[Mojave]

Ghostly Greetings.

I'm starting to design a home-made steampunk gun. So it will be futuristic-retro. I can probably get some flashing lights from toy guns or something, but I'd like it to have sound, also. The sound boxes on toy guns are awful, maybe 5 year olds like them, but not me. They are tinny, scratchy, and barely resemble a bang.

I'd like to record some gunfire (probably from Call of Duty, they have some good electronic pulse gun noises) and have it playback, LOUDLY and clearly, whenever I pull the trigger.

I'm not adverse to buying something like a tiny MP3 player and speaker, but i don't know how to actuate the pushing of the button via a trigger.

Anyone have any ideas? Thanks for reading.

-Moj

 

[J-Man]

Certainly doable but to get great SFX you need a good speaker and an amplifier. Not sure how much room there will be in your gun.

 

[Mojave]

I have a bluetooth speaker, it's about 3 inches diameter buy maybe 3 inches tall. the speaker fires out of the top of the cylinder. It sounds good enough to listen to music with, even has a little bass. Also has a 1/8 inch input port for a headphone wire to come in.

Steampunk is all about large, overdone, so there will be room or I will make room!

Edit: the speaker is re-chargeable, lasts several hours. It has its own amplifier. just needs a signal. Looks similar to this

 

[J-Man]

Something like this will work, your SFX files go on an SD card (card fits into socket on the bottom of the board). To trigger it, use your guns trigger as a N.O. switch between GND and PIN 1 on the player. Everytime you pull the trigger it will play your sound file. You won't have control over the length of the sound with the trigger, it will play your entire sound file each time. If you make a short sound file, you can control it better.http://m.ebay.com/itm/SD-SDHC-Card-...l-3-3V-5VDC-/301496277847?nav=WATCHING_ACTIVE

 

[Mojave]

Thanks J-man! Unfortunately, I have a very limited understanding of electronics.

Looking at the board, I don't see where i would connect power, where the output terminals are, or what you mean by "N.O. switch between GND and PIN 1" as I see two Grounds.

Are there any schematics or instructions that come with this board? It's very cheap, I'll just buy it anyway. And it says "...through TTL controller", what might that be and do I need one?

Thanks for your help, this would all work if i knew how to piece it together!

 

[JeffHaas]

Two good options for this:

Electronics123.com boards
http://www.electronics123.com/shop/product/75-second-usb-recording-module-5319
The link is to the one with one button for playback of one sound. Replace the button with a better one and you're done.

Adafruit Audio FX board
https://www.adafruit.com/products/2342
Designed for projects like yours, but you will have to solder a speaker and button to it. There are some good tutorials on their site for it.

 

[JeffHaas]

Through TTL means you have to program a microcontroller to control it - you don't want that if you don't know what it means.

 

[Mojave]

thanks Jeff, I'm reading about those units now.

 

[J-Man]

The player I gave you the link to CAN be controlled with a microcontroller but it doesn't have to be. It has 8 pins for direct control of 8 different sound files.

 

[Mojave]

I already ordered the J-man suggested piece, but then did a bunch of reading on the website suggested by Jeff. I'm kind of getting an idea on how these work now and will probably be able to piece together something.

I see these aren't polyphonic, but that's fine. I was thinking of having the gun have three switches, each one would be some kind of a rising tone, and they would indicate 'power levels'. when the third switch is pulled, then it can be fired with the trigger.

Thank you both J-Man and Jeff, these little boards are very much what i was looking for! Push button sounds that i can create!

 

[JeffHaas]

There are so many options with electronics these days! I didn't see the direct control in the ebay listing when I first looked at it, it's not obvious in how it's described.

Not that long ago the only options for playing mp3s back were really expensive and sometimes really unreliable (VMusic, anyone?)

Have fun with what you build!

 

[Mojave]

Those Adafruit people have lots of cool things! Will be buying some stuff from them, definitely.

 

[JeffHaas]

The other site you want to look at is Sparkfun. Lots of good tutorials, and different gadgets - there are some especially useful boards if you need to control a lot of LEDs.

https://www.sparkfun.com/

Too much fun stuff. Just remember to pace yourself!

 

[J-Man]

I already ordered the J-man suggested piece, but then did a bunch of reading on the website suggested by Jeff. I'm kind of getting an idea on how these work now and will probably be able to piece together something.

I see these aren't polyphonic, but that's fine. I was thinking of having the gun have three switches, each one would be some kind of a rising tone, and they would indicate 'power levels'. when the third switch is pulled, then it can be fired with the trigger.

Thank you both J-Man and Jeff, these little boards are very much what i was looking for! Push button sounds that i can create!

If you look at the picture that shows the bottom of that player, the pins are labeled. Actually there are just holes for pins, you can solder pins into them or solder your wires directly into the holes. You can direct control up to 8 different sound files with switches or buttons. The direct control pins are active low, which means when any of them are touched to GND, it will play the corresponding file. It can only play one file at a time but it doesn't have to finish one file to play another. If it's in the middle of playing one file and you trigger another pin, it will play that file. Your files have to be renamed 1001.MP3, 1002.MP3, and so on up to 1008.MP3 (files 1-8). BTW, it also plays WAV files. Here's the link to the data sheet for that player. http://mdfly.net/Download/Module/AU5016.pdf

 

[Mojave]

It can only play one file at a time but it doesn't have to finish one file to play another. If it's in the middle of playing one file and you trigger another pin, it will play that file.

J-man, I was wondering about that and I'm glad that is the behavior ir performs. I was hoping I didn't have to wait for one sound to finish before the next plays. This way i can 'rapid fire' and it will just shoot again. By the way, this will be more of a 'pew-pew' gun rather than a 'bang bang' gun. Thanks also for the data sheet.

The website Jeff linked (Adafruit) has been very helpful with tutorials and parts. I think I will be able to make something pretty cool. I'm going to call the gun the 'Gee-BOF', which stands for Great Balls Of Fire. I just have to remember something my uncle once told me, 'With great balls, comes great responsibility'.