Arduino sound board (design process)

[Darth Magnus.]

Ive played with the Arduino before..

and IMHO.. while its can be FUN.. dont get set on some sort of retail 'product' ("I" feel it just wont happen that way)

bordering on if this should even be expanded on here on Tims forums.. I'll bring up many of the points that have been hashed out everytime this idea gets brought up by someone.

1.) taking a 'generic' platform like the Arduino/RFX..etc..etc will 'never' be as good as something designed for that specific purpose in mind.. (donest mean things cant be good..etc)

a bare bones 'arduino circuit' can be made for like $8 or something.... matter of fact here is one I made myself (etched the board,, designed the 'pcb'...etc) compared to a retail one I found on-line for around $10 or so..

also I think the board can only take up to 5v max..



Attachment 5861

**(mine has a vRegulator on it.. the retail version does not)

Arduino doesnt just give you sound.. you'll need to most likely use someone elses code/library to get .wav files playing.. as well as implement an SD card.. and an 'amp' of some kind...

I have no clue on your experience level.... but speaking for myself.. not something that comes easy.

at this point not only are you just 'testing' a circuit.... where are you on room?.. also you havent even attempted to add in any LED driver.. (much less a 3-4 die RGBX driver addition)

Arduino can adjust the PWM of the pins.. but it can not power high power LEDS.. (only accent leds).... directly

You also wouldnt want to use a 'real' Arduino board in a saber each time.. as they are more a of a development board...


if you go ball bearing / nail & spring route for sensors.. you'll need to spend time on your code.. and figure out your own routine/algo for defining/triggering clash & swings..

if you go accelerometer..same things.. some events are easier than others to track

Good thing about Arduino is there is tons of community support on the internet.

Thank you for your input, you have made many good points and I will try and address them all.

First of all I am not trying to build a high end board, I don't want to compete with the likes of Erv and hid Crystal Focus and Petit Crouton.
I just want to make a cheap and capable multipurpose board for beginners (People that don't want to spend as much).

I would have bought the base micro controller but for the development and building stages of this project I thought it would be much easier to use a pre assembled platform like the Arduino. I when with Arduino as there support base and forums are probably the best (I know thats debatable).

On the sound and SD card all the programming (code) and info is already done and is up on the Arduino forums. Im sure that some of it will have to be modded for this project but the base elements are still there.

Now for LED constant current drivers. I think this is were i will be tested the most. I personal don't know how Im going to add these at the moment, for now Im going to stick with Arduino controlled switching of the LEDs neutral. With straight battery power to the LED. I know this is frowned upon on these forums but again this is a beginners board.

Finally for the motion sensing abilitys, I have an analog Tri-axis acceleromter (as Gurbok pointed out seems to be the way to go) I plan on testing. It has variable voltage, gravity dependent outputs. They should be perfect for this application.
http://www.analog.com/en/mems-sensor...s/product.html

If I have missed anything let me know and Ill try and answer it.

[xl97]

I have used both regular sensors.. and accelerometers in testing..

on both the RFX and the Arduino platform..

I dont know about selling a 'beginner board'.. since you'll be using public 'code' & libraries to build yours.. more like a DIY/tut board?

I would say ignore any/all LED driving and effects for now..

and yes using a 'real' arduino to 'test/dev' on is great.. but thats a huge step from porting it all to a pcb and related components.

so I say get your 'test bed' working with an SD card.. op-amp...vRegulator.. and practice playing audio by simple button press.

than move onto trying to trigger those same events from your sensor input.

[Darth Magnus.]

Excellent, I think were finally on the same page and Yes I think it will be best to stick clear of LED drivers for now.

I hope that when I'm done to either put a kit together with the code pre loaded on to the Arduino(or any other micro controller) and a straight forward color coded pin to pin wiring diagram or hopefully, just maybe a completed all in one board.

If not I will be making a detailed tutorial with completed straight cut and paste code system, were you can add your own functions and sounds (and hopefully RGB LED colors) by copying the code from the tutorial and uploading it to the board. I hope this isn't to hard for beginners.

As you said I will be working through this in stages, first of all getting the SD card sounds to play on start up, momentary switch pressed (for any given period of time) (the board already powered up) and then when released to play a repeated sound at idle. So on till I hit the task of decoding the analog signal from the accelerometer, using the varying pitch to differ a clash from a swing.

I realise this will not be a quick and easy project, but I think it will be some fun and at the end I hope to at least have created a working prototype. Somthing that someone can make user friendly and available to lightsaber wilding community.

[Darth Magnus.]

Ok guys, I have a few new question for everyone.

How important is sound?

and

How loud dose the sound have to be?

I'm debating the idea of adding an audio amplifier to my sound board, the cost of adding an amp will only be minor (about $5 if that).
The amp will not increase sound quality, just make everything louder.

On a side note I have the final sizes for the board, 26mm x 65mm or a little over 1inch x inches. I will hopefully get it smaller with some experimenting.

So what do you think, how important is sound?

What do you think about the size of it?

[xl97]

if its a 'soundboard'.. then Id say/think 'sound' is fairly important! no?

otherwise.. what are you doing? just making an LED driver? (there are tons out there alrerady?)

Not sure why your asking? I thought this was all taken care of, with code and examples posted on the net?

Also.. I can say that over 1.0" in. in width is a no-no... most people want/need under 1.0" in. now... alot of customs and conversions have inner/core tubes around 1.0" in. ID

(needs to be able to fit in them)

I would think any/all boards need an amp for the sound...? like an LM386 or something..

[Silver Serpent]

Size doesn't look bad. You want it to be able to fit inside MHS pieces easily. As for sound, the volume depends on a number of factors. Do you just want to use it indoors in a quiet area, or in the lobby of a crowded sci-fi convention? Also remember that the volume of your speaker sitting on the bench will not compare to the volume once you've installed it in a hilt with proper resonance.

I don't know the specs on the TCSS premium speaker, but if you're driving that properly, you should have plenty of volume.

[Darth Magnus.]

Ok I will add an audio amp, and that is a good point on size. It is just on 1" at the moment, that is the width of the micro SD card break out board I'm using. Once I have my first board 100% operational I will look at ways to reduce the size.

The reason I'm still asking questions is to keep people involved in the thread. Otherwise who am I building the sound board for? just myself?
I obviously worded my question wrong, The question I was trying to get across what how loud should the board be?
If I wanted I could produce a board with 5.1 surround sound but if people don't want a feature like that it would be totally pointless and a waste of money
Thats why I'm asking people, what do you wan't? how much should it cost?

[xl97]

I dont think anyone is using surround sound speakers.. so you answered your own question there.

you need an amp because the speakers use do not have them included.

and if you are talking about sizes on your DEV board.. its a bit ..umm.. premature I guess?

using breakout boards for the SD socket..and other components is FINE for prototyping and developing your board.. but IMHO have no place in a finished product.. (and hence no bearing on size at the moment)

I think you should do the following.. THEN report back for features.. (when you are ready).. you are far away form taking any requests IMHO..

I would first get a demo working of JUST playing a .wav file from an SD card.. with a simple button press.

you get to that point.. your doing good.

post a video too..

[Darth Magnus.]

Cool
I already have the board playing .wav from the SD on one for the pwm outs of the Arduino, the only problem is that the pwm out is limited to 5v 40mA max. Thats why I was asking about the amp (which I'm defiantly adding now).

I know its a little premature asking questions about what people wan't on the finished product but while I'm waiting for the rest of the parts to get here (postal service is on strike over here) I'm working on the code.

If you want I have a crude but to scale render of what me development board will look like ?

[Orthus]

Okay, I, like xl97, have done much of this. The lm386 audio amp works well and gives decently loud sound. I used the accelerometer to Doppler shift the sounds but the results were somewhat mixed. I used a BuckPuck w/control to drive a Luxeon/Seoul and had a really nice power-up power-down effect. I used high magnitude accel to trigger clash and had a blade flicker. If I added an SD shield and SD card, I was approaching the price of a crystal focus in a significantly larger form factor. I'm a hacker, so I liked tackling this project, but be forewarned, either keep it simple and cheap or go overboard and expensive. The middle ground is a soundboard wasteland. Tim's swing and clash sensors are mucho cheaper than the accelerometer. Including the sounds in the Arduino code is practical with the 328-based AtMega's and an 8k sampling rate, so no SD card. PWM through the lm386 gets you decent sound. With a BuckPuck and an LED, this adds up to $30-$40.