the party starter

A desktop motorized musical disco ball.  Great for holiday parties, impromptu dance-offs, and Tuesday afternoons.   Bling, Music, Arduino, and glitter covered styrofoam; this Instructable has got what you need to get your boogie on.  Fires need help go get going, so do parties.   I recently moved from Hartford where my boys @HPSU(http://hartfordpartystarters.org/) would get it started every week.  Now I live in boring Indiana, where there are no parties(Save church socials).  With that in mind and the Party Season upon us, Lets make.  

I have a glitch in the code, so it stutters every once in a while.  No biggy for me,  I'll fix it later.   I also would have showed myself dancing and partying in the video, but my clothes are matte and boring.  

More videos on the last step!

Step 1 Parts & Tools

Craft Parts

6" Styrofoam sphere

"8x4x2 Styrofoam block (Not Pictured)

Alot of 1" mirror pieces

Quite a few .25" mirror pieces

Krylon Glitter Paint-Get the big can

Adhesive/glue/epoxy of choice-Hot glue worked the best for me(after trying others)
Velco Pads

Electronic Parts

Arduino Uno
Adafruit Wave Shield 
Continuous Rotation Servo

Battery Pack of your choice or Wall Wart

Tools

Arduino IDE (I'm still rocking 21)
Solder Iron
Dremel
Glue Gun
Gloves/Face Mask/Eye Protection

 

Comments

[domestic_engineer]

dude! really cool! you should give it it's own light source.

[Grissini]

Thanks, glad you like it. I thought bout it and tried some variants. For lighting to work right it should come from the top and be alot brighter than your average 5mm LED. I have the 1watt LED I could use but finding the right mounting solution that doesn't kill the aesthetics is a challenge. Having said that, it's a challenge I hope to conquer.

[Dream Dragon]

I really like the concept, and a portable mirror ball is very cool.

I suspect you may not be getting the best our of that speaker having it mounted in foam. Try a block of wood for more resonance or look up a little more about efficient speaker cabinets, it wouldn't be hard to increase the sound quite considerably.

I like the DIY approach to the mirror ball, but it's also possible of course to buy mirror balls and a variety of other reflective "thingies" (especially at this time of year) for a very small investment and save the time and effort and mess of making your own.

Lighting? I agree, for it to be REALLY effective it does need to come from outside the main device, but SOMETHING in the machine would make for more visual interest and there's no reason it couldn't have an external source AS WELL!

Finally, why on EARTH do you feel a need to include a microprocessor at all, and of all the micro processors you could have used why an ARDUINO? It doesn't seem to be anything more than a motor and a speaker. surely you could use the power of a micro processor to make the ball "dance" more in response to the sound and if you add some illumination maybe that could be controlled too?

[Grissini]

Foam because of the weekly contest. FOAM
This was my weekly challenge triple play, Bling, Foam, Motors
Buying a disco ball is lame
Lighting, yeah I played around with it.
Finally, read the instructable. The wave shield doesn't work with a pic or a 555. And if I really max out everything I could drive, I'd be looking at more current than that little chip can handle. lights off the remaining pins....I think I covered this. A 1watt luxeon that'd work shouldn't be driven by this anyway. Bling was my focus. I want a Beta Brand hoodie.