MoodBoxByFaBteam

Modular box: minimalist weather station and jukebox with Arduino

Auteur Anne JANNIER | Dernière modification 9/12/2019 par Clementflipo

Difficulté

Moyen

Durée

100 heure(s)

Catégories

Art, Décoration, Électronique, Musique & Sons

Coût

50 EUR (€)

Modular box: minimalist weather station and jukebox with Arduino

Difficulté

Moyen

Durée

100 heure(s)

Catégories

Art, Décoration, Électronique, Musique & Sons

Coût

50 EUR (€)

Autres langues :

English

Sommaire

1 Introduction
- 1.1 Preamble
- 1.2 Overall specifications
2 Video d'introduction
3 Étape 1 -
4 Commentaires

Licence : Attribution (CC BY)

en none Creation 0

Introduction

This modular box is a 3-tier set. Once on, it provides basic weather station information (temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure) but becomes a "Mood box", here a jukebox actually, when properly activated.

Preamble

This project is a group project (FaB team) carried out during a French hybrid training program called "Fabrication numérique" (CNC machining and fabrication) - class of 2018, July.

This final group project involves some of the know-how acquired during the training program and seals the deal. It is complementary with the "Bentolux" project which should be documented and referenced soon on wikifab.org.

Instructions for the project were:

create a new tier to the box designed and developed during the course of the training program (3 available tiers: 1 base, 1 in Plexiglas, 1 for LCD screen);
use newly acquired knowledge for this new tier: 3D printing, laser cutting, etc.;
program with Arduino at least one user interaction (free choice).

Overall specifications

After some thought our group decided to create a musical tier - we called it "Mood box" - to complement the weather station using the base-tier and the LCD-tier.

Expected behavior is described here below.

Starting the box

When properly plugged in, the box can be started by using the switch on the front.

Starting the box triggers the following events:

figurine set on top spins on its stand;
LED-ring light effect shows through the figurine's translucent stand;
LCD screen displays a welcome message.

If no other action is made right away, the box goes in "sleep mode".

In "sleep mode", temperature and humidity are displayed with a custom message on LCD screen.

These custom messages as well as the color set for both the LED-ring and LCD screen depend on current temperature:

LCD and LED-ring color varies from blue to red when temperature rises;
LED-ring sparkles at a random frequency to add some animation;
custom message is displayed on LCD screen according to the temperature range currently reading.

Mood box activation and functionalities

Mood box is activated when the user touches the brass bar placed on top of it - this bar is connected to a capacitive sensor set inside the box.

Upon activation, figurine, LED-ring and LCD wake up.

Cette activation est accompagnée d'une animation conjointe de la figurine, de l'anneau de LEDs et de l'écran LCD.

If no other tap is made within 5 seconds following activation, Mood box is deactivated and goes back into sleep mode.

A new tap triggers play mode.

Using the bar has been made simple: the LED-ring shows current tap count as it grows - from 1 to 4 LEDS lit in white

First time, playlist begins with the first title on the list.

The potentiometer button - placed under the on/off switch on the front - is then active and serves as volume control for music.

The brass bar remains also active and stands by pending new user interaction.

While music plays, action differs depending on how many times the bar is touched:

1 tap: "pause/play", i.e. the music is paused if playing before or begins playing if paused before and LCD displays a message accordingly;
2 taps:"next", i.e. the player jumps to the next title on the list;
3 taps:"previous", i.e. the player changes the current title for the previous one;
4 taps or more: "stop", i.e. the box returns to sleep mode after a short animation of figurine, LED-ring and LCD screen.

During play time, LED-ring lights up in a rainbow sequence and figurine spins on top of its stand.

Note: Each time a play/pause/next/previous action is taken into account, figurine spins in other direction.

Deactivating the Mood box

After activating the Mood box or when the music is stopped, if the bar remains idle for more than 5 seconds, sleep mode kicks in and deactivation occurs.

Note: When exiting sleep mode and resuming playing music, the player starts from where it was when deactivated.

Video d'introduction

Matériaux

Necessary materials are listed here below by category.

Box materials

poplar plywood 3mm-thick for laser cutting

Poplar is pretty cheap and allows precise and fast laser cutting

brass bar 80x7x2mm - to change and increase the touching area with regards to the capacitive sensor

A 1m-length brass bar can be found in DIY store for about 7€ but is easily replaceable by any conductive material whatever is shape.

Transparent PLA for 3D printing:
- access door to base tier
- figurine's stand and support - the stand will also diffuse the LED-ring light
- button for volume control
- lateral joints
Colored PLA (according to maker's preference) for the figurine and/or scenery set on top of the box