[CountDeMonet]

The voltage drop is really strange. The whole point to the buck converter is to provide a stable 5v source for all components so with load or not it should be 5v as long as the source is good. It sounds like you may have a short somewhere though. I'd look at removing the connections to the audio board and focus on the startup switch 6 and the pack lights. Unplug everything else and see if you can get it to boot up like that and not short out. If the reduced components are still seeing the voltage drop then there is a short in the lights or the switch. The setup is very complex so reducing the complexity to try and narrow down the problem is your best option at this point. The code will run slower without the audiofx board connected but it should still work.

[Snooker]

i found this, you have the Ground on the Data LIne at the first (or last) Cyclotron jewel

[EmuSteve]

Okay, you are both awesome. Thank you for finding that Snooker (I am always annoying my wife by opening the fridge, looking right at the milk, and asking 'DO WE HAVE ANY MILK?!'... I swear I stared right at that connection and never saw a problem). And thank you for the suggestion Marc... IT WORKED. =)

I am the type of person that hates to annoy other people by asking for help, but after messing with this thing for weeks on end I can't tell you how much of a relief it is that SOMETHING finally works. lol

Appreciate you both! I'll track down that short and keep you guys updated when my kiddo finally gets to put on the pack.

Grateful.

[EmuSteve]

As an aside.... if the sound doesn't work when everything is wired up, but everything else does... and the amp and sound board are both getting a confirmed 5v.... any ideas where to start troubleshooting? Probably the software, right?

As part of my previous troubleshooting I re-flashed the sound board with this image:

https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-aud ... /downloads

Using the Win32 Disk imager:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/win32d ... t/download

And then moved all the sound files to the root directory of the board. Did I miss a step?

[Snooker]

IT WORKED. =)

Glad that i could help

As an aside.... if the sound doesn't work when everything is wired up, but everything else does... and the amp and sound board are both getting a confirmed 5v.... any ideas where to start troubleshooting? Probably the software, right?

Is the volume turned up..? As i can see in the pictures, the amp does not have a potentiometer to adjust the volume. You can hook up some Headphones or Speakers directly to the 3.5mm Jack on the soundboard itself to check if the sounds are playing.

[CountDeMonet]

As an aside.... if the sound doesn't work when everything is wired up, but everything else does... and the amp and sound board are both getting a confirmed 5v.... any ideas where to start troubleshooting? Probably the software, right?

As part of my previous troubleshooting I re-flashed the sound board with this image:

https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-aud ... /downloads

Using the Win32 Disk imager:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/win32d ... t/download

And then moved all the sound files to the root directory of the board. Did I miss a step?

You shouldn't need to reflash the image for the board. New ones have the latest software most likely. You need to copy the files over via the usb connection. I recommend using the test sketch that Adafruit includes with the fx board libraries to test and verify the board externally. This allows you to verify the location of each file. There is a step by step document on how to do this

https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-aud ... io-control

If you can get the above sketch to function then you have the wiring proper to then flash the gb code. You don't even have to disconnect everything. Just load up the adafruit sketch and update the pin numbers at the top of the file. I've already filled in the correct pins. Then just flash it to the arduino and try to control the board using the help doc.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
// Choose any two pins that can be used with SoftwareSerial to RX & TX
#define SFX_TX 11
#define SFX_RX 10

// Connect to the RST pin on the Sound Board
#define SFX_RST 9
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

All of the sounds are here except for the ghostbusters theme.

https://github.com/CountDeMonet/Arduino ... ter/Sounds

For the GB theme you need to buy the song and then re-encode it to ogg using audacity or something. I didn't want to include the theme on github.

Once you have the adafruit sketch working you can then flash my code and all should be well.

Note: When testing using the usb connection you need to remove the power connection from the vin or 5v pin from the arduino since it will get power from the usb. You don't want double power going to the arduino.

[AndyG]

Hi Eric,

Hope you don't mind me placing a message on this thread.

Firstly I wanted to say fantastic work on your proton pack build and the gubbins that go inside it. It's admirable to see how you help so many fellow enthusiasts and certainly a lot of the posts have helped me. I've read through all of this thread after having come across your post initially on thingiverse and then GitHub.









In time I will post further pictures of where I am with my build. In short I've performed the following so far.....

1. 3D printed, prepped, painted and weathered both the proton pack and wand and mounted the pack to motherboard.

2. Got most of the electrics mounted and running on breadboards with 12v 3a mains power for now. Will be eventually going to a 11.1v 3S high mah lipo.

I've made some modifications to the 3D prints to allow for metric parts in the UK (i.e. pvc tube adapter, cable connectors between wand and pack) and some custom brackets to hold the single LEDs and jewels. Also improved on the design of the Legris elbows and straight couplers to be more bold and less delicate.

I've also introduced a new button at the end of the wand to change the colour of the wand firing and changed the flashing sequence when the wand jewel is firing. Also where there is a lens on top of the wand (but no LED) next to the vent I've introduced a green LED to show when the proton pack is powered up and the slo-blo is steady on. All mods I've done not for authenticity but to give my build a personal touch.

The last bit of electronics to be sorted is related to hooking up a relay to power both the air pump and vape pen atomiser.....and I'm stuck.

I've added the code for the relay and using an LED at the moment to simulate the relay off pin 13 and am satisfied all is ok code wise.

My problem......

I have sub-ohm vape atomiser (Smok vape 22 pen). Upon reading up the required voltage is 4.2v and the resistance is 0.25ohm.

Based on my calculation that is a possible 16.8amps that can be drawn. I=V/R. (4.2/.25)

The air pump is 4.5v. I'm thinking I could run both via a buck converter through a relay.

(I bought a pack of x3 buck convertors - One for the (Arduino nano + sound fx) and the other for the amplifier with one spare.

I need a relay that has a high amperage rating at 5v (say 20a+) and not sure on the schematics for wiring up both the air pump and atomiser.

Do I need to drop in a resistor or two to protect each item?
Would I wire up the pump and atomiser in series or parallel?
What is the best to use a relay or MOSFET?
If so could you point me in the direction of what would be suitable please and advise on the schematic required.

Andy

[EmuSteve]

Got it working with your help, thank you!

And thanks for the tip about the ghost-busters theme. Is there anything specific I need to name the ogg file once I have it?

[EmuSteve]

Please disregard the above question, I found the answer you gave to someone else several pages back.

Hey, thank you. Not only for the help, but also for making this awesome setup, working to make instructions the rest of us can understand, and sharing it so freely.

[CountDeMonet]

Hi Eric,

Hope you don't mind me placing a message on this thread.

Firstly I wanted to say fantastic work on your proton pack build and the gubbins that go inside it. It's admirable to see how you help so many fellow enthusiasts and certainly a lot of the posts have helped me. I've read through all of this thread after having come across your post initially on thingiverse and then GitHub.









In time I will post further pictures of where I am with my build. In short I've performed the following so far.....

1. 3D printed, prepped, painted and weathered both the proton pack and wand and mounted the pack to motherboard.

2. Got most of the electrics mounted and running on breadboards with 12v 3a mains power for now. Will be eventually going to a 11.1v 3S high mah lipo.

I've made some modifications to the 3D prints to allow for metric parts in the UK (i.e. pvc tube adapter, cable connectors between wand and pack) and some custom brackets to hold the single LEDs and jewels. Also improved on the design of the Legris elbows and straight couplers to be more bold and less delicate.

I've also introduced a new button at the end of the wand to change the colour of the wand firing and changed the flashing sequence when the wand jewel is firing. Also where there is a lens on top of the wand (but no LED) next to the vent I've introduced a green LED to show when the proton pack is powered up and the slo-blo is steady on. All mods I've done not for authenticity but to give my build a personal touch.

The last bit of electronics to be sorted is related to hooking up a relay to power both the air pump and vape pen atomiser.....and I'm stuck.

I've added the code for the relay and using an LED at the moment to simulate the relay off pin 13 and am satisfied all is ok code wise.

My problem......

I have sub-ohm vape atomiser (Smok vape 22 pen). Upon reading up the required voltage is 4.2v and the resistance is 0.25ohm.

Based on my calculation that is a possible 16.8amps that can be drawn. I=V/R. (4.2/.25)

The air pump is 4.5v. I'm thinking I could run both via a buck converter through a relay.

(I bought a pack of x3 buck convertors - One for the (Arduino nano + sound fx) and the other for the amplifier with one spare.

I need a relay that has a high amperage rating at 5v (say 20a+) and not sure on the schematics for wiring up both the air pump and atomiser.

Do I need to drop in a resistor or two to protect each item?
Would I wire up the pump and atomiser in series or parallel?
What is the best to use a relay or MOSFET?
If so could you point me in the direction of what would be suitable please and advise on the schematic required.

Andy

Some good questions. I have helped with the relay side and I know there are a number of people who have done similar setups. Unfortunately I have not done the setup myself so I won't be much of a help. Have you seen threads like this one?

viewtopic.php?f=42&t=48145&p=4968938&hi ... e#p4968938

might be a good place to start. I know there has been a lot of talk about this in the past on this forum. I believe someone also forked my code on github to do the work on a separate circuit for the smoke. There are a number of forks now but I'm not sure which one. I'll take a look thru them when I have a chance to see if I can find it.

[CountDeMonet]

Please disregard the above question, I found the answer you gave to someone else several pages back.

Hey, thank you. Not only for the help, but also for making this awesome setup, working to make instructions the rest of us can understand, and sharing it so freely.

Glad to hear you have things working now. It's always such a satisfying feeling when you see everything work together. This stuff isn't for the faint of heart so please ask questions. I'd rather share knowledge then see people get frustrated and stop working on it

[Snooker]

I need a relay that has a high amperage rating at 5v (say 20a+) and not sure on the schematics for wiring up both the air pump and atomiser.

Do I need to drop in a resistor or two to protect each item?
Would I wire up the pump and atomiser in series or parallel?
What is the best to use a relay or MOSFET?
If so could you point me in the direction of what would be suitable please and advise on the schematic required.

Andy

Hi Andy,

Maybe i can help you out here. I built 4 Packs after Erics Arduino Setup. I i also thought about using resistors to get the voltage down for the ECig setup.

I use the Kanger K2 Clearomizer and they can handle 5v without burning through. For the pump i use the common 6-9v pumps as seen on amazone.

I use a Keyes IRF520 MOS Driver Modul rated up to 5A to triger the Pump and the ECig. I used a seperated 5v line directly from the buckconverter to the Module, so i don't have to use Resistors. You can see it on the bottom left bolted to the Motherboard in the picture beelow. I also used one more for the kick-ass-LED-Bulp and the Fan in the NFilter , both running on 12v.

[CountDeMonet]

I need a relay that has a high amperage rating at 5v (say 20a+) and not sure on the schematics for wiring up both the air pump and atomiser.

Do I need to drop in a resistor or two to protect each item?
Would I wire up the pump and atomiser in series or parallel?
What is the best to use a relay or MOSFET?
If so could you point me in the direction of what would be suitable please and advise on the schematic required.

Andy

Hi Andy,

Maybe i can help you out here. I built 4 Packs after Erics Arduino Setup. I i also thought about using resistors to get the voltage down for the ECig setup.

I use the Kanger K2 Clearomizer and they can handle 5v without burning through. For the pump i use the common 6-9v pumps as seen on amazone.

I use a Keyes IRF520 MOS Driver Modul rated up to 5A to triger the Pump and the ECig. I used a seperated 5v line directly from the buckconverter to the Module, so i don't have you use Resistors. You can see it on the bottom left bolted to the Motherboard in the picture beelow. I also used one more for the kick-ass-LED-Bulp and the Fan in the NFilter , both running on 12v.

Very clean setup. Very nice Thanks for chiming in too

[AndyG]

Some good questions. I have helped with the relay side and I know there are a number of people who have done similar setups. Unfortunately I have not done the setup myself so I won't be much of a help. Have you seen threads like this one?

viewtopic.php?f=42&t=48145&p=4968938&hi ... e#p4968938

might be a good place to start. I know there has been a lot of talk about this in the past on this forum. I believe someone also forked my code on github to do the work on a separate circuit for the smoke. There are a number of forks now but I'm not sure which one. I'll take a look thru them when I have a chance to see if I can find it.

That's great and no I hadn't seen that post.

It really helps. Thank you very much.

[AndyG]

Hi Andy,

Maybe i can help you out here. I built 4 Packs after Erics Arduino Setup. I i also thought about using resistors to get the voltage down for the ECig setup.

I use the Kanger K2 Clearomizer and they can handle 5v without burning through. For the pump i use the common 6-9v pumps as seen on amazone.

I use a Keyes IRF520 MOS Driver Modul rated up to 5A to triger the Pump and the ECig. I used a seperated 5v line directly from the buckconverter to the Module, so i don't have to use Resistors. You can see it on the bottom left bolted to the Motherboard in the picture beelow. I also used one more for the kick-ass-LED-Bulp and the Fan in the NFilter , both running on 12v.

Hi Snooker,

That's a kick-@ss setup you got there. Nice.

Thanks for your input as well. Much appreciated.

Safe to say I'm a few steps behind you in my first build. I don't plan any more builds after this but never say never!

I like it how you've mounted it all to the inside of the motherboard. I'm now rethinking my design a little.....oh it's a labour of love.

I'll go away have a think about things regarding the venting. I don't plan on having the fan, just the pump however not sure if it will be effective enough without the fan.

Also thinking of upgrading the soundcard from 2mb to 16mb. I've learnt the hard way that the quality of OGG files isn't that great relative to WAV files. I'm also tempted to upgrade to a 20w speaker with a different amp to really get that base/hum sound during power up/down and idle sequence.

Will it ever end LOL.

[AndyG]

OK I've sat on this one a while.

I've decided to run the following items in parallel through my buck at 5v using an IRF520 MOSFET

Kangertech T2 atomiser.
5v cooling fan.
4.5v airpump .

As for venting housing unit...I've already adhered the shell for the vent onto the proton pack so it's back onto Tinkercad to design an internal cover for the vent to house the fan and allow the pipe from the atomiser into the vent chamber as well as the 3 awg22 wires for the x4 LED cluster that I'm going to glue to the inside of the vent which was suggested earlier in this thread.

Once again many thanks to both of yourselves for helping. Can't guarantee I won't be back asking questions but I'll definitely post my progress for all to see.

[Snooker]

Very clean setup. Very nice Thanks for chiming in too

Thank you Eric, much appriciated

That's a kick-@ss setup you got there. Nice.

I like it how you've mounted it all to the inside of the motherboard. I'm now rethinking my design a little.....oh it's a labour of love.

It was quite a learning-curve. On the first 3 packs i glued the Lights directly into the shell, but if something breaks it will be a pain in the bottom to repair or change the LEDs.

I'll go away have a think about things regarding the venting. I don't plan on having the fan, just the pump however not sure if it will be effective enough without the fan.

You can run it without a Fan, but with a Fan the smoke "shoots" out a little more dynamic, giving the ventilation a little more realistic look

Also thinking of upgrading the soundcard from 2mb to 16mb. ... I'm also tempted to upgrade to a 20w speaker with a different amp to really get that base/hum sound during power up/down and idle sequence.

i use a Adafruit Stereo 20W Class D Audio Amplifier in my packs. Together with a good set of speakers you can get those packs quite loud (take a look at my build, can be found here)

Will it ever end LOL.

No.

[AndyG]

Loving your builds. You've got a proper little production line going

[2wED1]

Does anyone know how to add a vibrating/ rumble motor to the counts set up? I have a motor from an old Xbox controller that runs off of 3 bolts. I would like to install it in the gun . I am not sure if I can use pinD13 or if I got to go analog. I would like for it to function as a result of the fire button being be pressed. Any help is appreciated. I’m hoping that it’s not extremely complicated

[AndyG]

Hi 2wED1,

off the top of my head you could use the existing pin for the fire button and just run the motor in series with the fire button and introduce a resistor as well in series to bring down the voltage (if needed) to 3v.

This would be the simplist thing to do but would mean the motor would run everytime you pressed the fire button regardless of the state of anything else. Not sure if that would be acceptable to yourself.

[2wED1]

I was going to do that but I wasn’t sure if it would cause damage to the arduino. I may try it but yeah your right I would have it all the time when ever pressed. I was wondering if the open pin that would be used for the ecig could be used to drive it with a relay

[CountDeMonet]

I'd recommend using a relay and power the motor separately. You could tie into the fire button or use another pin and trigger off the firing animation code.

[2wED1]

Cool kind of like how the nose light activates as on as per the firing button being pushed just assign it to be triggered by whatever pin I give to the relay. Which will power the motor so long I have the firing button pressed. Am I right? Or way off?

[2wED1]

I'd recommend using a relay and power the motor separately. You could tie into the fire button or use another pin and trigger off the firing animation code.

If I tie into the firing button and turn the safety on will that disable the firing button to prevent rumble to activate? Also if I chose to go with D13 as my trigger pin do I input my relay trigger I. This section
// inputs for switches and buttons
const int THEME_SWITCH = 5;
const int STARTUP_SWITCH = 6;
const int SAFETY_SWITCH = 7;
const int FIRE_BUTTON = 8;

Then set up my if firing to set the relay to activate in this section?

// if the safety switch is set off then we can fire when the button is pressed
if ( fire_button == 0) {
// if the button is just pressed we clear all led's to start the firing animations
if ( isFiring == false ) {
shutdown_leds();
isFiring = true;
}

// show the firing bargraph sequence
barGraphSequenceTwo(currentMillis);

// strobe the nose pixels
fireStrobe(currentMillis);

[CountDeMonet]

Tying into the fire switch will cause the rumble all the time regardless of the other switches. You will have a lot more control if you use another pin to trigger. I would probably create a function to pulse the relay in different ways depending on how long the fire button is held down. You are in the right spot in the code.

if ( isFiring == false ) {
shutdown_leds();
isFiring = true;
}

that chunk is detecting the first instance of the button being pressed. It's the "start" so to speak. After that chunk is the main firing loop which does the determination of speed and sounds. Should be able to just key off those to increase the speed of the motor as the animations go faster.

[jonogunn]

Hi Eric!

I sort of have a mash up of various codes (including your spiritminimal powercell code) to have an afterlife spinning cyclotron for my pack with a Hasbro wand.

Im using an adafruit fx sound board like you but in my simplest code I basically have it trigger a start up sound effect and the idle him sound effect. Unfortunately because of the 120-200ms delay limitation I cannot get a seamless loop.

I’m wondering how you were able to have ur loop seamlessly? Is it a lot of complicated code to achieve it?

[CountDeMonet]

For sounds that are looping you have to use uncompressed wav files. The ogg decompression takes time. I believe I'm using a 30 second wav file for the current humming loop and that's been looping fine. I did try a shorter 2 second loop which I think is in the repo. Both work though. Rule of thumb for me has been to just use short wav clips. Some of the longer songs and stuff that don't loop could be converted to ogg to save space. I have not needed to though so just kept with the uncompressed wav files.

As far as the code goes for the loops I use the ACT pin to see if the media is playing

int playing = digitalRead(ACT);

then for the constant humming I do this

// in general we always try to play the idle sound if started
if (playing == 1 && startup == true) {
playAudio(idleTrack, playing);
}

The playAudio helper function is in the code. With this and keeping the loop fast by not using delays has led to the pretty seamless looping.

[jonogunn]

For sounds that are looping you have to use uncompressed wav files. The ogg decompression takes time. I believe I'm using a 30 second wav file for the current humming loop and that's been looping fine. I did try a shorter 2 second loop which I think is in the repo. Both work though. Rule of thumb for me has been to just use short wav clips. Some of the longer songs and stuff that don't loop could be converted to ogg to save space. I have not needed to though so just kept with the uncompressed wav files.

As far as the code goes for the loops I use the ACT pin to see if the media is playing

int playing = digitalRead(ACT);

then for the constant humming I do this

// in general we always try to play the idle sound if started
if (playing == 1 && startup == true) {
playAudio(idleTrack, playing);
}

The playAudio helper function is in the code. With this and keeping the loop fast by not using delays has led to the pretty seamless looping.

Thanks for the reply Eric.

When I use wav files the shorter delay in between sound files/loops is still noticeable. Are you saying that theplayAudio function would help eliminate these delays or did I read that wrong?

I have very beginner understanding of coding. I tried to learn but only got so far it's just beyond me. So for my code I paid a fiverr person to help me with my code that is within a small budget.

We kept it simple with the audio triggers in which I have 2 (start up, hum loop). All we did was connect the pins A0 and A1 on the Arduino to pins 0 and 1 on the adafruit soundboard. I'm guessing the snippet of code you provided isn't something I can easily paste into my code without extensive knowledge?

[CountDeMonet]

Without seeing your code it is hard to say way. From what you describe it doesn't look like you are using the ACT pin on the adafruit board to detect the playing status of it. How are you determining it's time to play the loop again?

[jonogunn]

Correct. the files are played via trigger pin.

Arduino PIN A0 connects to Adafruit PIN 0
Arduino PIN A1 connects to Adafruit PIN 1

File names:
T00.wav (start up sound)
T01HOLDL.wav (idle hum set to loop via the file name)

then the snippets I believe contribute to this are:

//Basic Trigger
#define FX_boot A0 // connect to the pin n fx board with boot sound basic trigger
// Hold Looping Trigger TnnHOLDL.WAV replacw nn with pin number
#define FX_hum A1 // connect to the ppin in fx boad with hum sound hold loop trigger


void loop() {
// get the current time for powercell
cyclotron.update();
unsigned long currentMillis = millis();
if ( powerBooted == false ) {
powerSequenceBoot(currentMillis);
digitalWrite(FX_boot, LOW);
digitalWrite(FX_hum,HIGH);
} else {
digitalWrite(FX_boot, HIGH);
digitalWrite(FX_hum,LOW);
powerSequenceOne(currentMillis, ani_speed, pwr_interval, pwr_interval);
}
delay(1);