Other Dave's Tom Baker Console

[karsthotep]

And i want to thank David publicly for that as well.  One of the reasons I love this board its willingness of its members to lend a hand and provide advice and help when asked.

Thanks Dave 

[davidnagel]

I don't know how to upload them here since they're not a picture or PDF file, so message me if you want them.

Ping em to me if you like Other Dave, and I'll put them into a dropbox and put a link here for everyone.

Love how the base is coming together.

[galacticprobe]

I agree with Karst's comments on the willingness of members to help other members. This Forum is great for that (and if they gave out awards for Forums, TB should win several).

David has a great idea, Other Dave. Also, remember, the Forum doesn't take PDFs, so those would have to be hosted on a hosting site if you (or anyone else) wanted to share some of those, like others have done in other threads (the threads on the signage for doors and Top Signs come to mind for that).

Dino.

[Other Dave]

As you probably know, that as cool looking as the Baker console was, practically nothing worked on it.  Just a few knobs turned and everything else was just fake.  So I really have to give the actors credit for pretending to jab at buttons and switches that were just bits of wood.


Case in point: That group of button-looking things circled above.  Sure looks like buttons to me.  But I think they were just non-working plastic or wood squares.

Okay. But for MY build, I gotta have them DO something!

I found an old telephone that I cut the keypad out that was about the right size.


But after playing with the circuit board a while, I just couldn't make sense of it.  All I really wanted was 12 buttons.

So I found these online:


Just the right size!

Using a scrap of acrylic, I marked out where I wanted my button array to go.



And then drilled the holes for the buttons.



Here it is with the buttons in place.



I also cut up a bunch of key caps out of white acrylic.



And then using a 1/4" Forstner drill bit, I cut out a depression for the round plastic insert - which just happened to be exactly the size of a paper punch out of some black styrene plastic scrap.



Here I am starting to put it all together along with red strips of acrylic to go between the buttons.







Done! And this is how it will look when I attach it to the aluminum panel. 


They have a nice push-button feel - as you would expect them to - and I will have them actually do something when pressed!

Oh, and meanwhile, here is the whole console so far.



- Other Dave

[fridaysgoldfish]

I'm loving watching this build develop, especially how you are making none functional aspect of the original design come to life (and functionality) in line with the on screen expectation of the controls. Fantastic work!!

[acialist]

Such a beauty 

Loving it, loving it, loving it

-Acialist

[omarvance]

One more item. I found these in the plumbing department. They are pipe connectors -and are just the diameter I need. (At 100% they would be 6" in diameter, but for my build I need them to be 5 inches.)  They are a little thick, but they're the right size and already black!  It took a while to sand the one down. Now I need to make sure the second one matches.




That's all for now.  Waiting for some really cool items from a different machine shop. Hope I get them today!!

- Other Dave

I couldn't find any 5" or 6" at my Lowes or Home Depot so I got a 4". I was hoping to cut it exactly in half and have both pieces but it didn't work out as planned.  I got one that just barely has a front lip lol.  I think it will be okay. Thanks for the idea!

[Other Dave]

You can get a 6" white PVC pipe (inside diameter) at Home Depot. Go to the Garden area. It's called a "six inch riser pipe" It's only a couple of feet long - which is fine!

- Other Dave

[Other Dave]

Thanks everyone for your encouragement!   So here's the latest:

I've created various little doo-dads to use on the console and made molds from them and have made several castings.


Also, I couldn't find a meter the right size and shape so I just glued one together out of scrap plexiglass.



I sanded and polished the aluminum for Panel 1 and have it now in place.  And I've added the strange little black brackets.  


BTW, on the same spots where those little black brackets are - in Season 13, they were all upside-down "piano key switches" left over from the earlier consoles.   When the console shows up again in Season 15, the piano keys are gone and these things are in their place.  Could it be that these brackets held the piano keys in place?  Maybe the piano keys were just a hollow shell and removing them left these.  They mostly have a red (or later, white) stripe going down the middle.  Covering up screw holes?  Hmmmm.

Okay, so I decided to drill holes in these brackets and screw them in place, rather then gluing them and risking them getting knocked off.
And then, using the vinyl pinstriping, I was able to cover up the screws.



Now, IF I were to make a 100% console, I would use the indicator light on the left - which measures 0.9" (23mm) around the silver base.  But for a smaller 85% light, I couldn't find one the right size and look.  


I did find the one on the right - and they have all the colors I need - but it's a little smallish. It measures 0.635" (16mm) diameter.  If you take 85% of 0.9, you get 0.765.  


So I added a washer around the light. (you can see the washer alone in the previous pic)  Now it has more of the correct look AND it measures 0.767" in diameter!   So this is what I decided to use.


Here is Panel 1 nearly complete. Just need to add a few more things and put the servo motor in the meter box.



And here is Panel 1 done!  The switches control the lights and meter.  I have an Arduino underneath that runs the meter and blinks the lights.  The big lever just moves up and down - nothing else.  The (what I call "oven knob") on the right does do something.  I'll let you know what in a later post!





- Other Dave

[karsthotep]

I am thinking you might be right with your bracket theory on the piano keys it does seem to fit and they would be the right size.  

For your arduino setup did you buy the board and program that yourself? In fact could you post some pictures of how you have that wired up underneath?

[13drwho]

Every time I see this console I get more jealous. It makes me want to build a new one!

[Other Dave]

Not sure if this will help you much, but here's what the panel looks like underneath.


And here's a closeup of the Arduino


The white wires go to the relays.
The red and yellow wires and one of the black go to the servo.
The other black wires are ground.

I grouped the lights together by color, because I didn't think it was necessary to have 9 relays - one per light.
So this way there are only 4 relays.

For each pair of lights, I wired them like this:


From the power supply, a wire goes to the switch, then before it goes to the light it gets interrupted by the relay.  The relay is nothing more than a switch itself, but it is controlled by the Arduino.  The Arduino is programmed to make the lights blink.

The Arduino is always on and always switching/blinking the lights on or off - though you will only see it if you flip on the switch on the panel.

Below is the code for the Arduino.  (they refer to it as a "sketch")

Arduino sketches have at a minimum a setup() and a loop() function.  There is one class that controls all the aspects of the blinking light.  The servo is controlled by a separate function called updateServo().

If you are familiar with C, Java, or even javascript, this should look fairly easy to follow along.

Code Select Expand


/*
 TOM BAKER CONSOLE

 This is for the 9 Blinking Lights (via 4 relays) and 1 Servo on Panel 1


Servo:
yellow wire goes to pin 2
black wire goes to ground
red wire goes to 5V


Blinking Lights
pins 6,7,8,9

CAN'T USE PIN 0 or PIN 1 - RESERVED BY ARDUINO

*/

#include <Servo.h>


// this class handles the blinking lights
class Flasher
{
 // Class Member Variables
 // These are initialized at startup
 int ledPin;      // the number of the LED pin
 long OnTime;     // milliseconds of on-time
 long OffTime;    // milliseconds of off-time

 // These maintain the current state
 int ledState;                     // ledState used to set the LED
 unsigned long previousMillis;      // will store last time LED was updated

 // Constructor - creates a Flasher
 // and initializes the member variables and state
 public:
 Flasher(int pin, long on, long off)
 {
   ledPin = pin;
   pinMode(ledPin, OUTPUT);

   OnTime = on;
   OffTime = off;

   ledState = LOW;
   previousMillis = 0;
 }

 void Update()
 {
   // check to see if it's time to change the state of the LED
   unsigned long currentMillis = millis();

   if((ledState == HIGH) && (currentMillis - previousMillis >= OnTime))
   {
     ledState = LOW;  // Turn it off
     previousMillis = currentMillis;  // Remember the time
     digitalWrite(ledPin, ledState);  // Update the actual LED

     // get new random numbers
     OnTime = 350+random(1800);
     OffTime = 350+random(1800);
   }
   else if ((ledState == LOW) && (currentMillis - previousMillis >= OffTime))
   {
     ledState = HIGH;  // turn it on
     previousMillis = currentMillis;   // Remember the time
     digitalWrite(ledPin, ledState);      // Update the actual LED
   }
 }
};


// init the classes
Flasher led2(6, 350+random(1800), 350+random(1800));
Flasher led3(7, 350+random(1800), 350+random(1800));
Flasher led4(8, 100+random(1800), 400+random(1800));
Flasher led5(9, 350+random(1800), 350+random(1800));


// init the vars for the servo
Servo servo1;
int pos1=1500;
int newpos1 = 1970;
int dir1=1;
int speed1=1;
unsigned long previousMillis1;


void setup()
{
 Serial.begin(9600);
 randomSeed(analogRead(0));

 servo1.attach(2, 1000, 2000);
 servo1.writeMicroseconds(1500);
 previousMillis1 = 0;
}



int updateServo(Servo which, int p, int *d, int *s, int *n, unsigned long *m)
{
 unsigned long currentMillis = millis();

 // time to make a change?
 if (currentMillis - *m >= 15)
 {
   *m = currentMillis;

   // which direction is it heading?
   if (*d == 1)
   {
     p+= *s;

     if (p >= *n)
     {
       *s = random(1,10); // get a random speed
       *n = random(10,15) * 100; //1030;
       if (*n > p) *d = 1; // decide which direction to move
       else *d = 0;
     }
   }
   else
   {
     p-= *s;

     if (p < *n)
     {
       *s = random(1,10);
       *n = random(15, 20) * 100; //1970;
       if (*n > p) *d = 1;
       else *d = 0;
     }
   }

   which.writeMicroseconds(p); // move the servo to new position
 }

 return p;
}



void loop()
{
 pos1 = updateServo(servo1, pos1, &dir1, &speed1, &newpos1, &previousMillis1);

 led2.Update();
 led3.Update();
 led4.Update();
 led5.Update();
}


When you buy an Aduino, you will find tons of examples - including a simple flashing LED sketch.


(I should clarify that there is only ONE 12v power supply.  The diagram above tends to look like you need a power supply for each pair of lights. )

- Other Dave

[karsthotep]

Dave,

I think that is great, the main reason I wanted to see it was to get an idea of what it would look like when its all wired up.  Even though at first glance its hard to discern what is being done, it does show that under the hood is much different that what we see above.  It is a good lesson in smoke and mirrors so to speak.   I want to wire mine up as well so getting a general idea ahead of what is in store, for me, works better.   

[galacticprobe]

Wow, Other Dave! This Update certainly gets the needle twitching on that old meter. (I think everyone knows the one I mean...)



One suggestion to help in keeping with the 'Who' vibe of all this: when you refer to your "oven knob" and what it does, rather than saying...

I'll let you know what in a later post!

...it should be, "I'll explain later."

Brilliant build, and the way you solved the problem with the size of the lights you needed was genius. (It's something I wouldn't have thought of.)

Dino.

[Other Dave]

...it should be, "I'll explain later."

Ha Ha! So true!!