So setting aside an hour should be moooore than sufficient, especially with
an experienced laserererer on hand to “help”
So… Let me know when you’re laserering if you could. Curious, and I have a niece who would want one.
1 Like
So… this happened tonight…
1 Like
That’s awesome!
1 Like
I think I want to find a single membrane switch so she can press button to cycle modes. I saw a 2-button one online, so I may have to get that one… I could always do one on-off, and the other to cycle modes I guess. I think I’m going to mount the Teensy inside a mickey-ear ha if I can find one in time, then the membrane switch can just be on her temple inside easy to find. Or I’ll get some black craft felt and make her a yamaka-like beanie to mount it to
What about a Hall Effect sensor. She can have a ring with a magnet on it!
1 Like
That would be cool. Maybe for the mk2. I want to replace the magnetometer with a gps unit so instead of “always point north” we can program it to “always point to the hotel” or “always point home” or whatever, but I just couldn’t swing the budget in time. Our anniversary is in 4 weeks and I still have three other projects that need to be done before our trip so I’m out of time and money for this one. I’m hoping to find a switch like this for her to toggle modes: Membrane LED Keypad + extras : ID 1333 : $2.95 : Adafruit Industries, Unique & fun DIY electronics and kits
1 Like
My mistake, I just looked up the price for one… I must have been confusing it with something else… I think I can scrounge up a spare $3. I’ll look into it.
I also have a couple of reed switches in my parts bins that could work too
We have hall effect sensors in the parts draws at VHS!
1 Like
All soldered up except he switch which I still need on the breadboard for now.
With a quarter for scale:
And finally, proof of life:
2 Likes
Picked up a princess wand at a dollar store today, it is rigged up with blinky LEDs and magnets mounted in the tip to work as her “magic wand” to change modes. It also triggers off a [cheap plastic] ring I buried a magnet under the stone setting, and her magnetite bracelet for when she doesn’t want to carry the wand. I think I may need to print off some business cards and make up a price before I let her wear this to Disney 
I’d like to print the next iteration of the wad, just for fun, but his works perfectly well and cost me $1.75 for the lights, batteries, and all… so it is hard to argue with that.
2 Likes
So I found a perfect hat box on Craigslist:
after testing to make sure everything will fit nicely:
I started building the insides to make it a presentation/display/storage box for the crown with custom foam insert for the crown, the wand, and the “magic” ring:
Next step is to wrap the interior foam in this blue-gray faux suede that I have left over from another project. Then I just have to finish assembling the points of the crown now that I have something to hide the assembled crown, and to put on the black felt “beanie” that will hide/hold the electronics.
5 Likes
She went to bed early tonight so I got the crown itself done. The black tail is a reed switch which tucks behind the ear and can be triggered be any magnet, like the ones in her magic wand and her magic ring above.
And I started wrapping/lining the parts of the box with the suede:
6 Likes
While wrapping this one up [literally] I’m thinking of what comes next.
The next project I want to work on for her are the firewalker shoes: https://youtu.be/gWZi71JkPAA
I want to add a sensor to the ball of the shoe as well to detect heel and toe touches for much more fun interaction and cooler animation effects. The FLORA on the outside of the shoe is horribly ugly so I think I’ll sew a Teensy into the tongue to be completely hidden, and some side-glow fiber optic cable along the shoe’s actual stitching to add Tron-lines as well which may or may not be tied in to the sole’s pattern.
With something like that it could be a fun project to add “do this dance to get this effect” where you log [10?] previous presses and compare them to the trigger string. If you do left-heel, left-toe, right-heel, right-toe then change to this mode. heel-heel-toe-toe does that, etc. even MORE fun to tie that in as the wireless trigger [a 433Mhz RF pair perhaps?] for the crown modes or to make the two sync. Tap left toe four times in a row to cycle the crown’s light pattern [replicate the magnet touch]. I’d have to play with the processing lag and battery drain to see if it is possible, but one mode which opens a channel to the crown and the crown displays pixels 0-29 matching the left shoe’s pattern and 30-59 matching the right shoe’s pattern would be amazing. Likely too much for a wearable right now, but it would be a fun experiment.
1 Like
There’s a lot you could do.
-
use your old friend the magnetic reed switch and a magnet in the heels
for the ol’ Ruby Slipped triple-tap. You could tie it in to a GPS so the
crown points to a specific location (like home) -
accelerometer in the toe to detect side-to-side and up-and-down motion
-
version of Dance-Dance-Revolution that just works on foot placement
instead of pads -
audio sensor and processing to pick up the beat of music
http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Make-LEDs-Flash-to-Music-with-an-Arduino/
Probably fun way to make step class slightly more interactive.
1 Like
C’est fini, mes amis! Thanks for following along. If you have any questions, feel free to hit me up but barring that, this will be the last update to this thread.
5 Likes
Terrific build, mate! Thanks for sharing it with us!
1 Like
SUPER well done dude. I might build one someday. SUPER impressed at the build quality. If it ever makes it to the space, everyone will want to be a princess.
3 Likes
This topic was automatically closed 916 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.