neonfields
- Jun 30, 2014
- 5
- Joined
- Jun 30, 2014
- Messages
- 5
Hi, so I'm new here, I'm a designer and I'm working on a personal project. I want to see if I can describe it accurately enough to communicate my questions, I'd say I have a better-than-layperson understanding of electronics, but I really basically have no idea when it comes to a lot of basic and technical stuff, so if anyone wants to chime in (it's really in the thought experiment/concept phase right now) I would extremely appreciate it.
So essentially I am putting together a handheld, battery operated device which will have an array of extremely hi-lumen LED arrays (like those in a phone flash, maybe bigger/brighter), at least in the 100+ lumen range, that all fire in a very fast programmed sequence when you hit a trigger button, I think having multicolor LEDS may be helpful but not necessarily a must-have, so far I've determined I need them to all be green lights operating at 10hz, but that requirement might change later.
I also want to have a directional speaker (maybe an ultrasonic like this http://mashable.com/2012/03/22/soundlazer-kickstarter-speaker/ but much smaller, maybe only three or four of the little individual cones, that would make a very loud noise simultaneous to the LEDs firing.
So I think my main questions so far are:
a. How many of these little high capacity LEDS can I realistically cram in a 2-3" diameter circular area? (keeping in mind the whole device has to be "pocketable", so probably a rectangular enclosure no more than 8" x 2" x 3" overall).
b. How big of a battery am I going to need to power say, 25 super bright LEDS and this speaker? (battery life is a minor concern, if I only got 5 minutes of runtime at full power with this thing I would be happy)
c. How big of a heatsink am I going to have to put behind the lights? DO i need a heatsink?
d. What would the circuit board look like to control all of this? (The exact pattern that the lights fire in is probably the only real possibly proprietary element of this whole product, but let's assume I figure out what the pattern has to be ahead of time and it's a set pattern with defined delays and really only an on/off function, no need to reprogram it later).
e. How would I go about making a testing version, no need for an enclosure, just LED's i can rearrange by hand to test different light patterns to refine this concept?
Please bear with me if any of these questions sound exceptionally dumb, I went to art school and I didn't exactly spend a lot of time with a soldering gun in my hand (though now I'm starting to wish I had).
On that note, bonus question: what's a really good resource for a total newbie to get started with building electronics? Books, kits, websites that anyone really likes?
Thanks so much in advance,
_neonfields_
So essentially I am putting together a handheld, battery operated device which will have an array of extremely hi-lumen LED arrays (like those in a phone flash, maybe bigger/brighter), at least in the 100+ lumen range, that all fire in a very fast programmed sequence when you hit a trigger button, I think having multicolor LEDS may be helpful but not necessarily a must-have, so far I've determined I need them to all be green lights operating at 10hz, but that requirement might change later.
I also want to have a directional speaker (maybe an ultrasonic like this http://mashable.com/2012/03/22/soundlazer-kickstarter-speaker/ but much smaller, maybe only three or four of the little individual cones, that would make a very loud noise simultaneous to the LEDs firing.
So I think my main questions so far are:
a. How many of these little high capacity LEDS can I realistically cram in a 2-3" diameter circular area? (keeping in mind the whole device has to be "pocketable", so probably a rectangular enclosure no more than 8" x 2" x 3" overall).
b. How big of a battery am I going to need to power say, 25 super bright LEDS and this speaker? (battery life is a minor concern, if I only got 5 minutes of runtime at full power with this thing I would be happy)
c. How big of a heatsink am I going to have to put behind the lights? DO i need a heatsink?
d. What would the circuit board look like to control all of this? (The exact pattern that the lights fire in is probably the only real possibly proprietary element of this whole product, but let's assume I figure out what the pattern has to be ahead of time and it's a set pattern with defined delays and really only an on/off function, no need to reprogram it later).
e. How would I go about making a testing version, no need for an enclosure, just LED's i can rearrange by hand to test different light patterns to refine this concept?
Please bear with me if any of these questions sound exceptionally dumb, I went to art school and I didn't exactly spend a lot of time with a soldering gun in my hand (though now I'm starting to wish I had).
On that note, bonus question: what's a really good resource for a total newbie to get started with building electronics? Books, kits, websites that anyone really likes?
Thanks so much in advance,
_neonfields_