Star Trek Props Built with Arduino and Adafruit Products

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Jeff1701
 
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Star Trek Props Built with Arduino and Adafruit Products

Post by Jeff1701 »

Thought I would share my Star Trek Original Series computer prop replicas I built using Arduino Megas, the MP3 Player Shield, and the 24 channel LED controller boards. Hope you enjoy them!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dW1D7bEiNPM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOm6ahrnXIQ

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adafruit_support_bill
 
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Re: Star Trek Props Built with Arduino and Adafruit Products

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

Awesome props! Thanks for the videos. :)

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AnneBarela
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Re: Star Trek Props Built with Arduino and Adafruit Products

Post by AnneBarela »

I posted an Adafruit blog post on your work this morning. https://blog.adafruit.com/2018/06/12/st ... ica-props/

Did you use flat marbles for the lights? Where did you find them? Also the switches?

Great work! Mike

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CmdrBrandr
 
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Re: Star Trek Props Built with Arduino and Adafruit Products

Post by CmdrBrandr »

Awesome work man! Those look great. I will add my voice to the call for more details of how you built this.

For now I will look at all your other YouTube videos.

Thanks for sharing!

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Jeff1701
 
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Re: Star Trek Props Built with Arduino and Adafruit Products

Post by Jeff1701 »

MikeBarela wrote:I posted an Adafruit blog post on your work this morning. https://blog.adafruit.com/2018/06/12/st ... ica-props/

Did you use flat marbles for the lights? Where did you find them? Also the switches?

Great work! Mike
Mike,

Thanks for highlighting my work in your blog post and your kind comments. Very much appreciated.

The clear domes and switches come from a website run by a guy who has all kinds of parts and switches for building classic Trek props. I don't know if your forum rules allow me to post a link to that website or not. If so, let me know, and I'll pass it along in this thread.

You're building an M-5??!!! Awesome! Just don't imprint your memory engrams on the circuit and all will be good! :)

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AnneBarela
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Re: Star Trek Props Built with Arduino and Adafruit Products

Post by AnneBarela »

My memory engrams wouldn't power much :)

Yes, you can post links to places to buy parts and get info if they relate to a project like this. Probably similar to the RPF - helpful links but none that are from folks looking to push people to do something.

And it appears that there is interest in build details if you have a blog, instructable, or other such details. Folks like your work!

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Jeff1701
 
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Re: Star Trek Props Built with Arduino and Adafruit Products

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CmdrBrandr wrote:Awesome work man! Those look great. I will add my voice to the call for more details of how you built this.

For now I will look at all your other YouTube videos.

Thanks for sharing!
Sure, I will be glad to pass on some details. These are high level steps. I'll be glad to answer in more detail if anyone has any questions.

The measurements come from this thread on the tosgraphics website.

Based on these measurements, I used Adobe Illustrator to create a file to upload to a online laser cutting service to have the front pieces (which I call the faceplate) cut from MDF. I did this so all of the holes would be precisely spaced. If I had hand drilled them, it wouldn't have turned out nearly as accurate. And since the laser cutting service can do engraving, I designed the file so there is a slightly engraved circle around each cutout for the clear domes so the domes sit in there perfectly. That eliminates the guess work of trying to line up the domes when I was gluing them to the faceplate.

The rest of the construction was done using MDF available at your local hardware store.

The classic Trek sound effects partially came from a CD which has been commercially available for many years. There are also YouTube videos which feature classic Trek sounds not available on this CD. After several sessions of grabbing the audio I wanted from the CD and YouTube, I had my sound effects for the MP3 player shield. The computer dialog came from recording the dialog while watching episodes on BANNED on my laptop.

Then I built the circuits.

When it comes to the 4A, there are four toggle switches. Each switch(whether its going to on or off) plays a sound effect. The top switch turns on/off the random lights. The others turn on/off one or more of the five LED's along the bottom of the unit. Also, when the second switch is in the on position, there is continuous playback of ambient computer sounds that we hear frequently on the show.

When it comes to the 4B, there are two red canopy switches and five black canopy switches. The first red switch turns on the random lights. The second red switch turns on the orange rectangle. The five black switches turn on one of the five LED's along the bottom. If the first black switch is on, there is continuous playback of computer dialog. And when each switch is toggled, a sound effect is played.

The LEDs are driven by a 24 channel board available here on Adafruit. My code has a random algorithm to determine which LED's on each line are to be illuminated. The 4A has a slower pattern. The 4B is faster. This matches the speed of the flashing lights of these units on the show.

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Jeff1701
 
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Re: Star Trek Props Built with Arduino and Adafruit Products

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MikeBarela wrote:My memory engrams wouldn't power much :)

Yes, you can post links to places to buy parts and get info if they relate to a project like this. Probably similar to the RPF - helpful links but none that are from folks looking to push people to do something.

And it appears that there is interest in build details if you have a blog, instructable, or other such details. Folks like your work!
The parts came from trekpropsandstuff.com He has the clear colored domes, switches, etc for building Trek props.

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Re: Star Trek Props Built with Arduino and Adafruit Products

Post by DigiGalStarfleet »

Great results...

Would like to see you present an OpenSource script(s) for use in the Arduino Uno for these projects.

Alternatively you could share with the community a tutorial of the steps you used in writing the script and exactly what criteria you were designing to meet.

As nice as it is to see a finished project, it is even better if you share to help others who would like to follow in your footsteps.

Let’s see a parts list, circuit or block diagram, build photos, pictures of the inside, wire dressing, board mounts, what type of switches, led mounts, power requirements etc.

All these things mean so much more than a hi look what I made post. Great Job by the way but OpenSource Sharing is what this really should be all about.

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Re: Star Trek Props Built with Arduino and Adafruit Products

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@DigiGalStarfleet all forms of sharing are welcome here, from the "hi look what i made" to how-tos, source code and schematics.

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Jeff1701
 
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Re: Star Trek Props Built with Arduino and Adafruit Products

Post by Jeff1701 »

@MikeBarela....Mike, if you see this, would you mind if we have a conversation outside of this forum? There doesn't appear to be a messaging system here, and I have a question for you.

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AnneBarela
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Re: Star Trek Props Built with Arduino and Adafruit Products

Post by AnneBarela »

Twitter @mikedigitalhome

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