If you've played one time in a laser tag place , you've got it. The idea is to buid an home-made infra-red gun, but with some special feature :... By the way, there is no laser beam in a lasertag : it seem that the word "laser" came because of the laser pointer some indoor lasertag are using, in order to add more acurary when you shot...
- to be able to to play oustide. This mean having to fight against the more powerfull IR (infra red) maker in earth , the sun itself
- be able to reach 40m with some acuracy
So we have to :
- build the body, thinking in resistance (kids destroy everything) and outdoor use
- build the board, including :
- a speaker (for the sound)
- an I/R led (transmiting an I/R signal when you press the trigger),
- and then a switch mechanically linked to the trigger,
- an I/R receptor ( detecting the shot coming from your opponent) ,
- a battery ( and a conector to charge it )
There are 2 parts : one is the FunGun itself , with the electronics and the triger, and the second one is an arm-head that each player wear on his head . It has an RF modul to exchange with the FunGun, and 2 types of LEDs :A cool stuff would be to have a counter for your life reserve , linked to 5 leds showing in the side of your gun your health statut : each shot received from an opponent, rest 1 point of a total of five. When you're at zero , you're dead, and your gun will stop working say 3 mn.
- IR Led receptor, around the 360º of the arm-head
- red Led to show your opponent when he hit you
The FunGun will be the smallest posible, because the idea is every player build his own form , and fix it on top of the FunGun ( this is why the top surface should be perfectly plane ). You could build it even with some plywood, and a manual saw.
Then you can imagine complex add-on , like manage bonus with time or target you've to shot, having a button to activate a shield reducing vulnerability, and , the must would be to have a radio module to link with a smartphone, with a specific app where you could play with GPS maps, special guns with more power,team strategy ect... OK I'm dreaming there.
Who has done this before ? :
There is already many comercial lasertag, but not so many focused in exterior use :
- the very basic one for kids, use inside, poor acuracy, low price (10 to 20€).
- the one for teenagers, with nice feature : some saying there are outdoor compatible like the very Ligth Strike . A very interesant concept is the Hasbro one , mixing a smartphone holded in the lasertag gun , giving it aumented reality, and map service (30 to 60€).
- the profesional grade one, for adventure camps like Paintball o including training soldiers (more than 250€)
But there are also some nice DIY project, and also vendors of kits fo building your own like lasertparts. Overview of the player is described in Lesson 16 .
What is the main challenge ? :
The main challenge is accuracy in outdoor use :
- how the receptor could avoid to react to a sun 'IR ?
- how to ensure a corect angle of the IR beam to reach 40m (meaning a very tight angle of beam) but also be able to reach the target at a 3m distance ( need wider angle)
- is there an IR led with suffisant power ? or do we need to multiplicate the IR LEDs?
Idea 2: Multisensor ( DESCARTED ! )
Now come the more complex idea. I would like to build a multisensor for home, autonomous and wireless. To be usefull, this sensor should connect to a smartphone , sending datas and alerts, but also to other wireless device able to interact to the cooling, heating, ventilation of the home. Let's take and example : if the sensor located in the child room detect carbon monoxyde (CO) , then it will :
- activate the ventilation
- opening a damper in the ductwork
- activate a siren in the parent 's room
So each device should have inside :
- battery
- minimum sensors : CO , CO2 , temperature
- optional sensors : COV, PM , humidity
- buzzer
- led ( 2 blink per minute if battery OK , 1 blink if too low)
- wireless module ( BT 4.0, Zig bee, Z waves ect..)
- a way to update the code : miniUSB plug, o via wireless
Because this would be a too ambitious project ( I've none skills either in software or hardware) , I will study a more reduced scope for next week : probably a realistic moove would be to reduce sensor to CO2 , CO and temperature, and then have 2 possible actions :
- if CO is detected, a siren will start, and it ask to the vemtilation to go to maximum level , in order to renew quickly the air in the room
- if temperature failed under the level asked, then , if the CO2 sensor detect some presence , it will ask heating system ( or cooling)to start:
- how the receptor could avoid to react to a sun 'IR ?
- how to ensure a corect angle of the IR beam to reach 40m (meaning a very tight angle of beam) but also be able to reach the target at a 3m distance ( need wider angle)
- is there an IR led with suffisant power ? or do we need to multiplicate the IR LEDs?
Idea 2: Multisensor ( DESCARTED ! )
Now come the more complex idea. I would like to build a multisensor for home, autonomous and wireless. To be usefull, this sensor should connect to a smartphone , sending datas and alerts, but also to other wireless device able to interact to the cooling, heating, ventilation of the home. Let's take and example : if the sensor located in the child room detect carbon monoxyde (CO) , then it will :
- activate the ventilation
- opening a damper in the ductwork
- activate a siren in the parent 's room
So each device should have inside :
- battery
- minimum sensors : CO , CO2 , temperature
- optional sensors : COV, PM , humidity
- buzzer
- led ( 2 blink per minute if battery OK , 1 blink if too low)
- wireless module ( BT 4.0, Zig bee, Z waves ect..)
- a way to update the code : miniUSB plug, o via wireless
Because this would be a too ambitious project ( I've none skills either in software or hardware) , I will study a more reduced scope for next week : probably a realistic moove would be to reduce sensor to CO2 , CO and temperature, and then have 2 possible actions :
- if CO is detected, a siren will start, and it ask to the vemtilation to go to maximum level , in order to renew quickly the air in the room
- if temperature failed under the level asked, then , if the CO2 sensor detect some presence , it will ask heating system ( or cooling)to start:
- activate the ventilation
- opening a damper in the ductwork
- activate a siren in the parent 's room
- battery
- minimum sensors : CO , CO2 , temperature
- optional sensors : COV, PM , humidity
- buzzer
- led ( 2 blink per minute if battery OK , 1 blink if too low)
- wireless module ( BT 4.0, Zig bee, Z waves ect..)
- a way to update the code : miniUSB plug, o via wireless
Because this would be a too ambitious project ( I've none skills either in software or hardware) , I will study a more reduced scope for next week : probably a realistic moove would be to reduce sensor to CO2 , CO and temperature, and then have 2 possible actions :
- if CO is detected, a siren will start, and it ask to the vemtilation to go to maximum level , in order to renew quickly the air in the room
- if temperature failed under the level asked, then , if the CO2 sensor detect some presence , it will ask heating system ( or cooling)to start: