PartyBox

Creators: Sarah Chen, Lydia Reader, Graham Rubin, Nathan Schmetter (TA)

Overview

PartyBox is an easily portable and self-contained three dimensional cube of LEDs that creates a visual display in time to live music, so you can have a fun party anytime or anywhere. It's the perfect size for any tabletop, approximately 6" in each direction. The LEDs are dynamic and change color to provide an aesthetically pleasing light show that follows along to the rhythm and pitch of the music. There is an additional standby mode in which the LEDs will provide a slow gradient change of color in the absence of music.
PartyBox will be made up of 116 LEDs in a 5x5x5 cube-shaped array (including LEDs at the center). The LEDs will not take up the full bottom side of the cube to provide room for other circuit components. A small microphone will be built into the box that will read the analog sound signal. The Arduino will detect the occurrences of bass frequencies to clock the tempo of the music.The Arduino will also take incremental measurements of volume. The lights will be in an animated display in which the coloring of the LEDs is directed by the measured tempo, and the brightness directed by the measured volume. With the measurements, the Arduino will run through a library of pre-made color and brightness patterns that will be animated to the tempo of the music. The patterns will feature 25 1-by-5 vertical lines of LEDs, each one controlled by an individual digital output. Additionally, if the Arduino does not detect volume and rhythm for a pre-determined amount of time, it will automatically go into standby mode -- a simple, slow-changing color gradient.

Objectives

• Lighting of LEDs in time with music
  • Varied library of complex visual displays rather than just flashing LEDs
• Functioning standby mode and transition between standby and music
• Easily portable and self-contained
• A finished box

Challenges

• Getting arduino to discern rhythm and volume of live music.
• Creating a substantial enough library of animations to keep users' interest in the cube
• Creating a 3D structure to suspend LEDs without interfering with their visibility.
• Avoiding overheating of LEDs and the subsequent safety hazard while being able to light all LEDs at once.
• Learning to read and convert sound to a digital signal.
• Making the Arduino able to tell the difference between background noise and music

Budget

• Arduino ($0 - provided by the school)
• Multicolored LED (150 x 29c each w/ 100+ discount = Total: $48.13) (link)
• 100 pack of 270 Ohm resistors (100 x $0.05 each = total $5.00) (link)
• 30 meters of 20 gauge wires ($17.99) (link)
• 2x 9V battery ($6.95) (link)
• 9V battery housing without a clip ($2.95) - also solves power switch issues. (link)
• Audio technica ATR 4650 Microphone ($6.99) (link)
• IC 4017 Decade Counter ($0.51) (link)
• Acrylic sheet 36”x48”x.093” ($35.77) (link)
• Acrylic Glue w/ applicator ($9.70) - (link)

Total Cost: $127.95

Gantt Chart

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