Holophony is an audio recording technique that utilizes the placement of two microphones in the location that your ears would normally be. When the sound is played through headphones, the user experiences the sensation of actually being there. Their brain decodes the delay of sound from one microphone to the other and off of surfaces and objects. Not only is it left and right dependant but also front, back, up down… Every direction is carefully decoded by your brain to accurately “show” you where it is coming from.

The space in which the sound is recorded also plays a major role. A small room will not have the same sound as a large open area. Walls will reflect sound differently than trees and every scenario has its own qualities. By closing your eyes it is easier to place yourself where the recording took place.

Directions to listed to holophonic recordings

• You must wear headphones or earphones!
• Ear buds are preferred due to the inner ear and lack of head strap.
• Closing your eyes enhances the effect and allows you to depend on your ears more than what you see.
• Getting the volume level is important to make the sound more believable to your brain. Playing a sample file is recommended so that the proper volume levels are reached.
• Make sure that the headphones are on the correct ear, otherwise it is very confusing to listen to and the entire effect is lost.

To get the volume level correct try playing this audio clip and adjusting your volume to get the most realistic results.

Hair Dryer

After Hearing my first holophonic recording (Virtual Barbershop) I was hooked.

Virtual Barbershop

That got me thinking and I decided to build my own Holophonic Recording Device. My plan is to acquire a manikin head and drill out the ear canals. Then insert microphones into the head and have the microphones in the ear canals. Lastly I will come up with scenarios and different locations to record some audio and post them on this page!

Project Progress

• 5-20-07 Setup holophonic project page
• 5-20-07 Purchased manikin head pictured below off of ebay
• 5-21-07 Found a stereo microphone that uses a single mic jack. Otherwise I would have to find a way to plug in two microphones.
• 5-21-07 Ordered the lapel microphone pictured below.
• 5-23-07 Won ebay bid for stereo condenser mic.
• 5-30-07 Received Griffin mic and mankin head in mail.
• 5-31-07 Assembled manikin head and microphones.

Here is the manikin head and stereo mic I plan to buy.

Today the manikin and microphone arrived! I was very excited as I opened my package to find a head wrapped in newspaper, it was like Christmas…. In that odd demented sort of way.

The Griffin Microphone in all it’s glory.

First I took apart the mic. It is a very simple 2 microphone, 2 diode setup.

I Unscrewed the bottom of the head to find that it was filled full of expanding foam. It gives the head plenty of denseness and will help it withstand bumpy car rides and stuff being packed on top of it.

Next I drilled a 1″ hole up the center of the head and a small hole in each ear. All three align in the center of the head. I took my Griffin stereo microphone and stripped the wire back so that there was enough length between the microphones that one could go in each ear.

The main wire goes down the hole in the neck and it secured with a zip-tie so that I don’t accidentally yank it out. (Sorry about the blurry picture.)

First Recordings after project completion turned out great. I had lots of fun carrying around a manikin head and my laptop to various locations to see what the audio would yield.

Backyard Pond

- Very tranquil with trickling water and birds in the background.

Other Recordings by Other Peoole

• Bell
  
• Matches
  
• Scissors
  

Back in January (2007) www.Fon.com started a new 10,000 FON Giveaway. Fon routers are popularly used around starbucks and other public places. They send out two access points, one secured for you to use, and another unsecured for public use. The two signals are completely separated and you can’t cross between them. When the public use your public signal they are redirected to your Fon user page. From there they can pay a small fee to use your internet. And you the owner of the fon actually make money with it. Other people hack the fon and install DD-WRT. I am planning on modding mine quite a bit, but since I got mine free and that would morally be wrong, I am going to buy another fon at actual price. The mods include things like adding a serial cable, adding a second antenna, adding fans and extra cooling, and making it a web server.

After three weeks I got my Fon router in the mail

I removed the dinky little heatsink fan from the inside of the Fon.

I used the rest of the heatsink from my Inverter Project to use as an upgrade from the old one. I had to trim it down quite a bit to get it to fit. Here it is compared to the old one.

I had to trim down the fins also to get the cover to fit back on. They were a lot tall as you can see here where I compared the trimmed heatsink to the part I cut off earlier.

I have always wondered about using JB Weld as a thermal paste/glue. So I decided to give it a shot on this project. I am very pleased with the results.

I also trimmed the tabs off of the old heatsink, applied JB Weld to it and put it on the chip that I noticed always was scorching hot. Everything fits in the case and I might later enlarge the vent holes next to both heatsink’s for better airflow.

If you go here then you can get yourself a DS275 free! Just request it as a sample and they will mail it to you free. The schematics for this Serial to TTL converter is.

Thank you PwnStar for the old and new diagram.

This is an extremely easy circuit and the main part you can get free. The only thing better would be if you could get the whole unit free and already assembled. I will add pics when I get my free one and my actually paid for serial to ttl converter.

I purchased two more Fon’s for whatever reason. Truthfully I still don’t know exactly what I am going to do with them. Some ideas include:
* Universal Wireless Repeater
* Wireless Receiver
* Wireless Robot Controller
* Wireless AC Controller
* Web Host

I still do not know what all I am going to do with them, but I am that much more excited about having them.

I know that the first thing that I have to do is to secure my investment. Since they are renowned for overheating I will have to figure out a way to cool them better. Here is the internals of the Fon router unaltered.

To take the heat sink off you have to either unsolder or just cut the metal tabs that go through the pcb board. I choose the cutting method. The red circles are the tabs.

Now that the heat sink is off I can take off the metal cover under it. I do not understand how the designers can expect the heat to efficiently be transferred from the chip through the thick thermal pad, through the metal cover, through another thick thermal pad, and finally into the heatsink. I will eliminate most of those by only using one of the existing thermal pads between the heatsink and the chip.

Heatsink to chip size comparison picture.

with the extra pad and metal case gone, the metal tabs on the heat sink can now go through the pcb board and still stick out plenty enough to be soldered back to the board.

Everything back in place and the new heatsink arrangement installed.

While repeating the above steps on the other router I managed to rip off one of the tiny resistors… (The little speck on the white paper). But even with my shaky hands I was able to solder it back on with no fuss.

 

Specs So Far:

 

• I don’t know how hot the original setup ran but I would guess at least 160-180 F. on average with the lid on.
• Version 1 heat sink mod (large heatsink) = Chip 110deg F, Ram 110deg F.
• Version 2 heat sink mod (metal removal) = Chip 145deg F, Ram 125deg F.

the difference that the larger heatsink made is tremendous. If I took off the metal cover and installed it directly to the chip, then it would function quite a bit better. I am happy with the results and will leave it the same unless it breaks.

 

I decided to try and add some more vents to my original Fon. I decided that the best place is right above the main heatsink. This way the air will be drawn in from the sides and out through the top vents. I first made a border in which I knew that I couldn’t cut outside of. The border is the size of the heatsink except for the corner that has the fon logo on top.

Here is the view from the top. I made the cuts with a dremmel and a cutting wheel at low rpm’s. I choose a low speed so that the plastic wouldn’t melt as much or burn. I am very happy with the results and I am thinking about adding more vents above the ram heatsink and repeating the process on the other two Fons.

I decided to attempt something similar with the other two routers. I mapped out the area to cut and I decided to make three cuts. On the last router I noticed a difference between the ends of the cut due to the direction in which the dremmel rotated. So I thought I might go over each cut on this one twice. Once from either direction. I didn’t realize the angle that I was cutting at was quite off 90deg. So it didn’t turn out how I planned but it still works.

On the third router I decided to make a total of five cuts; Three large and two small. I learned from my last attempt to only cut from one direction and I am very happy how this one turned out. Since the heat sinks are smaller I made smaller vents to lessen the risk of a screw-up.

Here are all three routers next to each other. The middle one is the one that I cut from two directions and you can tell that the vent is wider. I don’t care for how it turned out but like I said, It works.

I ordered a usb to ttl converter so that I could plug it into any comptuer. After reading around on the internet I saw that only two wires are needed in the communication. Seeing as how I have multiple Fon’s I knew that I wanted to be able to use the cable on all of them. So I came up with the idea of using an audio jack to connect the Fon to the cable. Here is the Fon with audio jack installed.

The audio jack is very slimline and not noticible. It was very easy to drill a hole and install. I would recommend this for anybody else attemping this project.

 

I desperately needed a bench power supply and knew exactly what I would do. I have several computer power supplies lying around my room and chose an old 400watt to sacrifice for this purpose. I cut all of the connectors off except for one strand which I left intact. It has on it one floppy connector and two molex. The rest of the wires I separated into groups and I completely cut off any wire that wasn’t a 3v, 5v, 12v, ground, or the power wire. I cut them all off right at the circuit board so they would not short out. I used the existing grommet hole for a rocker switch which turns the unit on and off. I cut two of the vent slits out to make a hole to pass the wire through. Then I regrouped the wires again, and cut a piece of plywood the same size as the top of the power supply. Then i added 5 bolts through the board that i use as terminals. One for each voltage and two for ground. Then I insulated the underside of those bolts and attached the plywood to the top of the psu. After a quick coat of paint ( I know its not the best looking thing ever, but it works great) and some wire management I was done.

Here is the psu from above, showing the 5 terminals, power cord, and power connectors (1 floppy, 2 molex).

The rocker switch is placed in the preexisting grommet hole. Also the wires coming out the vent hole work as a great handle for lugging this around.

I used some duck tape to insulate the bolt heads from grounding out on the case.

A Coherer is the earliest form of radio and is was one of the steps in achieving that. It consists of small metal shavings between two contact posts inside a small tube. When a radio or Electro Magnetic Force (EMF) is received by a coherer, its resistance changes dramatically, as shown in the following videos and pictures. I have constructed my own coherer with a small piece of rubber tubing and two bolts from the local hardware store. By hooking up a barbecue igniter to some copper wire (allowing a spark to jump in between) I was able to create my own strong (but short range) EMF fields.

Here is the Coherer connected to my multi meter showing resistance.

A Close up shot of the Coherer shows the metal shavings (acquired by grinding on a piece of steel) are held between the two bolts inside the tubing. The piece of copper wire sticking out the side was just me playing around with different situations, materials, and whatever else I could think of. I do think that I have the metal shavings packed to tightly inside the tubing. I will try a less dense version later.

This barbecue igniter was purchased at the local hardware store with the rest of the parts. In my never ending curiosity I attached two pieces of heavily taped coat hanger wire to it. By bending them just far enough apart I could achieve a decent spark. By sparking practically everything in my house I was surprised at most. Certain silver and gold crackle picture frames would practically light up when sparked, i’m guessing the metal in the paint was conductive enough to allow this light show, check it out yourself sometime. Back to the project I then attached some copper wire to the bare ends of the coat hanger wire to get better range with it. That way I could be up to about 20′ away from the cohere and still see the results.

By attaching some more copper wire to either side of the coherer I noticed an improvement in the performance.

Here is a picture of the multi meter after spark. I have heard that if you use a small enough voltage through your coherer and measure the resistance that way, then you won’t have to reset it after each spark. Resetting it is basically thumping, or even gently tapping, the cohere to shift the metal shavings back to their previous state. When set off the metal shavings will micro weld themselves together, changing the resistance through the coherer.

Here is one video of the coherer in actioin. I noticed that the barbecue ignitor makes the camera auto focus go haywire.

Videos

Notice when I tap the coherer that it resets back to no resistance.

I have no idea why the focus is freaking out.

I made this game for my APCS Computer Class (written in Java) and I know that it isn’t quite finished. However, we have already turned these in so I don’t feel like finishing the graphics (everything else works well).

This is the initial splash screen. It shows all of the characters and some info about them.

After the splash (and between every level) you are presented with this. It shows what level you are on, your health, and score. If you press “i” it will bring up the information screen.

This is the information screen. It shows all of the controlls for the game. To exit out of it either press “i” again or enter to continue onto the game.

Once the game has beaten you (and it will) the death screen is shown with your score and level plastered across it.

Seeing how this was my first major project in Java I am happy with the results.

One of my many hobbies is building and launching model rockets. The kits you buy to start shooting model rockets include: a metal rod to shoot from, a metal plate to shoot off of, and a plastic launcher. With a push of a button the plastic launcher connects a circuit that sends electricity down a wire, through an ignitor and back another wire to the launcher. The ignitor has a small secton that is made of very thin. That thin wire is coated in black power gunk. When electricity is passing through the wire, it superheats and glows bright red, which ignites the black power, which ignites and launches the rocket.

I did not prefer the “dinky-ness” of the included launcher, so i decided to make my own with several improvements. Such as:

• Detachable wire for more organized setup and transportation.
• Capible of launching multiple rockets simultaniously.
• More cool factor.
• More voltage to sustain multiple rocket launches and longer launching leads(wires).
• Overall more heavy duty.

 

I first started by mounting the switches and buttons. The small low profile button is the main on/off, two military style illuminated toggle switches choose which rocket to launch, and the giant pushbutton (which I salvaged from an old arcade pad) is the main launch button.

Here is what it looks like with the safety covers up. Now I have to decide where to mount the wire lead connections.

 

I chose to mount them here because it fits with holding the whole launcher like a remote. Plus I can come back and add more later.

 

Here is a top view of the whole project box with the connectors in place.

 

It is hard to see but between the bottom of the push button and the top of the relay switch attach to it (note that they are upside down) is the base of a LED that I added. Also note that the main connector on the bottom of the relay is bent down to be as low of a profile as possibble. Even now it still barely touches the bottom of the case. Phew, I am glad that it fits.

 

now you can see where I drilled the whole and installed the LED. It illuminates the button better than I expected. I am very pleased with this compared to before.

 

I had to avoid the “crosshair” supports inside the button, the LED just happens to be the perfect size to squeeze between them.

 

I added the two battery trays wich are wired in series (Positive to Negative) and added a buzzer that is active when the main power toggle is in the on position. The buzzer and all of the lights are set to go off when the launch button is pressed. That will provide more juice to the ignitor(s) on the end of the leads. I had to space the trays apart to leave room for the launch button to touch the bottom of the case in the middle secton.

 

Now that everything is wired. Here is a picture of the whole assembly off.

 

Both terminal switches are on and lit up, and the buzzer is starting to get annoying. Safety first.

 

They are independent and only light up when both they and the main switch are on. I completely forgot to add a resistor to the launch button light….soo I need to run by Radio Shack and pickup another, or two.

 

If the main switch is turned off, no power is allowed to go to anything.

 

When the launch button is pushed it kills power to the buzzer and all of the lights.

 

Here you can see how much light the toggle switches put out.

 

I will be sure to add more pictures later when I can.

 

Uses a floppy drive R/W head to pan camera. Eventually this will be controllable and viewable from this web site.

 

Here is what a floppy drive looks with its shell off.

 

Here you can see the stepper motor that will rotate the camera. It is normally used to move the read/write head back and forth on the disk.

 

On the left you can see the back of the stepper motor and on the right is the ide cable port.

 

After tracing leads on the pcb board I figured that I could cut the majority of it off. After I chopped it i decided to work on the metal case also.

 

Here you can see what is left of the circuit board. I am using the metal case as the mount for the camera.

 

I added another bent piece of metal to make a hinge. The left piece is what the camera will be attached to and an arm will go to the read/write head to rotate the camera left and right.

 

Another angle of the hinge design.

 

Here is the circuit design to control the stepper motor. The computer will control the camera through its printer port. On the right is a spliced printer cable.

 

The usb webcam is taped to the metal hinge and a piece of coat hanger wire is used to push and pull on the side of the hinge causing it to turn.

 

The controller program was written in VB and connects via socket connection to this website. Eventually there will be a page dedicated to this webcam and the movement of it.

 

Video

 

 

This spud gun was built by my brother and me, we think that all of the other combustion potato guns were wimpy….so we made our own. It is 12 feet long, 4 feet tall, and weighs 54lbs. It shoots on average 500 yards despite the wind. It has onboard propane and air tanks for quick reloading, as well as breech loading, and removable “shells” to make reloading quicker. It is triple propane injected, has a metering tube to get the exact amount required (4.3%) and the air tank flushes out the “used” air after each shot. An electronic control panel controls the valves for air and propane, the ignition will soon be upgraded to a stun gun, as of now it is still a dual spark BBQ grill igniter.

The blue is the chamber, and the red is the barrell, and the three green objects are electronic valves.The igniter is resessed in the handle.

Here you can see the grey electronic controll box, the black probane tank, and the small red manual airpump.

Inside shot of the breech load. The middle pvc pipe is the rear of the barrell, it is what I call the “shell”.

Picture of the shell removed.

Video

 

 

 

There is now a live server statistics page for this website. It shows uptime, Disk space and usage. Memory usage and many more interesting facts.

Check it out Here.

This is the antenna that I use to pinpoint the location of wireless access points. With this parabolic antenna I can even determine where in the house the router is located! I bought a $2 strainer from Wal-Mart and attached a usb WUSB54G V4 antenna to it. With that I am able to achieve 46dbi Gain!

Here is “Version 2″. It has gotten the best reception so far. I am hoping to improve.

 

This picture is the first version I made. It was only able to reach a max of 30dbi gain…only

Here are the statistics of version 1.

Version 2 statistics compared to Version 1 satistics.

 

Motorized Base

One day I came up with the thought of mounting the dish on some type of motorized base. I considered making my own from scratch and using servo motors. However I found that if I purchased a Usb Missile Launcher, 90% of the work was already done for me.

Here is the Missile launcher right out of the box.