Hardware and firmware for a droid control system, evolved from the little used ShadyRC dEvolution sketch that's been tried and tested over the last few years.
This is an advanced MP3 and WAV file decoder/mixer/player, heavily inspired by the Sparkfun/Robertsonics MP3 Trigger that has been used across droid control systems since the original Padawan PS2 days. This project covers DIY breadboard hardware, a custom PCB and the Arduino code that does the audio magic.
These first prototype CHIRP Audio Trigger boards were assembled by PCBWay and came out beautifully! Unfortunately I made a couple of mistakes with component selection, so a little rework was needed.
An evolution of the previosly mentioned ShadyRC system. The intent is to use a microcontroller and ExpressLRS radio receiver to send signals/commands to the various motion, sound and lighting systems of an Astromech droid. Some goals...
- Send system status and audio file details to the operators radio transmitter via ExpressLRS telemetry packets
- Don't require re-programming just to update sounds; if sound files on the Audio Trigger change, the system knows how to roll with it
- Be controller agnostic; initially supporting several different EdgeTX based radio transmitters such as the Radiomaster Zorro
- Be safe but also easy to pick up; the system should police itself to some extent
- Be expandable; when new droid gizmos show up we should be able to easily implement them