ArcReactorX

I present to you my project the ARC ReactorX.

It has 7 animations/modes to flaunt including a battery level indicator to tell you when to start conserving for the show!

I would like to thank HackADay projects for such a nice platform. It really pretty cool and helps a lot while documenting and presenting things !

After sticking it on a Tshirt it is suggested that you wear a black T over it or something that is not that closely knit. Keep the Tshirt Plain and simple!

I even clicked a selfie :P

Cheers,

Rohit

Woah! It took me a while to figure out how to get the video from My Nokia Lumia device to Ubuntu after my Windows Laptop crashed. I tried a couple of ways like Bluetooth, Wifi,SD Card etc. Ubuntu (12.04LTS 64bit) does understand MTP natively. So, there is a way for Android 4.x which also uses MTP and it also works for WP8 (Not very reliably though)

I have documented my way here.

I got my video now and am editing it ! 

Since, i reported issues wearing the originally made strap-on reactor. I decided to sacrifice an old Tshirt and mount the 3 parts i.e.

•  The control leaf
• The battery 
• PCB 

On the tshirt itself. I used the trusted "Velcro" to do so. I am not that good at stitching but after a few needle pricks i was able to stitch the Velcro on the Tshirt.

Below is the picture of all the 3 parts secured with velcro on the tshirt

I went to comicCon with the ArcReactorX! 

Did a Cosplay! Totally Rocked it! A lot of people were noticing it and asked me where did i buy it! I told them "I built it" They were like, "Oh Man! Cool! "

Some did offered to buy it! But I ai'nt sellin here!

It was also the field test of the ArcReactorX. I noticed two issues:

• The mode change switch needs some debouncing code!
• The straps not gonna work! It eventually starts to fall off. Plus is not very comfortable to wear ;)

The positives were:

• The battery lasts long!
• The LED brightness is very good
• Its damn cool!
  

I made a quick strap that i can wear under the Tshirt.

Plus added some coating to protect the copper!

It has welcro and elastic on it.So that some of my friends can also wear it. The battery is on the back.

I have written a new firmware that has the following modes:

• The Epic startup sequence
• All ON and middle too (Static)
• Breathing LED mode
  
• Flashing outer circle (knight rider )  (My favourite)
• Loader type
• alternative on/off
• Morse Code for SOS
• Morse Code for ILU ( Had some flash remaning :P ) with a special ring arrangement
•  Battery life indicator

There are some debounce issues ( duh! ) but i guess this will be good for comicCon as of now!

Git Repo Updated

Just added the experimental code to the repo!

Added some background jet effect i talked about in the previous log! I will now make the other effects and find a suitable way to wear it.

I thought a cool startup sequence. It is like a slowly pacing up knight rider and then the middle LED kind of turns on slowly (fade up) while the rest of them are off and then Bang they all light up. Looks super cool!

Imagine the sound of a starting jet as its picking up Revs playing in the background!

I did connect the middle LED to PWM pin. So, i can get smooth PWM !

This is just to check if the microcontroller is happy in its place. No RESET line issues were detected. The power and programming interface worked fine.

You can see the programming wires in the picture below. It was programmed using the MSP430 launchpad.

I am using Energia inside which i run code which uses some of energia and some basic register level access at points where energia has not dug yet.