First project, spinning LED ball. Any help?

[Bulldogg629]

I know this is a huge request, but any help anyone could provide would be hugely appreciated. I don’t have any prior education in electronics but after seeing this, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sO2-tqoyGik&list=PLxJ6sdzlzhixE-ENZhnilJT8l4VZag-gt I had to make one for myself. I know it’s a lot to begin with, but I’m fairly certain that if I can work out a parts list I can get it assembled in the proper order. I’ve been going by this tutorial, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7OPWbbpQ_o&list=PLxJ6sdzlzhixE-ENZhnilJT8l4VZag-gt&index=2 and his schematics but I’m having a bit of a hard time understanding how they fit together. The 2 schematics in his videos plus the one he posted on a website are:

A: https://i.imgur.com/CxyZvBL.jpg
B: https://i.imgur.com/kFDx7K9.jpg
C: https://i.imgur.com/kInXJBP.jpg

I understand A well enough, but are B and C 2 separate ways of doing the same thing or are they both parts of the same whole? It seems there are no voltage regulators in B, but there is no op amp in C, and the final project uses both regulators and an op amp.


Also, I’ve worked up what I think is most of my parts list, please forgive the uninformed terms but does it look complete?
1 - Pancake Motor
1 - Can Motor
2 - 10 ohm resistors for motors
RGB LEDs
3 – 5k trimmer resistors for LEDs
Audio Jack and Plug
4 – 1k potentiometers
3 - on off toggles
1 - on off on toggle
2 - 5k trimmer resistors for duty cycle on PWM
3 - caps for duty cycle toggle: 0.1uf, 0.01uf and1.0uf
1 - Filter Cap (size?)
555 timer
Op amp
2 - voltage regulator
2 – 5k trimmer resistors for regulators
12v power supply

Thank you again, I know his how to videos end up being 25 minutes so its a lot to ask but any tips will help.

 

[Mr RB]

Are there photos of his finished LED ball? I don't watch youtubes they take too long to load.

 

[Bulldogg629]

Ah yes, sorry, https://sites.google.com/site/ledlightball/ you can't see the effect if its not moving but the idea is that persistence of vision and the 2 axis' make it look like a sphere, then the pwm gives you different patterns.

 

[Mr RB]

Thank you for the link, I had not seen one done that way before.

Personally i think a single powered axis with multiple LEDs would be easier tomake and gives the ability to show maps, text, pictures etc;

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Sorry if you had already seen those, as they are not answering your question. Regarding your orogonal question about the parts, how are you going to handle the slipring?

Is that the audio jack and plug? If so i think you will find the audio jack has way too much drag.

 

[dr pepper]

From what I can see schem B is for controlling the brightness of the leds.
Schem c is for rapidly flashing the leds (as well as a variable power supply to control the speed of the motors), in the vid you can see the leds turn into 'dots', well schem c does this (your not far off being correct, schem b is a pwm dimmer, where as c is a flasher).

I've never built anything as posh as this but I've messed with pov displays, I found that 3.5mm or 6.35mm jacks make good sliprings rather than messing about making your own.

That is a pretty impressive display for something that is electrically fairly simple.

Good look and post your progress, we will help if we can.

 

[Bulldogg629]

I think from what I'm understanding, he used schematics A and C as the build for his first version, because they only show 3 adjustment knobs. Then he added schematic B somewhere into C? Did he remove part of C to add B? I don't understand the part in C where he has all of the capacitors labeled c1-6, was that removed in favor of the PWM or what is that showing?

As far as the audio jack for a slip ring, as you pointed out Mr RB, the drag did occur to me. I have an audio extension cable that got damaged, it has a male and female end. I was going to cut 6" off each end and them plug them into each other, but I can feel it has a lot of drag. I was just not bothering to ask about that until I got more of the basics ironed out, but how do you go about dealing with that drag dr pepper? I assumed I could use a jack like this https://www.stewmac.com/shop/Electr...cks/Switchcraft_Output_Jack.html?tab=Pictures that would allow me to bend that retaining tab back a little to loosen the pressure on it. I wasn't able to find any pictures of anyone else having used an audio jack for a slip ring.

 

[dr pepper]

I used one of these:

https://modulusamplification.com/14-CLIFF-UK-JACK-SOCKET-SWITCHING-MONO-PN-P1930094.aspx

You can easily bend back the contacts, you might not get a continous connection, not a problem for my idea as I could use a smoothing cap, if you rely on a good connection then that might be an issue.

There is some drag yes, you need a motor that can handle it, its also a good idea to mechanically connect the jack plug to the rotating frame using a piece of flexible plastic tube, so if the jack isnt quite central the tube will compensate with 'give', otherwise you'll have lots of vibration.

The switched caps in b look like they are for switching ranges of flash frequencies, you might be able to design out this switch with a wider band osc.

 

[Mr RB]

The photos in the link in post #3 show a slipring that looks to have wipers made from fine springy wire.

That looks ok, i'm sure it would have much less drag than a jackplug socket which has very stiff springs and a full circular earth contact.