Hi guys.
I'm trying to design a laser/mirror ball setup for use in a nightclub. Basically what I want to do is stick a big mirror ball (well, half-ball) to the ceiling in the center of the room, on a motor so it rotates, and place lasers in four corners surrounding the mirrorball (equally spaced from each other and the ball).
For the lasers I will be using laser-pointers. I will be mounting 3 or 4 lasers in a row in a project box. The number of lasers depends on what colors I can get hold of. They will be mounted inside the box, pointing out the holes as per the diagram. (Nothing to scale).
There will be one of these boxes in each of the four corners of the room. Each box will be pointed toward the the mirrorball, so that the lasers reflect off the spinning ball.
Now for the difficult part. The lasers all need to be made to flash. I want these boxes to have a selection of 4 settings, controllable from buttons in the DJ booth.
1. With each beat of the music, one random laser from each box flashes.
2. With each beat of the music, a random laser from each box flashes, at a rate of 8 random flashes per box on each beat.
3. The lasers flash in order from 1 to 16 at a rate of 10 flashes per second.
4. Lasers flash randomly, one at a time from any of the boxes, at a rate of 16 flashes per second.
My thoughts on this are that for settings 1 and 2, each box would have to have its own circuit board to control those functions, and for 3 and 4, a central circuit board would be needed. Or would it be possible to do it all with one central circuit board?
My real dilemma here is I have no idea how to do this. I'm well experienced at soldering, I'm just certainly not up to scratch on the whole circuit-making thing. Does anybody have any info, advice, or tutorials on how one would go about making such a setup?
Cheers.
I'm trying to design a laser/mirror ball setup for use in a nightclub. Basically what I want to do is stick a big mirror ball (well, half-ball) to the ceiling in the center of the room, on a motor so it rotates, and place lasers in four corners surrounding the mirrorball (equally spaced from each other and the ball).
For the lasers I will be using laser-pointers. I will be mounting 3 or 4 lasers in a row in a project box. The number of lasers depends on what colors I can get hold of. They will be mounted inside the box, pointing out the holes as per the diagram. (Nothing to scale).
There will be one of these boxes in each of the four corners of the room. Each box will be pointed toward the the mirrorball, so that the lasers reflect off the spinning ball.
Now for the difficult part. The lasers all need to be made to flash. I want these boxes to have a selection of 4 settings, controllable from buttons in the DJ booth.
1. With each beat of the music, one random laser from each box flashes.
2. With each beat of the music, a random laser from each box flashes, at a rate of 8 random flashes per box on each beat.
3. The lasers flash in order from 1 to 16 at a rate of 10 flashes per second.
4. Lasers flash randomly, one at a time from any of the boxes, at a rate of 16 flashes per second.
My thoughts on this are that for settings 1 and 2, each box would have to have its own circuit board to control those functions, and for 3 and 4, a central circuit board would be needed. Or would it be possible to do it all with one central circuit board?
My real dilemma here is I have no idea how to do this. I'm well experienced at soldering, I'm just certainly not up to scratch on the whole circuit-making thing. Does anybody have any info, advice, or tutorials on how one would go about making such a setup?
Cheers.