Small circuits - Ideas needed for my Fidget Cube!

RE: Small circuits - Ideas needed for my Fidget Cube!

kellyhensen — Thu, 16 Dec 2021 17:12:13 GMT

Katie's first episode about making this concept a reality is live: /challenges-projects/element14-presents/project-videos/w/documents/27383/episode-528-let-s-build-an-electronic-fidget-cube

RE: Small circuits - Ideas needed for my Fidget Cube!

beacon_dave — Fri, 10 Dec 2021 22:33:13 GMT

Slightly off on a tangent but how about a small infinity mirror cube in a matching form factor ?
Have an accelerometer so that you can shake it to generate a pattern and then when you rotate the cube the pattern appears to move in that direction.

RE: Small circuits - Ideas needed for my Fidget Cube!

thewildotter — Tue, 26 Oct 2021 17:16:34 GMT

TV Mute is a "Killer" App

Another "killer" application might be a "learning" remote control. Then you could capture your high use remote functions and retain your TV(etc.,...) control without laying down your fidget to pick up the TV remote. Mute springs to mind as a great button to have it memorize so you could turn down those annoying super-loud commercials they like to blast at you after you have raised the volume to hear whispered dialog. So, the app would have an infrared detector and an infrared emitter attached to appropriate I/Os on a microprocessor. One button on your PCB would tell the fidget to record until you release it. You press that button and then the mute button on the real remote, then release. Another "playback" button on your fidget PCB would then play back the last recorded remote command. Since mute is usually a toggle, one remembered remote command is enough to shut up those annoyingly loud advertisements. You just press the playback button again to unmute once the annoyance passes. I sure would like to have a smart fidget with that feature.

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thewildotter

RE: Small circuits - Ideas needed for my Fidget Cube!

thewildotter — Tue, 26 Oct 2021 16:38:48 GMT

"Star Trek Music"

An interesting specific application might be a GSR Theramin. Use high impedance inputs to opamps from several finger touch spots. Use about a 1/4 second sampling clock. Change your finger pressures on the beat of this slow clock. Sample the GSR of several fingers to capture the pressure values to use to provide the Theramin parameters for the next slow time slice. Output the GSR results into a laptop scale speaker behind the (holy to let sound through) PCB. Learn to play the intro music to the original "Star Trek" TV series (a Theramin instrumental) and other classic Theramin pieces. Some of the fingers may be direct analog with no clock to allow live production of the Theramin frequency slides. With this PCB you will be able to fidget to music of your own creation. There are microprocessors with AtoD converters and PWM output which might make this application a very simple PCB with wildly customizable software. It could possibly include bars of pre-recorded Theremin music that you can lip-sync with your fingers and appear to be quite the musician.

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thewildotter

RE: Small circuits - Ideas needed for my Fidget Cube!

thewildotter — Tue, 26 Oct 2021 14:56:42 GMT

Consider "Touch Switches"

Physical switches tend to be a bit large. There are lots of "touch switch" examples online using cmos IC's (eg. How to Build a Touch Sensor Circuit with a NAND Gate chip ) which only need a couple of exposed PCB trace "probe points" in the HMI (human machine interface) area. Such switches might implement "momentary contact", latched, debounced, auto repeat,... functions into these small spots on the PCB. Many cmos MSI (eg., 74HC4011,...) chips have been revived in surface mount versions possibly making them small enough to be located very close to a trace to be touched. A "crossbar" switch design on your PCB could provide a very large number of switches in a very small area. Latched switches might be mounted with an LED to show which switches are in which state with either on/off or color either at the switch or elsewhere. Using such "touch switches" can dramatically shrink the input "human/machine interface" (HMI) footprint on your fidget, thus greatly expanding the range of applications you might implement. Touch switches can be one finger spanning two traces, one hand on one trace and a finger on another, one hand on a trace and another hand holding a stylus to touch points in an HMI input area. An HMI input area might map to a separate HMI output "screen" far enough away to be seen without the input finger obstruction. There is a whole world of cleverness these I/O area shrinking tricks can make accessible since they greatly increase the HMI input resolution.

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thewildotter

RE: Small circuits - Ideas needed for my Fidget Cube!

cstanton — Tue, 26 Oct 2021 14:55:13 GMT

I have thoughts,

Would the sides ever connect to inter-communicate across an edge?

Would that happen on the underside so the 'internal' of the cube?

Would the cube ever be enclosed? How would it 'latch onto' or 'attach' or 'plug into' the PCB if so? Maybe a mounting hole in the PCB design for that to happen.

Could a purposeful 'clear' side of the cube be done where seeing the inside is a fidget in and of itself? Visible orientation reaction inside the cube?

RE: Small circuits - Ideas needed for my Fidget Cube!

beacon_dave — Mon, 25 Oct 2021 16:20:27 GMT

Rolling ball maze puzzle but with an accelerometer and small display.

Digital compass.

Sound to light / spectrum analyser / scope.

Some sort of "The Galaxy is on Orion's Belt" thing.

Spirit level - either LED crosshairs or OLED display.

Countdown timer.

RE: Small circuits - Ideas needed for my Fidget Cube!

dougw — Mon, 25 Oct 2021 16:09:16 GMT

The fidget idea suggests more sensors and actuators for interactivity.

Sound output of some sort. Temperature sensor.

Perhaps a piezo disk which can be a shock/vibration sensor or a buzzer.

Maybe a super cap inside.

How about an ESD sensor/ discharger.

Maybe a light sensor (a light or thermal Geiger counter)

RE: Small circuits - Ideas needed for my Fidget Cube!

wolfgangfriedrich — Mon, 25 Oct 2021 15:48:48 GMT

One side has to be a dice.

7 LEDs to show the numbers 1 through 6 as they appear on a 6-sided dice and one button to roll the dice. Maybe even an accelerometer, to show a result when you literally roll the dice.

RE: Small circuits - Ideas needed for my Fidget Cube!

fmilburn — Mon, 25 Oct 2021 15:32:32 GMT

It could have a face to tell time with perhaps hex and/or binary modes and maybe an alarm.