Rigging Diorama

The goal of this project is to construct a diorama where you will learn about the theater concept of rigging. During this project, you will learn through both the construction of and use of the device about motorized rigging, dead hung rigging and manual rigging.

The cost of supplies is under $100.

Supplies:

• 1 - 5V Hobbyist Stepper Motor (https://bit.ly/3gU6VK6)
• 1 - Stepper Motor Driver (https://bit.ly/2QQwXDB)
• 1 - Spool of twine (https://bit.ly/3vuEfvk)
• 1 - 1x3 4ft Board
• 3 - 3/4x3/4 Square Wooden Dowels (4 pack)
• 1 - Bandana (22" x 22")
• 1 - ELEGOO Mega2560 (https://amzn.to/3vAltmf)
• 5 - 5mm LEDs (https://bit.ly/3vzzroz)
• 1 - Mini Breadboard (https://amzn.to/3edtEPP)
• 1 - 1/2" 12" Round Dowel (4 pack)
• 1 - 4" Zip Ties (100 pack)
• 2 - 1/2" Washer (8 pack)
• 1 - 12" x 12" x 1" Foam Sheet
• 10 - 330 Ohm Resistors(https://bit.ly/2PGeHMv)
• 1 - Jumper Wires(https://amzn.to/3bdWZb1)
• 1 - Popsicle Sticks (50 pack)
• 2 - Push Buttons (https://bit.ly/2QP6R3F)

• 1 - Roll of Tape (Masking, Duck, Invisible, or whatever you prefer to use)

Tools and Equipment:

• Dremel
• Miter Saw, Circular Saw, Jigsaw or Handsaw
• Hot glue gun
• Hot glue sticks
• Wood glue (optional)
• Computer with USB type 2 port

Begin by cutting the ¾” x ¾” dowels and 1” x 3” wood to specified lengths listed below. The letters associated with the cuts in the list below ling up with the cut pieces in the picture above. It is recommended to use a hand saw or a miter/circular saw.

Specified Lengths:

A. ¾” x ¾” Dowels: 10.5” (inch) length (Quantity of 5)

B. ¾” x ¾” Dowels: 9.5” (inch) length (Quantity of 4)

C. 1” x 3” Wood: 12” (inch) length (Quantity of 2)

D. 1” x 3” Wood: 10.5” (inch) length (Quantity of 2)

Use wood glue (or hot glue) to glue together the four 1” x 3” cut pieces as shown in Figure 2 and Figure 3. You will want the top and bottom pieces to be the 1” x 3” x 12” wood pieces, and the left and right pieces to be the 1” x 3” x 10.5” wood pieces.

Take one ¾ ” x ¾ ” x 9.5” square dowel and glue it to one ¾” x ¾” x 10.5” square dowel. Repeat this step 3 additional times to have a total of 4 assembled arms as shown in the picture to the left.

To assemble the top half of the stage, glue the arm components from one end to another’s joint. Stand two arm components up so that the 9.5" arm is perpendicular to the work surface. Glue the end of the 10.5” length to the left face of the junction on the second arm component. Continue this with all arm components so that the end product is in the shape of a square as shown in the picture to the right.

For the fifth ¾” x ¾” x 10.5” square dowel, glue it 2” from the inside face of one other square dowel. Doing so will indicate the front of the Stage. In addition to the addition of the fifth square dowel, glue the bottom of the legs to the base part of the stage frame.

Cut a ¾” x ¾” square on each corner of the foam board.

Cut a quantity of 3 – ¾” dowels to a length of 7 and 5/8 inches.

Use hot-glue to attach the washers to the dowels at 4 separate locations. The first washer location will be 2” from the far left end of the dowel. The second washer will be located at 2.5” from the far left end of the dowel. The third washer will be located 5” from the far left end of the dowel. The last washer will be located at 5.5” from the far left end of the dowel. Repeat these locations of the washers on the remaining two dowels.

Attach the dowels with hot glue or wood glue at the distances shown below in the picture to the left. At the end of gluing, they should match the picture on the right.

Snap a popsicle stick in half and attach one half to the top of the frame. Attach the other half to the bottom of the frame as shown in the picture above. Both halves of the popsicle sticks will be attached in the middle of the stage section on the right side of the stage (when looking at the front of the stage).

The props that will be rigged on the stage will be constructed out of popsicle sticks. Start by placing 2 popsicle sticks approximately 2.5 inches apart from each other. Glue(wood glue, super glue, or hot glue)popsicle sticks to create a flat layer perpendicular to the first 2 popsicle sticks placed.

Pictured above is the rear of the finished props. The finished dimensions of the small popsicle stick props are approximately 4 ¼ in x 4 ½ in.

Using the same method as used to create the small props before this time by adding more supporting popsicle sticks to the rear of the prop length can be extended. The finished dimension of the large popsicle stick prop is 10 ½ in x 4 ½ in.

On the flat side of both the small props and the large prop you are free to paint, draw, or otherwise create whatever design you wish to be displayed on the finished stage.

Cut string to the following dimension: 2- 24”, 3- 21”, 2-18”. The picture of 4 strings above will be used for the smaller props towards the front of the stage and have lengths of 1-24", 2-21", and 2-18". The picture of 3 strings above will be used for the large prop at the rear of the stage and have lengths of 1-24", 1-21", and 2-18".

Drape the stings according to the picture above. The set of 4 strings will be towards the front of the stage and the set of 3 strings will be placed towards the back of the stage.

Tie a knot at the end of the set of 3 strings. This will later be glued onto the motor shaft for operation of the electrical lifting mechanism.

Tie a knot at the end of the set of 4 strings as described
below:

1 long string + 1 medium string = Tie knot at the end

1 medium string + 1 small string = Tie knot at the end.

Use hot-glue to attach the other end of the string to the back of the props. Make sure when gluing the strings to the back of the props, that the prop is sitting on the stage and all strings are glued tightly to the prop. Reference the pictures above for the placement of strings.

Create 2 loops on each set of tied strings for the SMALL props only. When the prop is at its lowest (touching the base of the stage), create a loop in the string where it will hook onto the top tab that was placed in step 12. When the prop is at its highest (touching the top of the frame), create another loop on the string where it will hook onto the bottom tab that was placed in step 12. Reference the pictures above to understand how these loops will look when hooked onto the tabs at the top/bottom of the stage.

Using a knife cut out a small hole in the back right corner of the stage. This hole should be approximately 1 x ½ in size and 2 in from the back and right side of the stage.

Once the hole for the string is cut, place the string attached to the large prop through the hole.

Cut a hole for the motor. A Dremel, jigsaw, or other tools could be used to do this.

Once the hole has been cut place hot glue on the bottom and on the screw mounts of the motor and place the motor in the hole as shown below.

Take a pen and cut it to the length of 5”. Make sure that the pen casing can sit on the shaft of the motor when attaching.

Drill 19/64” bit hole onto side, in line with motor shaft.

Shove pen casing through the hole to the shaft. Glue the pen onto the motor shaft with hot glue.

Place the string for the large prop onto the pen casing and glue it ½”- ¾” from the face of the motor.

To conceal wiring and make the stage look more like a real stage, a bandana will be used to create side and top curtains. The figure below shows the cut-to-size side curtain. You will need to cut 2 side curtains. The dimensions for the side curtains are 11 in x 5 in. You only need to cut 1 top curtain. The dimensions for the top curtain are 13 in x 3 in.

The 2 figures below show the folded curtains. To add more detail to your curtains you can add folds to create a textured curtain. Place tape on a flat surface and fold the curtain over itself.

Attach the curtains to the stage. Glue the curtains to the top of the stage as pictured in the figure above.

Gather the small breadboard, a 330 ohm resistor, and the 2 pushbuttons. Trim the resistor’s leads down to about half an inch with a pair of scissors.

Take the pushbuttons and place them across the middle gap, with the metal leads lined up above holes in the board. Push with moderate force until you feel a pop from thleads going in. For the resistor just have one end in the blue row along the top and the other end on row a of the middle segment. The resistor will take less force to go in and not have a pop, just go as far as you can for the best connection.

Next is connecting the stepper motor driver board. To help with this I’m using an individual color for each connection. Each wire here is a male to female wire. (Male is an end with a small metal pole, female is an end with a hole)

To setup the board connect the female end of the red wire to IN1, orange to IN2, yellow to IN3, green to IN4. The wires should be in the order of a rainbow for easy keeping track. The female end of the black wire should go above the negative(-) terminal at the bottom of the board while the white should go next to it on the positive(+) terminal.

The male ends are all going to go into the microcontroller ports. On the side of the terminals you’ll see a pin number. The red wire goes to pin 37, orange goes to pin 36, yellow goes to pin 35, and green goes to pin 34. The black wire goes to any pin labelled GND and the white goes to any pin labelled 5V, I put them along the side rail to keep them together.

Peel back the adhesive covering on the bread board. Stick it to the right side of the stage close to the front with the push buttons in the front.

For this step grab tape, 2 wires (I suggest a dull color and a bright color), an LED, and a plastic straw. Cut the straw to a segment that’s about an inch or so long, the length doesn’t matter too much just don’t make it too long.

Take the bright wire and plug the female end into the long end of the LED and then put the dull colored wire into the short end. Then put this combination into the straw making sure the connections don’t come undone in the process. Lastly wrap the end in tape to keep the wires and straw in place, do the previous process 2 more times to make 3 lights in total.

Once you have all three plug the bright colored wires(the one connected to the long lead of the LED) and plug it into the 4 holes below the resistor. They cannot be below the middle gap of the breadboard as the connection does not go across the gap. The dull-colored wires should go along the top row of the breadboard, anywhere along that row is fine. You will have to add wires to the ends of the ones connected to the LED to reach the breadboard.

Next you’ll want to secure the leds to each dowel along the top, a simple zip tie will do. Zip the wires and not the straw part as the zip tie will crush the straw if pulled too hard.

Once the LEDS are wired to the breadboard tape the wires down to the vertical beam next to the breadboard. This will keep them organized and in one place, aswell as not ruin the image of the stage having wires everywhere.

Next is wiring the push buttons. Once again I did a colorful wire for one side and a dark color for the other. Each wire needs to be in line with one of the pushbutton legs that are in the board.

The bright color wire going from the left pushbutton goes to pin 22 while the other bright wire from the right pushbutton goes to pin 23. (The stepper motor connections were removed for visibility in this picture but keep them in for your design)

The last connections needed are power and ground for the LEDS. To do this grab a red and a black male to male wire. The red should go from the second row on the breadboard to any 5V pin on the controller. The black wire should go one above it on the breadboard and into any GND pin on the controller.

With power and ground connected tape the pushbuttons wires along with power and ground to the corner of the frame above the breadboard. Make sure it’s snug against the wood.

Using hot glue attack the breadboard to the inside block of wood that the motor was attached too. The usb port should be facing away from the outside of the frame. Also use this image to confirm your wiring is correct.

Last step for the electrical components is to hot glue the stepper motor driver board to end of the wood block you attached the microcontroller and motor to.

In a previous step a whole was drilled into the back of the stage. Using this hole thread the usb power cable through it and connect it to the controller. The image in step 48 shows this connection to the controller.

On the other end connect the USB into your computer and download the .zip file attached to this step, the link is below. Double click the zip file to unzip it. Run the Purdue ECET MEGA Arduino Uploader.exe. The uploader is pictured above.

.zip file

Next click the drop down on the COM Port and select the first port that shows up. Also click “File Browse” and navigate to the unzipped folder and select “Rigging Program.hex”. The uploader with the program loaded should look like the picture above.

Click upload. If an error occurs try the next COM port if there’s more than 1. If that doesn’t work make sure you’ve selected the right file. If it went through with no errors test the pushbuttons on the breadboard. The motor should turn in both directions and the lights should be on.

The following is the code controlling the project. This step does not add to the project and is for educational purposes.

The code is broken up into 3 files, 2 C files and 1 header file

Code in main.c:

 #define F_CPU 16000000L 			//setting the clock speed of microcontroller for calculations
 #include <avr/io.h>				//importing library to use pins on microcontroller
 #include "stepper_motor.h"			//including header file to use stepper_motor.c C file
 #include <util/delay.h>			//importing library to use millisecond delays

 #define Switches (PINA & 0x03)			//define switches to be the respective pins on portA

 void Init_IO(void);				//prototype of function to be able to use function in main(void)

 int main(void)
 {
	Init_IO();						//call the Init_IO() function(executing code found in this funciton)
	Stepper_init();						//call the Stepper_init() function
	uint8_t input_sw = 0;					//initalizing a variable(8 bit, unsigned, intiger) to keep track of the switch inputs

	 while (1)						//continously execute the code found between brackets({})
	{
		input_sw = Switches;				//get the state of the switches and save to variable
		Stepper_Drive(input_sw);			//call the stepper drive function
	}
 }

 void Init_IO(void)
 {
	DDRA = 0x00;		//set portA as an input
	PORTA = 0xFF;		//activate pullup resistors
 }

stepper_motor.h

#ifndef stepper_motor_H_
#define stepper_motor_H_ 			//creating header file named "stepper_motor"
	#define F_CPU 16000000L			//defining microcontroller speed for calculations
	
	//include file
	#include <avr/io.h>			//importing library to use pins on microcontroller
	#include <util/delay.h>			//importing library to use millisecond delays

	//Define function prototypes
	void Stepper_Drive(uint8_t direction);		//prototype of Stepper_Drive function to enable use in main.c

	void Stepper_init(void);			//prototype of Stepper_init function to enable use in main.c

	//Define different inputs for switches
	#define Wave_Step 0x01			//keyword Wave_Step is the same as the integer 1
	#define CCW_Wave 0x02			//keyword CCW_Wave is the same as the integer 2

	//global variables
	extern uint8_t Wave[4];			//prototype of array Wave[]

#endif /* stepper_motor_H_ */<br>

stepper_motor.c

#include "stepper_motor.h"				//including header file to prototype funcitons and associate with header file
#include <avr/io.h>
uint8_t Wave[4] = {0x01, 0x02, 0x04, 0x08};		//set the different integer values in an array

void Stepper_init(void)
{
	DDRC = 0x0F;					//set portC3:0 as an output
}

void Stepper_Drive(uint8_t direction)		//declare a function to move the motor when called
{						//function takes input variable direction
	switch(direction)			//look at input variable direction
	{
		case Wave_Step:							//if input variable is equal to Wave_Step(the clockwise button is pressed)
		for(uint8_t j=0; j<4; j++)					//execute code in the brackets 4 times.
		{
				PORTC = (PORTC & 0xF0) | Wave[j];		//send value from array to stepper motor driver
										//increment through the array each esecution to send all 4 array values one at a time
				_delay_ms(3);					//wait for 3 milliseconds
		}
			break;							//exit the switch case statement upon exection of code
		
		case CCW_Wave:							//if input variable is equal to CCW_Wave(the counterclockwise button is pressed)<br>
		for(uint8_t j=4; j>0; j--)					//execute code in the brackets 4 times
		{
			PORTC = (PORTC & 0xF0) | Wave[j-1];			//send value from array to stepper motor driver in the reverse order as Wave_Step
										//increment through the array each execution to send all 4 array values one at a time 			
			_delay_ms(2);						//wait for 2 milliseconds
		}
			break;							//exit the switch case statement upon completion
	}
}<br>

To briefly summarize the code above, in main.c the code configures the pins used on the microcontroller to be inputs and outputs according to the wiring. The while(1) loop will continuously execute as long as the code is loaded onto the microcontroller. Inside of the while(1) loop, the input_sw = Switches; line check to see if any button has been pushed and records the current state of the buttons to the variable input_sw. The line Stepper_Drive(input_sw); then takes the current state of the buttons and tests if any button is being pushed. The function Stepper_Drive then sends integer values in a particular order to the stepper motor driver board in order to turn it in the clockwise direction or counterclockwise direction.