Laser Ball

Watch out LED Cube there's a new sheriff in town and his name is Laser Ball...

Truth be told it's actually a Rechargeable Remote Control and Programmable Laser Ball... whoa!

So what's a Laser Ball?
Well it's sort of like the Death Star... OK, maybe that's a bit over-dramatic... a Laser Ball is like a programmable disco ball... or a cat-toy for humans (that sounds about right)... or a personal laser light show... the most fun you've had throwing a tennis ball in years(yeah!)... a 21st-century ship in a bottle... the most sophisticated poi or juggling ball ever seen... maybe a first-generation lightsaber training droid?... or maybe it's all of them! Check out the video to see how it works and how to make one then tell me what you think.

 

I thought this project was a good idea for an Instructable for a number of reasons:

1. It's fun to build!
2. The building blocks are easily accessible (...open-source much?) and there's a 5-min version that is lot's of fun too
3. The project builds upon the open-source and DIY community
4. Laser balls can be assembled in an afternoon
5. There are a lot of potential variations (batteries, laser color, laser count, etc...)
6. If you think lasers are cool (or any blinky light for that matter) than a Laser Ball will blow your socks off!

Step 1 Project Overview

Introduction
Before getting starting on building a Laser Ball, let me begin with a brief explanation on the format of this Instructable. The first step here will list out scope of the project. The next step shares a little background on Lasers and their unique qualities (sort of an editorial piece). Then the main Instructable begins... Steps 3-8 describe each component in the Laser Ball with some useful information and complimentary links. Step 9 describes the assembly process which was shown in the video. Step 10 is a sort of "mini-instructable" on how to build a "5-min Laser Ball". Some useful details for taking laser pictures are in Step 11, and the process I went through to build this Instructable is described in Step 12. If you just want the details on how to build the laser ball jump to the Assembly step.

To start here's a breakdown of the specifications, steps, timeline, parts, cost, suppliers, tools, and wiring diagram for a full Rechargeable Remote Control and Programmable Laser Ball.

Laser Ball Specifications:

• Total optical power: ~70mW
• Current draw (max): ~300mA
• Operating voltage: 3.3V
• Battery life: ~2.5hrs (but its rechargeable!)

Steps and Timeline:

• 1.00 hr - Preparing and gathering materials/tools
• 0.25 hr - Thinking through the design
• 0.50 hr - Preparing the Teensy
• 0.75 hr - Cutting and installing diffraction gratings
• 0.50 hr - Drilling the tennis ball
• 0.50 hr - Installing lasers
• 1.00 hr - Soldering lasers, Teensy, and JST connector
• 0.50 hr - Squeezing components into tennis ball

Total time:

• 5.00 hrs

Materials:

• $42 - Red lasers (14) (Buy from Aixiz)
  • (Buy from DealExtreme) Note: These DealExtreme lasers are slightly different than the Aixiz lasers. The DX lasers are smaller and cheaper but the cap is glued in place which makes adding the diffration grating much more difficult.
• $9 - Battery (Buy Li-Ion batteries from Sparkfun)
• $16 - Teensy microcontroller (Buy from PRJC)
• $5 - IR remote (Buy from Adafruit)
• $2 - IR receiver (Buy from Adafruit)
• $2 - Diffraction Grating (Buy from Edmund Scientific) (Buy from Ebay)
• $1 - JST connector (Buy from Sparkfun)
• $1 - Tennis Ball (your closet...)

Total cost:

• $78

Tools:

• Soldering iron
• Dremel
• Wire strippers/cutters
• Hobby knife
• Masking tape
• Marker
• Scissors
• Tweezers/Forceps
• Helping-hands/alligator clips

Schematic:

Update: As part of this overview I've also included two additional images showing the wiring diagram and schematic.

Comments

[wired365]

I just found this project and have been working on it for a week now off and on. I am having an issue with getting the lasers to turn on. I have soldered everything to what I think is correct and I charged the battery. When I have the Teensy attached to the computer I get no errors when uploading the code but there is no blink or anything from the ball itself.

I double checked that the Teensy reset and that my Arduino software is set to Teensy 2.0. I have no idea as to why the lasers will not light at all. Please help.

[LeoneLabs]

That is strange as another user is reporting similar symptoms. Have you tried running the "Blink" example for the Teensy. If you can get that bit of code to work than that's a good sign everything is being uploaded correctly. When I first started working with the Teensy I had some initial trouble telling if the code was being uploaded correctly... using the "Teensy loader" and RST button can create some confusion.

[wired365]

Sorry about such a late response I have been busy starting another term. I did upload just the blink sample from the arduino site and the code uploads and runs perfectly. This also means that my wiring is correct, at least for the lasers, because the light is blinking. Thank you for the response by the way it was helpful.
I am not sure what to do when uploading the laser ball code, because the ball is till unresponsive after uploading. Do you happen to have an updated sample of the code or the most recent working version that you could send me or post a link to?

[LeoneLabs]

This is the latest Laser Ball code I've developed.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43787305/LeoneLabs_Laser_Ball_source_v1_3.zip

It corrects some minor errors in the other version and makes it a bit easier to make custom patterns.

Good luck and let me know how it turns out.

[cford5]

This is a really cool instructable, I can't wait to get everything together for my first instructable project.

I'm planning on(though still looking into) switching the IR remote with a RF. This way the line of sight with the remote issue is removed. I can't think of any reason why this wouldn't work. Can anyone see any potential issues?

[Nick_Tiringer]

Hi!

I have a couple questions in terms of the assembly.

1) The IR receiver is soldered into pin 5, GND and +5V? Also, does it matter which red wire goes to pin 5?
2) I've soldered all of my grounds from the lasers into one connected hub, is this the correct way?
3) Power Source: I've soldered my black and red wires to the back of my JRT connector and then soldered the other ends to +5V and GND, but no lasers lit up, what am I missing?

If you could let me know soon I'd really appreciate it!

Thanks!

[Haliburt]

Great instructable, really cool project.
But uh... I don't understand what I'm actually soldering everything to. Care to clarify?
Thanks in advance.

[LeoneLabs]

Check out the two new images I added to the Overview Step. They should reveal how it's all wired together.  

Thanks for the support and f you have any more questions don't hesitate to ask!

[Haliburt]

Alright, great. Got it. Much obliged, dude.

[therrol]

here is a better picture of my wiring. perhaps I did something wrong?

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/209/wiringlabeled.jpg/

the ground is linked up to all the grounds of the lasers, as well as the battery and the IR receiver.

[LeoneLabs]

Thanks for supplying a picture. You have one pin labeled "Laser+" which I'm not sure what that is. Also have you tried directly plugging in the lasers to the battery to make sure both the lasers and the battery were working?

[therrol]

hey sorry for the delay. I thought I had responded. that is the positive lead going to the lasers and the other one is the negative lead. The lasers work when plugged directly into the battery.

[LeoneLabs]

Are you having a problems compiling and uploading the code to the Teensy? If so have you tried running the basic "Blink" example. If you can get that to work, than that should blink the onboard LED which is also tied to pin 11 (or is it 13?).

[charlesbayley]

Does the position of the laser in the ball along with firing order make any difference in the visual effect?

[LeoneLabs]

I'm not sure I fully understand the question, but let me try and answer anyway. The lasers are programmable, meaning the order in which they are "fired" can be changed with a few lines of code in software. This means you can make your own animations and sequences to create a wide variety of visual effects!

[charlesbayley]

My question was based on the code you supplied since my first goal is to get it together and operating. Changing the code is down the road aways. But based on your answer I won't worry about the placement of the lasers. I am only waiting for the remote and ir sensor. Thanks

[buscador]

Hello,
I have seen the photo of your laser ball, and you comment to me that it works well, him pediria that if you could order me the electrical scheme of connections, and you indicate me where to obtain the code and with that he programmes to programme the plate teensy. You great agradeceria.
A greeting.

[expertnoobz]

Im having troubles uploading the code to the teensy. i get a notification when i try to upload that says "'IRrecv' does not name a type" and then the code IRrecv irrecv(RECV_PIN); is highlighted. i know next to nothing about codes for the teensy, and would greatly appreciate your help, as a really want to make this amazing project!
thanks!

[LeoneLabs]

You may also be missing the IR remote library the code uses to read the IR signals. I see I didn't put a reference in the Instructable (but its commented in the code) but here it is... Ken Shirriffs IR remote library . It needs to be unpacked in the Arduino Libraries folder. Follow the tutorial to get it up and running. 

I'll add this to the soon-to-be update... 

PS - thanks for helping wunder-bar

[expertnoobz]

Thanks, i got it to upload now! but i just soldered all the wires on, and i have checked many times to make sure they are correct, but when i plug it into the battery, the lasers don't light up! please help, i'd hate all the money i put into this to go to waste!

[osprey-npt]

I think I'm having the same problem.... I need step by step instructions with the programming parts! There are so many things that can be missed or go wrong. I saw a note to change something for Arduino 1.0 on Ken's page, for example. I'm getting 2 errors when I try to upload the IRemote code. Something about a loop and main.....

so, if the lasers don't light up is that mainly because the program is not on the Teensy? will they only light up at all if the programming is perfect?

It's 2 things to upload to the teensy, right? Source Code and Remote codes???

I got the hex files to upload to the teensy to do fast or slow blink. Does that mean I did something right??

Please help. I'm making this for a friend who is using it in a high school play in less than 2 weeks!

Thanks in advance,
Bill

[expertnoobz]

if your still getting errors before uploading it it, you probably haven't changed the board under tools to teensy 2.0. also, be sure you have downloaded and unpacked the remote library from ken into the the library folder of the arduino software. this is wear i had to find and download an older version of the library, for some reason the new one wasn't compatable.

[LeoneLabs]

@expernoobz - Thanks for helping!

@osprey-npt - the programming can be tricky at first but I'm sure you'll get it with a bit of tinkering. If you've got the "Blink" program examples working then that's a good first step. As expertnoobz pointed out there may be some compatible issues with Ken's IR library and the latest version of the Arduino but it should be manageable. It might also be helpful to run through Ken's IR examples to make sure everything is connected up correctly.

Just for posterity, when you click "upload" all the tabs in the Arduino sketch are transferred to the Teensy, but the "remote codes" are there just for your programming reference in case you want to add some functionality.

Good luck!

[wunder-bar]

Ah, yes. That was something that took me a bit of digging to do and totally forgot about. I believe you mentioned it in the IR part of the Instructable but not in the assembly.

I have some programming experience from collage and have always wanted to get into the hardware side of things. I never really found a project that really spiked my interest, but the Laser Ball sent it above and beyond! I'll help in any way I can. I love this Instructable and can't wait to post a pic of the final product!

[wunder-bar]

I had this same problem. You need to set the Arduino software to Teensy by going to "Tools" and then select the Teensy 2.0. That should fix your problem!

[therrol]

i'm wondering if you can help me with my laser ball. I cannot seem to get the lasers to light up.

I have successfully programmed the laser ball with the blink program, and after I wrote the laser ball software I did not get any errors and the software tells me that write was sucessfull. However when power is connected, none of the lasers light up.

I even tried making a second one with another teensy controller and just a few lasers. Software writes fine, however the lasers do not turn on. I've attached a pic of the wiring, let me know if you have any suggestions for me.

thanks in advance!

[ParkerParkour]

Please Help! Soldered everything on, but it wont work! any ideas?

[LeoneLabs]

@ParkerParkour - are you still having trouble? if you can provide some more details on what's not working then I can try and help... for instance is it lasers? the teensy? the IR remote?

[Chimera11011]

im having sort of the same problem here. The light doesnt come up on the teensy like yours did. i went to go buy an IR receiver from radio shack and connected that one but still no luck any ideas what it could be ?

[ParkerParkour]

so i soldered everything on, i"m 99% sure everything is in the right places etc, but when i plug the teensy into the battery, nothing happens. i know the battery works because i can still power my spare lasers with it, and i know the remote works because i see the ir flash on my camera screen. Also, i can still plug the teensy into the computer and it recognizes it, and i can download code to it. The only thing that doesn't seem to work, is that a green light isn't coming on on the board like it did in your video.
hope u can help figure this out!
Thanks in advance!

[LeoneLabs]

@ParkerParkour - hmm very mysterious. Can you try and break down the problem to see where the issue might be coming from? You might have to go back to some of the basic examples and see if each piece is working, for instance, just try running the "Blink" example for the Teensy (it will make the onboard LED blink) to see if the code is being properly loaded. I would also try to follow Ken Shirrirff's setup examples for his IR library and use the serial monitor in the Arduino IDE to make sure you're receiving them properly.

From what I've been hearing there may be some issues with compatibility with the code and version Arduino 1.0. I'll look into this side and upload some new code if necessary.

[ParkerParkour]

UPDATE: I commented out the ir setup in the code, and added some code so it just loops through the patterns when i plug it in. this works, but now i need to get it working with the remote involved in the code.
the weird thing is when i have the remote involved, the thing wont even turn the defualt laser setting on. almost as if it is just looping through the irsetup and gets stuck. thanks in advance!

[ParkerParkour]

The blink example works, and even can run off the battery. But for some reason i just cant get the laser code to work! Do you think there might be a problem with the IR receiver? or should it still at least turn the lasers if there is a problem?
I (and family and friends who are exited to see the final project) appreciate the help.

[LeoneLabs]

@ParkerParkour - When you say the code won't work, you mean you can't get it to load onto the Teensy? Are you getting errors when you use the Teensy loader and Arduino V1? And when you say the Blink example works, does that mean you can load that properly and adjust the blink speed?

The lasers would still turn on regardless of the IR receiver. I can pull out the IR receiver and the ball won't even know it's missing. It's difficult to say where the problem might be without being able to debug each piece separately.

I just tested the software with Arduino V1 and didn't have any problems. I do have an updated version of the code in my Dropbox, it probably couldn't hurt to try. Good luck.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43787305/LeoneLabs_Laser_Ball_source_v1_3.zip

[ParkerParkour]

ITS WORKING NOW!!! i just had to download an older version of the IR library. for some reason the new one didn't work properly.
Thank you so much for the help! i had no idea wear to start looking for problems.
also, i really like the new code update, its much easier to understand how to make custom patterns. i plan to make one to a specific song. Great instructable, and great support. Thanks again!

[ParkerParkour]

it uploads just fine. I commented out the ir setup in the code, and added some code so it just loops through the patterns when i plug it in. this works, but now i need to get it working with the remote involved in the code.
the weird thing is when i have the remote involved, the thing wont even turn the defualt laser setting on. almost as if it is just looping through the irsetup and gets stuck. thanks in advance!

[zeldamaniac95]

hello. I was just wondering about the safety of the laser ball. I looked at the Wikipedia safety page and it made the ball seem a little dangerous. Can you tell me from experience what is safe to do with the ball? With and without eye protection? Mostly I want to know if it is ok to place in a room and look at, or roll it around with friends. Thanks, and this laser ball is an awesome build!

[LeoneLabs]

@zeldamanic95 - I can still see!... so that's good. You don't need eye protection around the Laser Ball but if you are to look right at the ball it's brightness can be quite piercing. It is definitely ok to bring it out with your friends and have fun but I'd be more cautious bringing it out around young kids who don't really understand basic laser safety concepts (i.e. don't put lasers next to your eyes and if it seems too bright, don't look directly at it). While lasers have some special characteristics (coherent, monochromatic) at these power levels you won't expose your eyes to enough laser power to cause permanent damage. You'll get a similar effect to being flashed by a very bright strobe light or glimpsing the sun, which is just a "temporary disturbance"

Hope this helps.

[zeldamaniac95]

Thanks for clearing that up!

[atlas n pbody]

i have some eperience with lasers and unless you stair at a 5mw beam it wont damage your eyes but if plan to hang it from the celing at a dance party or somthing your might want to advize your gests to ware sun glasses becase your allwase going to have that one idiot that stairs directly at it