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sparkfun KIT-14173 Hook-Up Manual
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sparkfun KIT-14173 Hook-Up Manual

Spectacle light and sound kit
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Page 1 of 33
Spectacle Light and Sound Kit Hookup Guide
Introduction
The Spectacle Light and Sound Kit allows you to add button-activated
sound and light effects to your projects with ease.
Spectacle Light and Sound Kit
 KIT-1417 3
Suggested Reading
Before proceeding, you should read through the Spectacle User's Guide. It
will give you the basics you'll need to know about how Spectacle works to
follow the rest of this tutorial.
Spectacle Audio Board
The Spectacle Audio Board allows you to add sound to your Spectacle
projects. It accepts a microSD card with sounds in .ogg format (more on
this later), and has a 1/8" (3.5mm) audio jack to connect to external
amplifiers.

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Summary of Contents for sparkfun KIT-14173

  • Page 1 Page 1 of 33   Spectacle Light and Sound Kit Hookup Guide Introduction The Spectacle Light and Sound Kit allows you to add button-activated sound and light effects to your projects with ease. Spectacle Light and Sound Kit  KIT-1417 3 Suggested Reading Before proceeding, you should read through the Spectacle User’s Guide.
  • Page 2 The audio output is designed for amplified devices only. This means that any attempt to use the Spectacle Audio Board with headphones or unamplified speakers will fail to produce audible output. SparkFun sells a small, amplified, rechargeable speaker which is specifically intended for use...
  • Page 3 Page 3 of 33 The Spectacle Audio Board uses a microSD card to store the audio files to be played. The files should be stored as .ogg Vorbis encoded files. This free audio file format can be played and created on any type of computer. Later in the tutorial we’ll show you how to convert from MP3, WAV, or other file formats to the .ogg format.
  • Page 4 Page 4 of 33 Designed to bring simple signals from the world into your Spectacle projects, the Spectacle Button Board provides input for any of your Spectacle projects. It has two 1/8" (3.5mm) jacks for connecting to other boards in a Spectacle system.
  • Page 5 60 individual pixels. Not all types of addressable LEDs are compatible with the Spectacle Light Board. If you have questions about whether or not a particular type of LED strip is compatible with the Light Board, contact SparkFun technical support.

  • Page 6: The Configuration Utility

    Page 6 of 33 The Light Board has a Micro B USB connector to allow it to be directly powered by an external power supply. The relatively slender cables the Spectacle data travels over are not adequate for the large amount of current drawn by more than a few pixels.
  • Page 7 Page 7 of 33 • “activation threshold” - As it says in the app, most of the time you don’t need to adjust this. Adjusting the slider can set the angle at which the Spectacle Accelerometer Board triggers a sound, or the frequency with which a Random Trigger Virtual Board causes a sound to play.
  • Page 8 Page 8 of 33 Action on release Trigger an action when a button is released, regardless of how long it has been held down prior to being released. • “When button number __ is released” - This is the number of the button we wish to assign to this action.
  • Page 9 Page 9 of 33 Action while holding Trigger an event as soon as a button is pressed, then continue to trigger that event as long as the button is held down. • “While button number __ is pressed” - This is the number of the button we wish to assign to this action.
  • Page 10 Page 10 of 33 Spectacle Light Board The Light Board supports 9 different actions. Most of them want a continuous-type signal input, although a couple of them can be used with momentary input signals. We’ll cover the difference under each action. Each action will have a field for the number of pixels the lightstrip that action is being applied to has, and we won’t mention it again.
  • Page 11 Page 11 of 33 Theater chase mode behaves like a marquee light border. The lights will march along making it appear as though the lightstrip is moving in steps. • “While channel number __ is active” - The theater chase effect persists only while the channel is active, so a continuous input signal is needed.
  • Page 12 Page 12 of 33 • scan speed slider - controls how fast the pattern moves as it scrolls past. • color picker input - allows you to select the color of the lights. Twinkle effect Causes individual lights on the selected strip to perform a twinkling action. •...
  • Page 13 Page 13 of 33 • “While channel number __ is active” - The lightning effect persists only while the channel is active, so a continuous input signal is needed. • “lightning on lightstrip number __” - Select which lightstrip you wish the lightning effect to operate on.
  • Page 14 Page 14 of 33 The lightstrip will change from one color to another over time, then back to the first. • “While channel number __ is active” - The fade effect persists only while the channel is active, so a continuous input signal is needed. •...
  • Page 15 Page 15 of 33 Turns on one light and blanks the rest of the lights to off. • “listen to channel number __” - A momentary signal on this channel is all that is needed to trigger a light pixel operation, and the lit pixel will persist until another effect starts.
  • Page 16 Page 16 of 33 Load a file Like most programs, “loading a file” just means selecting “Open” from the File menu and choosing which file you wish to convert. Audacity is capable of editing most types of audio files: WAV, AIFF, FLAC, MP3, and others. By default, Audacity shows all files, not just compatible audio files, when you bring up the open dialog.
  • Page 17 Page 17 of 33 You’ll see, then, something like this show up. This is what your audio file looks like, to the computer. Again, don’t panic! Unless you want to edit the sound in some way (which we don’t), none of the settings or pieces of information that have popped up here matter to us.
  • Page 18 Page 18 of 33 Extra credit- trimming the fat and making the sound louder As you can see in my file above, there’s a great deal of room between the extents of the sound and the extents of the window. In the time (horizontal) axis, this manifests as flat lines before and after the content of the sound file.
  • Page 19 Page 19 of 33 A new window will pop up with a slider, a couple of text boxes, and one checkbox. The slider will be pre-positioned to amplify the sound as much as possible without “clipping” it. “Clipping” occurs when you try to amplify a sound more than the system you’re playing it through can stand, and it results in a sort of grating buzzing noise during playback.
  • Page 20 Page 20 of 33 Start by connecting up the boards. All of the required hardware is included with the kit. First, plug one end of one of the TRRS cables into the “Direct” jack on the Director Board. Next, take the other TRRS cable and plug it into the “Program” jack on the Director Board.
  • Page 21 Page 21 of 33 Plug the other end of that cable into the “In” jack on your Audio Board. Now plug the speaker into the “Audio Out” jack on the Audio Board. Insert the micro SD card into the Audio Board. Plug another of the TRRS cables into the “Out”...

  • Page 22: Setting Up The Board Configuration

    Page 22 of 33 Connect the light strip adapter cable to the Light Board. Connect the other end of the adapter cable to the light strip. Finally, plug the Micro B end of the USB cable into the Director Board and the other end into the power adapter.
  • Page 23 Page 23 of 33 To continue, we must tell the project which boards we wish to use. Start by clicking the “Add a board” button at the bottom of the page. This will bring up a list of the available boards. We’re going to add our Button Board first of all, so click anywhere in the “Button”...
  • Page 24 Page 24 of 33 You should now have a list that looks like this, showing all three of the boards we’re going to use in this project. Pay attention to the order of the boards in the list! They must match the order of the boards in hardware! If the order of your boards differs from that in the image above, you can use the up and down carets (in the board name bar) to change the order of the boards.
  • Page 25 Page 25 of 33 This will pull up a window that looks like the above. I’ve highlighted the “Add an action” button. Click it to pull up a list of actions for the Button Board. This list will pop up after you click the “Add an action” button. We’re going to add two actions: “Action on Press”...
  • Page 26 Page 26 of 33 Here you can see that we’ve added the two actions we want for our project. Note that, when added, the inputs default to being blank. You need to put a value in every field for the design to be valid. Here are the settings you’ll want to put into place for this project.
  • Page 27 Page 27 of 33 Once you’ve filled in the fields for both actions, click the “Go Back” button to return to your list of boards. This will automatically save the changes you’ve made. You can see here that the actions we added for the Button Board appear in the main board list, as a reminder of what each board has been configured to do.
  • Page 28 Page 28 of 33 Now, add a “Play Sound” action to the Audio Board. It’s the only action the Audio Board supports. Fill in the blanks on the play sound page as shown above. Back in the main frame, you’ll see that the play sound action has been added to the Audio Board’s section of the list.
  • Page 29 Page 29 of 33 Finally, we’ll configure the Light Board. The picture above shows the full list of actions that the Light Board supports. We’re going to use the “Fill Color” option, twice, for our project. Below are the settings for the first “Fill Color” effect to be added. This turns the pixels on when the button is depressed.
  • Page 30 Page 30 of 33 Here are the settings for the second fill effect. This turns the pixels off when the button is released. You can now click the “Go Back” button to return to the main page. Congratulations! You’ve completed configuration of your first Spectacle project! Now let’s cover loading the configuration onto your Director Board.
  • Page 31 Page 31 of 33 Uploading Now that you’ve created your Spectacle program it’s time to upload it to the Director Board. If you followed the instructions above, your uploading device is connected to the board and ready to go, so all you need to do is touch the “Install Script”...

  • Page 32: Further Reading

    Page 32 of 33 programming is done, you’ll see the light on the Director Board blink 10 times, pause, then repeat. That’s your cue that the program was uploaded successfully. Press the “RST” button again to reset the system and begin the program! If you have any troubles, visit the troubleshooting page for help resolving your issues.
  • Page 33 Spectacle Motion Board Spectacle Button Board Hookup Guide Hookup Guide All the information you need to use All the information you need to use the Spectacle Motion Kit in one the Spectacle Button Board in one place. place. https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/spectacle-light-and-sound-kit-hookup-guide?_ga=2.104... 6/6/2017...

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