Silent Orchestra POV aka "Death Ring"

Description

The Silent Orchestra POV is an interactive 5' in diameter aluminum ring spun by a 3HP motor.
This project was initially designed as an art installation for our local regional Burning Man decompression: Youtopia!
This project has occupied my thoughts and evenings for well over a year.

Speed / RPM is managed by a hall effect sensor and an arduino powering a kelley controller:
Hall Effect Sensor -> Control Logic -> PWM -> LoPass R/C Filter -> 0-5v -> Kelly Controller

Physical position is determined by an MPU-6050 gyroscope on an Arduino and pushed out to the Pixel Pusher via Processing over WiFi.
MPU-6050 -> Position Logic -> Attitude -> Processing Image Mapping -> Leap Motion / Kinect interaction -> UDP -> Pixel Pusher

Power for the lighting is provided through the bottom by a MeanWell PSU at 5v/60A over a Mercotec Slip Ring http://www.mercotac.com/html/230.html
PSU -&

Details

The plan was to make a large interactive POV display for music events ( read Burning Man).

We went through multiple revisions and countless hours hacking, breaking, rebuilding, etc.

A lot of the challenges arose from the nearly impossible:

getting high RPMS without the ring distorting
network lag!!
syncing ring position with Processing sketch
interesting interactivity via sensors (Leap Motion, Kinect)
hacking without losing appendages

We have found solutions for all of these. But it would not be impossible without a team:

Phil Bremer aka Brems - admin, project management, co-designer
Brandon Smith aka Sproutworks - Processing code
Mark Liu - CAD Drivetrain Engineer
Tyler McGahee aka Hollywood - CAD sensor modelling, co-engineer

You can see it on the playa @ the Buddha Lounge this year at Burning Man 2014.

Files

IMG_3164.JPG

New ABS/Aluminum spindle for my new brushless DC drive for that crazy POV project. Gotta make some drive electronics next!

JPEG Image - 2.12 MB - 09/15/2017 at 17:55

Preview

Download

IMG_3163.JPG

New ABS/Aluminum spindle for my new brushless DC drive for that crazy POV project. Gotta make some drive electronics next!

JPEG Image - 2.13 MB - 09/15/2017 at 17:55

Preview

Download

IMG_3171.MOV

New test mount is rocking. Control electronics are next!!

quicktime - 8.97 MB - 09/15/2017 at 17:54

Download

IMG_3170.JPG

New test mount is rocking. Control electronics are next!!

JPEG Image - 1.42 MB - 09/15/2017 at 17:54

Preview

Download

Components

Project Logs

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It is alive!
boolean • 09/27/2017 at 18:59 • 3 comments

t

Rewiring the stator was a success.

Now more speed/power!
Maching some new parts for the BLDC
boolean • 07/20/2017 at 23:21 • 0 comments

tsMilling of the BLDC motor plate:

Milling the new driveshaft:
Going BLDC!
boolean • 06/26/2017 at 23:09 • 0 comments

I found a Brushless Washer motor on Ebay, and am going to use this for the drivetrain.
Brushed had too many problems at higher RPMs / prolonged usage.
Stay tuned!
MkV: The future
boolean • 08/21/2014 at 17:47 • 1 comment

This is the current version in progress. It will include improved interactivity, as well as better position sensing via the gyroscope.
It's Alive!!
boolean • 08/21/2014 at 17:44 • 0 comments
MkIII: Aluminum Ring
boolean • 08/21/2014 at 17:44 • 0 comments

A whole new design with drivetrain was drawn up in Solidworks and created at Makerplace and FablabSD (it's current home).
This new version adds:
a lightweight aircraft grade aluminum ring
CNC machined drive train
3HP AmpFlow brushed motor
Kelley controller with 0-5v sense for power
2x750 watt drive PSUs ( from robotics)
RPM control via Arduino, hall effect sensors and an R/C pass 0-5 Speed controller signal
physical positioning via a MPU-6050 ( for low RPM POV)
serial bluetooth position sending to processing
Drivetrain with Idler installed
Plasma'ed piece on ring assembly
Welder with the finished Al ring!
Rotating Electronics
Communications Diagram
Electronics Schematics
MkII: Wooden "Art" Ring
boolean • 08/21/2014 at 17:43 • 0 comments

We needed something a little stronger, so we created a CNC version of the ring with intersecting parts, wrapped in a custom aluminum band.
This was the version we shipped out to Youtopia!. Our ring was 5x as heavy and burnt out our drive mechanism (drill). Efforts were made on-site to hack a brushless drill to power the contraption, but fell short. Festival participants could spin the wheel manually as well as interact with the colors via the Leap Motion.
This iteration utilized a drill potentiometer for speed control, it was mostly either on or off.
MkI: PVC Ring
boolean • 08/21/2014 at 17:42 • 0 comments

We started off with just a PVC ring powered by an old drill. The pixel pusher network, slip-ring and interactive layers in processing were created during this stage.
Crucial piece: the high RPM slip ring
Here is the finished prototype taken slightly before the core snapped.