Instant soundeffects.

As I mentioned this morning I finally got the serial driver for my sound player working.

It all started with me and my friend Kim working on our bar. We come up with the idea that it might be funny with some sound effects. Things like  rimshots, studio laughter and so on. After using “instant rimshot” we wanted something of our own. After some time I went to work. Now finally it’s done and I’ll try it out at the next gathering. I missed the three year anniversary  of the bar but at least it’s done.

I’ll just show you some pictures now 🙂

The buttons I got from e-bay, they where about $10 including shipping from Hong kong. The box is actually two picture frames, one from IKEA and the golden one is from a local barging-store.

I turned the IKEA frame backwards but kept the stand. After drilling four holes and fasten the back to the front I had a pretty good enclosure.

The buttons is mounted on a piece of brass sheet with an etched pattern. And the sheet is mounted instead of the normal glass.

All buttons need to have diodes soldered to the terminals, the way the buttons are connected makes the buttons send a four bit binary number on the four data-pins. The downside is that one the highest button get registered if two buttons are pressed at the same time, the upside is that it’s very simple to make.

All the wiring are old network cables. And it may not be pretty but it works fine. The serial cable is then connected to a small circuit board by a contact. It’s the only way to get the back on there. As the stand is left in the IKEA frame the buttons can stand by it self. I’m very happy about how it turned out.

I’ll sign of with a picture of the buttons completed. The serial cable are three meter long and should be enough for the bar. Later I will update with more details of the software and some pictures when I got it installed in it’s proper environment.  🙂