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By mburkit
#202603
Hello everyone!

As some of you may know, I have been working on a PKE Meter. I obtained a shell in a trade and I have been working on it in my free time.

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As you can see, not much going on inside of it right now.

Well, after surveying what our community currently has in terms of electronics for the PKE meter, I decided to design my own, using an Arduino. I decided to go this route because of how the Arduino can greatly simplify things such as the servos. I really wanted to have the same functionality as the original prop. That means the speed of the lights will be controlled by a thumb knob on the under side of the meter, have 2 different display settings, and have the height of the wings controlled by resistive touch switches.

There is also not a lot of room within the PKE meter so I decided to use a 5v Arduino Pro Mini 328 board, from Sparkfun.

As of now, I have the LEDs set up for the 2 different screen displays, with their speed controlled by a potentiometer. You switch between each set of LEDs via a switch that will be on the face plate of the PKE meter, eventually.

Here's my first video of how this is coming along:


Sorry it is not flashier, but since I am just prototyping right now, each set of LEDs are just in a straight line.

I just ordered the rest of the parts I need for this project, so I will continue to update this thread with more videos. Eventually, the goal is to develop a DIY so others can replicate this.

So, enjoy for now. . . there shall be more in the weeks to come!
By GhostGuy
#202730
Cool.

I've been considering using arduinos in my own projects as it would allow me to do whatever I wanted with the lights and sound and it would save me a ton of work.
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By Bob Wobbaz
#203283
Boy, I really need to get down with learning adruino... this looks like a fantastic start. Have you got the adruino to activate motors when the lights increase? I was planning on making a game PKE using a pre-bought light kit for the arms and my iphone slotted in the front playing a video of the screen playing but this is convincing me the other way.
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By mburkit
#203289
I'm trying to get this to function the same way the real PKE meter prop does. On the prop, the lights' speed was controlled by a knob on the underside of the prop and the wings were controlled by 2 resistive touch switches on the front. When one switch was held, the wings would go up half way. When the other switch was held, they'd move to full. There was also 2 different display settings, one was a straight line and the other was an arch. You switch between the 2 with a large switch underneath the screen. This is how I am trying to make the electronics for my PKE meter.

But with the arduino, you could easily program it to have the 2 resistive switches control the wings, having one make them go up, the other down. And with that you could have the lights move faster as the wings got higher.

I'll be posting another video soon, I just want the servos done before I make it. Then all I need to set up are the wing LEDs which won't be hard. I'm just waiting on some resistors for those and I should be done prototyping the electronics. After they are done, I will make a schematic and post along with it a parts list and the arduino program.
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By BSjohnson
#203317
mburkit, this is awesome! I will definitely be following your progress!
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By mburkit
#203541
zeta otaku wrote:The way you want to do it is pretty much how the hyperdyne kit is set up too.
From the videos I've seen, it seems like the contact switches on the hyperdyne kit just make the servos either go up or down. Mine will either make them go half way up, or all the way up then when let go, the wings will go back to their starting position. As for the speed of the lights, I can't tell from the videos that are posted of the kit if they are controlled by a knob or if they are just tied in with the height of the wings.

ChapterMasterTu'Shan wrote:Wow Matt, you figured all this out yourself? Neat! :P

It's looking really good so far!
I would like to take this moment to thank both ChapterMasterTu'Shan and jackdoud as they both have been consulting with me on this project.

P.S. screw you TJ . . .
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By zeta otaku
#203592
mburkit wrote:
zeta otaku wrote:The way you want to do it is pretty much how the hyperdyne kit is set up too.
From the videos I've seen, it seems like the contact switches on the hyperdyne kit just make the servos either go up or down. Mine will either make them go half way up, or all the way up then when let go, the wings will go back to their starting position. As for the speed of the lights, I can't tell from the videos that are posted of the kit if they are controlled by a knob or if they are just tied in with the height of the wings.


AH! Totally misunderstood your exact plans :) sorry... but yeah, I had a hyperdyne kit for a short while. The lights are directly tied to the position of the wings. The higher the wings, the faster the lights and faster the beeps (it has a very basic PC speaker built in... which is more of a chirp than anything else).

seeing as I have two PKE shells, I am VERY interested on how your system turns out :)
By WeeMadHamish
#203968
Nice to see the Arduino getting some more love. It really is a handy little prototyping system.

I plan to make a hybrid movie/video game PKE with an Arduino controller. The potentiometer will control pretty much everything... wing position, light speed, and the bargraph display.
By Gareee
#203974
Hmmm.. I think I'll hold off on our pke shells until you complete this, to see how expensive and hard it is to accomplish.
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By mburkit
#204009
Okay, here's the second official demo video of my Arduino PKE meter electronics. Since last time, I have added several more parts to the electronics:

- 2 different screen settings
- indicator LEDs for each screen
- resistive contact switches
- LEDs that show which switch is hit
- servos for the wings



I have not fine tuned the speed of the wings yet, so they are a little fast; and I haven't received in the mail what I need yet for the wing LEDs. But once I get them, I will just about be done with prototyping the electronics!
By Gareee
#204013
Sweet! We just got our shells a week ago, so now I'm wanting to do this as well!
By toylord
#204157
Well I only have 2 things to say to that. #1 I plan to copy anything you do so keep up the good work. #2...If my P.K.E. Shell ever arrives....I'll let you know. (grumble grumble paid in august grumble grumble)
- Paul
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By Cornelius
#204207
Wow! Looks really nice. If your PKE turns out to be more movie accurate than Hyperdyne's, I will probably end up being more interested in how you did it than considering buying a Hyperdyne (if available at all, that is :-) )...
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By mburkit
#204443
Well, I am done prototyping the hardware for the PKE meter and the code is almost done. There is only one thing I need to debug. While you watch the video, you may notice the one wing twitching while it's at "rest". That's what the thing I need to debug. Other then that, everything works great! So expect a schematic, a list of parts, and the code to be open sourced so anyone can do it.

Here's the video, enjoy!

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By Cornelius
#204476
mburkit wrote:So expect a schematic, a list of parts, and the code to be open sourced so anyone can do it.
Had I already told you I love you? :eyeroll:
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By BSjohnson
#204488
Cornelius wrote:
mburkit wrote:So expect a schematic, a list of parts, and the code to be open sourced so anyone can do it.
Had I already told you I love you? :eyeroll:
Hear, hear!
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By mburkit
#204499
Cornelius wrote:
mburkit wrote:So expect a schematic, a list of parts, and the code to be open sourced so anyone can do it.
Had I already told you I love you? :eyeroll:
Well the reasoning behind that decision is 2 fold. First of all, I want to share with everyone what I've developed for this project. Second, I am not going to build another one of these for anyone else. So if people want it, they can build it themselves but they don't have to reinvent the wheel to do so. I just don't have the time to be building kits for others while I have my real job and grad school to keep me occupied.

Also an update, I debugged the twitching servo, so now everything runs smoothly.
By Gareee
#204515
Is there any chance of getting some sound out of this as well?
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By mburkit
#204528
Gareee wrote:Is there any chance of getting some sound out of this as well?
There certainly is. I'm still trying to find the best buzzer for it. I had one that sounded like a duck (lol), and another one that has a nice "beep" sound to it but is too big for this application.

In fact, because you posed the question, I made a special video just for you. It highlights the larger buzzer that will probably not work in this application because of its size and the wings with no twitching.

You can check it out here.

Enjoy.
#204540
Does anyone know if the Pro Mini can do on-board playback of a sound file?

Also, I am working in conjunction with Matt to develop a shield for this thing when all is said and done, so it might become plug and play.
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By jackdoud
#204544
ChapterMasterTu'Shan wrote:Does anyone know if the Pro Mini can do on-board playback of a sound file?
I don't think there's enough memory space. I think the best bet would be to use one of the analog pins to send a tone to a small speaker. If the analog pins are full you could use a digital pin to ping a 555 to do the same thing.

Other options would be a peizo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-FafD8TRvw

Or getting crazy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liRF4alsvaI#t=3m08s

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