Electroduct
It's a strange thing for us humans. Are we afraid of much? darkness, monsters from ancient legends, ghosts, etc. How many films are being filmed at the same time? Horror; Horror writers such as Howard Phillips Lovecraft and Stephen King are constantly reprinted and breaking popularity records. So, maybe you can say that we love to be afraid and move on? that we like to scare ourselves. The best proof of this is Halloween, one of the most popular holidays in the US, which came to Poland in the early 90s. Has it become especially popular among young people? many days before it is ready? awful? disguises, masks and various methods of intimidation. Of course, such an interesting topic could not go unnoticed by electronic engineers. Formerly simple integrated circuits, and now microprocessors open up wide possibilities and invent various horror stories. I remember that about a dozen years ago, a series of putties was created in the AVT studio with the goal of “making love?” other people's lives. The most popular among them was "Tormentor". There was a twilight switch connected to a single beep generator on a small printed circuit board. Thrown to friends or brothers and sisters, the system began its activities after dark. At that time, he made single, hard-to-distinguish sounds at various random intervals. Its detection was so difficult that turning on the light blocked the toy (?) and interrupted the emission of sounds. The huge popularity of this set can prove what you want? other times it's still hot.
The obsessive theme of ghosts and intimidation was picked up by the Belgian company Velleman. Due to the big steps ahead, in November I received a trial kit marked MK166. This is a mini kit that allows you to assemble an electronic sprite yourself. The small toy is activated by sound, for example, when a person walks by, it blinks its red eyes and makes terrifying noises. Interestingly, the board on which the electronic circuits are placed is covered with a piece of white material and equipped with a miniature electric motor. On its axis is a small load. The motor starts at the same time as the sound and causes the whole figure of the spirit to vibrate and the thin fabric to ripple. An impression, especially in a dark room? cool. The ghost is equipped with a whole set of different, randomly generated sounds. The whole set will be a wonderful gift and surprise for Halloween lovers.
It's time to describe the set. In a small box you will find all the elements needed to assemble our sprite (except for the battery - two AAA batteries). And here's a little curiosity. A piece of cardboard covering the parts box, which has assembly instructions printed on it, as well as a description of the device in several languages. We will find him among others. in English, Italian, German and, interestingly, in the language of our neighbors? Czechs. Unfortunately, there is no Polish description.
Inside you will find a set of electronic components, a small electric motor, a printed circuit board, assembly parts and documentation. There is also the previously mentioned piece of white cloth. So, we get everything you need to assemble the electrode. From the tools we need a soldering iron, tin, tweezers, a screwdriver and pliers for trimming the stings, which is quite a basic set.
The assembly instructions are very clear. The drawings guide you step by step. All stages of assembly of elements are numbered, the elements themselves have a decoding of the marking. This is especially important in the case of resistors, unfortunately not everyone knows and can decipher the multi-colored stripes. The polarities and how they are placed in the system are shown next to the rest of the elements. Unfortunately, there is no circuit diagram, but the circuit is not too complicated, it is made on a small, eight-pin microcontroller. He is responsible for controlling (starting the toy with sound), starting the motor that causes spiritual vibrations, turning on the LED eyes, and making various terrifying sounds. For their radiation, a small loudspeaker is provided. The set of sounds is quite large, so there is no impression that the sprite behaves the same way every time it fires.
The method of fixing mechanical elements is presented in an interesting way. The motor is just soldered into the board. For this, a 60 W soldering iron is useful. An element is also soldered on the motor axis, which is responsible for the vibrations of the toy. A relatively heavy speaker should be attached with hot glue.
The printed circuit board is the main structural framework. In addition to all the electronic components, we also attach a battery compartment and a power switch to it. Its surface is covered with a solder mask, i.e. a layer of paint that prevents tin from sticking (except for the solder pads, of course) and the possibility of a short circuit. This greatly simplifies soldering for even more efficient electronics. On the assembly side of the elements, there is a detailed drawing of their location with the corresponding descriptions. In the upper part there is a hole through which the sprite can be hung, for example, in a window. The shape of the tile resembles a pointed turret and is an excellent support for a white? spiritual? bathrobes.
The toy is very easy to assemble. We start by soldering the resistors, then solder the motor with the eccentric. Then transistors, capacitors, mechanical elements, i.e. battery compartment, loudspeaker, microphone and switch. A little attention is required to solder the eyes of the ghost, i.e. two LEDs. They need to be installed at a certain height above the tile surface. The final part is embedding the microprocessor into the socket.
Now you can cover everything with a white robe and prepare a suitable pendant.
The assembled system requires simple setup. You need to set the trigger level for our spike by adjusting the potentiometer on the board. This is very simple because this procedure is provided in the microcontroller software. After turning off the power and turning the potentiometer, restart the system. Adjust the potentiometer until the LED eyes turn off. Now we wait 15 seconds and the system goes into normal operation. I.e ? ready for electro-scare!
