Building An Alternative to Blastercore: E-11 Sound/LED Board

[pandatrooper[TK]]

This is a cool project! SWmand4, not sure if you have already seem these but the Custom Saber shop sells pre made li-ion packs for sabers. I use the 1450 ones all the time.

 

http://www.thecustomsabershop.com/Li-ion-Packs-C85.aspx

 

Not sure if you are still trying to do the lighting propagation down the barrel but you could easily use 1" or 7/8" blade tubing with diffusion film inside and a Luxeon Rebel red led in the back end to light it up.

 

http://www.thecustomsabershop.com/Thin-Walled--C90.aspx

 

I have built many sabers and with a barrel this short, the beam would be very bright.

Edited January 26, 2014 by pandatrooper

[pandatrooper[TK]]

You could also do an external charge port as many sabers use that.

 

http://www.thecustomsabershop.com/21mm-Power-Jack-P37.aspx

 

You don't need to buy everything from TCSS but perhaps this provides inspiration

Edited January 26, 2014 by pandatrooper

[swmand4]

This is a cool project! SWmand4, not sure if you have already seem these but the Custom Saber shop sells pre made li-ion packs for sabers. I use the 1450 ones all the time.

 

http://www.thecustomsabershop.com/Li-ion-Packs-C85.aspx

 

Not sure if you are still trying to do the lighting propagation down the barrel but you could easily use 1" or 7/8" blade tubing with diffusion film inside and a Luxeon Rebel red led in the back end to light it up.

 

http://www.thecustomsabershop.com/Thin-Walled--C90.aspx

 

I have built many sabers and with a barrel this short, the beam would be very bright.

 

That's actually very helpful, thank you! The 14500 pack should fit and is cheaper than my other source. Good find.

[swmand4]

Bingo! Sparkfun carries the VS1011E-L chip. Still expensive at $20, but better than $72. Ordering parts now.

 

EDIT: All parts are now ordered and will arrive in 7-10 days. Once I have them, I'll check the parts against a printout of my PCB to make sure I didn't screw up any sizes. After that I will order a prototype board. 5-7 days after that, I should have the board and can start assembly and diving more into the firmware.

Edited January 27, 2014 by swmand4

[swmand4]

All electronics parts have arrived, save the battery. I have checked the parts against a physical print out of the PCB and everything matches! A sample below...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have until 11AM PT tomorrow morning to order the PCBs. So tonight I will be checking and rechecking my design and schematics to ensure I have everything correct.

[Locitus[Admin]]

Looking good!

[swmand4]

Thanks, Mathias.

 

I just ordered my prototype PCB boards and they should arrive next Wednesday (6 days). Then I can start assembly and more firmware creation. I took the time to make a few minor changes to the board layout. For instance, I added a trace and via to any potentially useful microchip pins that were not used and left floating. This way I can tap into the pin more easily and check for shorts quickly. Also added for silkscreen part designators to aid in assembly.

 

Maybe I'll try fitting triggers and dials in the blaster kit I have while I wait...

 

I also need to brain storm a better name for the finished product. My house mate said TrooperTech, which I like. Not sure if someone already used that, though.

Edited January 30, 2014 by swmand4

[swmand4]

After checking fit of various switches and dials in the blaster body and parts I've determined the following:

 

• The 14500 (800mAHr) battery from The Custom Saber Shop will perfectly fit inside the magazine and magazine receiver without protruding into the main barrel. Side note: I doubt the battery is actually 800mAHr based on the size and other 14500 cell based packs.
• A battery with 18650 cells (4400mAHr) will fit in the magazine receiver, but not the magazine itself. This would require half the battery to sit in the main barrel.
• The trigger switch I purchased is the correct size for its location and purpose.
• The volume dial that will be attached to the magazine release button will fit in the receiver.
• The rotary dial I purchased for the fire rate selector switch has the three positions (how far before it clicks into the next position) that almost perfectly lined up with the text on the grip (30 degrees). Unfortunately, this dial is too large to fit in the grip insert and will either need to be replaced or modified to work in this location. If I could find a smaller dial, it would be better.

I'm thinking it will be cool to try and do a time-lapse video of assembling the first board. I don't have a video camera I can set up, but I can take a picture after each part is attached and stitch it together into a cool little montage.

 

More details as the come.

 

EDIT: I think I found a rotary switch that could work. Half the size of the original and three times the price but it should work. It's actually has 12 position at 30 degrees apart (9 more than needed) but has adjustable stop pins.

Edited February 3, 2014 by swmand4

[swmand4]

The circuit boards arrived this morning. Take a look:

 

 

I'll have to wait until after work to more thoroughly inspect them and get started on assembly. It's not going to be easy with them staring at me on my desk...

[TK bondservnt[501st]]

have you located speakers that will fit inside the tube?

 

looks like an interesting project you have here!

 

been watching progress!

[skyone]

The circuit boards arrived this morning. Take a look:

 

 

I'll have to wait until after work to more thoroughly inspect them and get started on assembly. It's not going to be easy with them staring at me on my desk...

 

well done!

Edited February 5, 2014 by skyone

[Bulldog44[TK]]

Amazing progress! Impressive, most impressive!

[swmand4]

Last night I attached the basic components needed to get the microcontroller up and running. Forgot the programming board at home, though so I had to wait until tonight to continue. At that's where things went wrong.

 

I tried to put a basic load on the chip that would basically spit out some debug text. Worked at first, but then I messed with some clock fuse settings and screwed up communications with the microcontroller. Now nothing works anymore I might be able to fix it by injecting a 1MHz signal into the external oscillator pin... but if that doesn't work it looks like I'll be ordering a new chip and being much more careful with it.

 

At least it looks cool.

 

 

EDIT: I just caught a piece of the AtMega328P datasheet I missed before. Looks like it will only run 20MHz at 4.5V to 5.5V. Seeing as I'm running it at 3.3V, it won't work properly even if I didn't break it before. Just to be sure, I jumpered 5V over the power plane directly and it still didn't let me reprogram. Looks like once I get it recovered or replaced, I'll have to drop the speed to 10MHz (max frq. at 3.3V) or raise the power to 5V. Either way works, really, but I'd prefer to keep 3.3V for battery life reasons. Maybe for now I'll just run off the internal RC oscillator until I get new parts in.

Edited February 7, 2014 by swmand4

[swmand4]

Ironically, I just noticed that I put a giant compiler warning in my firmware code stating the correct fuse settings to use... and I still borked it. Good job, Sean.

 

[TK bondservnt[501st]]

when I look at the front barrel emitter board.. with the hexagon face? will that fit inside the pvc tube? or will the front

of the e-11 have to be sandwhiched to install the front of the barrel?

and do we have a line on speakers that fit inside the tube?

 

I'm really impressed with your skills to engineer this... and I applaud your desire to make this work!

 

[swmand4]

The hexagonal LED emitter for light out the tip of the blaster will fit inside a 1.25" ID pipe. Please refer to the image below:

 

 

I'm looking at using a 70mm x 30mm Rectangular 8 ohm 5W speaker like skyone (Manuel) used. It should just barely fit, I think.

Edited February 7, 2014 by swmand4

[Dark PWF[Staff]]

Absolutely brilliant and exciting stuff, Sean!

 

Keep at it!

[toybiz[TK]]

Truly impressive both from an ingenuity standpoint and level of creativity.

 

Watching with much anticipation for your final outcome. You are so close.

[TK bondservnt[501st]]

looks like the project wins on many levels.

[swmand4]

Thanks for the kind words, everyone. Positive feedback always helps

 

I think I've decided to ditch the external oscillator for the ATMega328P. I'll just use the internal RC 8MHz one. It's extremely inaccurate and susceptible to temperature change. But for this application, I am using SPI and I2C communication methods, both of which supply their own clock. I'll have to use a slow USART speed for debug (9600bps) but that doesn't matter for the final product.

 

The speaker came in today and seems to fit well. Pictures below:

 

 

[TK bondservnt[501st]]

oh man... that speaker looks great!  would only one be used or 2 in stereo?

any info on the location to purchase a couple?

 

would you be willing to wire up a blastercore 4.0 for me?  I'd pay?

[Locitus[Admin]]

Why would you need stereo sound? No real gun is stereo...

[Locitus[Admin]]

About the name of the project, borrowing from Wookieepedia, I suggest "Xciter". It's an exciting project, that makes the prop more exciting for everyone near it, and it sort of fits with it's description on wookieepedia. Plus, it's more catching than "Actuating module", although that part of the fictional blaster is slightly more accurate to the reality.

 

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/XCiter

An XCiter, also known as a gas conversion enabler, was a component used in blasters to agitate gas molecules. When a blaster was fired, the pulled trigger opened the Heter valve, which released a small quantity of gas into the XCiter, where the molecules became agitated. From there, the gas moved to the actuating module.

[swmand4]

About the name of the project, borrowing from Wookieepedia, I suggest "Xciter". It's an exciting project, that makes the prop more exciting for everyone near it, and it sort of fits with it's description on wookieepedia. Plus, it's more catching than "Actuating module", although that part of the fictional blaster is slightly more accurate to the reality.

 

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/XCiter

 

I love it! XCiter is my new front runner for final product name. Thanks Mathias.

 

 

oh man... that speaker looks great!  would only one be used or 2 in stereo?

any info on the location to purchase a couple?

 

would you be willing to wire up a blastercore 4.0 for me?  I'd pay?

 

I've designed the board to have optional stereo sound, but it will be defaulted to mono and require SMT rework to change it. I did this to allow for a flexible product - maybe someone wants to use two speakers for a special effect. Or maybe they won't be using it for an E-11, but rather for a longer weapon that would sound better with a second speaker further down the barrel.

 

I actually linked to the Amazon page where I purchased my speaker a few posts back.

 

Sorry, Vern. I don't have the time to wire up a BlasterCore for you. I have my own version to finish 

[Locitus[Admin]]

I love it! XCiter is my new front runner for final product name. Thanks Mathias.

I'm glad you like it. I was pondering over the name myself for a few days but came up empty, until finally turning to wookieepedia to give me something.