[Mercifull]

Edit: I originally created this thread when I made Version 1 of my K.U.D Meter. The first few posts in this thread are representative of that initial build. However, since creating this thread I went on to significantly improve my design Version 2, both visually (such as the removal of an ugly washer on the masher led to try to hide a hole drilled slightly too big) and under the hood (replacing the dumb circuit for a fancy Arduino powered system).

I just want to add that this project was only possible thanks to the help of some of the other people in this thread, ChatGPT for assistance in writing the code and Greg Daley (Logan Cade) for the inspiration. His K.U.D Meter kit was incredible but sadly he passed away and therefore it is no longer available to new busters joining the community. I hope this thread and the release of my code help others build their own. It's free but if anyone wishes to donate then let me know and I can provide some details.

See more recent comments in the thread for more details.

Shopping list:

• Micronta 3001 (broken) - Bought for £10.30 on eBay
• Potato masher - 50p from the local market... but I bought 2 so £1
• Strainer spoon - £7.99 from Amazon. Interestingly the hardest thing to find
• Red LED - Already had, approx 20p each
• RGB LED common cathode - Already had, probably about 20p each
• Arduino Nano pre-soldered - £5.89
• Nano shield with screw terminals - £5.99 (although I got two)
• Battery terminals - £2.50 to replace the old corroded ones
• Fake batteries - £4 although I could have simply soldered wires to join the terminals instead for free
• JST connectors - Bag of 10 for about £5
• LED surface mount holder - £1.70

Total spend is around £45-50 by the time you factor in other consumables like tape, labelling and wires.

[Mercifull]

This post may contain an affiliate link that helps support GBFans.com when you make a purchase at no additional cost to you.

Original post: I’ve been working on my K.U.D Meter on and off for over a year now; partly because I wasn’t quite sure how I was going to do it, partly because it was a real struggle to find some utensils which looked “good enough” and partly because my toddler kept wanting to help!

Well over the last month, I’ve finally found the time to actually try it again and here it is…



It, of course, utilises the Micronta 3001. I took apart the telescopic tubing and detecting pad. On opening it up it was a mess. The batteries had corroded and caused a lot of issues inside, it was never going to detect metal that's for sure. This wasn’t a problem though as I wasn’t going to use any of the existing circuitry anyway. I cut away some cables but I left in the original PCB because I wanted to keep the existing knobs without having to somehow create mounts for them. Maybe I'll revisit this in the future though.

I wanted to keep the original battery compartment but all the old terminals were corroded and really nasty looking so I ordered some more. I was erroneously sent terminals a little too wide but rather than fussing with sending back and re-ordering I just used some snips to trim them down. To make it easier to work on I then soldered a JST connector to the battery + and - terminals so I could disconnect it without risking snagging it.

For this initial meter, I wanted to just have a very simple circuit with a flashing red LED and the screen lit up. I drafted up a circuit in Tinkercad which is available here: https://www.tinkercad.com/things/1fQQk8 ... meter-2023 and tested it on a breadboard. Because I only needed 3v for this circuit I purchased from Amazon a bunch of “dummy” batteries so there are only actually 2 AAs in there despite having space for 6. The red LED is self-blinking in that it doesn't require any sort of timer chip or microcontroller. The screen was originally going to be illuminated in a clear white LED but in the end, I thought green looked cooler.



The red LED comes out of a hole in the body, through a hole in the masher and then up to the top where it sits in a surface mount LED holder. Unfortunately during the drilling attempt, something must have slipped and it wasn't centralised. As this was already my second masher (the first attempt was a complete disaster) I decided to live with it and just drill the hole even bigger and use a washer to cover it. It's not a perfect solution but I was dreading making an entirely new third attempt and making sure all the other holes were in the right place and bent in the right way. It’s acceptable and if I find a smaller washer (that's still got an 8mm central hole) I'll swap it out so it's less obnoxious.



It took me absolutely ages to find a strainer spoon even remotely close to what I wanted. The one I eventually used was the best-looking spoon part, which for me was the most important. It has a curved handle which was not ideal but I managed to Dremel in a suitable curve for it to go in. There’s actually a piece of wood inside which it’s then screwed into via a hole in the handle to keep everything tight and secure. A chrome coloured end cap hides all the sins.



All in all, I’m very happy. It’s not perfect but it’s not like there are schematics of the thing we can use for full accuracy. We’re all just basing it off small slightly crappy angles in a couple of short shots. Plus I’ve got plenty of room inside for potential upgrades in the future maybe an Arduino and a speaker to make the needle go all fritzy and beep etc.



Shopping list:
Micronta 3001 (broken) - Bought for £10.30 on eBay
Potato masher - 50p from the local market... but I bought 2 so £1
Self-blinking Red LED - Bag of 10 for £2.45
Green LED - Already had, probably about 10p each
Battery terminals - £2.50
Fake batteries - £4 although I could have simply soldered wires to join the terminals instead for free
Cabling - Various coloured cabling for the wiring which I already had. Let's call it 50p of wiring
JST connector - Bag of 10 for about £5
LED surface mount holder - £1.70
Washer - Few pence
Labelling - Few pence

Total spend around £30

If anyone has any ideas on how to use an Arduino to control the needle then let me know, please. In the future, I'd like to add upgrades but for now, just wanted to get the bare bones working.

[prodestrian]

If anyone has any ideas on how to use an Arduino to control the needle then let me know, please. In the future, I'd like to add upgrades but for now, just wanted to get the bare bones working.

You'll need to use one of the PWM pins on your Arduino, with the AnalogWrite function to send 0-255 to the gauge. Unfortunately it depends what voltage the gauge needs, because the Arduino can only put out up to 5V.

I just bought some 20V gauges for my Tripod trap project, so connecting up to 5V meant I could only move the needle 1/4 of the way. So I replaced the resistor with a lower value (actually needed to use 3 of them) and now I can get it to move anywhere from 0-20V using a 5V signal.




In my code during startup it jumps to a random value, and then it jumps up or down by a random increment, after waiting for a random delay. So the needle twitches up and down fairly realistically rather than just jumping all over the place.



For a KUD Meter you could potentially connect one of the potentiometers to the Arduino Analog pins and read the value, and use this to adjust the needle. If it has a pushbutton under the handle you could also connect this, so the code only "scans" while the button is pressed (or maybe this could make it spike up to a higher reading).

[Mercifull]

Given that it only has 6 AA batteries by default (9v) and that's gotta power everything else on the metal detector I wonder if 5v might be plenty. My Arduino knowledge is very limited. I'd love to see your code.

[prodestrian]

Given that it only has 6 AA batteries by default (9v) and that's gotta power everything else on the metal detector I wonder if 5v might be plenty.

It's not really about that though, you can connect 9V to an Arduino and it will run fine (depending on the model), but the pins themselves can only ever output 5V. An Arduino Nano can accept 7-20V to the VIN pin, for example.

It's not so much a matter of powering the gauge, it's about controlling its position accurately using the Arduino.

I have a Harbor Freight metal detector which is very similar to the Micronta, I'd just have to check how many volts it needs to move the needle.

I guess you could try the same thing yourself though.

Connect a 1.5V AA battery to the gauge and see how far the needle moves. Add more as needed. If you can get the needle to 100% (all the way to the right) using 5V or less (3 AA batteries), then the Arduino can control it without any modifications. If you need 4 or more batteries (6V or above) then you'd need to modify the gauge itself, which may not be as easy as the gauge mod I posted above.

[Mercifull]

I have been experimenting in Tinkercad but I didn't want to mega-complicate things for this initial build. In my mind, I have this scenario...

Toggle switch on/off... basically, this is a dumb switch which simply sends power to the Arduino or not from the battery pack.

By default, the red LED blinks normally and the screen is lit up in Green with a RGB led.

One of the existing knobs on the Micronta is a potentiometer which a mechanical on/off connection within it. I felt that this could be utilised as a trigger to go to the next loop which would begin by fluctuating the needle around the halfway mark, the screen colour would change to orange with a "beep" from a small speaker every few seconds. Maybe 20 seconds later the needle would then zip up to the higher end of the gauge, the screen would light up in Red with a speaker playing a long tone. This would last a few seconds before going back to the Orange/half way gauge. This loops until the switch is turned off and then it goes back to Green mode.

In wasn't going to fuss with making the other two knobs do anything.

[Mercifull]

This is my work in progress so far using an Arduino to make it a bit more fancy. It assumes that there is 5-6v going into the microcontroller from the existing battery pack (4xAA batteries) which has a toggle switch. This is not included in the diagram.

I'm using the multimeter in Tinkercad in lieu of an analogue gauge/needle thingy, but hoping it does the same thing. I'm going on the assumption that 5v is the needle at full but I'll need to experiment with this manually at some point.

Effectively when it's switched on but the "spooky mode" switch is LOW/off then the self-blinking LED is turns on and the screen is lit up green with an RGB led. I could use a regular red led and get the Arduino to control the flashing speed but it seems like unnecessary extra complexity in the code.

When the "spooky mode" switch is HIGH/on then it begins the loop which, at the moment for testing, lights up the orange RGB led and sets the voltage pin to 127 (so about half), delays for 2 seconds, and then goes to red and 255 on the multimeter, 2 seconds delay and then starts again.

I still need to do some more tinkering with the speaker which I want to bleep slowly when orange and then fast/just on permanently when red. I may revisit this later in the week when I have more time.



I don't have a spare Arduino at the moment so this is just a bit of fun, but it might be inspiration for others and I may get around to upgrading mine eventually.

[prodestrian]

I'll try to send you some code later, but I just tested the Analog Gauge on my Harbor Freight metal detector and it looks like it runs well below 1.5V. In the video below I've connected a 1.5V AA battery and it's enough to bury the needle.



So, if yours is the same then we can definitely do this with an Arduino easily, it's just a matter of adjusting the code until we know what Analog range the gauge operates at.

Here's the rear connection:


If you haven't bought an Arduino yet, I'd definitely go with a Nano as it's very compact but has the same basic features as an Uno. It can also run off 9V if that's what you prefer.

[Mercifull]

Interesting to note the really low voltage needed on your meter, but it makes sense given the sheer amout of other electronics in the device also needing power. My initial code went on the assumption that 255 was max (5v) which is clearly overkill now. Could I use a couple of different resistors in series to get it so that 255 is max, 127 is about half way etc?

I've pulled a full-size Arduino out of some other project I started but never bothered finishing so I can start experimenting for real at the weekend. I think you're right about using a nano when it comes to the final project though as it's significantly more compact, I used one in my MT500 build. In order to better fit it all in I'll also need to take out the old PCB but that brings its own issues like "how will I mount the potentiometers". I wonder if I could just cut a piece of styrene sheet to shape and then either hot glue the existing knobs or get a couple of new ones that can surface mount with a locking nut.

[Mercifull]

I realise this thread has sort of gone on a bit of a tangent from the original physical prop but it seems like it's ok to discuss electronics here. It's not like there's loads of conversation going on about my build that this is disrupting the flow of...

I'm most definitely an Arduino "noob" but I've been using chatGPT to help me create the bare bones of code that I'm using to build up something substantial that actually works.

I've been testing out a simple loop.

Code: Select all

int needlePin = 9; // Assign gauge needle pin

void setup()
{
  pinMode(LED_BUILTIN, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(needlePin, OUTPUT);
  randomSeed(analogRead(0)); // Set the seed for the random number generator based on the current time
}

void loop() {  
   
  digitalWrite(LED_BUILTIN, HIGH);  // Turn on built in LED

  for(int i = 0; i < 10; i++) // Set number of times this runs before moving on
  { 
  int randValue = random(10, 125); // Generate a random number 
  analogWrite(needlePin, randValue); // Write the random number
     delay(300); 
  }
   
  digitalWrite(LED_BUILTIN, LOW);  // Turn off built in LED
  analogWrite(needlePin, 0); // Flatline the meter
   delay(3000); // Wait before restarting loop
   
} 

What this does it start by turning on the built-in LED on the Arduino (so I know which part of the code is running) then it sends between 0-2.5v to the multimeter, then randomly changes it every 300 milliseconds. It does this 10 times in a row before turning the built-in LED off. After 3 seconds it then restarts.

This assumes that the meter is on full at 255 (5v) which we now think is completely wrong. If it's anything like yours then the Micronta could be full at just 50 (1v)! Until I can get a chance to open it up then I don't really know.

https://www.tinkercad.com/things/309k7N ... witch-test

[prodestrian]

I finally connected my gauge to an Arduino PWM pin, and unfortunately it looks like "100%" is actually:

Code: Select all

analogWrite(15);

So, technically you could just set values from 1-15, having 15 different positions on the needle is pretty good.
Here's how that looks:


But if you want to increase the resolution you'll need resistors. For me it looks like I need around 15k Ohm, or I can use a lower value and just reduce the max number. With a 10k Ohm resistor I can drop the range from 0-255 to 0-175.

Here's a modified version of the code from my Tripod Trap gauge with a lot of the code abstracted out, no need for external libraries, and it uses timers instead of delays (so it won't block your other functions).

You can adjust a lot of the numbers and see what they do, in case you want wilder swings between updates or want it to be a little more stable. I wanted my gauge to never drop below a certain value so I've included limits there too.

Here's how it looks:


And here's the code:

Code: Select all

#define GAUGE_PIN 7

// Minimum value of the Analog Gauge (will never go lower than this value)
#define MIN_LIMIT 50

// Maximum limit of the Analog Gauge (up to 255)
#define MAX_LIMIT 175

// Minimum delay (in milliseconds) to wait between Gauge updates
#define MIN_DELAY 100

// Maximum delay (in milliseconds) to wait between Gauge updates
#define MAX_DELAY 800

// How often to update the Gauge (in milliseconds)
int interval = MIN_DELAY;

// Where should the Gauge Start? (0 - MAX_LIMIT)
// eg: To start in the middle, set this to half of MAX_LIMIT
int currentValue = 87;

void setup()
{
    Serial.begin(9600);
}

void loop()
{
    if (timerHasElapsed()) {
        setGaugeValue(currentValue);

        // Determine the next value to jump to
        // Increase or decrease by a random value
        currentValue = currentValue + random(-5, 5);
        currentValue = (currentValue < MIN_LIMIT) ? MIN_LIMIT : currentValue;
        currentValue = (currentValue > MAX_LIMIT) ? MAX_LIMIT : currentValue;

        // Set a random delay until the next update
        interval = random(MIN_DELAY, MAX_DELAY);
    }
}

void setGaugeValue(int value)
{
    Serial.println(value);
    analogWrite(GAUGE_PIN, value);
}


unsigned long lastRunMillis = 0;

bool timerHasElapsed() {
    if((unsigned long)(millis() - lastRunMillis) >= interval) {
        lastRunMillis = millis();
        return true;
    }

    return false;
}

If you wanted, you could read a button or potentiometer to adjust the values on the fly. Maybe one potentiometer controls how fast it updates the gauge (increases/decreases the interval between updates), and another one adjusts how far it swings up or down. So you could have it stay roughly in the same position, or you could have it swing wildly all over the place. A button could make it suddenly jump to 100%. If you controlled the front red LED to the Arduino you could also have this flash whenever the Gauge shows a new reading (although you'd need to swap out the flashing LED for a static one).

I still haven't worked out how to mount the potentiometers either, I think I'll need to do something similar to you.
If you do decide to buy new ones, you could consider making one of them a Rotary Encoder, so you can use it to manually set the current value on the Gauge.

I may also experiment with getting the speaker working. You can definitely have an Arduino generate tones and other sound effects (maybe a chirp/beep sound while it's scanning, which gets faster/slower based on the Gauge reading). But an Arduino can also play up to 4 seconds of PCM audio from a low quality WAV file, this could work too:
https://github.com/charliegerard/dev-no ... tSdCard.md
(The KUD meter does have a sound effect in the film for about 2-3 seconds but so far I haven't been able to extract a decent recording, so I'd probably just go with something close enough).

[Mercifull]

That's really helpful thanks. Especially about the 15 being max. I'll try on my Micronta at the weekend but expect it's something similar. 15 points of resolution isn't too bad and will still give some satisfying movement. I already have a toggle switch for power but i want a toggle mode between Normal (where the needle is doing nothing) and "Spooky" where it goes wild. On mine the original vintage volume knob is also the on/off switch in that when the volume is turned to the minimum there's a mechanical disconnection. Can I simply piggyback off this by soldering onto the switch while leaving it connected to the rest of the vintage circuit board? I've already disconnected everything else from it?

[Mercifull]

I don't actually know what the sound is like from the video game I've never heard it. if someone is able to locate me a scruffy version i can try to tidy it up in my audio editing software.

[Mercifull]

I’ve been doing some more tinkering today and I’ve started from scratch again. This time I’m utilising a potentiometer and I’m hoping I can use the one that’s already on the PCB but I’ll need a multimeter to check the ohms rating of it. I’m still going to use the toggle switch to turn the device on/off by tapping into the VIN and GND on the Arduino but then using the pot to control the function, which I’ll refer to by the screen led colour. I’m converting the pot to 5 points of resolution with Green at the lowest, then Yellow, orange and red (red is technically twice so I can have a “max” setting. At its lowest green setting the needle barely moves at all, yellow wobbles between 0 and the first third, orange is a third to two thirds, red is the top third and at max the needle is just on full. This is assuming that the Micronta range is about 1-15 the same as the Other one. I’ve added a speaker to the circuit but haven’t written any code for it yet.



Video: https://imgur.com/VTHPUiv

Work in progress sketch/code etc: https://www.tinkercad.com/things/7SQeMR ... o8jY7cUsaU

[Mercifull]

I’ve finally taken the back off my Micronta and connected a multimeter. It appears that the potentiometer I want to use is a 5k ohm pot. Connecting a single 1.5v AA shoots the needle to max, so clearly I need to drop the voltage somehow. If I send full 5v via the arduino pin out then the needle might smash it’s way out the blooming thing half way to the moon. I can use analogWrite(needlePin, value); but I’m not really sure where to start to try to find the max. Should I just start with a number like 50 and see what happens? Or should I add in some resistors somehow to drop it?

[prodestrian]

I’ve finally taken the back off my Micronta and connected a multimeter. It appears that the potentiometer I want to use is a 5k ohm pot. Connecting a single 1.5v AA shoots the needle to max, so clearly I need to drop the voltage somehow. If I send full 5v via the arduino pin out then the needle might smash it’s way out the blooming thing half way to the moon. I can use analogWrite(needlePin, value); but I’m not really sure where to start to try to find the max. Should I just start with a number like 50 and see what happens? Or should I add in some resistors somehow to drop it?

I don't think you'll break anything by running 5V, but 50 is a good starting number for analogwrite. You only need resistors if you find that you can't get the precision you need. My gauge without resistors maxed out at analogWrite(15), so the code had 15 positions/steps it could set the needle too. If yours has less than that a resistor is a good idea, so you can increase the number of steps and make it smoother.

[Mercifull]

Right then... with a 1k resistor, my range is about 0-25 (but 25 swings it a bit too hard so I'm keeping under 21 for "max").

I can hear a high pitch sound which gets higher the more the needle goes to the right. Is this something to be concerned about or is this just because it's old and probably unshielded?

In this example code the needle fluctuates every 300 milliseconds between 0 and 20. Audio on needed.


https://www.youtube.com/shorts/_Ijr8NhtqXc

p.s. forgive my mouth breathing i have a cold
p.p.s. so does my wife
p.p.p.s. apologies for frozen on in the background

[Mercifull]

I think I've finished my code.

My Arduino code is designed to piggy-pack off some of the original vintage electronics on the PCB. I'll need to tap into the three legs of the 'Peak' potentiometer and the two switching legs of the 'Volume pot' (not the lower 3 legs). I will utilise the existing needle gauge and the speaker.

For screen accuracy, a new surface mounted on/off toggle is required and will be used to toggle power to the Arduino from the battery compartment. This is the only "new" element that isn't part of the original Micronta.

The current version of my code allows choosing whether to use a self-blinking LED for the masher or to flash it in time with the bleeps depending on if you connect it to pin 12 or to 13. I may simplify my code in the future to remove one of the options depending on what I prefer.

Inputs:
- Toggle on/off power using surface mounted switch
- Use 'Volume' pot as a switch for audio on/off
- Use 'Peak' pot as a potentiometer to change modes

Outputs:
- Red masher led blinks at increasing rates depending on mode
- RGB led changes colour depending on mode
- Needle gauge which fluctuated depending on mode
- Bleeper changes speed/tone depending on mode

Modes: (identifiable by screen colour)
- Green/Default, low, needle fluctuation, beep/flash every 3 secs
- Yellow, low-mid, needle fluctuation, beep/flash every 1.5 secs
- Orange, mid, needle fluctuation, beep/flash every 1 secs
- Red, high, needle fluctuation, beep/flash every 600ms
- Purple, max, needle fluctuation, beep/flash every 300ms

It's probably not the most efficient code in the world but it appears to work in simulation on Tinkercad.

If anyone can improve my code or can see a stupid mistake then let me know. I'm going to try flashing this to my Arduino uno development board with some breadboard soon but I've got a busy week and then I'm on holiday next week so it might not be until April I can really test it out.

[Mercifull]

Ok I flashed this to my development board earlier and tried out as much as I could with my limited number of jumper cables and alligator leads. It looks I need to add in an additional category on the potentiometer because it never actually hits the “max” even when turned all the way up. So I’ll basically duplicate the “purple” mode.

I realised my rgb LEDs are common anode and not common cathode so my colours were all wrong. I know it’s possible to change the circuit (move from gnd to 5v) and reverse the colour values but then the Tinkercad simulation wouldn’t match reality. So I’ve ordered some different LEDs which should come in a few days. The volume mute switch isn’t work as intended when connected to the actual vintage tech so I’ve changed that in the wiring diagram. The bleeps didn’t work as they did in the simulation but I’m not sure if that’s just because my wires were getting a bit muddled.

I think now I’ve changed the code I’ll wait until my new LEDs arrive and I’ll actually wire it to the nano that has my code flashed to it. The actual wiring layout I think is fine so if anything is acting strange it can only be software based and in that case I can fine tune the code and just flash it to the nano without having to dismantle or do anymore soldering.

I’ve found a location inside the Micronta that the nano (and shield) can fit so at least so I know it’ll all screw back together without having to faff with taking the old PCB out.

Probably my last post in here for a week or so as I’m going away for a break and won’t have physical access to my KUD so anything I do can only be simulated in Tinkercad.

[Mercifull]

Well I’m back from my break away and I’ve been very busy today. Firstly I got rid of that ghastly washer on the masher led. Actually it’s barely noticeable that the hole is a little big so I’ve just gone without. I also stripped out all my old circuitry and put in fresh Arduino powered goodies. I think there’s still a bit of code tweaking particularly around the colour of the screen for the two middle modes but I’m really pleased with how it’s turning out. I was hoping to use the original speaker but it didn’t want to play nicely so there’s just a 10p (quarter) sized piezo in there instead.



It’s a bit of a spaghetti in there but I suppose it fits well with the kitchen utensil theme haha. With more planning I’m sure the cables could be made to more sensible lengths. Device is powered by four AA batteries using the original compartment (and two dummy cells) with a toggle switch to an Arduino Nano. Everything is then controlled by the code I wrote (with a bit of help from chatGPT) for the Arduino. The “Peak” potentiometer controls the intensity levels and the “Volume” knob acts as a sound on/off function. The “Ferrous” knob doesn’t do anything other than provide a location for the Arduino underneath.

[Mercifull]

I’m using the original battery compartment still. Except this time with 4xAAs and only 2 dummies.



There is still a JST connector so that I can take the back off easily.



I had to take a few of the original pcb components off because the surface mounted toggle I used was getting in the way. Not a big deal because the old circuit board isn’t being used anyway.



I tried using the speaker that was already in it but the Arduino just couldn’t push out anything substantial in volume so I replaced with a little piezo speaker I had. It’s smaller than I’d have liked but all I had.



There is logic to the madness of the cables being all manner of colours. Black is always to ground so that’s fairly self explanatory. Red is only used from the battery pack to VIN with exception of the red leg on the rgb. The red light on the masher uses a white/black ribbon cable I had lying around. The RGB I didn’t have a suitable ribbon for so I just bundled red/black/green/blue wires together to represent the relevant leg of the led, I don’t know if that’s best practice or not but I need the colours or it just looks visually too complex to me. The other wires will make sense when I share the circuit diagram but I think I managed to find unique coloured wires for every pin on the arduino (I may have used yellow twice). Held down with some paper tape.



I used the original vintage components and just soldered onto the three legs of the potentiometer and the switching legs of the volume knob.




I’m struggling though with finding a colour I’m Happy with between green and orange. If I can’t then my options are to just go yellow. Or to make the green Blue and then go Blue>Green>Orange>Red>Purple. We’ll see.

[Mercifull]

I've now tweaked the colours and feel comfortable sharing the code. I've made it public on Tinkercad and tried to add notes to both the code and the circuit diagram using annotations. If anyone feels like critiquing it then feel free. I'd love to hear suggestions or improvements anyone feels like sharing with the community.

https://www.tinkercad.com/things/jfBq41 ... er-arduino

[Mercifull]

Short demonstration video.

[Mercifull]

Because I've linked to this thread in the code I released to Tinkercad I've tidied up the original post and moved most of that text to post #2. I then rewrote the first post in the thread so it makes a little bit more sense to new readers. The rest of the posts remain in their original order to preserve the discussion and evolution of the code, although the old Tinkercad links may no longer work as I've set most of them now to 'Private' with only the "final" version set to "Public". Also... when I say final... there's no guarantee I won't tweak it a bit more in the future haha.

[Speedmetal890]

This is amazing. Thank you for sharing!
This has given me the confidence to try this myself. Basic electronics' is my max, never used an Arduino.

All the parts I don't have are on order.
The first batch turned up yesterday so I knocked together some of the electrics last night (I also realised my RGB LED is an anode so will link to the 5v for now)

So as soon as the Micronta arrives (and I work out the battery situation) I'll share my progress.

Thanks again

[Mercifull]

This is amazing. Thank you for sharing!
This has given me the confidence to try this myself. Basic electronics' is my max, never used an Arduino.

All the parts I don't have are on order.
The first batch turned up yesterday so I knocked together some of the electrics last night (I also realised my RGB LED is an anode so will link to the 5v for now)

So as soon as the Micronta arrives (and I work out the battery situation) I'll share my progress.

Thanks again

A common anode rgb led will work you just need to wire the relevant leg to 5V (instead of GND) and reverse the values (255=0, 0=255 etc). But for me, because I’m such a novice I wanted to simulate it accurately in Tinkercad so I ordered some common cathode ones as well.

I can’t remember if I shared photos of my battery compartment earlier in this thread but effectively I’m using 4xAAs (6v) with two blank/dummy batteries to fill the space (although you could simply solder the terminals together). Then the + and - terminals are wired to a male JST connector. Then I wired a female connector with the + going to a surface-mounted toggle switch and then to the VIN on the Arduino, the - went to GND.

Looking forward to seeing your one!

[Mercifull]

Ooh, something to add if people are considering making this and they want to use different pins than the ones I used then you need to be aware of which pins are PWM (identified with the ~ symbol) but also that there are clashes with the use of the tone() function interfering with PWM output on pins 3 and 11. So if anyone is jiggling the order or pins around (maybe you wanted to move the RGB legs to a different part) then bear that in mind.

[Speedmetal890]

KUD is complete (it needs some distressing, but it's good for paranormal investigations).
I was lucky enough that my speaker was good, so I was able to use that.
As for the battery, I moved the negative terminal down to the 4th battery slot so I could get away with just having 4 to save a tiny bit of weight.

Thanks again for sharing this, I plan on making some further modifications, maybe using that ferrous pot for something. If I do, I'll be sure to share.

[Mercifull]

Stupidly I bid on eBay for another one... and won. So I might make a second one after all haha.

[Turtuv]

this is incredible! i want to learn how to create something with arduino and how to code it, can you tell me where have you learned? thank you!