Working Sonic Screwdriver

Update 2/4/2014
Version 3.0 is done and ready to be put up on instructables. I have not been able to finish the instructions as I have just started school back up but they should be coming, hoping for spare time. I do, however, wish to put up the code for the attiny85 PCM and have attached it to this project step.These instructions are not the most user friendly, a more user friendly set will included with the final SS instructions
It requires the Arduino-Tiny library, included in the zip file, and more specifically the optibook attiny85 board profile.
To make the PCM work: (taken from readme file)
* Locate the Arduino Sketch folder.  This is the folder where the Arduino IDE
  stores Sketches.

* Ensure the "hardware" folder exists under the Arduino Sketch folder.  For
  example, if the Arduino Sketch folder is...

      C:\Projects\Arduino\

  Ensure this folder exists...

      C:\Projects\Arduino\hardware\

* Extract the contents of the archive into the "hardware" folder.  For example,
  if the Arduino Sketch folder is...

      C:\Projects\Arduino

  After extracting, the following files / folders should exist...

      C:\Projects\Arduino\hardware\tiny\license.txt
      C:\Projects\Arduino\hardware\tiny\Prospective Boards.txt
      C:\Projects\Arduino\hardware\tiny\README
      C:\Projects\Arduino\hardware\tiny\bootloaders\
      C:\Projects\Arduino\hardware\tiny\cores\

Open the code in the arduino software and upload to the Attiny using a programmer.


Update June 15th 2013: I am creating a v3.0 and v4.0, simple and complicated respectively. If anyone would like to suggest features for me to explore in these models I am willing to try to incorporate them. Theoretically one or both of these may become a kit version.

Update December 6, 2012
I am in the process of remaking the sonic with plumbing parts and attiny85's. The version I have developed uses 2 AAA batteries for power and should theoretically be louder. It also includes the TV-b-gone clone circuit. I am stuck in a coding problem to do with timers but hopefully soon I will have a new set of instructions. I am posting a process image above.

UPDATE! I have found a simple solution to a problem that I have been contacted about several times regarding the sound circuit. The trick is to remove all the wires but the two for power from the programmer before testing the device out.

I have two people who I am very close to who enjoy the show Dr. Who. For both of them I have made sonic screwdrivers to accompany their (mild) obsession. Both of the sonic screwdrivers make the proper sound and light up using a UV light however the more complicated one also turns TV's on and off, has an mp3 player embedded in it, uses a rechargeable battery, has a laser, has an FM transmitter and also shakes when activated. This instructable covers the construction of the simplified model to get a basic understanding however I include at the end a section on how I added features to the more complicated version as well as ideas for additional features I considered adding.
Attached to this step is a video of my first sonic screwdriver turning on a tv. The buzzing sound that is heard that should not be there is due to the vibration motor coming slightly loose. It is only noticeable within a few inches of the handle, past that the proper sound is heard loud and clear.
I do not like my props to feel cheap or breakable so both versions were made with metal handles and feature glass marbles as the light end. The amount of plastic exposed to the exterior of the sonic screwdriver was kept to a minimum so it appears as if it is a tool worthy of traveling the stars, opening doors, making cabinets and general tom foolery.

Step 1: What Is Required

At its heart a sonic screwdriver model only HAS to light up and make the sound in my opinion.
So a list of required parts would be:
A LED light (UV LEDs are available and make certain types of invisible ink appear)
A marble to affix to the end
A handle
A power source
A noise making circuit and speaker
A button to turn it on and off

Past these basic requirements are the fun bits; making the sonic screwdriver work more like it does in the show. If you wish to modify a SS to do interesting things skip to steps 9 and 10 to see my further designs.


For my second sonic screwdriver, a very basic model, I used these materials:
A pipe reamer - they look perfect for the business end of the device
A purple marble -the recipient of this SS's favorite color
A remote control antenna - the old type which is a series of tubes
one push button
an Arduino Uno loaded with special software (see step 7)
a piezo speaker - small enough to fit in the handle, piezos are perfect as they give an edge to the sound and are small enough to fit
          6V works better than 12V
some thin gague wire
A UV LED - I purchased mine from Sparkfun
Some metal tubing I had lying around
A small laser pointer with batteries - I only used the battery compartment portion
Super Glue
Two small black rubber bands
A few miscellaneous pieces I had lying around

Tools:
Soldering Iron
Hot Glue Gun
Files
Copper tubing cutter

Step 2: The Business End: Part One

The business end of this prop is made from a pipe reamer.
The first step is to disassemble and clean the pipe reamer. Each one is different and a lot of trial and error was required to take mine apart, there were parts screwed together, press fit and held on by a spring device.

With the reamer disassembled take a needle file and round off all of the sharp edges as you do not want to get cut on them later.

The piece that went through the reamer and expanded it was removed as well as the bottom piece though the bottom piece was kept to make the bottom of my sonic screwdriver.

Assemble the reamer as shown in the third photo, the metal spring which held mine together was replaced by two lego rubber bands to allow the mechanism to open easier.

The piece of tubing from the radio antenna should fit inside the reamer, I had to use some specially made washers to shim it to the correct diameter as mine was a mite small.

The piece that connects to the marble is two random metal pieces I came across in my scrap bin, they just need to look correct, fit in the jaws of the reamer, somehow attach to the RF tubing and fit a LED in them, as shown in the next step.

Test fit everything as shown in the last picture, do not glue anything together yet.

Step 3: The Business End: Part 2

In the previous step the sonic screwdriver's front end was assembled but without the ability to light up, this step shows that step.

Solder a wire to each of the leads of your led, close to the body of the LED. Do not leave the soldering iron on the LED too long or it will be ruined.

Test the LED by connecting it to a battery, then trim the leads short and use hot glue to electrically isolate the end of the LED (simply put a small glob of hot glue on the bottom of the led that covers all the metal

My led was slightly too long to fit inside the housing I had found for it as shown in the third picture so I trimmed it shorter with a razor blade then a hand file. If you do touch the electronic internals of the LED and there is some plastic covering the LED then this is fine.

Test fit the LED inside as shown in the fourth picture. When everything fits together use hot glue to fill the cavity and attach the marble

Test with a battery again, just to make sure.

The wires thread through the RF tube and will go into the handle but do not glue the marble piece to the tube yet as the tube will need to be cut to length.

I do not have pictures for this step but the marble and wires are removed and a piece attached to the bottom of the tube so it would get stuck partway though the reamer (mine had a little shelf in it somewhere)
The tube was then cut to length so that the marble piece could be pulled just outside of the jaws of the reamer. This motion is shown in some pictures but I do not have it well documented.
The marble piece was then glued onto the tube with the wires running through the RF tube.

Step 4: The Power Source or Rear End

The back end of the sonic screwdriver unscrews to reveal a battery compartment.
The compartment is made from a laser pointer which was cut in half to separate the laser portion and the battery portion with the screw off end.
To get a positive voltage a red wire was soldered to the side of the tube, after some of the paint was filed off to give a good connection. the joint was brittle so it was well covered with hot glue. Note - to solder the wire on it was wrapped around the tube and cinched down.

The negative wire was harder to do though once it was started it worked well. I soldered a black wire to a spring and then hot glued the spring into the tube so that a portion of it was free to compress on the inside.

If anyone is interested in this method I can attempt to post better instructions soon but right now a regional theatre competition is keeping me pretty occupied.

The pieces of the pipe reamer that I had reserved (the pieces on the bottom of the reamer) were super glued to the back of the laser pointer cap as shown in the pictures above.

Step 5: The Handle

The handle on this sonic screwdriver was simply a hollow piece of tubing that I had lying around. The outside diameter of the tube matched with the outside diameter of the pipe reamer that I had found.

I cut the tube to a length that felt right using a copper tubing cutter to start the cut then a hacksaw to finish the cut. I used the hack saw because the wall thickness of my tube was so thin that the pipe cutter was deforming it.

The battery compartment was hot glued flush with the end of the tube by adding about half of the glue around the laser pointer then holding it in place while the glue cooled. The other side was then filled in.

The button is added in the next step.

Step 6:

The button location was chosen for feel but it has to be near the end of the tube to glue it in properly, within 3/4 inch.
Drill a hole just over the diameter of the button in the handle where you want the button to be. clean it up with a file.

Solder the positive wire from the battery to one side of the button.
Solder the positive wire from the LED and another length of wire (remember the color) to connect to the positive side of the sound circuit.
Solder the negative wire from the LED and another length of wire (different, remember which) to connect to the negative side of the sound circuit.
Put batteries in the battery compartment and test to see if the LED will light up. If it does then you are good, if not check the batteries, connections and polarities.

Use a screwdriver to hold the button in place (where the button lines up with the hole drilled in the handle) and hot glue the button in place. Test it again!

Step 7: The Sound Circuit!

The sound circuit is based around the arduino uno boot loaded with the Quasi-duino boot loader.
Follow the directions on the directions linked to install the Quasi-duino boot loader but do not install the narcoleptic library.

Install the PCM library as per instructions here

Install the included arduino file onto the arduino chip (remove the .txt from the end of the file included)

Put the programed chip onto a bread board. Connect the board as shown below.
Pin 7 and Pin 20 connect to positive
Pin 8 and Pin 22 to ground
Pin 17 to the positive end of the speaker
Negative end of the speaker to ground

UPDATE: remove the wires connecting the programmer to the sound circuit or it will not work. You can still use the power from the programmer but if anything is connected to pin 17 it will short out the speaker and cause it to click at you.

Connect a 4.5v source to the positive and negative side and if it makes the proper sound then you are good




Trim off all of the pins on the microchip besides pin 7,8,17,20 and 22 using diagonal cutters (they get in the way)

Solder the microchip together as it was set up on the breadboard using the positive and negative wires coming from the handle that were soldered in earlier. Leave a length of wire between the speaker and the board so it will fit in.
Test the circuit by putting batteries in the circuit then cover it in hot glue and shrink wrap it. Test the circuit again.

Push the speaker into the handle followed by the arduino circuit. It may take some finagling but mine (eventually) fit with room to spare. The first picture shows the circuit inside the handle.
Test the circuit again.

Step 8: Close It Up and Test!

The final step on how to assemble the Sonic Screwdriver!
Pull the marble section out as far as it will go like in first picture above. shove all the wires into the handle, use hot glue to keep them down. Glue the handle to the front part and allow it to cool.
Test the circuit to see if it lights up and makes the sound (it may be quiet, if you are worried about this a hole in the handle drilled before the electronics are added will greatly amplify the sound)
mine was loud enough to be heard by the bearer and in a quiet(ish) room. This was on purpose as the recipient is young and her parents would not have been appreciative of the constant sound.

Test the marble movement mechanism to see how it moves. The different positions can be seen in the photos above.

Step 9: Features of the More Complicated Version 1

A TV B Gone Circuit - it needs to have a capacitor connected between the positive and negative microchip connections to smooth the rough electricity coming from the sound circuit. The IR LEDs are in the front end of the screwdriver in a circle around the marble.
instructions for somethings similar found here

An embedded MP3 player - I used this one, it has a radio and an FM transmitter
This battery is rechargeable and I connected the battery to the rest of the circuitry to power the device from one battery
This was a terrible idea as I broke 4 mp3 players working on this model including the one in the image shown.
If you are feeling brave find a small one and remove the buttons, soldering them into different locations.

A laser pointer - I used a micro AIXIZ laser that had a voltage regulator included

A fuse - the back end of the device includes a fuse holder, remove it and the device will not turn on

Vibration - the handle shakes when it is turned on, make sure that the motor is not too powerful

Step 10: More Ideas

Lock picks built into the handle

A screwdriver built into the handle

A computer remote mouse such as this

An inductive metal detector

the sparking mechanism from a lighter

a small compressed air dart

some form of taser circuit

an adapter to export power from the handle

a voice recording circuit

connect the speaker to the Mp3


http://www.zen22142.zen.co.uk/Circuits/Misc/metaldetector.htm - metal detector

http://www.zen22142.zen.co.uk/Circuits/Misc/emf.htm
http://www.diy-electronic-projects.com/p228-Electromagnetic-field-detector
an electromagnetic field detector (shield your circuitry with a metal mesh screen and it might work)

http://www.zen22142.zen.co.uk/Circuits/Alarm/radiowavealm.htm
radio wave alarm