Soundlazer

Lumapad project launch!

Richard Haberkern — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 21:40:37 +0000

I am really excited about my new Kickstart project. I hope all of you will join me as a backer.

Be sure to check out the Lumapad and let me know what you think.

Correctly adjusting the Soundlazer

Richard Haberkern — Sun, 21 Oct 2012 00:10:34 +0000

Now that people have starting playing with their Soundlazers, I wanted to take a minute to explain how to properly adjust the oscillator and PWM modulator.

First, you will obviously need access to the Soundlazer board and also an Oscilloscope.

Switch in middle position, no audio cable attached, power on.

Attach the oscilloscope ground (-) to the GND test point on the Soundlazer board
Attach the signal lead of the oscilloscope to the PWM test point on the Soundlazer Board
Adjust the PWM trimpot (R20) so that the PWM shifts at 180 degrees as shown in the photo (equal positive and negative square waves)
Adjust the Freq (R21) trimpot for 39.4 -39.6 kHz output signal. This frequency was chosen to have the best output with least distortion. Feel free to experiment with other frequencies and you may want to offset the PWM slightly to see what happens.*

* Some people have noticed a low volume tone produced by the ultrasonic array. This is a result of the ultrasonic transducers “ringing” when they are in perfect tune. The resulting tone is simply a subharmonic frequency of the 40KHz signal (20kHz, 10kHz, 5kHz, 2.5kHz, etc). To eliminate this tone, simply adjust the Freq (R21) trimpot to a slightly higher or lower frequency. The tone will disappear but the transducers may not oscillate at the optimal frequency. You will need to experiment with this adjustment to find the best spot for your application.

The current Sigma Studio program has three settings on the switch:

Left) Audio Beam Off

Middle) Normal Audio Output (leave here for most cases)

Right) Test Tone

For those of you who have purchased a Sigma Studio Developers Kit, feel free to change the software to make the switch do different things. One Soundlazer firmware upgrade that I haven’t had the time to make would be an audio signal detector that shuts all ultrasonic audio off if no voice/music is present. This is a great way to conserver power and your ears!

If you look at the schematic, you will see that the switch and the ultrasonic oscilator are wired directly into the DSP which gives you the ability to customize the Soundlazer in many ways.

As usual, have fun experimenting and let me know what you come up with.

Richard

First shipments going out now.

Richard Haberkern — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 20:46:40 +0000

All of the Soundlazer “kits” are ready to ship. We will be boxing them up over the weekend and should have them to the post office by Monday morning. Keep your eyes out for the postman if you were a backer of the Soundlazer project.

A few of the fully assembled units also arrived today. I will start shipping these sometime next week.

This has been a fun project for me. I hope that the backers enjoy playing with their Soundlazers as much as I have enjoyed working on it for the last two years.

I have always enjoyed inventing unusual, high-tech products in many different industries. Keep your eyes out for a few more projects I have in the works which should show up on the internet soon.

Thank you once again to all of those that supported this project.

Soundlazer production is well under way.

Richard Haberkern — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 03:38:29 +0000

We have been hard at work filling all of the orders for the first run of Soundlazer boards.

Here are some of the boards waiting for installation of the piezo elements.

First Soundlazer off the assembly line

Richard Haberkern — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 22:21:46 +0000

I received the first unit from the production run of Soundlazer. The aluminum housing, laser etching and electronics all came out better than anticipated. Now I just need to gear up to program and test each one as we begin shipments to all the Kickstarter backers.

Thank you to everyone at Kickstarter for helping bring this invention to life.

Some things are worth the wait!

Richard Haberkern — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 23:00:18 +0000

I know allot of you have been wondering what I have been up to with Soundlazer.

It’s been a long road but I am happy to say, that the first boards for approval have come off the assembly line and everything has tested to work perfectly. I will be signing off on the production run and blank and propagated boards should start arriving soon.

I have added a few features to the Soundlazer based on backer feedback. These include:

1) High / low power jumper for testing and extended listening.

2) Auto power off so that no ultrasonic energy is emitted unless there is an audio signal present.

3) Test tone output

4) Improved digital amplifier with more effiecint design.

Soundlazer Circuit Boards are here!

Richard Haberkern — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 23:05:19 +0000

After many design changes and improvements, the final production run boards are here and ready for testing.

The factory will be installing components and if all works as expected, I can finally release the schematics and begin shipping orders.

Ultrasonic Cone for focusing the audio beam

Richard Haberkern — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 18:25:27 +0000

For those of you that have access to a 3D printer, you can print out this ultrasonic array to test the directional properties of ultrasonic waves. It uses sixteen (16) of the larger piezo emitters and focuses the beam very nicely.

The 3D STL model can be found HERE:

http://www.soundlazer.com/wp-content/uploads/UltrasonicHornArray.STL_.zip

Soundlazer Aluminum Case

Richard Haberkern — Mon, 21 May 2012 17:37:43 +0000

For those of you who want to start making your own case, here are the CAD files.

STEP and DXF

Soundlazer Case CNC files

http://www.soundlazer.com/wp-content/uploads/SoundlazerCase.zip

SOLIDWORKS VIEWER

A 3D viewable model with dimensions can be found HERE:

http://www.soundlazer.com/wp-content/uploads/Soundlazer.EASM_.zip

Edrawing viewer from Solidworks is required and can be found HERE:

http://www.edrawingsviewer.com/ed/download.htm

WOW – What a ride!

Richard Haberkern — Mon, 14 May 2012 17:41:30 +0000

Thank you to all the backers on Kickstarter for making this project a success. Only five more days to go but this project is already a great success. Remember Soundlazer will only be available through Kickstarter so pledge now if you want one of your own.