I made a cube!
It also has hands on the side, since you touch it.
It lights up, records things, plays them back, and goes on journeys with you (metaphorically, but possibly literally too).
INSPIRATION:
In Intangible Interactions last year, I made a cube that lit up over time.
I liked this idea and wanted to move it forward. My idea had come from a time in my life where I lived out of one backpack and one carry on. At that time, I was very aware of the journey forward through time I was going on with the objects around me. If something had a scratch or a ding, it would be very obvious to me.
All of our objects pass through time with us like this, but most of the time it’s not very obvious. Our computers are very good examples of this, where folders get created and deleted and everything is dated, but most things are a lot more subtle in their changes.
I wanted to build a cube that made this “journey through time” idea explicit.
The idea I had was to record audio on a certain day, and then play it back much later. Months later, say. Audio is an indicator of time which is very powerful, but not super duper explored versus visual things like photographs. I hoped I could make something one could regard as a friend, journeying to the future with.
TOOLS:
Adafruit’s SPH0645 I2S mic (Adafruit I2S MEMS Microphone Breakout — SPH0645LM4H ID: 3421 — $6.95 : Adafruit Industries, Unique & fun DIY electronics and kits)
Teensy 4.1 && audio shield
The MAX98306 amp (with 2 speakers)
Neopixels, for style!
SOFTWARE:
The teensy 4.1 audio library
Capacitive touch!
STEPS TO GO THROUGH:
First I wanted to get the speakers to output sound. I was lucky since the MAX98306 can work as a straight amplifier, with the line output from the teensy going straight in and out. I used some of the Teensy’s examples to play some audio and it came out alright.
Then, I had to get the I2S mic working. It was working without the audio board but not with it, and I was very confused until I figured out that both the audio shield and the mic were trying to use the same I2S pin… Luckily, the Teensy 4.1 has a second one.
Mic working is good, but I needed to record it. The teensy has a built-in SD card slot you can use, so with some finagling I got it to record to that and play back.
After that I had to throw capacitive touch in, since it’s not a Schuyler physcomp project if it doesn’t have capacitive touch. There was a problem where touch couldn’t be detected while recording was happening because the way the capsense library works is it sends out a signal and waits to see how long it takes to get back. So, I ended up setting a timer for ten seconds of recording. I figure it’s evocative to those “one line a day” journals or such. For the final cube, I have aluminum around the edge to faciliate capacitive touch.
Finally I put on the Neopixels. These were pretty old ‘pixels, and it turned out the only color they would show was green, but they would only turn green when you set blue to the max (white didnt seem to work). Green was the one color I wanted least, but we all learn to live with it.
The box was matte acrylic I laser cut and epoxy’d together. The top looks like a little face!
During the installation of the circuit in the box, one speaker stopped working and the other started hissing furiously, so the sound quality is awful now.
NEXT STEPS:
Add RTC
Add good triggers for playing sound (right now it just plays immediately after, the point is to have it play a long time after)
Why is the speaker so bad and loud?? : (
Battery powered would be better
And soldering it all in would be better
Misc pics:
