Yay! The Humboldt Laser Harp microcontroller (MCU) project officially launched today. This Part 1 post about the project will give a short introduction, then Ill cover some more of the details in tomorrows post.
Ever since the Humboldt Microcontrollers Group was started back in May of this year, Ive wanted to have a couple people from the Group get together and collaborate on an MCU project. It didnt matter too much what it was, I just wanted to get the example and tradition of people coming up with a project, designing the hardware and software, figuring out how to get the components and other resources need to build the project, then debugging the first version and making iterative improvements until we had a pretty cool or interesting result.
As Ive written this blog and during the biweekly Humboldt Microcontrollers Group meetings, Ive been suggesting various topics to try and get a couple people interested in one of them to the point where a project group (even just two people) would form. What I was sort of doing was throwing MCU projects against the kitchen cupboards or wall(?) like spaghetti to see if theyd stick. And one finally stuck -- at least to the point where three of us met today to determine if we wanted to actually start working together on an MCU project. And the answer to that question was, "Yes."
So, Id like to introduce you to the Humboldt Laser Harp (HLH). It is the first MCU electronic musical instrument in the Electronic Light Orchestra of Humboldt County. Maybe we should call it the Humboldt Electronic Light Orchestra (HELO) so people dont get us confused with the band ELO (Electric Light Orchestra). Ill go into more detail about why the light orchestra part of the name will be appropriate when I post Part 2 or Part 3 of this series. Ill also mention other possible MCU musical instruments for the Electronic Light Orchestra, some of which have been in previous posts.
If youre reading this post and are not familiar with laser harps, take a look at my post from June titled, "Microcontrollers And A Humboldt Laser Harp." If you dont want to read that, just look for laser harp on Google and on YouTube.
Here are a few of the basic facts of the project:
Ever since the Humboldt Microcontrollers Group was started back in May of this year, Ive wanted to have a couple people from the Group get together and collaborate on an MCU project. It didnt matter too much what it was, I just wanted to get the example and tradition of people coming up with a project, designing the hardware and software, figuring out how to get the components and other resources need to build the project, then debugging the first version and making iterative improvements until we had a pretty cool or interesting result.
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| Laser harp designed for crowd interaction |
As Ive written this blog and during the biweekly Humboldt Microcontrollers Group meetings, Ive been suggesting various topics to try and get a couple people interested in one of them to the point where a project group (even just two people) would form. What I was sort of doing was throwing MCU projects against the kitchen cupboards or wall(?) like spaghetti to see if theyd stick. And one finally stuck -- at least to the point where three of us met today to determine if we wanted to actually start working together on an MCU project. And the answer to that question was, "Yes."
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| Laser harp with PVC pipe frame |
If youre reading this post and are not familiar with laser harps, take a look at my post from June titled, "Microcontrollers And A Humboldt Laser Harp." If you dont want to read that, just look for laser harp on Google and on YouTube.
Here are a few of the basic facts of the project:
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| Makezine laser harp (http://makezine.com/projects/laser-harp/) |
- Right now there are three of us on the project: Ed Smith, Nick A, and Bob Waldron.
- As the project develops, Hal W and others might join in on the project.
- Ed is the lead for code and basic project design. For most questions about the project, Ed is the gatekeeper. [July 19 update: the best way to contact Ed about the project is to talk to him in person at one of the Humboldt Microcontrollers Group meetings. If you cant do that, email him at bobnova (at) humboldtmicro {dott} com.]
- Nick is the lead person for building the harp frame.
- The HLH v.1.0 will reside at Nicks house.
- Im going to sketch up some type of a black mini booth or covering designed to help see the laser beams when the laser harp is not in a darkened room.
- As indicated above, well use GitHub for the code repository and versioning, and for remote project collaboration. We discussed other options, such as DropBox, Google Docs, Texas Instruments Energia, or other services Ed might prefer that Nick and I are also ok with. Ed didnt have a strong preference, and Nick likes GitHub, so thats what we using, at least for now.
- The project will be open source, both software and hardware, to the extent possible. The parts that arent truly open source will be transparent as far as all the code and components being identified. If someone else wants to replicate what weve done, theyll be welcome to do so. (Of course, we might change our tune when someone offers us a lot of money to buy our ideas, laser harps or other MCU electronic musical instruments...)
- Bob will work with Josh Cowles or others to figure out the appropriate open source licenses to put on the pieces of this project that can accurately be called open source.
- Were probably going to have six lasers in version 1.0 of the HLH, but well think about MCU and other hardware capabilities in terms of being able to easily expand the design to a twelve laser harp and put in hooks or code blocks that make it easy to convert the programs from six-laser to a twelve-laser design.
- Nick will put a post about the project on the Humboldt Makers Google Group mailing list, and possibly on online sites that could give the project favorable visibility.
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| A true laser harp |
In tomorrows post, Ill cover some of the other details discussed in todays meeting. If you have questions or comments about the HLH, send them to me at arcatabob (at) gmail {dott} com.
If you know of other people in Humboldt County who have already built a laser harp or who play a laser harp, please share their contact info with me, or at least their name. Wed love to connect and talk laser harp technology with them.
We look forward to a long and illustrious career for the Electronic Light Orchestra of Humboldt!
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Should I return the map??
Mounting the whole laser would be difficult, and those batteries dont last very long, so Nick ripped them open and hacked away most of the PCB, leaving us with a much more manageable package.
After replacing the dead and dying lasers Nick did more testing and we eventually solved this by running the lasers on 3.3 volts, which seems to work well. Unfortunately more lasers were damaged during testing and we ran out of time to replace them, resulting in a few "strings" that didnt work well in direct sunlight. Oh well.
On the bottom side each laser hits a light sensitive resistor (LDR) light sensor, each sensor has a 3D printed holder and light guide tube.
To convince the harp to stand upright we turned to Gordon, who hit the scrap yard and attacked what he found with his MIG welder. The result was a very stable base that complimented Nicks choice of an industrial theme wonderfully.
The rear screen is held in place by a pair of wing nuts, allowing us easy access to the center area. This center area will eventually hold the electronics package as well as some light effects.
To the right you can see the finished, prototype, electronics package. I used some perfboard to make a BoosterPack (what TI calls expansion boards, Arduino calls them Shields) for the LaunchPad. This simplified my design somewhat and made it easy to swap a new MCU into place if I accidentally blew this one up. Thankfully I didnt, but it was nice to have the option anyway.
Most of the board consists of 12 copies of a very simple circuit. The 15 pin connector has one pin for positive voltage to the lasers, one ground pin, one "feature / effects" pin that is not currently in use, and then 12 pins that go to the LDRs. The circuit on the perfboard has a variable resistor that feeds voltage to the LDR pins, and a second wire that goes to the analog inputs.
This blog features Hachiko...scroll down to read about him.
Los Angeles, CA, June 29, 2011 --(PR.com)-- Aquaponics is essentially the controlled establishment of a natural, mutually beneficial ecosystem between fish and plants. As it concerns growing plants, it is the most efficient hybrid of aqua culture and hydroponics.[MORE]
Aquaponics is the utilization of fish culture water as a source of nutrients for the growth of greens and vegetables in a closed-loop system.
. Wonderful weather, our Aussie Dollar is still boyant and our politicians seem to be behaving themselves. The big worry here at the moment is Schoolies Week. Yes this is the week when Grade 12 School leavers decide in their droves to let their hair down. Unfortunately they also decend on the Gold Coast here in Queensland
and it usually becomes a very wild week with headaches for the Police, Parents, Local Residents Oh yes and a lot of the Kids. Hopefully this year might be a little quieter.
to launch an aquaponics system that can grow vegetables and fish to help feed people.
On August 23, Tim Evans, a Nazarene involved in ministry in Jerusalem, went to Jerusalem to research a system for growing fruits and vegetables in water-scarce areas in the Middle East
