Sonic screwdriver

[JJNiles]

hi I’m the new guy

I have some robotics experience from the old LEGO mindstorm 2.0, and the FIRST Robotics challenge, but have virtually no experience with building circuit boards from scratch.

I’m looking into building a 2005 Sonic Screwdriver prop from the sci-fi show Dr. Who. The 2005 Sonic Screwdriver is about 7 inches closed about 8 inches open and about 30/32" in diameter. It is controlled by two buttons to select the proper function and a third button for execution of the function, the screwdriver has 5 levels of brightness and has a motor to extend the head with the light, if I could have sound that would be cool. The display would be just 6 LEDs, 5 blue ones for the levels of brightness and one red for the motor.

 

[vne147]

I don't watch the show so I didn't know what a sonic screwdriver was. I went and found a few Youtube videos showing off several commercially built prop replicas. From what I can tell, it's basically a light pen where a portion of it extends/retracts and has a blue LED at one end.

You don't need individual LEDs to achieve 5 levels of brightness. You can have a single LEDs connected to 1 of 5 current limiting resistors to change brighness. This can be done several ways. Seeing how you want to change the brightness level with pushbuttons and not a simple switch, I would almost certainly go with a micro-controller for this project especially becasue of the small space everything has to fit into.

 

[JJNiles]

ok did not make my discription verry clear the sonic screwdriver has a display on the side to show what function you are going to use. one led means low constent light, two leds means medum constent light, three leds means bright constent light, four leds means bright slow flashing light, five leds means fast flashing light. after you select the function then you press the start button and the moter extends the tip and the light starts its program releese the button and every thing resets to zero

 

[blueroomelectronics]

I suggest using a very small microcontroller.

 

[tcmtech]

Let me know when you get your sonic screwdriver working.
I parked my Tardis inside itself and it stalled out so now I am having a hell of time getting out.
I think I need someone with a second sonic screwdriver to open it from the outside.

Being a Dr Who fan I always thought about building one myself too.

 

[blueroomelectronics]

I'd rather have a Dalek.

 

[JJNiles]

the bbc just had a dalek up for bid a wile ago, but any way three things 1 what would be the smallist/cheepist microcontroler i could get at a radeo shack or rip out of somthing else, 2 how would i go about programing it could i use visual basic, and 3 how did you park your tardis inside its self that shoud have ripped huge a hole in timespace.

 

[blueroomelectronics]

Look for a PICAxe for cheap and simple.

 

[vne147]

1 what would be the smallist/cheepist microcontroler i could get at a radeo shack or rip out of somthing else

As far as I know Radio Shack doesn't sell micro-controllers. You won't be able to just "rip" one out of anything either because it won't be programmed to do what you want. All that aside, micro-controllers are very cheap and you can get a 14 pin PIC that will do want you want for about $1. Here is one that would work for you.

2 how would i go about programing it could i use visual basic.

To program a microcontroller you need a piece of hardware called a programmer. You can buy one relatively cheap. **broken link removed** is one on eBay for less than $20. Once you write the program, you burn it onto the micro-controller using the programmer and then stick it into your circuit.

As far as languages, I use C and assembly but compilers do exist for Basic. MikroElektronika makes one and they have a free demo version you can find here. It is limited to a program size of 2K but that will be more than enough to accomplish what you are trying to do.

3 how did you park your tardis inside its self that shoud have ripped huge a hole in timespace.

The continuity of spacetime is over rated.

 

[tcmtech]

and 3 how did you park your tardis inside its self that shoud have ripped huge a hole in timespace.

Its a home built Tardis and I am using Linux running on windows vista with an open source patch I got off of some electronics site on the internet. Plus I have been using IE8 and my primary navigation system. Basically it creates its own internal paradox's which thusly cancel out all other external paradox's.
The doctor ain't got nothing on my time space vector random hoppy aroundedness ability!

I would be happy to explain it later.