As some of you may know, I have been working on a PKE Meter. I obtained a shell in a trade and I have been working on it in my free time.
As you can see, not much going on inside of it right now.
Well, after surveying what our community currently has in terms of electronics for the PKE meter, I decided to design my own, using an Arduino. I decided to go this route because of how the Arduino can greatly simplify things such as the servos. I really wanted to have the same functionality as the original prop. That means the speed of the lights will be controlled by a thumb knob on the under side of the meter, have 2 different display settings, and have the height of the wings controlled by resistive touch switches.
There is also not a lot of room within the PKE meter so I decided to use a 5v Arduino Pro Mini 328 board, from Sparkfun.
As of now, I have the LEDs set up for the 2 different screen displays, with their speed controlled by a potentiometer. You switch between each set of LEDs via a switch that will be on the face plate of the PKE meter, eventually.
Here’s my first video of how this is coming along:
Sorry it is not flashier, but since I am just prototyping right now, each set of LEDs are just in a straight line.
I just ordered the rest of the parts I need for this project, so I will continue to update this thread with more videos. Eventually, the goal is to develop a DIY so others can replicate this.
So, enjoy for now. . . there shall be more in the weeks to come!
I’ve been considering using arduinos in my own projects as it would allow me to do whatever I wanted with the lights and sound and it would save me a ton of work.
Boy, I really need to get down with learning adruino… this looks like a fantastic start. Have you got the adruino to activate motors when the lights increase? I was planning on making a game PKE using a pre-bought light kit for the arms and my iphone slotted in the front playing a video of the screen playing but this is convincing me the other way.
I’m trying to get this to function the same way the real PKE meter prop does. On the prop, the lights’ speed was controlled by a knob on the underside of the prop and the wings were controlled by 2 resistive touch switches on the front. When one switch was held, the wings would go up half way. When the other switch was held, they’d move to full. There was also 2 different display settings, one was a straight line and the other was an arch. You switch between the 2 with a large switch underneath the screen. This is how I am trying to make the electronics for my PKE meter.
But with the arduino, you could easily program it to have the 2 resistive switches control the wings, having one make them go up, the other down. And with that you could have the lights move faster as the wings got higher.
I’ll be posting another video soon, I just want the servos done before I make it. Then all I need to set up are the wing LEDs which won’t be hard. I’m just waiting on some resistors for those and I should be done prototyping the electronics. After they are done, I will make a schematic and post along with it a parts list and the arduino program.
From the videos I’ve seen, it seems like the contact switches on the hyperdyne kit just make the servos either go up or down. Mine will either make them go half way up, or all the way up then when let go, the wings will go back to their starting position. As for the speed of the lights, I can’t tell from the videos that are posted of the kit if they are controlled by a knob or if they are just tied in with the height of the wings.
I would like to take this moment to thank both ChapterMasterTu’Shan and jackdoud as they both have been consulting with me on this project.
AH! Totally misunderstood your exact plans sorry… but yeah, I had a hyperdyne kit for a short while. The lights are directly tied to the position of the wings. The higher the wings, the faster the lights and faster the beeps (it has a very basic PC speaker built in… which is more of a chirp than anything else).
seeing as I have two PKE shells, I am VERY interested on how your system turns out
Nice to see the Arduino getting some more love. It really is a handy little prototyping system.
I plan to make a hybrid movie/video game PKE with an Arduino controller. The potentiometer will control pretty much everything… wing position, light speed, and the bargraph display.
I have not fine tuned the speed of the wings yet, so they are a little fast; and I haven’t received in the mail what I need yet for the wing LEDs. But once I get them, I will just about be done with prototyping the electronics!
Well I only have 2 things to say to that. #1 I plan to copy anything you do so keep up the good work. #2…If my P.K.E. Shell ever arrives…I’ll let you know. (grumble grumble paid in august grumble grumble)
Wow! Looks really nice. If your PKE turns out to be more movie accurate than Hyperdyne’s, I will probably end up being more interested in how you did it than considering buying a Hyperdyne (if available at all, that is )…
sorry… but yeah, I had a hyperdyne kit for a short while. The lights are directly tied to the position of the wings. The higher the wings, the faster the lights and faster the beeps (it has a very basic PC speaker built in… which is more of a chirp than anything else).