaper than I could, besides I never wanted to sell, just build. Im not a good sales person... SMH Good luck bud, don't let anyone ever tell you you can't do it, or make you doubt yourself. If you want to give it a go then go for it! Even if you quit, then thats farther than someone else got who gave up before they started. Before you ask no I will not give out my layout either! LOL An answer is only an answer if the answer resolves the question...

[Forgetful Jedi Knight]

OK.

I think this discussion has run it's course.

Locked - FJK