Yet another yet another PIC32 board

Created Fri, 14 Jun 2013 14:24:32 +0000 by majenko

majenko

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 14:24:32 +0000

Yes, it's yet another PIC32 based board. This one with a difference though - this one has a purpose.

It's not just a development board for you to make whatever you want out of (though there's nothing to stop you), but this is a Pulse Rifle FX module.

You know Alien, right? The film? Well, they have these cool guns - the M41A pulse rifle - and there's lots of people that like spending their spare time building replicas of them.

Trouble is, they don't make noises, and they don't fire bullets. Not unless you add an extra electronic gizmo into it to do it all for you. Now, after looking around at the current offerings I thought I could do so much better; and it turns out I was right. People have been biting my fingers off while I've been soldering these bad boys up ;)

What people demand is a module that has a 2 digit red LED display. What people also demand is a module that will make fancy noises when you pull the trigger. What people actually have is one module that has a 2 digit red LED display, and maybe a separate module that can make noises - there's nothing readily available that does it all, and more.

So I made one.

[attachment=0]pra.jpg[/attachment][attachment=1]prb.jpg[/attachment]

It has a PIC32MX695F512H chip as the core of it, which controls the LED display, and generates PWM based 12-bit audio (the highest resolution you can get and still stay <=20KHz). There's 2 higher current MOSFET outputs (low-side switched) for high power LEDs to give nice muzzle flash, and 10 general purpose IO pins in an expansion header (including UARTs, I²C, SPI, etc). There are also 6 separate general purpose IO ports which are analogue inputs, and digital IO, each with its own ground connection, to make wiring buttons up for trigger etc., a doddle.

An on-board 2.6W class D audio amplifier provides enough grunt for a small embedded speaker in your pulse rifle for all the fancy noises.

And of course it's programmed using good ol' MPIDE. At the moment it's using the Microchip HID bootloader, so you would need the latest test version of MPIDE which includes the ability to use other uploader programs than avrdude.

Oh, the price? I'm selling them for £35 + postage if you're interested.

And here's one someone has put in a pulse rifle (not me - a member of The Replica Prop Forum) [url]http://smg.photobucket.com/user/directorcass/media/Pulse%20Rifle/pulserifle_zps7b4cd427.mp4.html[/url]

EmbeddedMan

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 16:26:16 +0000

This so wicked cool it's not even funny. Way to go! Are you going to put them up on a webstore somewhere? I'd love to get one (not because I want to make a rifle with it, but as a great example of a 'product' (not development board) made with chipKIT technology).

*Brian

majenko

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 17:12:18 +0000

I have people on The RPF that want them first, and I sell direct to them. After they have theirs the rest will be on my eBay store.

guymc

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 17:14:35 +0000

Wow, this is freaking awesome! I'd definitely want to buy one.

Majenko, would you mind if I re-use these photos and some of your text for a newsletter article, and a post on chipkit.net? I could include a link to your eBay store and drive some traffic your way...

Guy

majenko

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 18:44:40 +0000

Knock yourself out :)

No, I mean it - here's a club :twisted:

You can read more about the development process here: [url]http://www.therpf.com/f13/majenko-electronics-small-form-pulse-rifle-fx-counter-172492/[/url] with the main spec posting of the V2 (current version) here: [url]http://www.therpf.com/f13/majenko-electronics-small-form-pulse-rifle-fx-counter-172492/index18.html#post2939728[/url]

It is, of course, open source (or will be when I get round to making the schematics ;) ).