WIP Arduino Nerf "Energy" Project

[Arinoth]

I have an idea to convert a Nerf Firefly into an energy weapon looking Kriss Vector and have a few questions/ideas I'd like to bounce off of more knowledgeable people.

Arduino to be used (unless there are other suggestions and reasoning why):
Arduino Diecimila (grandfather of the Uno)

What I'd like to do is the following:
Have a light (LED, unsure if I'll use 1 small one or a 3/5W one) that either lights up a clear 1 foot barrel. I've been looking at the local hardware stores and it seems they only have flexible clear tubing rather then something rigid. I'm not sure how much of the light will be diffused out of the clear plastic, so I was wondering if a regular 1 foot tubing could work with something on the end to allow people to see that it lights up when the trigger is pressed.

In the two opening gaps near the butt stock of the gun I was thinking of putting an 3 or 4 7-segment LED on one side to act as a pretend virtual counter, with the other side either mirroring it or just having a clear plastic covering it with a light illuminating it. There is no where else on the Nerf gun to place an LED ammo counter as I want to be able to take it apart as shown in the pictures below.

I was also thinking of installing a pizo or a buzzer to indicate/playback an audio track/noise/sound when the device is fired and when it's "empty".

I'd also like to have when the device is "empty" to have some kind of spring or mechanism that is illuminated and ejects out of the back. Requiring someone to push it back in to reset the ammo. Not quite sure what to use with that.

Where the 2 AA battery pack that's built into it I was thinking of replacing it with a single 9V battery pack/holder to supply the Arduino with enough power (and not take up a bunch of space).

I don't have to worry about capturing the trigger being pressed as a limit switch (Or a contact switch, been a little while with component part names) is already wired. I'd just need to feed it into a digital in. Same goes with the on/off switch, it's already wired in.

Here are some pictures of the Nerf Firefly at it's current un-assembled state:

http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/8895/picture1ova.jpg
http://img37.imageshack.us/img37/9278/picture2hp.jpg
http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/3252/picture3nt.jpg

Any and all help/feedback would be appreciated as narrowing down some ideas or parts will be key.

[dandelioneater]

You could perhaps look at an mp3 shield for storing/playback of sounds. I know you have a Diecimila, but I especially like the nano's mp3 shield. It looks slim and small enough that it along with the nano could fit easily into the gun and it has its own speaker and stereo jack if you need a larger speaker.

[Arinoth]

Worst case scenario is I just generate some tones using a pizo rather then true mp3 quality sound.

[dandelioneater]

Originally Posted by Arinoth

Worst case scenario is I just generate some tones using a pizo rather then true mp3 quality sound.

It would be alot cheaper to do it that way I would imagine. Buying those shields can get rather pricey for a small DIY project.

[Arinoth]

Well my goal to make it sort of a Blue energy theme is going to go out the window. It seems blue 7 segment LEDs are about 5$ each where I can get a red or green one instead for about 1-2$ tops. I'm not sure if I should go the red or oranage-red route or go with green.

[Arinoth]

Well other then the amplifier, which I may go with a standard BJT or JFET here is my shopping list of parts (cheapest from eBay):

BCD to 7 Segment Chip: 2 x CD4511 CD4511BE 4511 CMOS BCD to 7 segment Latch Decoder IC - FREE SHIPPING | eBay
This will allow me to only have to use 4 instead of 7-8 lines to contract a 7 segment LED. I plan to use 3 of them to give me control of 3 7 segments, but will only run 2 lines to the third (only need 0 or 1) as the capacity will be 100

3.7V Rehargable AA Batteries: 4 x 3.6V 2000mAh 14500 AA Li-ion Rechargeable Battery + 9V 18650 16340 Charger | eBay
This will give me the added voltage I need to supply to the Arduino, along with some extra mAh or added current for driving the firing LED. Plan to use 4 of them, in sets of 2 in series, then running those sets in parallel so I can get a voltage and current increase

Blue 7 Segment LED: 0.8' 7 segment Blue LED display common cathode 2pcs | eBay
Hurray, I can go back to my blue theme seeing as these aren't ridiculously over priced. Plan to buy 3 sets so I can run 3 on each side.

8 Ohm 0.5W Speaker: New Mini 50mm Multimedia speaker, 8 ohm 0.5 Watts Free shipping | eBay
This will allow me to have some tone/audio playback. Nothing fancy but with the right tones I should be able to generating something that sounds like an energy weapon fire and overheating

2 AA Battery Holders: 1pcs 2 X AA Cell Battery 3V Clip Holder Box Case New | eBay
Self Explanatory really, this is to hold the batteries in place.

3W White Cool LED: 3w 10w 20w 30w 50w 100w White / Warm White COB SMD LED Light Part 45
The firing "light", should have even lumens to be viewable for a fair distance as well as light up a plastic/clear pipe

Only thing I haven't gotten figured out is my amplifier (the 3W LED sort of needs more current then the Arduino can supply, though I'm deciding between a transistor and an amplifier) and the clear plastic tubing.

Suggestions on either, more specifically the clear plastic tubing would be a great help.

Will update when I get back, got a meeting to go to.

[Arinoth]

Well with all my parts making their way from the interwebz, and except I got my 130 Male to Female Jumper cables in today.

What I've accomplished over this past weekend:



As you can see I have the firing light hookedd up, the two orange cables going off screen are connected to the push switch that the trigger activates.

The 2 position hand switch you see floating in the air allows me to reset the ammo counter back to 100.

The LED bar in the right sight of the picture is set up so I can simulate sending values to my BCD (binary convtered to decimal) to 7 Segment adapter chip.

Essentially it works this way:
The far right 4 control 0-9 of the first 7 segment LED.
If I send a 0000 then 0 will output on the 7 seg LED
If I send a 8000 then 7 will output on the 7 seg LED

The next 4 control the 0-9 of the 2nd segment LED.
It works the same way, except for the decimal value that I feed it (before bit mask shifting) is divided by 10 so it only see's 0-9.

The last 1 (the one you see lit up in the next picture) signifies when the counter is at 100.



Here it is when I have the firing trigger pressed:



At the moment of the picture being taken you can see that the ammo counter has the 8th and the 1st, means the counter is reading: 81