Audio Cube

Description

This is a die (Dice singular) that will let the user know what side it has landed on with an audio message. It uses an ADXL345, an ATMEGA328 and a micro sd card to store the audio. The idea is that this could be useful for people with visual imparements but also fun for people without sight difficulty.

It is currently in the prototype phase but I am designing a custom board split into three sections.

Power:
Lithium Polymer battery boosted to 5v
Amp:
A small 1 watt amplifier board and speaker
Brain:
The ATMEGA, SD Card and ADXL345 with level shifiting

Details

The Audio cube is meant primarily to assist people with disabilities that would benefit from audio cues and tactile interaction. It is designed to be rechargeable, portable and fun. At the moment is is still, after a couple of years, lingering in the prototype phase. It's progress reflects my own progress with learning electronics, from playing with pre-made modules to designing my own power system and circuit boards.

I hope to allow the cube to be solar powered (already possible with the charging circuit I have implemented) and the audio to be easily altered for the users needs.

The project uses open source libraries from TMRPCM (WAV playback) and for now the Adafruit ADXL345 library.

I have completed one large prototype, it actually freakin' works! Ans I am now working on a smaller cube, not too small though, with SMD parts and an integraded Lithium polymer battery boosted to 5v.

There is scope to create a second cube and have it communicate with the other to add up dice rolls and communicate the combined score.

You can find more details and all of the code and current eagle files here - http://davidjwatts.com/audio-cube-thehackadayprize/

Components

1 × AXDL345 Accellerometer

1 × ATMEGA328 Microprocessors, Microcontrollers, DSPs / ARM, RISC-Based Microcontrollers

1 × MicroSD Card

1 × TPA2005D1 Audio ICs / Audio Amplifiers

1 × LT1302 Power Management ICs / Switching Regulators and Controllers

Project Logs

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The brain is alive!
David Watts • 06/02/2015 at 17:50 • 2 comments

Finally the smd prototype is alive and working, better than I expected at this stage. More problems in the schematics became apparent, hence the jumper wires.
Still more to do but I am please with the progress so far. Next I need to get it into a rollable format.
Power board ahoy!
David Watts • 06/02/2015 at 17:48 • 0 comments

The power board has been populated and is actually working, a few problems with some bad soldering means that the soft latching button isn't working as it should.
Moving ahead with the prototype
David Watts • 06/02/2015 at 17:45 • 0 comments

Finally I have all the boards produced but I am having a few problems with the Audio section of the cube.
Where it all started
David Watts • 08/10/2014 at 11:42 • 0 comments

I started this project last year (Sept 2013) and I thought I was going to leave it, I didn't have the knowledge or experience to carry it forward. I have since developed my skills, made loads of mistakes and tried a hundered projects in between.
Here is an previously unreleased video of how it all started, at that point I wasn't going to keep it up.

View all 4 project logs

Discussions

aaaaaa wrote 02/09/2023 at 14:46

is possible create similar device? http://www.whence.com/minimodem/ or https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aicodix.rattlegram&gl=US

Are you sure? yes | no

opr8186 wrote 12/02/2022 at 15:36

best audio pro Audio Pro is a brand that is tried and tested by thousands of happy customers amounting to many great reviews. With a range that offers excellent performance and unmatched versatility - Audio Pro has a speaker that will suit almost any budget.

Are you sure? yes | no

Machinehum (Ryan Walker) wrote 07/06/2017 at 03:25

Awesome!

Are you sure? yes | no

davedarko wrote 08/10/2014 at 13:13

I wonder if the accelerometer could be replaced by a metal ball shorting contacts with a resistor value for each side, so that an analog pin could be enough to detect the side.

Are you sure? yes | no

David Watts wrote 08/10/2014 at 13:32

I thought the same but with an accelerometer I can have varying degrees of confidence about the result. So if it lands on a slope or at an angle, I can still tell which side is mostly faing up. It also means I can detect when it has been rolled and not just moved/picked up. Tilt sensors are pretty cheap too but they could fail mechanically after a while.

Are you sure? yes | no

davedarko wrote 08/09/2014 at 18:20

I like the idea of connecting 2 dices/cubes and with that implemented you could easily connect this to a computer and interface dice rolling games. You could also make up some games where it would not be numbers but things, actions or colors. You should declare a master/slave situation or otherwise both dices would talk. I think you have to add some more logs, add the video to the links and add the links in general to make this a valid entry, so you might want to check the lists again.

Are you sure? yes | no

David Watts wrote 08/10/2014 at 12:05

Thanks for the advice mate. I have started putting together information for the logs. I also threw up a prototype video I made.

Are you sure? yes | no

Audio Cube

Description

Details

Components

Project Logs

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The brain is alive!

Power board ahoy!

Moving ahead with the prototype

Where it all started

Discussions

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