Hey guys. Long time no speakie

I have been busy recently playing with making an active display for motion trackers. It's starting to come together nicely now, and working quite well. I'd value your comments and input.

https://youtu.be/Y3pLkZDHgLg

It took me a while but I finally found what I hope is a suitable display. It's amazing how many of them nowadays have the FPC connector on the short edge, making the display module long and thin. I finally found a 2.3" one though that has the FPC on the long edge making it much squarer and fit in a resin cast of the viewer nicely. It's still a bit on the small side though (I don't think you'll ever get one that fits exactly) so it relies on the magnifier being in place to fill the screen.

Yes, it has a compass and accelerometer in there (not active in the demo, I'm still working on the stabilizing software for that right now) so the display rotates as you rotate.

It's quite a powerful little board that actually, and like all my inventions, it's completely programmable by you if you feel adventurous. It even includes an SD card for you to store more graphics and sounds on if you know how

Oh, and I'm even thinking about making a 44mm x 32mm capacitive touch sensor keyboard (4x4 keys) that would sit behind the keypad on the side of the unit, so those button actually do things.

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My electronic design skills are available for hire.
Custom controller boards, pulse rifle counter modules, TFT display screens...

Ooooo want D: awesome work

Wow, using the keypad is an awesome idea!

(But please be kind to those of us using the ever so slightly wider keypad)

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My entry-level prop and costume tutorials: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=12751

I had experimented with making an actual working keypad using card and copper foil tape. It kinda worked, but not too well. The other option is to get real membrane keypads manufactured, but that gets somewhat expensive. Once I have the keypad design working making other sizes and even shapes will be simple enough. Maybe even make sensors for other decals too...

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My electronic design skills are available for hire.
Custom controller boards, pulse rifle counter modules, TFT display screens...

Awesome mate. Nice set up. If its anything like your Pulse Rifle counters it will be great.

A large chunk of this systems design is going to make is way (finally) into the redesign of my big pulse rifle boards. Especially the sound subsystem.

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My electronic design skills are available for hire.
Custom controller boards, pulse rifle counter modules, TFT display screens...

Good work. Good luck with the keypad, sounds awesome.

Nice!!

Between this and martinr1000's efforts, we are sure to have great real working motion trackers real soon!

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Lt. Melissa L. Klassen, ALG
AL Colonial Admin. - Executive Officer (XO) -- 2021-2022
RCCM | Royal Canadian Colonial Marines - Commanding Officer (CO) -- 2021-2022

Read the AL Charter Rules & Regulations: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1i3gd9QUyIqI_6rfk8kpxspbKU-JT4MBAjLPxfCkvGJ8

Agreed!

I have all the real parts ready for a build.


I just got another sl-85 calculator, and was going to ask my buddy in china to make me some since he owes me
a favor.

With the Drill trigger and the bottom rotary switch, is there a need for another input point?

A working keypad, drill trigger, and rotary switch would be bad-ass!


My advice:
1.Keep the cabling between the hama viewer and the drill housing minimal
2.Compass feature on screen is a must
3.Having different interaction senarios is cool. (rotary switch??)
4.Have a USCM Delta start up screen. WY B-B-W is for colony building, not alien tracking.
5.Accommodate the real hama + resin hama viewers

You have:

• 4 wires for speakers (could be 2 if you want just one speaker - I have the "pop" coming out of one speaker and the "wipwop" coming out of another. so you can have them coming from where sounds most realistic),
• 2 to 6 pins for direct button or switch connections - that's 5 signals, plus one common ground for all switches)
• For the more complex things there is an I2C interface, which is just 4 wires (including power) to connect all sorts of fancy widgets up to - that includes the keypad - just 4 wires for the whole lot.

So not a huge number of wires. Oh, and two for the battery of course.

Absolutely. Still working on the code for that. It's fine until you hit the 359°->0° crossover point at the moment.

Not all will have working rotary switches, but those that do could certainly make use of it, sure.

Good call on that. I shall google up a suitable splash animation (unless someone here feels creative and fancies putting one together? At the moment it's three static images that are faded in and out in software).

I am not (at the moment) dictating any mounting or installation requirements. The position within the viewer will need to be adjusted by you to get the best viewing experience. I only have a resin cast viewer body and separate loose (no frame ) resin lens to play with at the moment, so I can only really guestimate how it will work in other builds.

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My electronic design skills are available for hire.
Custom controller boards, pulse rifle counter modules, TFT display screens...

Personally, I would love just a text scroll boot-up kinda like how the computers come to life when the Nostromo receives the distress call. I'm super stoked on all this MT action lately

Keypad would be AMAZING.

Yes, the text boot up from the Nostromo would be an excellent nod too.

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My entry-level prop and costume tutorials: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=12751

What about the mother boot animation?

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My electronic design skills are available for hire.
Custom controller boards, pulse rifle counter modules, TFT display screens...

or the system coming online the same way the Sulaco roster does?

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Lt. Melissa L. Klassen, ALG
AL Colonial Admin. - Executive Officer (XO) -- 2021-2022
RCCM | Royal Canadian Colonial Marines - Commanding Officer (CO) -- 2021-2022

Read the AL Charter Rules & Regulations: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1i3gd9QUyIqI_6rfk8kpxspbKU-JT4MBAjLPxfCkvGJ8

Any updates on this? Gonna start a real part motion tracker build soon and to have something like this in it would be amazing!

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Happy Happy, Joy Joy

As it happens, yes there is an update.

I am testing my latest prototypes at the moment - and they look good.

Here's a 3D model of what I am working with right now: https://sketchfab.com/models/445c9d145d ... 58fb114869

I'll just take a photo of the board as well so you can better get a feel for the size.

_________________
My electronic design skills are available for hire.
Custom controller boards, pulse rifle counter modules, TFT display screens...

The 5 main chips on that board:

• Top left: 2.8W stereo class D amplifier
• Top middle: 16 bit stereo DAC
• Middle left: 3-axis compass
• Bottom left (just under the compass): 3-axis accelerometer
• Bottom Middle: 200MHz 32-bit MCU with FPU, 2MB Flash, 512KB SRAM

_________________
My electronic design skills are available for hire.
Custom controller boards, pulse rifle counter modules, TFT display screens...

It looks very impressive, although im not really sure what im looking at!

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Happy Happy, Joy Joy

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Reformed Pacifist

Looks great. ill be in for a few

I'm in!

I know it will be great but I'm curious to see it in action!

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Lt. Melissa L. Klassen, ALG
AL Colonial Admin. - Executive Officer (XO) -- 2021-2022
RCCM | Royal Canadian Colonial Marines - Commanding Officer (CO) -- 2021-2022

Read the AL Charter Rules & Regulations: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1i3gd9QUyIqI_6rfk8kpxspbKU-JT4MBAjLPxfCkvGJ8

Count me in!

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Sgt. Frank Peters 'reload' Smartgun Operator
A03/TQ3.0.12136E1 "It will be no picknick!"
AL Colonial Admin. - Sergeant at Arms (SgtA) -- 2020-2022
GERCM - Executive Officer (XO)
UKCM Foreign Legion: The Deviant Dragoons

Sounds like it's going to be popular... I'd best get my skates on and finish the damn thing

_________________
My electronic design skills are available for hire.
Custom controller boards, pulse rifle counter modules, TFT display screens...

How easy would it be to install and set up? Im not the best with electronics!

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Happy Happy, Joy Joy