Project 1

I have put together a more in depth powerpoint documentation of my work thus far for the August 16 hand in. It can be found here.
Here is the final working test rig, and video documentation of the development and construction. I got the idea to use hot glue gun stick diffusers from the Smart LEDs link, I think they work quite well.

I made a quick model in 3ds max of the basic form of the instrument, And to illustrate how the lighting effect will work.

These are some of my concept sketches for the form of the object.

Project 3 Proposal

Laser Entrapment - Fun for the whole family!
My proposal for this project is to bring the traditional steady hand game into the 21st century. I was inspired by the laser sequence in the film Entrapment to create a modern version of this old game of nerve and skill, using laser beams that the player must navigate past to reach the goal. I feel I can do this quite simply buy using the lasers from common red laser pointers that you can buy quite cheaply from junk stores, and pointing them at photo cell resistors, when the laser beam is interrupted, the photocell resistor closes the circuit and and alarm sounds. We will have to modify the laser somehow to make it so it is visible in normal light, possible by using the laser from a CD or DVD player instead of a laser pointer.

I feel that the mass of red lasers will create both a nice aesthetic, and play off the common film and television cliche of some valuable artifact protected by a mass of glowing laser beams.

The laser beams and photocells will be housed on movable racks, so the player can reposition them however they way to create infinite possible routes. Also, if possible, to add an extra level of complexity and cool, One of more of the lasers would be attached to a small slow moving servo motor, so slowly glides up and down for the extra challenge.

The game will quite small, about the size of a shoe box, so it can be transported easily.

As their will need to be quite a lot of fabrication involved, both in making the game itself, and modifying the lasers, I would allocate 2 people to this task, and 1 person to the electrical work , and the final person to work on code and 3d Models/mock ups.

Another Project 1 Update

For next weeks critique, I would ideally like to have fully modeled and rendered 3d mock up of my device to clearly illustrate its form, and basic functionality. I will also accompany this with a series of concept sketches, and if possible a simple 1.1 scale card mock up to depict size.

As far as the technical side is concerned, I want to simplify my current circuit out to increase its efficiency, and then experiment with incorporating the Arduino to control the fading in and out of the lights.

Project 1 Update

Ive been a little slack with keeping this blog up to date, so i will try and fill you in what ive been up to this week. I headed in to Jaycar to pick up what I needed - LEDs of various colours, Transistors, some resistors and about half a dozen photocell resistors. Unfortunately Jaycar only had 3 of the photocells I was after at the time, So that would have to do for now. I then pulled out my trusty breadboard and started experimenting, after a few hours of tinkering I got a fairly well working prototype. When you covered one of the photocells with your finger, the corresponding LEDs turned on. However the amount of LEDs and resistors i was using appeared too much for my 9V battery, and so when more than 2 LEDs were illuminated at the same time, their brightness diminished severely.

I did a few experiments using various household objects as diffusers for the LED, didn't really achieve any spectacular results unfortunately.

Then I saw the Smart LEDs link on the 312 cass blog which game me heaps of ideas. Such as using the hot glue gun stick as a simple diffuser for the LED, and using the piezo to control the light, rather than the photocell, which I can then integrate with the Ardunio to create some really nice effects.