Uploaded April 2021 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Sunday, 4-18-21, ~23:11
Finally finished it! If I had more time, I would've been able to think more carefully about a base for the castle. I also wanted to convert the signal from the Arduino to a sinewave into the passive buzzer because sinewaves sound nicer.
This was an idea I utilized with the castle a few years ago but it was just a simple battery, button, and two LED's in series (which, the two LEDs changed colors by themselves) and that was it. The castle is just a 3D puzzle I got from Walmart with the intent of doing something with lights in it.
Now, after a few years of experience and learning, and this unique project with Mark Rober in his Creative Engineering course, I was able to put this together, learning some new ways of programming these addressable lights! I've always enjoyed how the light diffuses through translucent materials like this.
The hardest part of this project was the code; I tried to make the lights do different patterns at the same time each note played from the song. This was actually hard to do, as each light was addressable and basically needed to loop each note to address each light in the 8x8 matrix grid of WS2812B LED lights. The pattern isn't precisely what I want it, but it's way better than solid colors!
Also, the tune is a snippet from a game "Sonic 3D Blast" from a level called "Volcano Valley Act 1".
The snippet can be heard here:
youtube.com/watch?v=lV-yuPCvMrY&t=2m46s
And the original song can be heard here:
youtube.com/watch?v=XFYBw3hS6Ns
(I've always been a fan of Sonic and nearly all the music from it!)
I took a midi file of this song and was able to transcribe the notes from the MIDI file in FL Studio to code, with the pitches.h library. The notes in the tracks reviewed themselves, and that made transcribing incredibly easy.
The MIDI file can be found at this website:
vgmusic.com
(Direct link):
vgmusic.com/file/5133c0d4338f09ec9b503027fda86c5c.html
The link to enroll in Mark Rober's class is below. It's very informative!
monthly.com/mark-rober-engineering
Sunday, 4-18-21, ~23:11
Finally finished it! If I had more time, I would've been able to think more carefully about a base for the castle. I also wanted to convert the signal from the Arduino to a sinewave into the passive buzzer because sinewaves sound nicer.
This was an idea I utilized with the castle a few years ago but it was just a simple battery, button, and two LED's in series (which, the two LEDs changed colors by themselves) and that was it. The castle is just a 3D puzzle I got from Walmart with the intent of doing something with lights in it.
Now, after a few years of experience and learning, and this unique project with Mark Rober in his Creative Engineering course, I was able to put this together, learning some new ways of programming these addressable lights! I've always enjoyed how the light diffuses through translucent materials like this.
The hardest part of this project was the code; I tried to make the lights do different patterns at the same time each note played from the song. This was actually hard to do, as each light was addressable and basically needed to loop each note to address each light in the 8x8 matrix grid of WS2812B LED lights. The pattern isn't precisely what I want it, but it's way better than solid colors!
Also, the tune is a snippet from a game "Sonic 3D Blast" from a level called "Volcano Valley Act 1".
The snippet can be heard here:
youtube.com/watch?v=lV-yuPCvMrY&t=2m46s
And the original song can be heard here:
youtube.com/watch?v=XFYBw3hS6Ns
(I've always been a fan of Sonic and nearly all the music from it!)
I took a midi file of this song and was able to transcribe the notes from the MIDI file in FL Studio to code, with the pitches.h library. The notes in the tracks reviewed themselves, and that made transcribing incredibly easy.
The MIDI file can be found at this website:
vgmusic.com
(Direct link):
vgmusic.com/file/5133c0d4338f09ec9b503027fda86c5c.html
The link to enroll in Mark Rober's class is below. It's very informative!
monthly.com/mark-rober-engineering
