The Chromacaster
a live reactive audio-visualizer that turns sound waves into light waves
Using the same flow of an audio effects pedal, this shoulder mounted "visual effects pedal" captures analog pickups from the 1/4" jack and reads the amplitude on an Arduino Nano Every controlling NeoPixel strips before passing on to the amp or PA system
Motion is the sixth sense, one that heightens performance through music, light, and color.
Documentation Booklet
Wearables Outside of the Gallery
Building New Age Aesthetic to combine Light and Life with Motion and Mechanics
The LED casings and electronic housings were modeled in Fusion 360, a nice callback to my FRC days. I still prefer it due to it's great dimension and constraint tools. I printed them on the Ultimaker S5 at the NYU Collaborative Arts workspace, the print times being quite slower to the Bambu next to it but faster when it came to the first layer skipping error on the Bambu at the time.
The housing came out nicely but I did encounter a problem with space as I didn't give as much allowance to the quarter inch jacks, causing the protoboard to be mounted askew and in turn leading to the 18650 battery going in sideways. All contacts were safe and insulated so I wasn't too worried as if I moved forward with this project a PCB would be first on the list.
For mounting onto the body, I purchased a few bases rather than build from scratch in the interest of time. For the forearm, I was delighted to find that medieval armor could be reasonably purchased online so I secured myself some cheap leather bracers. The shoulder mount was another shoddy buy of a standard velcro shoulder brace.
I used some rubber cement to fasten the printed PLA components to the bases and it holds incredibly well despite the cloying odor of old shoes and rotten carpet that took a bit to air out.
I've since briefly revisited this project to rebuild the should mount with a better housing piece and integrated straps and buckles. I've been working with Daniel Johnston in the IMA faculty to get a good fitting and robust wearable product.
The circuit itself used the same principles as a guitar pedal but instead of modulating the tone, it simply transferred it through the Arduino Nano Every to be read and processed. I built a 5V voltage divide that split the incoming op-amped analog signal from my bass guitar to be read by the IDE. From there, I did a lot of value mapping with great help of the serial output plotter to get the amplitude looking fresh and snappy.
But now with a single, highly reactive value, flashing lights are the simplest thing I could have controlled. I used AdaFruit NeoPIxels due to their ease of use and programmed a plus-minus color gradient to perform as an audio-visualizer. They ended up being much more efficient than I expected, powered by a 3V 18650 battery at 2500 mAh, they've been clocking an impressive run time of 10 hours and counting.
