Wednesday, September 30, 2015

MDK Puppet Theatre 01





Kinda Sorta project related, a little puppet show deviation you'll get a chuckle ;)

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Arduino Radar Project





I'll bet this data could be worked somehow in Unity to draw a working radar screen,

Saturday, September 5, 2015

Unity 3D to Arduino Dash Software Experiment 01

Unity 3D to Arduino Communication Experiment 02

Arduino Mac Communication Experiment 1



Ok I have started to experiment with the Arduino Uno and my Mac. So far I have gotten the Mac to communicate with the Arduino and do the light up of 3 LEDs one after the other using and Arduino sketch I found from watching this video on YouTube here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMAWe2d7lC0

Now the ultimate goal is to get the Arduino to communicate with Unity 3D on my Mac but in the code from the "Communicating from unity 3D to an Arduino" my serial port is on:
/dev/cu.webusbserial1420
and in the code it is different. Now being new to Arduino I am not sure what needs to be changed in the code to make it all work??

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

K.I.T.T.'s Sound FX Module Nearing Completion



I soldered on the remaining four Optocouplers needed for the other sound FX triggers on the Adafruit board. It was kind of tricky getting the soldering iron into such a tight space but I managed to get them all in along with the Resistors. I had to use a lot of jumper wires to make my necessary connections (left) so it looks a little crowded but it works.

I also soldered in four more 3mm screw terminal blocks for the Switch Pod & any other special button I want to use to activate these particular sound effects. These are not like the ones connected to the other screw terminal blocks & Optocouplers as these do not need a DTMF tone request, either because the Switch Pods already have one built in or it is not desired for how I will make use of the sound effect.

I have also made changes to my "Pin Outs" diagram to reflect the new changes (right). As you can see in the video I posted above the module is working fine and doing just what I want it to do. All I need is those few missing components for the 12V to 5V conversion for the Adafruit board but that is a minor detail, once I get those parts and solder them in I can do a test with the module temporarily wired up to a few buttons in the car. Next will be to place the whole thing inside of a project enclosure to make it look a little more attractive, not that anyone is ever going to see it lol ;)

Adafruit Mini SFX Board With TDA2030A Amp. Module UPDATE

I combined the Optocouplers board for the button inputs for my Space Matt buttons by soldering it onto the other piece of Protoboard that I had already attached the Adafruit SFX mini and TDA2030A Mini Amplifier boards onto. I soldered the inputs for the Optocouplers to 3mm screw terminal blocks to make connecting the wires from my Space Matt buttons easier later on when I install this module into my K.I.T.T.

There are a few things left to do like add in the power regulator to convert 12V into 5V for the Adafruit board, right now I just have one 100 uF Capacitor soldered onto the board seeing how I had it on hand, I still need to add a 10 uF Cap. and a small ceramic 100 nF cap to go with the power regulator but those are minor details that just basically involve waiting for them to arrive in the mail. Now the Optocoupler board you see mounted onto my main board also sends a pulse for the DTMF tone request on the Voice Box through a wire that will be connected to the screw terminal block mounted on the lower right side of the board (above left). I have four more sound effects options that do not require a pulse to be sent to the DTMF because they will be wired to the Switch Pod buttons and they already have a tone request being sent from the Switch Pod buttons. So I'll see if I can squeeze in four more Optocouplers onto the board somewhere for those loose green wires you see sticking out of the left side of the main board next to the Adafruit module and see if I can also squeeze in two more 3mm screw terminal blocks, it's going to be tight but I think I can do it, if not then I'll just have to add in another side board with the Optocouplers on it.

In the meantime to make things easier for me to install this module when completed I worked out a diagram to illustrate where all the pin outs are located on the module (right). It's coming together though just a few more things to do and then I can wire it up for a test in the car before seeing about perhaps stuffing this into an enclosure to make for a nice install.