Hi all.
I'm new to this forum, and it looks like it's a great resource for electronics enthusiasts. Before jumping to my question, I thought I'd first share a brief description of my project. I'm going to be building a little, battery powered handheld device in a project box to help synchronize audio and video when recording video on a DSLR and recording audio on a separate audio recorder. The device, also commonly referred to as a "bloop slate", is fairly simple and usually consists of a lamp and some variety of audio buzzer. The device is activated while the camera and sound are rolling, so the camera captures video of the LED turning on, the audio recorder captures the sound of the buzzer, and voila...you have a synchronization point for editing.
To help identify individual takes and for this simple system to work, a take number usually has to be written on the bloop slate in dry erase marker to identify the take visually, and someone has to call out the take number to identify the take number on the audio track. That said, I'd like to take this concept a few steps further and come up with a system where visual and audible indication are both handled electronically.
I've decided how I'm going to handle visual identification of the take number. I'm going to use three 7 segment displays, each driven by a CD4033 decade counter and pushbutton clock input, to facilitate the display of numbers 000 - 999. That's the easy part. The more difficult part is working out some sort of audible indication to correspond with the number being displayed, and that's where I'd like some advice and suggestions.
A couple of thoughts have crossed my mind...perhaps using 3 piezo buzzers of different frequencies, each corresponding to one of the 3 digits, and having each buzzer momentarily beep "x" number of times, depending on the value of its associated digit. Of course, to make this work and identifiable on the audio track, the buzzers would need to work in series, and so the electronic logistics and practicality of that are a little iffy. Another option that I like a little better would be somehow having the device play a quick 3-digit DTMF sequence of the digits on the three 7 segment displays, but then I don't know how easily DTMF tones can be generated. Regardless of which audible alert I choose, I'd also somehow like to use the CD4033 outputs to drive the audio circuitry (so that I don't have to manually enter the 3-digit number elsewhere for the audio circuitry).
So, is this doable? If so, is there something I could come up with using the CD4033 and other discrete components for the audio portion of the device, or is this starting to border on the type of project that would be better handled by some variety of microcontroller? Any suggestions or ideas, specifically regarding the audible identification of the displayed 3-digit number, would really be appreciated. Maybe I'm over-thinking the audible side of this project, and there are some ideas that are much simpler than what I've considered.
Thanks!
I'm new to this forum, and it looks like it's a great resource for electronics enthusiasts. Before jumping to my question, I thought I'd first share a brief description of my project. I'm going to be building a little, battery powered handheld device in a project box to help synchronize audio and video when recording video on a DSLR and recording audio on a separate audio recorder. The device, also commonly referred to as a "bloop slate", is fairly simple and usually consists of a lamp and some variety of audio buzzer. The device is activated while the camera and sound are rolling, so the camera captures video of the LED turning on, the audio recorder captures the sound of the buzzer, and voila...you have a synchronization point for editing.
To help identify individual takes and for this simple system to work, a take number usually has to be written on the bloop slate in dry erase marker to identify the take visually, and someone has to call out the take number to identify the take number on the audio track. That said, I'd like to take this concept a few steps further and come up with a system where visual and audible indication are both handled electronically.
I've decided how I'm going to handle visual identification of the take number. I'm going to use three 7 segment displays, each driven by a CD4033 decade counter and pushbutton clock input, to facilitate the display of numbers 000 - 999. That's the easy part. The more difficult part is working out some sort of audible indication to correspond with the number being displayed, and that's where I'd like some advice and suggestions.
A couple of thoughts have crossed my mind...perhaps using 3 piezo buzzers of different frequencies, each corresponding to one of the 3 digits, and having each buzzer momentarily beep "x" number of times, depending on the value of its associated digit. Of course, to make this work and identifiable on the audio track, the buzzers would need to work in series, and so the electronic logistics and practicality of that are a little iffy. Another option that I like a little better would be somehow having the device play a quick 3-digit DTMF sequence of the digits on the three 7 segment displays, but then I don't know how easily DTMF tones can be generated. Regardless of which audible alert I choose, I'd also somehow like to use the CD4033 outputs to drive the audio circuitry (so that I don't have to manually enter the 3-digit number elsewhere for the audio circuitry).
So, is this doable? If so, is there something I could come up with using the CD4033 and other discrete components for the audio portion of the device, or is this starting to border on the type of project that would be better handled by some variety of microcontroller? Any suggestions or ideas, specifically regarding the audible identification of the displayed 3-digit number, would really be appreciated. Maybe I'm over-thinking the audible side of this project, and there are some ideas that are much simpler than what I've considered.
Thanks!