Ohms Stone: A Final Object Project
Introduction
Although mindfulness is on the up and up in trending healthy lifestyle, I was skeptical to how it helped and what it really did for one's life. However, I looked more and more into the process and how to become more mindful I really started to change my ideas on it.
As a student, the stress of balancing school, work, social, health, and much more can be overwhelming. Not only is this balance difficult but being hyperactive in nature has deemed to be more of an issue as I have come to college. Hyperactivity also can align with anxiety and even depression, both of which, I have struggled with form time to time. However, may be hopping on this mindfulness wagon could help ease the pains that these attention deficiencies cause.
So I have decided to create an Ohms Stone. Stones have been used for years to activate mindfulness meditation practices and although I admire the tradition and organic-ness of a cold stone, I want to create one that encapsulates myself with integration of sound and light enclosed by a stone-like appearance accented with a wood based to represented grounded-ness.
Proposal
See my project proposal to understand the initial goals, parts, and diagrams.
How It Works
Functionally, the circuitry is fairly simple. There is one digital input that triggers the sound and light. A button is considered a digital input because it only has an on or off, HIGH or LOW, 0 or 1 – it does not have a wide range of values that would require mapping the serial values. However, a button does require a 10k ohm resistor to pull down to ground in order for it to start off. By doing so, the button starts off (0 or LOW) in terms of energy flowing through it. When the momentary button is pressed down, there is less resistance, so energy will flow through that path simulating an on function (1 or HIGH) to the Arduino program. This on/off function will then trigger the song to start amplifying through the speaker while the LEDs pulse to 5 seconds in and 5 seconds out representing a breathing mechanism used for meditation.
I decided to only have one button because I wanted the interaction to be very simple being able to focus on the sound, light, and enclosure itself. As you will see in my code, there are only 3 cases. Case 1 and 3 are used to turn on/off the looping of the sound/light functionality. They simulate on and off since a switch was not used in the making of this project. Case 2 is use to execute the meditation function. The intended use of the Ohms stone is a tool used to help someone slow down their day to breathe and stop thinking for 6o seconds.
Parts
Electronics
SparkFun Red Board
SparkFun MP3 Shield
SparkFun 1K Capacitor
Metal Pushbutton - Momentary (16mm, White)
Amazon Neopixel Strip
MiniSD - Pre Loaded Music
9V Battery + Adapter
Enclosure
Castin’ Craft Poly Resin
Castin’ Craft Rubber Molding
Glass Crystals
Styrofoam Molds
Plywood
Stain
** These parts have been expanded and changed form extensively since my proposal documentation.
During my prototyping, I heavily considered my enclosure during the assembly of the electronics and the code that would go with it.
Prototype
Part 1: Enclosure with Foam prototyping
At the beginning of this project, I tossed around the idea of creating my final enclosure out of wood, concrete, foam with a clay exterior to exemplify a rock. Before I moved over to the final material, I carved out the shape that I intended to use out of foam board. Prototyping out of foam was great to get feedback on the form in order for people to enjoy the overall experience of the stone.
How I create the foam prototype:
- I found a great 2ft x 2ft x 2in foam board that was easy to carve and create the shape that I wanted.
- After gluing these pieces together I cut out the oval then started filing down the thick oval until I got the shape that I wanted. Below you can find the final foam prototype shape.
- I glued 3 layers of the foam and drew out the the general shape of the rock. This resembled a narrow oval (think river rock shape).
User testing to get correct shape of the rock.
Part 2: Electronics
The circuitry for this project was fairly simple after reading the hookup guide for the MP3 Shield. Since the shield sits directly on top of the SparkFun Redboard, you need to be careful about what inputs you are using for specific components. Pin 5 and 10 are the only digital inputs that are not reserved for the MP3 Shield allowing us to be able to hook up to a momentary button. Initially, I wanted to have four different buttons but quickly found that this would not be made possibly without the use of extensive code to back-up the different lows and highs of the button. However in the end, I liked the ability to trigger the interaction with only one button to truly have the user focus on the enclosure. I hooked up my button to pin 10 and used a Pull Up function in my code in order to not use a 10k resistor and keep my electronics simpler due to the small space it would live in. Check out Spark Fun’s MP3 Hook Up Guide for more information on the shield.
According to Adafruit in order to use Neopixels in your project, it is necessary to have a 1K capacitor. This prevents the initial onrush of current from damaging the pixels. Check out Adafruit’s Neopixel Uberguide for more information on hookup.
I decided to use the MP3 Shield because of the build in headphone jack. With the built in jack, connecting a speaker is as easy as plugging it in. Below you will find the complete Schematic Diagram:
** Photo couresy of Adafruit Neopixel Uberguide
Schematic Diagrams of the circuitry.
Part 3: Code + Enclosure Prototype
My primary focus for this project was the fabrication of the enclosure to ensure that I would make a beautiful exterior that:
Hide all my electronics well.
Be portable
Execute functionality while be visually appealing.
Create a beautiful stand alone piece when it was off.
Like I said previously, there was a lot of thought behind how I would create the enclosure from it being completely made of wood to foam interior/clay exterior to finally what it would be a combination between a crystal and wood. But how did I get that crystal like appear without actually magically making a crystal appear. The answer: a combination of Polyurethane Resin and Glass Rocks.
Due to time restraints, I was unable to create a silicone mold due to a curing process of 24hr. Thus, I decided to buy 3 sizes of styrofoam half domes that were hollow. The smallest was a 2.5 inch sphere that would be used as the inner shell of the top mold. The medium size was a 6 inch half dome that would be used as the outer shell of the top mold and inner shell of the bottom mold. While the largest was a 7 inch inner diameter that would be used as the outer shell of the top mold. I did extensive research on how I could mold these poly resin sphere without melting the styrofoam in the curing process. I would solve this by using a quick release rubber mold that I would have to paint about 12 layers onto the styrofoam domes. Below you will find the process:
Once the interior rubber mold was done drying, I still was still wary of the styrofoam melting due to the high heats the polyresin reaches during the chemical reaction between the polyurethane and catalyzer. So I lined each dome with aluminum foil (however, I would soon find this a mistake). Since, I could not find a mold release at my local art store I used household substance: petroleum jelly that would be rubbed all over the aluminum foil to avoid the polyresin from sticking.
I highly advise reading the Castin’ Craft Polyurethane Resin Guide found here before starting your Polyresin Cast.
The mixture is fairly simple and intuitive in the online guide. Below you will find the complete process up to the 24hr cure time.
Troubleshooting
I found myself troubleshooting every process of the enclosure which evidently resulted in a finished product that was nothing like the initial intent but very pleased with it. Although many blogs said that Polyresin was fairly simple to drill into. The mixture between glass rocks and resin made this step incredibly difficult which resulted in using a smaller button for the end product. Unfortunately, I could not cast the entire enclosure due to time constraint so I decided to create a wood band that would help attached the two Polyresin bases as well as give more room for the electronics to live inside.
Finished Project Video
Take Aways
Final thoughts on the Ohms Stone:
First and foremost, I wish I considered the material of the enclosure first. Creating the enclosure before I considered the electronics may have been in my favor for the project. As well as, giving myself enough time to do several iterations of the Polyresin fabrication. However, due to cost and time restraints this was not done properly which brought me to a ton of trouble shooting at the end and steering away from my initially concept.
This brings me to considering my overall interaction. Unfortunately to accommodate my button, I had to move where the button would be. In the end, it was too small and hidden for user to find. In the end, functionality lost its initial intent to create different moods through color gradients and calming sounds that interacted with those colors.
In all, I want to further this project to bring it to a point where I would love to see it was an actual product you would buy in stores. With a fully functioning interaction that has its initial intent for the color changes to the 5 seconds in, 5 seconds out breathing as well being able to stop the interaction with a single button. However all said and done, I am extremely happy with how the Ohms stone looks as a beautiful stand alone piece. Through all the troubleshooting and steering farther and farther away from the initial intent, I was able to bring it back around and complete 3 out of the 4 goals:
- Hide all my electronics well.
- Be portable.
- A beautiful stand alone piece when it was off.
Interaction will come with further manipulation of the code.