[Holydohnut]

Me again! After building a trap and a PKE meter using Raspberry Pi Pico's, I thought I'd finish the trilogy with a Giga Meter!

One thing I really like about the Giga Meter is that you don't really see how it works in the film. The ears flap as Egon is walking across the street, then when he scans, they stop, the spinning lights start up, and he reads 2.5 GEV's. This allows a lot of... personal interpretation of the functionality of it!

I have seen a lot of great builds on here and on YouTube and they all seem to work in slightly different ways, though I haven't seen one where the ears stop moving during the scan and I'd like to include that. I also really like the idea of the meter being able to display some text. So for that reason I've decided to go with a 4 digit display, rather than the 3 that most people use.

The meter will have a button that flips though the different stages. Here's my ideas so far.

Stage 1 = Standby. Just scroll some text

Stage 2 = Where's that coming from? A random number will count forward or back to another random number while the "ears" sweep. When the numbers match, "Source Discovered" will display on the readout.

Stage 3 = How bad is it? The dome lights will spin while the readout scrolls a message. After a while the readout will give you the result in GEV's

And then back to stage one.

The pico can't directly drive a DC motor so I have some motor controllers on order which should arrive tomorrow. I'd love to hear what you think and if you have any other ideas! Pics will follow shortly, but for now...

[Holydohnut]

Can I ask a question to anyone who has built a gigameter? Do you have the lights in the spinning dome, flash at all? Watching the street scene in GBII, the patten suggests that there may be some flashing going on, but I'm not sure.

The reason for asking is that if they don't flash, I'm thinking of using WiFi leds which could be placed directly in the dome and I wouldn't have to worry about slip rings or Jacks or anything. Making the whole build so much simpler.

Thanks!

[universalcreature]

Can I ask a question to anyone who has built a gigameter? Do you have the lights in the spinning dome, flash at all? Watching the street scene in GBII, the patten suggests that there may be some flashing going on, but I'm not sure.

The reason for asking is that if they don't flash, I'm thinking of using WiFi leds which could be placed directly in the dome and I wouldn't have to worry about slip rings or Jacks or anything. Making the whole build so much simpler.

Thanks!

I put together a resin Giga Meter that has a electronics kit in it and the dome LEDs do blink.

[Holydohnut]

Thanks! Are your leds mounted in the spinning part of the dome, or are they in the base?

[universalcreature]

Thanks! Are your leds mounted in the spinning part of the dome, or are they in the base?

They are in the dome and I am using a slip ring inside an aluminum tube. It's the Throwing Chicken kit with Heavy Props electronics.

[grantofkings]

Thanks! Are your leds mounted in the spinning part of the dome, or are they in the base?

They are in the dome and I am using a slip ring inside an aluminum tube. It's the Throwing Chicken kit with Heavy Props electronics.

Do you have a link for or diameter of the slip ring you used? I'm running into a few issues with my TC build, and I think the audio jack is part of it.

[universalcreature]

The one I purchased seems to be sold-out on Amazon but its a "Capsule Electrical Slip Ring 12.5mm 250RPM (6 Wires U Type)"