Episode III : The Return of Blaster Core

Here are some news about the new blaster. It took time cause I've been developping blaster core at the same time and I wrote something like 1000+ lines of code to provide new features.
And it's hard to concentrate on the current task when you have one new idea each 5 minutes...

►►►The blaster basis that hosts the new prototype of BC (Blaster Core) is a "grevious blaster" made by hasbro. It's very similar to a fighting droid blaster. It has no sound, just a place in the barrel for a canister that sprays some "silly strings" to simulate the blaster ray. So... it's almost empty but... it already has a trigger anyway, and lot of room in it to customize it with electronics.

• youtube videos (parts I & II)

► Assembling the main stamina display / bargraph. Front view


► back side view


►My new toy for BC : a 65k color graphical screen. Incredibly small, good definition vs size and visibility angle range up to almost 180°. yummy ! It's going to be fun to program, and it's going to be my new innovation for blaster technology !


►Builing the barrel with the blaster ray progression simulation LEDs. High power LED with 140° FoV. 6 circuits, 12 LEDs total each circuit driving 2 LEDs for left and right side of the barrel.
I found the PCV pipe on a building construction place coming home one day, it has the perfect diameter for the job


►The trigger, with adjustable "course" (hope it's the right word). Can be tune to get a faster trigger or at the opposite at the far end of the trigger range so that you really have to pull to trigger to blast


► The 2 rows of blaster ray progression LEDs, before putting them in the barrel.


► All the electronic guts fit, including the force feedback motor (a real earthquake, this thing...)
The li-ion 7.4V batteries are in the handle


►The output of the blaster and the laser targeting device (is that called an "aiming device ?". It can be selected as permanent OR trigged at the same time as the final flash of the blaster (a white luxeon III - 3 watt - in this case and then simulate the blaster ray itself (with a bit of smoke or darkness, should be nice)


► The SECOND speaker, 36 mm high quality one. The first one is in the barrel, since it create a natural resonant chamber.


►The display. Huge work of programming. From graphical function to creation of Icons. Can't detail in a single sentence what I can do with it, I'll explain that below, in the detailed features of BC.
Here you see some useful/important info when you "boot" the hardware, SD card etc.


►The main "menu" of the weapon. First line, the title, then the ammo, with a single bullet icon to indicate the single shot shooting mode, and the remaining ammo number or energy %
below, the energy bar, going down when you shoot. It goes from white to red when getting close to the end. The energy / ammo self-regenerate if this option has been selected in the configuration file of the current sound bank. Otherwise, the weapon is progressivelly emptied. You then have to recharge it with the aux. button, if this option has been enabled, otherwise the weapon is dead and can be recharged only by a power off power on scheme. Using a kill plug as a general power switch, this can be done for instance only by a specific person, hence disabling recharging weapons during an outdoor RPG.
Below, the range selector (lightning icon). 6 range maximum, the number of used and displayed ranges is configurable. Range 1 can a normal range (costing 1 ammo), a stun mode, or a grenade mode. The last 2 modes with a special sound. The grenade mode has a secondary specific magazine displayed when you select the function.



► Same screen with the multiple shots mode selected (3 bullet icon)

The possibilities of the graphical screen are endless. I already have in mind several other menus, drawn in my Idea Sketch Book. A big ammo counter (3 digits), another one with a 7 segments LED style like the Alien M4A1 one, an animated (if I have enough CPU power) radar screen, a vital functions / metabolism diagnostic screen, a little oscilloscope... a "matrix" screen in aurabesh...

►About Aurabesh, I've finished implementing a low-res version of this little display


►And I have also a second radar menu, with an "enemy dot" blinking and some random values animating the display