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Sound controlled laser spirograph?

lazer

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Anyone know how to build a sound controlled spiro? I want to make a white fusion laser spiro sound controlled so that the patterns change based on sounds around it. Where would I start?
 





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By doing some research on Google for any Audio controlled circuits
I would imagine... :cool:
That should give you some basics...

Jerry
 
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Good idea Jerry ;) and then there is the encyclopeia of electronic circuits check that out there are thousands of ckt's in there you find a good one and I will build it for you into your Whith Fusion Time Machine...
 

lazer

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I built one sound circuit before that pulses and varies the brightness of a series of leds to the beat of music. Do you think that circuit could be incorporated into the spiro? Where would it be best to add onto, the motors with the mirrors? It's justa basic op amp circuit with a microphone.
 
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HIMNL9

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If your circuit gives enough current for the motor, then i guess yes (i don't know what circuit you used) ..... just remember to place a pair of capacitors in parallel to the motor, for take care about the almost unavoidable disturbs caused from any motor ..... a simple 100 nF ceramic in parallel to a 4,7uF electrolitic can be enough ..... and ofcourse, remember that your motors can't change their speeds with the same fast response that leds have ;) .....
 
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You can probably use that circuit if you use an Opto-Isolator IC...
The signal going to your LED will now go to the LED in the
Opto-Isolator which will drive the base of the output Transistor
that can drive a larger load... If you require even high loads driven..
the output of the Opto-Isolator can directly drive a High Power
FET transistor...
(remember Google is your friend...):cool:

Jerry
 

lazer

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If your circuit gives enough current for the motor, then i guess yes (i don't know what circuit you used) ..... just remember to place a pair of capacitors in parallel to the motor, for take care about the almost unavoidable disturbs caused from any motor ..... a simple 100 nF ceramic in parallel to a 4,7uF electrolitic can be enough ..... and ofcourse, remember that your motors can't change their speeds with the same fast response that leds have ;) .....

Here is the exact circuit I am using. I can change the speed of the pulses by increasing the capacitor size, giving the motor more time to react.
 

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The low/no tech answer is glue(JBWeld) a FS mirror to the center of a speaker( place a flimsy spring in between if needed) and position the mirror to 'bounce' the spiro image.

Different results can be gotten by bouncing the laser beam before going thru the spiro. Also by using woofer-midrange &/or tweeters(a spring is a must for the smaller speakers- less throw) In order to be able to adjust the amount of bounce without changing your volume you can add a second(or third) receiver to your main stereo using aux out RCA jacks. Mine are located close to my laser control area so i can easily adjust the 'throw'. By using right and left channels and 6 speakers and several colors the combinations are almost limitless.

I like red on the tweets- green on the mids and BR or blue on the woofers. I am working on tiny version using an old pair of large headphones(with springs)- plugs into the headphone jack of any stereo.-------HAK
 

HIMNL9

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Here is the exact circuit I am using. I can change the speed of the pulses by increasing the capacitor size, giving the motor more time to react.

Just change the "brightness" resistor with a 10 ohm 1W one (for test if is enough with your motor) if it don't run enough, and place the motor where you have the leds ..... it must work with almost all the mid-impedance motors that are around ..... you can also increase a bit C1, but the normally high impedance of the op-amps, it will not give you too much more ..... and also if is drawed as a resistor, the 470Kohm "level" one must be a trimmer or potentiometer ..... you can try to use an 1Mohm one, if the sensitibvity is too low, but this may cause some noise ..... is all matter of experiment and trials (that is a good part of the fun in electronic, after all ;))



EDIT:

@ hakzaw, just a suggestion ..... if you glue your mirrors on the center or on the cone of the speakers, the mirror movement is "flat" and you get very few deviation of the beam, and it depend mainly from the inclination of the beam itself ..... instead, try to glue the mirrors as in the scheme , with one border on the fixed part of the loudspeaker, and the other on the cone (or on the center, it depend from how they are big), so you have a "turning" movement of the mirror, and for the effect of the optical lever, you get a lot more deviation of the beam ..... at least, for me it worked, in the past ;)

attachment.php
 

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lazer

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Just change the "brightness" resistor with a 10 ohm 1W one (for test if is enough with your motor) if it don't run enough, and place the motor where you have the leds ..... it must work with almost all the mid-impedance motors that are around ..... you can also increase a bit C1, but the normally high impedance of the op-amps, it will not give you too much more ..... and also if is drawed as a resistor, the 470Kohm "level" one must be a trimmer or potentiometer ..... you can try to use an 1Mohm one, if the sensitibvity is too low, but this may cause some noise ..... is all matter of experiment and trials (that is a good part of the fun in electronic, after all ;))

Okay so I should add a pot to the 470 ohm place and switch out the 10ohm resistor for something around 1w? Could I just put a pot in place of the 1w resistor, to make the speed adjustable?
 
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ok here is how i did mine, all you have to do is get a little amplifier from an old set of pc speakers and plug in a dc motor on the output. when you put music through them the motor will not spin it will vibrate back and forth, so you can attach a mirror to the head of the motor shine a laser on that and make it hit on the spiro but you are gonna need big mirrors on your spiro to catch the whole light movement, and you will need a headphone splitter thing like this one (Belkin® Speaker and Headphone Splitter - RadioShack.com)

what i also did was add a microphone to the whole thing so that i didnt need to use the splitter i could just put it close to my speakers so that it would pick up the music and make it vibrate with that.

the good thing about using the amplifier from a set of pc speakers is that they come with an ac adapter so its not a battery eater lol

i later tried using some walkie talkies so that i could just leave the whole concoction in a safe place and put a walkie talkie next to the speakers that were playing the music " this was done for the safety of my laser and the ppl around it becauseit was a 100mw greenie. i always just shined it on the ceiling by the way" but that just ate batteries like crazy

... sorry i dont have any pics and idk where i put that darn thing but if i find it i will post some for you.
 

HIMNL9

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@ lazer: the pot of 1 megaohm goes where there is actually the resistor of 470 Kohm (not 470 ohm) ..... and yes, you can use a potentiometer in serie of the motor, i suppose, but probably need to get an 1W one, for not fry it ..... if you're not in hurry, i try to see if i can draw a better circuit (but not today, sorry, i'm really busy at shop actually)



@ deam_87: just place the motor with the mirror after the spyro set, not before, so you don't need spyro motors with huge mirrors ..... also, attack a spring to the motor-miror assembly, for avoid that a high impulse turns it away from the beam path and reduce the "wild" movements ..... (LOL, is so much time that i don't play with spyros and motors, i've almost forgot the fun :p ;))
 

lazer

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@ lazer: the pot of 1 megaohm goes where there is actually the resistor of 470 Kohm (not 470 ohm) ..... and yes, you can use a potentiometer in serie of the motor, i suppose, but probably need to get an 1W one, for not fry it ..... if you're not in hurry, i try to see if i can draw a better circuit (but not today, sorry, i'm really busy at shop actually)



@ deam_87: just place the motor with the mirror after the spyro set, not before, so you don't need spyro motors with huge mirrors ..... also, attack a spring to the motor-miror assembly, for avoid that a high impulse turns it away from the beam path and reduce the "wild" movements ..... (LOL, is so much time that i don't play with spyros and motors, i've almost forgot the fun :p ;))



A drawing of the circuit would be great.:yh:
 
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@ lazer: the pot of 1 megaohm goes where there is actually the resistor of 470 Kohm (not 470 ohm) ..... and yes, you can use a potentiometer in serie of the motor, i suppose, but probably need to get an 1W one, for not fry it ..... if you're not in hurry, i try to see if i can draw a better circuit (but not today, sorry, i'm really busy at shop actually)



@ deam_87: just place the motor with the mirror after the spyro set, not before, so you don't need spyro motors with huge mirrors ..... also, attack a spring to the motor-miror assembly, for avoid that a high impulse turns it away from the beam path and reduce the "wild" movements ..... (LOL, is so much time that i don't play with spyros and motors, i've almost forgot the fun :p ;))

lol ok hahaha yeah i gotta find the thing first before i start messing with it again.
 

lazer

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Haha i was talking to HIMNL9. I'd like to keep it small and try it with electronics first before i try it with a speaker and giant mirror. So I need him to make a diagram. But I'd still like to see your solution using the mirror. :)
 
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Things

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Why not just buy a really cheap spiro with audio control, rip out the circuitry and setup, and run the other laser into that? Would be much simpler and probably cheaper than building your own.
 




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