Ok so which amplifier would you recommend? This one? http://www.ebay.com/itm/TDA7297-DC-...405?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item486813868d

affirmative

 

I'm gonna say that I'd rather go with the 200S USB MP3 for the sounds. It may not be that loud but considering how iconic the tf2 sentry sounds are it may be loud enough. Plus I already have access to the sentry sound clips through the game itself, I just need to edit them down to just their sounds minus the background noise, plus covert them to mp3 format to work.

How many sound bites do you plan to use? When do you want them to play? Each sound bite will be an output from your processor.

 

Finally! I thought I'd never get help with this, and its been doubly stressful cause I'm running out of time. Anyways...

Here's what I have so far.

• PICAXE-18 Standard Project Board
  
• PICAXE-18M2 microcontroller
  
• AXE027 PICAXE USB Download Cable
  
• IC 2262/2272 4 CH Key Wireless Remote Control 315MHZ Receiver module F Arduino

What I still need to get

• Battery pack
• Output speaker
• Bright LED

I found a manual online for the Picaxe standard project board but I have no idea how to wire it to the wireless arduino, I haven't tried to download a programming application for the microcontroller/project board and I have a concern that this board can't handle a sound output other then a buzzer

OK, let's get our terminology straight. It's not a wireless Arduino. It's simply a 4 channel receiver with digital outputs. That means that you have to connect these outputs to the 18M2 inputs. In a previous post I suggested that you use the C-ports for inputs and the B-ports for outputs.

You can choose any ports you want for the inputs. You simply connect a wire from the receiver to an input port. Here's an example:

Channel A - C.1 or C.0
Channel B - C.2 or C.3
Channel C - C.3 or C.5
Channel D - C.4 or C.7

You see it makes no difference as long as you define your variables in the software.

By now I would have hoped you downloaded the Picaxe program editor and begun to familiarize yourself with navigating through it. Also, I would have hoped you have read the "Getting Started" manual so that we are all singing out of the same hymnal when we have on-line discussions.

As far as I can tell, you still need to order the following items:

200S USB MP3 player (great piece of gear - good catch!)
Output speaker - as large as you can fit in your project, 4 or 8 ohm, at least 15 watt capacity
A 3 cell battery back to power your project board and a 12 volt (recommended) pack to power your audio amp.
An audio amplifier
one or more ultra bright white LEDs

As a side note, I see you are stressed that time may be running out. I appreciate that. However, Summer is my busy time. I am chairman of our community festival and I like to spend as much time up the camp fishing. So there may be intervals of several days or more where I don't respond to this forum. Elec-mech is an experienced guy who is also familiar with Picaxe basic. Go back and read my earlier postings and you will see that I posted a basic schematic of how all this connects. Please review this as well as the wealth of information on the Picaxe site.

 

As a side note, I see you are stressed that time may be running out. I appreciate that. However, Summer is my busy time. I am chairman of our community festival and I like to spend as much time up the camp fishing. So there may be intervals of several days or more where I don't respond to this forum. Elec-mech is an experienced guy who is also familiar with Picaxe basic. Go back and read my earlier postings and you will see that I posted a basic schematic of how all this connects. Please review this as well as the wealth of information on the Picaxe site.

Yea the con I'm going to starts july 17th, so I need to get all my parts and get the whole thing wired up before then. And the other major problem hindering me from moving forward is money... I won't get paid till july 1st, which will be the earliest I can order those parts... so that means the more local the parts are the better... if I have to wait for a part to ship in from china then its out of the question.

 

Have you built and assembled the turret yet? Have you generated a list of inputs and outputs? Have you answered my questions about the sounds in Post #42? The last two so I can get started on programming. Lots to do and so little time.

 

Have you built and assembled the turret yet? Have you generated a list of inputs and outputs? Have you answered my questions about the sounds in Post #42? The last two so I can get started on programming. Lots to do and so little time.

Sorry sorry. Just 3, a beep, a chirp beep of alert, and then the sound of the sentry firing in rapid succession. I haven't assembled the sentry yet for good reason, the list of parts I have to put into it keep getting bigger and bigger so I need to make sure everything fits in the little thing. And well lets see.

Like I said with elec mech. I only plan on using three buttons on the wireless remote. One to turn it left, the other to turn it right, and the last one to fire the sentry. Once no activity has been picked up in 5 seconds it will return to idle and turn from left to right while beeping. Also when I turn it it will make the chirp sound. Now as for output, it will need the three buttons for the speaker noises, plus the light when the 3rd button is pressed, and the servo when its turning.

 

Sorry sorry. Just 3, a beep, a chirp beep of alert, and then the sound of the sentry firing in rapid succession. I haven't assembled the sentry yet for good reason, the list of parts I have to put into it keep getting bigger and bigger so I need to make sure everything fits in the little thing. And well lets see.

Like I said with elec mech. I only plan on using three buttons on the wireless remote. One to turn it left, the other to turn it right, and the last one to fire the sentry. Once no activity has been picked up in 5 seconds it will return to idle and turn from left to right while beeping. Also when I turn it it will make the chirp sound. Now as for output, it will need the three buttons for the speaker noises, plus the light when the 3rd button is pressed, and the servo when its turning.

There is no good reason for not having assembled the turret. You started this thread in April and now with the convention less than three weeks away do you seriously think this will come together within that time frame? Seems to me that is as much of a fantasy as your gaming. I seriously doubt you will finish the turret assembly within the time frame you specify, much less construct the electronics and software. I am more than willing to help, but come on, you have to put some sweat equity in to this project. Trust me, I appreciate the fact that funding is an issue. I'm retired and on a fixed income. So it is doubly difficult for a student. (You never told us your major). Again, cash flow vs. project time line seems to be out of synch here.

From my perspective, the probabilities of a successful project completion in time for the convention appear to be quite low. Nevertheless I am willing to help given my time constraints over the next three weeks. The second week in July is our community festival which occupies most of my time. The third week in July I will be in South Carolina on holiday with my family. I don't do internet while on holiday. Interspersed are the days fishing at the lake when I don't do internet.

So where does that leave us? One option is to drop the project in its entirety. But that would be a shame. You have already invested time and money in this project, but more importantly you have the opportunity to learn some really good stuff. My suggestion is to forget about the time constraint, but keep the project alive. I am willing to work with you on this, but as I said, not on your shortened time schedule.

Now let's get back to the turret design. The number of components going into the turret does not necessarily change the size of the turret. Remember you can go vertical. I am going to challenge you to design and build a turret assembly within the next 5 days. The assembly will consist of two parts, the base which will contain the batteries and the rotating turret which will contain the electronics. The base will be no larger than 12" square and 6" high. The rotating turret will be no more than 12" round and 6" high. Now quit fooling around and get to it.

OK, here is my final comment for this evening. Have you downloaded the Picaxe programming editor yet? If not, why not? Once you download the program editor and install it on you computer we can start putting together program snippets. In particular we have to solder the male headers into the H0 slot and start experimenting with driving the servo with software.

 

Geez way to get heavy. I can put the whole turret together in one day. The one thing I'm having trouble getting my mind around is how to mount the top part to the stand and still make it rotatable.

So I also just realized I never posted a picture of what the sentry should look like:

This is it in game, and I'm definitely gonna downgrade the legs of the turret cause the way they are n this design is way overkill in terms of what I'm capable of/have the resources to do.



Thats what I want in terms of final design, simpler to mount on top plus the legs will be simplified too. And it won't be top heavy in the front or back.

I think I'm gonna have it sit on top of a wooden dowel that I already have (a round dowel) and mount the motor through the base of the sentry head. Adding a rubber band around the servo and the dowl to give it rotation. I can use a drimmel to carve a groove into the dowel for the rubber band and I can also get a tiny bit of modeling clay or something to make a mount on the servo.

The sentry head will be made of paper board, quick and easy to build and I can knock it out in a day. And I can get a fast food plastic sample cup and paint it red for the little safety light on top

And yes I've downloaded the programmer

 

GOOD NEWS I just checked my account and I got $55 more from a sale I made on ebay a while back. I'm purchasing parts right now!

Bad news is the amplifier you listed is no longer available. Will this one work? http://www.ebay.com/itm/TDA7297-DC-...ffType=OrderSubTotalOffer&_trksid=p5731.m3795

Also I did have a problem with the picaxe programmer. My laptop still doesn't recognize the board when its plugged in via usb, is that because I need to have a power supply running through it? Like the battery pack I need to get?

 

I can put the whole turret together in one day. The one thing I'm having trouble getting my mind around is how to mount the top part to the stand and still make it rotatable.

If you can do that in one day then your a better man than I (to paraphrase Kipling).

Here's how to do it quite easily. You will notice that the servo has two components: the main servo body itself and the servo arm. The servo arm fits onto a splined shaft coming out of the main servo body. What you want to do is mount the servo arm with the splines facing up to the fixed portion of your widget. Then you mount the servo to the floor of your turret. You will want to mount the servo so the output shaft is roughly in the center of gravity (consider the fact that the turret will have batteries inside). I suggest you use 1/8" lite ply for the floor of your turret.

Now you can pop the turret on and off the fixed portion by simply lifting it off the spline. I attached a photo of a robotic arm I built using the same technique.

 

Bad news is the amplifier you listed is no longer available. Will this one work? http://www.ebay.com/itm/TDA7297-DC-...ffType=OrderSubTotalOffer&_trksid=p5731.m3795

Affirmative

 

Also I did have a problem with the picaxe programmer. My laptop still doesn't recognize the board when its plugged in via usb, is that because I need to have a power supply running through it? Like the battery pack I need to get?

In order to communicate with the project board, the 18M2 must be correctly inserted in its socket and power must be supplied to the board. CAUTION! DO NOT USE MORE THAN 4.5 VOLTS (3 ALKALINE CELLS)

 

GOOD NEWS I just checked my account and I got $55 more from a sale I made on ebay a while back. I'm purchasing parts right now!

Now that you're rolling in dough, I strongly suggest that you go to the following website:

http://www.jameco.com/webapp/wcs/st...splay?langId=-1&storeId=10001&catalogId=10001

and order the following parts:

10 ea. - P/N 189676 terminal blocks
2 ea. - P/N 109576 male headers
1 ea. - P/N 1954818 4" speaker
2 ea. - P/N 2205341 White LED

while your at it, order some 150 ohm, 1/4 watt resistors. You need these to limit current to the LEDs

 

I had a cheap solution/question for the speaker and the battery pack. Could I go search for a cheap radio at good will and salvage the parts from that?

And if so, what battery type should I look for in the radio? Cause if I understand this correctly, the right battery type/number of batteries will equate to the proper voltage/wattage for the speaker.

 

Here is a product that could be applied to make your turret rotatable. I used it on the head of my animatronic penguin. While it may be expensive, studying how it works may give you ideas on how to do it yourself. It is similar to the approach @bertz has suggested. The assembly manual can be had at this link, and look at steps 1-8.

 

You might have to manipulate the timers to get that "wait 5 seconds" part to work out right.
if you program it the way it is right now, as soon as you stop sending commands to the sentry it will stop for 5 seconds, then
start oscillating again.
You will have to implement a counting scheme that increments a number until it has reached x number or idle cycles.
if(x==idle_for_5sec){
x=0;
loop_auto();}
rotation_input_assert();
if(no_input){
x++;}
idle_for_5sec will be the number of instruction cycles, which is (1/(clock speed/4)) seconds. each instruction cycle at 4MHz clock takes 1us, for example.
the PIC18F series have an internal PLL, so if they are activated, so each instruction cycle can actually take 1/4 us at 4MHz.
For more info, CTRL+F "Timers/counters" and "interrupts" on the datasheet for the specific part and google for "PIC delay routine".

 

Now that you're rolling in dough, I strongly suggest that you go to the following website:

http://www.jameco.com/webapp/wcs/st...splay?langId=-1&storeId=10001&catalogId=10001

and order the following parts:

10 ea. - P/N 189676 terminal blocks
2 ea. - P/N 109576 male headers
1 ea. - P/N 1954818 4" speaker
2 ea. - P/N 2205341 White LED

while your at it, order some 150 ohm, 1/4 watt resistors. You need these to limit current to the LEDs

all ordered and on the way

 

I had a cheap solution/question for the speaker and the battery pack. Could I go search for a cheap radio at good will and salvage the parts from that?

And if so, what battery type should I look for in the radio? Cause if I understand this correctly, the right battery type/number of batteries will equate to the proper voltage/wattage for the speaker.

The speaker I recommended is $4, how much cheaper do you want to get. On the one hand you expressed concern about the short time frame, then you want to go shopping Goodwill in the hopes of finding the right part. Go figure! Have you even gone to the Jameco site to see what the total spending would be for the parts I recommended?

Forget about looking for batteries in an old radio! You will be using alkaline cells. New ones! The project board will require 3 alkaline cells = 4.5 volts. The amplifier will require at least 4 alkaline cells = 6 volts. I don't know how long this nerd convention will last, but you may end up spending more on batteries than the total project cost.

 

Fine fine it was just a suggestion to shortcut costs and or find something immediate in terms of batteries so I could start programming now. Anyways where do I get the alkaline cells? I don't remember you listing a site in your earlier posts. I'll check again and amend my post if I see you did mention it but other than that I searched Jameco and all I found were specialized offbrand batteries.

but you may end up spending more on batteries than the total project cost.

Wouldn't that be a bad thing?

 

all ordered and on the way

forget my last post - didn't see this one. Let me know when you get the parts from Jameco, we have work to do on your project board.

Fine fine it was just a suggestion to shortcut costs and or find something immediate in terms of batteries so I could start programming now. Anyways where do I get the alkaline cells? I don't remember you listing a site in your earlier posts. I'll check again and amend my post if I see you did mention it but other than that I searched Jameco and all I found were specialized offbrand batteries.

Wouldn't that be a bad thing?

Walmart, Radio Shack