Portal 2 Weighted Companion Cube Subwoofer

[Red_or_Dead]

awesome

I too have a box for a PC case, no literally, a black and brown box, it looks shit, but only I will see it so thats cool

[Splave]

unbelievable craftsmanship

pic applies

[Cube]

Thanks Red_or_Dead and Splave, but I dunno Red.. add some cellophane and you got yourself some case mods!! and where did you find a pic of me on the net Splave, identity theft lol

But on a more serious note, I'm thinking of adding this sub to my computer system which is evolving. Sound-wise I have a set of logitech z5500's but how to add the extra sub into the system.... I've been reading some forums and seems the best way is by adding a receiver into the mix. Sorta needing a reciever with optical in and out with sub out

Mac Pro ----> Reciever ---> z5500
---> companion cube
(via optical cable except reciever to sub)

Any thoughts....?

[BumbleBee]

great work

if I may make a suggestion. a riser would decouple the Portal Cube from the ground and tighten up the lower frequencies. glossy white riser with blue and red led?

[Cube]

Originally Posted by BumbleBee

great work

if I may make a suggestion. a riser would decouple the Portal Cube from the ground and tighten up the lower frequencies. glossy white riser with blue and red led?

I will have to think about something like that because you are correct in the coupling effect since the port is on the bottom side of the cube. Maybe I should make a calibration button riser

Went to Jaycar before and picked up the optical splitter and found an amp at JB's, couple cables later the system works great!! Now I just have to figure out and make this circuit for the sound reactive device to control the leds

[BumbleBee]

ever work with arduino boards?






imagine the possibilities!

[Cube]

Originally Posted by BumbleBee

ever work with arduino boards?

imagine the possibilities!

I'm a carpenter by trade and have very little experience with electronics but I would love to have the cube light up like in the videos. I would have to redo the wiring but it would be worth it. Think I've got some research to do, can you post me some links?

I've been looking around at the arduino boards and there are quite a few to choose from, but I'm wondering where in the circuit does it go in my application..? Do you know much about them? There is 17 amps coming from the power source to the rings (3.4 amp each) and only 480 mA for all 24 bar/strip leds. Just wondering how much current can an arduino board handle? Any help would be greatly appreciated

[BumbleBee]

I only know about them. I know Arduino boards are popular for DIY projects.

http://arduino.cc/en/Guide/HomePage

here are some Arduino projects and tutorials

http://www.arduino.cc/playground/Projects/ArduinoUsers

there are a lot of resources available...

[Cube]

I gotta say this Arduino board thing all sounds great but I can't seem to find the right information to implement it to my system. So far it seems to me that I will need a relay of some kind to power the Arduino without frying it from 20 amps but I'm confused on how from an individual pin connection on the Arduino board will give enough power to the led array (especially the rings 3.4amp) ....

Can anyone steer me in the right direction please? In the meantime I will try to research.

I found this online after some reading and this seems to be a solution, I would need quite a few of them or a bigger one with more outputs. I like the idea of it not being connected to the arduino (apart from the signal) and can power quite a bit. Correct me here if I am wrong but since I have 1 power source of 20 A, all these power FET switches would have to handle 20 A?? even though each array will draw far less than that if I connect 1 array per FET switch. The pic is of a 4 bank FET switch, but I would need 8 of these connected to 1 arduino, then 1 big long USB chord to run to the computer.. Plus I like the PWM feature of these switches, could add to the visual feast

Please tell me if there is something better out there

[Terry]

We are having some discussion about using Arduino and these FET switch cards to control complex LED displays like this.

The switch modules are good for about 10a per channel with a 12v supply (turns the fets on strongly).

One limitation is the number of PwM channels available on Arduino (6 of 14 I/o on the UNO/ 328 version, 14 of 54 on the Mega 1280/2560 version). These are for dimming LED channels, any I/O can turn simple on-off.

What about audio controlling the display?? Anyone seen arduino software to do this?? external filters could be used, but 'software in cheap'...

Regards, Terry King
...On the Mediterranean in Italy
terry@yourduino.com

[Solaris17]

this is sweet.

[Cube]

So I ended up buying the arduino Mega and a bunch of mosfet fet's with cabling, some pics of the progress. I setup just 4 arrays as a test and it works great. It's taking some adjusting to fit the boards and power supply but I'm slowly getting there

you'll have to stitch the two pics together because my camera made it too high resolution to pull it down under 195.3kb

Ok so that layout was way too clustered and barely fit down the ratman den so I made a new one that worked much better and felt a bit cleaner on the organisation of all the arrays. I have mounted it but it will have to come back out soon to install a PWM shield for the arduino mega. I'm great at carpentry, getting better with electronics but programming ...... Slowly muddling my way through it and understanding the language bit by bit. Especially when it came to making software PWM for even 1 array.
Hopefully it comes soon, the project is so close to finished now

oh and I added the aperture logo surrounding the port opening (just have to rub out my guide marks oops)

[Cube]

[QUOTE=BumbleBee;2391465]great work

RISER:

Hey bumblebee, I had a riser made up from 20mm perspex. All polished up apart from the hole cut in the middle for port to breathe. I thought of engraving the face edge with 'the cake is a lie' a couple times but the light from the bottom ring and strips doesn't illuminate that edge that strong so I'm leaving it just as is. The sweet thing is it allows the light from those bottom face led arrays to be more visible and doubles as a riser


Just waiting on a PWM shield for the arduino to allow 32 PWM IO's and soon enough I will post another vid of the lights working