I would like to make a series of light-box-buttons in my house that:
Have a translucent front, where I can stick or replace decals
When you press and hold the box, it will:
- Switch on a set of LEDs that will light the box up.
- Play a sound file (less than 2 seconds) through a speaker within the box
I think that what I need to do is wire the LEDs to the play button and also make it so that the LEDs are switched off when the play button is released. I suppose a different play button might be required.
I also need to make it easy to that the push and release of the button is controlled by the front of the box, regardless of where itās pushed (by a toddler).
Not really sure where to start with this. But happy to try.
What youāre likely looking for is an audio trigger board, a board with trigger inputs that you wire to switches, some flash storage on board to store your audio files (thankfully 2s is very short so you wonāt need much). Some even have a small amp onboard driving speakers! Hereās a likely candidate for a first choice:
As for the huge ābuttonsā you could 3D print the two parts that house any switches etc, and laser-cut a clear faceplate that your decal would sit behind (both are offered as manufacturing services here at Core if you donāt have access to them)
As for the lights, weāve got a ton of bright LEDs in our range, youād just need to make sure that you limited the current with the appropriate resistor, getting them to light up on press would be super easy, youād just need a separate microswitch or similar inside your ābuttonā whose job is just to complete the circuit with the LED.
As for micro switches, any will do, but one with a roller will give you the smoothest operation, you might need to wire them up in parallel to your trigger to make sure that theyāll close no matter how the button is pushed. To give you an idea of what I mean, these ones are pretty versatile:
That should be it really! Just a couple of 2W speakers should be all you need to get it going.
Keen to see where you go with this! Feel free to reply if youāve got more questions.
-James
Thank you so much for responding and for your time and insight!
I have to make 26 of these and my absolute top budget is $8 USD per button.
Iād like the flexibility to make each one completely isolated, tempting as it would be to have a ābrainā and āpowerā, then link up each light-box.
I love the idea of the roller levers.
Is there a similar item to the sound board / amp / speaker that is scaled down to support 1 trigger, one, audio file and one speaker?
For that budget constraint, you may be better off with the soundboard you linked initially.
James has linked the cheapest soundboard/amplifier/trigger module all-in-one product that Core stocks. You may be able to come up with a cheaper solution by programming a generic microcontroller to play a sound based on a digital input but it would take a lot more work.
Ultimately it depends on how low-level into the design you want to go and what you are comfortable programming.
I canāt think of an easy way to do this. The two sound trigger boards being discussed are great because they donāt require a lot of configuration or low-level programming languages to setup and more or less do what you want out of the box, the catch is they cannot be triggered wirelessly.
Three of the Adafruit FX boards would be able to respond to 33 triggers and cover the number of inputs you are after with wired inputs.
To trigger these wirelessly you will need to program a microcontroller to receive inputs over some wireless protocol, and play audio from memory. This will probably need to be programmed in a low-level language like C or assembly.
Going back to isolated systems, what about replacing the button on this one with 4 roller leavers (to cover for pressing the front anywhere) and then wiring it so that the LEDs are activated / deactivated with the same action?
If you are a super novice then Iād recommend getting one module working on a breadboard or protoboard with minimal soldering is a good first intermediate goal, that way you are less likely to find soldering mistakes to be a handbrake on your progress.
Your prototyping kit is reusable for many projects to come, get yourself a bit of a prototyping kit including the following:
Our 3D printing services are just for printing CAD models, not designing them for a fee. You are right though that the case is the last step and we need to know how big the electronics to fit inside ends up being before you can design a shmick case to house it.
Sorry I didnāt see your question until just now, if you use the reply button when making a post I will get a notification.
The jumper wires I have linked are actually three different products but the thumbnails have shortened it, one set is male to male, one is male to female, and the last is female to female.
To get one unit together and working Iād desolder the switch and replace it with male pin headers, then use the hookup wires to connect to a breadboard. From there you can experiment with adding switched in parallel (so any switch triggers the input).
I would also add an indicator LED in series with the switch (remembering to add a current limiting resistor to protect your LED).
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