https://community.element14.com/challenges-projects/project14/scifimovieprops/A visionary and teckkie savvy project that could be used as a sci fi prop, fictional or non - fictional. en-USTelligent Community 12https://community.element14.com/challenges-projects/project14/scifimovieprops/m/managed-videos/148558Wed, 15 Nov 2023 18:20:00 GMT93d5dcb4-84c2-446f-b2cb-99731719e767:1bf886b1-e615-45bd-9a0c-ff36be33596erobogaryA small sized Enviro-kind Disposal system utilizing the latest in Quantum singularity technology. The demo seen here is made using an Arduino Nano, 4 LEDs, an atomizer, 28 WS2812 LEDs, one high power COB Led, a magnetic reed switch , a small 5V re...https://community.element14.com/challenges-projects/project14/scifimovieprops/m/managed-videos/148492Thu, 02 Nov 2023 14:01:00 GMT93d5dcb4-84c2-446f-b2cb-99731719e767:9be6b380-daec-4813-9ceb-0f5b614fbc35amgalbuhttps://community.element14.com/challenges-projects/project14/scifimovieprops/m/managed-videos/148491Thu, 02 Nov 2023 14:00:00 GMT93d5dcb4-84c2-446f-b2cb-99731719e767:aa36d2fc-3355-4fc0-9a33-4620edb9a031amgalbuhttps://community.element14.com/challenges-projects/project14/scifimovieprops/b/blog/posts/dkThu, 02 Nov 2023 13:58:00 GMT93d5dcb4-84c2-446f-b2cb-99731719e767:d4441c60-ce2a-4492-951e-afb18174c855amgalbuSince the title of the post is auto explanatory of what I am going to build, I would like to know how many of the Element14 readers remember a tool which inspired the name of this project: yacc, an acronym for "yet another compiler of compilers". But let's focus on the build: the goal is create a replica of the flux capacitor, the device that makes time travel possible. The flux capacitor consisted of a box with three small, flashing incadescent lamps arranged as a "Y", located above and behind the passenger seat of the time machine. Here is a frame of the movie, where the flux capacitor is visible behind Einsten, just before the first time displacement (Credit https://backtothefuture.fandom.com/wiki/Flux_capacitor ) There a thousands of projects to create a replica of the flux capacitor, but all of them use a string of LEDs to simulate the flow of energy. I would like to follow a completely different approach: all the visual effects will be recreated by means of a Raspberry Pi board equipped with a 7 inches, 800x480 screen. So, the plan is Make a video that recreates the visual effects seen in the film Play the video continuously on the the Raspberry Pi using VLC. I will also some physical buttons to change the video and step volume up and down Find some recycled object to reproduce the incandescent lamps. Fun fact: the original flux capacitor props used high pressure gas relays as the active components which, while operating, created the steady pulsing which is seen when the time circuits are turned on Find a box to host all the components 1. Make a video When it comes to create video editing, my preferred choice is VSDC, a free yet very powerful video editor. I guess it would be incredibly boring to go through the steps I followed to create the video. Suffice it to say that I first created an animation with the energy flow, then I cut-and-pasted this component three time to create the three flows that converge toward the center. For the lighting effect, I downloaded a clip from pixabay . The clip had a chroma key, which I easily removed thanks to the powerful tools included in VSDC This is the final result community.element14.com/.../flux1.mp4 2. Play the video To play the video, I am going to use VLC, which is preinstalled in all the Raspberry Pi images. The nice thing here is that I would like to control the player by means of some physical buttons. To achieve this, I installed a Pimoroni automation hat mini on the back of the Raspberry Pi. The Pimoroni automation hat has three digital inputs, that are connected to three switches., that has the following functions cycle through the videos step volume up step volume down To install the libraries to control the Pimoroni automation hat mini, just run the following commands (refer to Pimoroni github for the other install options) curl https://get.pimoroni.com/automationhat | bash sudo apt-get install pimoroni This will install some useful examples in Pimoroni/automation/hat-min/examples. Now, we want to control the VLC player from the python script. To do this, VLC will be launched with the following command lines os.system("killall vlc") os.system("DISPLAY=:0 vlc -f --intf rc --rc-host localhost:4212 &"); time.sleep(2.0) I kill any previous VLC instance, launch the VC application in fullscreen mode (option -f) and start a CLI interface server so that I can send commands through a local network connection We can now send command to the VLC player using nc localhst 4212 This command opens an interactive console. Type "help" to print all the supported command. Since we want to automate the execution of these commands, we can pass to nc a file with the list of commands to execute in sequence nc localhost 4212 < commands.txt where commands.txt is a text file that contains valid commands. For example, to play a video you need to create a file with the following lines add fluxcapacitor.avi play repeat on quit The first command adds the given file to the playlist, the second line actually starts the video. Then "repeat on" puts the video in loop. Finally, the last line exits the interactive console. Here is the full Python code to play a video file def initPlaylist(): global files global fileIdx with open("/tmp/cmd.txt",'w') as tf: tf.write("add Videos/"+files[fileIdx]+"\n") tf.write("repeat on\n") tf.write("play\n") tf.write("quit\n") os.system("nc localhost 4212 < /tmp/cmd.txt") The files variable is an array with all the files stored in the Videos folder. The array is populated when the script starts by the following lines files = [f for f in os.listdir("/home/admin/Videos/") if f.endswith("mp4")] files = sorted(files) print("Available files ",files) fileIdx is the index of the video to play. I had to implement a weird logic because VLC CLI uses a sort of "autoincrement" index that changes every time a new video is added to a playlist. I mean, a video is not identified by its position in the playlist, but by a value that is incremented every time a new video is added to the play list. So, to change the video and activate the loop mode, I have to delete the previous video. I need to keep track of the "autoincrement" index - this is what the variable playIdx is for add the new video activate the loop mode exit the CLI Here is the the full code to select the next video to play def playNext(): global playIdx global fileIdx with open("/tmp/cmd.txt",'w') as tf: tf.write("delete "+str(playIdx)+"\n") playIdx = playIdx+1 fileIdx = (fileIdx+1) % len(files) print("Playing file "+files[fileIdx]) tf.write("add Videos/"+files[fileIdx]+"\n") tf.write("repeat on\n") tf.write("quit\n") os.system("nc localhost 4212 < /tmp/cmd.txt") 3. Reading the buttons The YACF has three buttons, placed on the box's left side: Green button: volume up White button: select next video Blue button: volume down The status of the three buttons are continuously read inside the script's main loop and, when one of the buttons is pressed, the corresponding action is executed print("Started"); while True: if automationhat.input[2].is_on(): # volume up print("Volume up") volumeUp() if automationhat.input[0].is_on(): # volume down print("Volume down") volumeDown() if automationhat.input[1].is_on(): # play next video playNext() time.sleep(1.0) 4. Autostart the script To launch the script at boot, I created a systemd service. I created a file with the content shown below and saved the file as flux.service into the default folder for system service, namely /etc/systemd/system [Unit] Description=Flux Capacitor [Service] ExecStart=/usr/bin/python3 flux.py WorkingDirectory=/home/pi/ StandardOutput=inherit StandardError=inherit Restart=always User=pi [Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target To enable the script, run the following commands sudo systemctl daemon-reload sudo systemctl enable flux.service 5. Recreate the appearance of the flux capacitor My goal is to recreate the appearance of the flux capacitor by means of recycled materials. I took three transparent pens to recreate the three "channels" where energy flows. The three circular objects at the end of the three legs of the "Y" are made from small candles. Finally, the three connectors has been 3D printed, where the cables are just probes of an old multimeter. 6. Place all the components in a box Finally, all the components have been placed in a cardboard box that used to contain an evaluation kit of some Quectel devices. The cardboard fits perfectly the 7 inches display and, besides that, has a nice magnetic lock. First, I cut an hole in the front cover to make the Raspberry Pi's screen and the other components visible. Then, the box has been completely sprayed with a black paint. 7. Final result Source code and videos are available on my github community.element14.com/.../PluxCapacitorBuild.aviyafcpimoroniraspberry piscifimoviepropschautomation hat minihttps://community.element14.com/challenges-projects/project14/scifimovieprops/b/blog/posts/wrongco-quantum-mini-dispose-it-all-with-enviro-kind-technologyThu, 02 Nov 2023 04:02:00 GMT93d5dcb4-84c2-446f-b2cb-99731719e767:1f86f1e9-1987-4fc2-b781-ae16ec80db51robogaryFor your Enviro-kind Disposal needs : presenting the WRONGCO Quantum Mini Dispose-It-All with Enviro-kind Technology The action packed video of this scifi product in operation: https://youtu.be/2_IlNWCMjsI www.youtube.com/watch The fail safe operation includes an infallible quantum farady cage with magnetic reed switch door interlocks, a cooling system for the transport bed, and an intuitive operator controls. With WRONGCO, it just has to be right. This disposal transports any trash, garbage, junk, criminal evidence, etc, into quantum something-ness. We aren't sure where or when, but for sure, it's gone forever. The Dispose-It-all can be purchased in 3 sizes: the Mini, The Maxi, and the Truck. The controls use an Arduino Nano, a N.O. pushbutton, a buzzer, 4 LEDs, 28 WS2812 LEDs in 3 strips, a COB LED, an FET driver, a 5V relay, an atomizer, and a smidge of genius. The WS2812s and COB LED are underneath the transport pad. The code // NeoPixel Ring simple sketch (c) 2013 Shae Erisson // released under the GPLv3 license to match the rest of the AdaFruit NeoPixel library #include #ifdef __AVR__ #include #endif // Which pin on the Arduino is connected to the NeoPixels? // On a Trinket or Gemma we suggest changing this to 1 #define PIN 5 // How many NeoPixels are attached to the Arduino? #define NUMPIXELS 24 // When we setup the NeoPixel library, we tell it how many pixels, and which pin to use to send signals. // Note that for older NeoPixel strips you might need to change the third parameter--see the strandtest // example for more information on possible values. Adafruit_NeoPixel pixels = Adafruit_NeoPixel(NUMPIXELS, PIN, NEO_GRB + NEO_KHZ800); int delayval = 200; // delay for half a second int StartPB=HIGH; int LidOpen=HIGH; int CycleNotRunning=HIGH; void setup() { // This is for Trinket 5V 16MHz, you can remove these three lines if you are not using a Trinket #if defined (__AVR_ATtiny85__) if (F_CPU == 16000000) clock_prescale_set(clock_div_1); #endif // End of trinket special code pixels.begin(); // This initializes the NeoPixel library. pinMode(2, INPUT_PULLUP); //Start PB , trigger on LOW pinMode(3, OUTPUT); //buzzer ////D5 is reserved for WS2812 string pinMode(6, OUTPUT); //RED IL - process started pinMode(7, OUTPUT); //cover on - mag sw closed pinMode(8, OUTPUT); // YELLOW LED - cooldown cycle pinMode(9, OUTPUT); //safe to open pinMode(10, INPUT_PULLUP); //mag sw LID OPEN pinMode(11, OUTPUT); // MIST RELAY pinMode(12, OUTPUT); //COB LED MOSFET driver //initialize the LED bar for(int i=0;i<24;i++) { pixels.setPixelColor((i), pixels.Color(0,0,0)); //off pixels.show(); // This sends the updated pixel color to the hardware. delay(5); } } void LEDSCAN () { for(int i=0;i<12;i++) { // pixels.Color takes RGB values, from 0,0,0 up to 255,255,255 pixels.setPixelColor(i, pixels.Color(200,0,0)); // Moderately bright green color. pixels.setPixelColor((i-1), pixels.Color(0,0,0)); // Moderately bright green color. pixels.setPixelColor((23-i), pixels.Color(200,0,0)); // Moderately bright green color. pixels.setPixelColor(((23-i)+1), pixels.Color(0,0,0)); // Moderately bright green color. if (i==11){ pixels.setPixelColor((11), pixels.Color(0,0,0)); }// Moderately bright green color. pixels.show(); // This sends the updated pixel color to the hardware. delay(delayval); // Delay for a period of time (in milliseconds). } for(int i=0;i<12;i++) { // pixels.Color takes RGB values, from 0,0,0 up to 255,255,255 pixels.setPixelColor(i, pixels.Color(200,100,0)); // Moderately bright green color. pixels.setPixelColor((i-1), pixels.Color(0,0,0)); // Moderately bright green color. pixels.setPixelColor((23-i), pixels.Color(200,100,0)); // Moderately bright green color. pixels.setPixelColor(((23-i)+1), pixels.Color(0,0,0)); // Moderately bright green color. if (i==11){ pixels.setPixelColor((11), pixels.Color(0,0,0)); }// Moderately bright green color. pixels.show(); // This sends the updated pixel color to the hardware. delay(150); // Delay for a period of time (in milliseconds). } for(int i=0;i<12;i++) { // pixels.Color takes RGB values, from 0,0,0 up to 255,255,255 pixels.setPixelColor(i, pixels.Color(100,200,0)); // Moderately bright green color. pixels.setPixelColor((i-1), pixels.Color(0,0,0)); // Moderately bright green color. pixels.setPixelColor((23-i), pixels.Color(100,200,0)); // Moderately bright green color. pixels.setPixelColor(((23-i)+1), pixels.Color(0,0,0)); // Moderately bright green color. if (i==11){ pixels.setPixelColor((11), pixels.Color(0,0,0)); }// Moderately bright green color. pixels.show(); // This sends the updated pixel color to the hardware. delay(100); // Delay for a period of time (in milliseconds). } for(int i=0;i<12;i++) { // pixels.Color takes RGB values, from 0,0,0 up to 255,255,255 pixels.setPixelColor(i, pixels.Color(0,200,100)); // Moderately bright green color. pixels.setPixelColor((i-1), pixels.Color(0,0,0)); // Moderately bright green color. pixels.setPixelColor((23-i), pixels.Color(0,200,100)); // Moderately bright green color. pixels.setPixelColor(((23-i)+1), pixels.Color(0,0,0)); // Moderately bright green color. if (i==11){ pixels.setPixelColor((11), pixels.Color(0,0,0)); }// Moderately bright green color. pixels.show(); // This sends the updated pixel color to the hardware. delay(50); // Delay for a period of time (in milliseconds). } for(int i=0;i<12;i++) { // pixels.Color takes RGB values, from 0,0,0 up to 255,255,255 pixels.setPixelColor(i, pixels.Color(0,100,200)); // Moderately bright green color. pixels.setPixelColor((i-1), pixels.Color(0,0,0)); // Moderately bright green color. pixels.setPixelColor((23-i), pixels.Color(0,100,200)); // Moderately bright green color. pixels.setPixelColor(((23-i)+1), pixels.Color(0,0,0)); // Moderately bright green color. if (i==11){ pixels.setPixelColor((11), pixels.Color(0,0,0)); }// Moderately bright green color. pixels.show(); // This sends the updated pixel color to the hardware. delay(25); // Delay for a period of time (in milliseconds). } for(int i=0;i<12;i++) { // pixels.Color takes RGB values, from 0,0,0 up to 255,255,255 pixels.setPixelColor(i, pixels.Color(0,50,200)); // Moderately bright green color. pixels.setPixelColor((i-1), pixels.Color(0,0,0)); // Moderately bright green color. pixels.setPixelColor((23-i), pixels.Color(0,50,200)); // Moderately bright green color. pixels.setPixelColor(((23-i)+1), pixels.Color(0,0,0)); // Moderately bright green color. if (i==11){ pixels.setPixelColor((11), pixels.Color(0,0,0)); }// Moderately bright green color. pixels.show(); // This sends the updated pixel color to the hardware. delay(15); // Delay for a period of time (in milliseconds). } for(int i=0;i<12;i++) { // pixels.Color takes RGB values, from 0,0,0 up to 255,255,255 pixels.setPixelColor(i, pixels.Color(0,0,200)); // Moderately bright green color. pixels.setPixelColor((i-1), pixels.Color(0,0,0)); // Moderately bright green color. pixels.setPixelColor((23-i), pixels.Color(0,0,200)); // Moderately bright green color. pixels.setPixelColor(((23-i)+1), pixels.Color(0,0,0)); // Moderately bright green color. if (i==11){ pixels.setPixelColor((11), pixels.Color(0,0,0)); }// Moderately bright green color. pixels.show(); // This sends the updated pixel color to the hardware. delay(10); // Delay for a period of time (in milliseconds). } for (int k=0; k<15;k++) { for(int i=0;i<12;i++) { // pixels.Color takes RGB values, from 0,0,0 up to 255,255,255 pixels.setPixelColor(i, pixels.Color(0,0,220)); // Moderately bright green color. pixels.setPixelColor((i-1), pixels.Color(0,0,0)); // Moderately bright green color. pixels.setPixelColor((23-i), pixels.Color(0,0,220)); // Moderately bright green color. pixels.setPixelColor(((23-i)+1), pixels.Color(0,0,0)); // Moderately bright green color. if (i==11){ pixels.setPixelColor((11), pixels.Color(0,0,0)); }// Moderately bright green color. pixels.show(); // This sends the updated pixel color to the hardware. delay(10); // Delay for a period of time (in milliseconds). } } } void Beeper () { for (int j=0; j<25; j++) { tone(3,3000,800); delay(100); tone(3,1000,800); delay(100); } } void Beeper1 () { for (int j=0; j<10; j++) { tone(3,3000,800); tone(3,4000,200); tone(3,1000,800); } } void LED_Cooldown() { for(int m=0;m<150;m++) { for(int i=0;i<12;i++) { // pixels.Color takes RGB values, from 0,0,0 up to 255,255,255 pixels.setPixelColor((i), pixels.Color((200-m),0,(180-m))); // Moderately bright green color. // pixels.setPixelColor((i-1), pixels.Color(0,0,0)); // Moderately bright green color. pixels.setPixelColor((23-i), pixels.Color((200-m),0, (180-m))); // Moderately bright green color. // pixels.setPixelColor(((23-i)+1), pixels.Color(0,0,0)); // Moderately bright green color. if (i==11){ pixels.setPixelColor((11), pixels.Color(0,0,0)); }// Moderately bright green color. pixels.show(); // This sends the updated pixel color to the hardware. delay(15); // Delay for a period of time (in milliseconds). } delay(10); } for(int i=0;i<12;i++) { // pixels.Color takes RGB values, from 0,0,0 up to 255,255,255 // pixels.setPixelColor((i), pixels.Color((255-m),(245-m),0)); // Moderately bright green color. pixels.setPixelColor((i-1), pixels.Color(0,0,0)); // Moderately bright green color. // pixels.setPixelColor((23-i), pixels.Color((255-m),(245-m),0)); // Moderately bright green color. pixels.setPixelColor(((23-i)+1), pixels.Color(0,0,0)); // Moderately bright green color. if (i==11){ pixels.setPixelColor((11), pixels.Color(0,0,0)); }// if (i==11){ pixels.setPixelColor((12), pixels.Color(0,0,0)); }// pixels.show(); // This sends the updated pixel color to the hardware. delay(10); // Delay for a period of time (in milliseconds). } } void loop() { // For a set of NeoPixels the first NeoPixel is 0, second is 1, all the way up to the count of pixels minus one. /// drive white LED9 cycle not running CycleNotRunning=HIGH; if (CycleNotRunning==HIGH){ digitalWrite(9, HIGH);} else { digitalWrite(9,LOW);} /// serve LID OPEN LED LidOpen = digitalRead(10); //READS HIGH WHEN DOOR IS OPEN if (LidOpen==LOW) { digitalWrite(7, HIGH);}//LID OPEN LED BLUE else { digitalWrite(7,LOW);} // LID OPEN LED off BLUE /// if start pressed with lid open - annunciate condition by buzzer and flash blue LED StartPB = digitalRead(2); // read input 2 START PB has pullup, if ((StartPB==LOW)&&(LidOpen==HIGH)) ///LIDOPEN HIGH lites its LED { Beeper(); for(int i=0;i<12;i++) { digitalWrite(7,LOW); // LID OPEN LED off BLUE delay(300); digitalWrite(7,HIGH); // LID OPEN LED off BLUE delay(300); } } StartPB = digitalRead(2); // read input 2 START PB has pullup, if ((StartPB==LOW)&&(LidOpen==LOW)) { digitalWrite(9,LOW); //turn off CYCLE NOT RUNNING LED digitalWrite(6,HIGH); //turn ON RUNNING LED // tone(pin, frequency, duration) frequency: the frequency of the tone in hertz. Allowed data types: unsigned int. // duration: the duration of the tone in milliseconds (optional). Allowed data types: unsigned long. tone(3,500,1000); delay(250); tone(3,1000,1000); delay(250); tone(3,2000,1000); delay(250); tone(3,2500,1000); delay(250); tone(3,3000,1000); delay(250); tone(3,3500,1000); delay(250); digitalWrite(11,HIGH); // start mist delay(200); digitalWrite(11,LOW); // start mist LEDSCAN(); digitalWrite(12,HIGH); // flash COB ON delay(400); digitalWrite(12,LOW); // flash COB OFF digitalWrite(8,HIGH); //turn ON CYCLE COOL DOWN LED_Cooldown(); delay(2000); /// cooldown time /// ----- stop mist by closing pb twice ------ digitalWrite(11,HIGH); // start mist delay(200); digitalWrite(11,LOW); // start mist delay(500); digitalWrite(11,HIGH); // start mist delay(200); digitalWrite(11,LOW); // start mist digitalWrite(8,LOW); //turn OFF CYCLE COOL DOWN digitalWrite(6,LOW); //turn off CYCLE NOT RUNNING LED Beeper1(); } }quantumarduino nanorobogaryrubber duckscifimoviepropscharduino