Star Trek Warp Core Visual Sound Meter

This is a light that reacts to the volume of sound it senses and serves as the visual animation for a Star Trek style warp core power reactor.

Video of it in action:https://youtu.be/Dr38Dz7nt4E

This instructable is more of a guide through the design and build process. Create you own warp core in whatever style or function you can think of. Make it so.

Cardboard

Paper

Glue

Tape

Cutting tools like a razor knife or heavy duty shears

Straightedge or a ruler to help with marking and cutting cardboard

paint

light filtering material like shelf liner, plastic, or paper

microcontroller and leds (Arduino, neopixels, etc.)

Gather up all of your unused supplies and see if you can create something new out of it.

I had my Circuit Playground Express microcontroller board already wired up with neopixels LEDs from the last time I used it. It has three strands of neopixels controlled by one pin. It simplifies coding but it means all the LEDS will react in sync. To get a really complex animation such as lights chasing up and down on different strips at the same time, the strips would have need to be wired up to each its own individual control pin on the board.

There are neopixels onboard that I did not use and that T-handle Deathstar controller potentiometer could be incorporated to control something later on like vary the speed of the light animation or brightness. I had loaded up sound meter code which uses the onboard microphone as sensor input and displays the changing sound level into number of LEDs lit. Whichever microcontroller board you are using, there are tutorials applicable to how to wire up and code for a sound meter or color organ.

There's always cardboard around left over from shipping boxes. Do your part to upcycle or recycle responsibly.

Sure, you can make this all with a 3D printer, laser cutter, fancy CNC milling or woodworking machines. Cardboard is my go-to for rapid prototyping or just making things for fun. You can always build it stronger, faster... wait.

I roughed out the shape of the cardboard to fit the electronics. Shorter pieces of cardboard were glued together to make a long platform. Laminate or glue on extra layers to reinforce the cardboard.

I bent up a strip on each side and layered on another strip of cardboard to stiffen it up. It would serve as a retaining edge for the bezel material.

There is a central reactor chamber in the warp core.

Since I was building this out of cardboard, I just started building a structure with strips of cardboard. The shape was further refined by adding the ring/divider in the middle.

All the rough joints and exposed corrugated cardboard edges were covered with pieces of newprint and glue. Paper mache works great after it is painted to give the piece smooth sculptural lines.

As with all light fixtures, the light source may be too strong or appear harsh so you would want a cover or some sort to filter or diffuse the light.

For the center reaction chamber, I hot-glued in pieces of plastic drinking straw to create the bezel or light cover. Light filters through the translucent straws and adds the sci-fi futuristic look of a multi-ribbed texture.

You can layer materials too.

I could have softened the glow of the individual LEDs on the strips by placing a piece of paper to diffuse the points of light. I have found fiberfill batting is the most effective to use and works great in making wearables with LEDs.

I used a patterned thick vinyl shelf liner as the bezel for the main sections. The ribbed lines formed in the vinyl create light and shadow lines similar to the look of the stacked sections of the warp core. Play around with folded pieces of paper to get a sectioned effect or glue in pieces of cardboard to act as baffles to contain the lights. You can get plastic sheets that have other patterns or find vinyl shower curtains/tablecloths that may work to project a texture.

Cut up pieces of plastic canvas, window screen, mesh, wire lathe to add a grid texture. You can even print something to use as a light filter to display a pattern or graphic.

You can now use this as a test rig to create other light animations.

Lights emanating or starting from the ends to bombard the center are indicative of your fusion process. Lights with a pulsing glow from the center may be your fission process. Nuclear. Matter/Anti-matter. STEM.

Enjoy!