# Portal 2 Weighted Companion Cube Subwoofer



## Cube (Aug 31, 2011)

Hello all I am new here but would like to share my project with the community. It has been a while in the process but I'd say Im about 75% complete. Originally this all started as a custom coffee table with an oval glass top shaped (and probably coloured) in a portal, but I had seen one guy (modsnends off the top of my head) build a sub box cube with el wire lighting and the coffee table idea was out the window and sub box here we come. Well that was about 2-3 months ago. The box started out as a portal 1 cube with the big chamfer on the edges but it has already been done so I opted for a portal 2 cube (crappy decision 1/2 way through). They say the weighted companion cube will never threaten to stab you but I stabbed it (pics will help that lol). Anyhow it's probably easier just to show the pics and progress with some captions. Any suggestion are welcome


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## MightyMission (Aug 31, 2011)

Excellent soldering work.
I love the concept of this and it looks great,you should be happy with your achievement


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## Kreij (Aug 31, 2011)

Well done. Very nice.


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## AltecV1 (Aug 31, 2011)




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## Cube (Aug 31, 2011)

Ok well no captions there but here is a guide going from left to right top to bottom.
1. The start of just adding all the pieces to the box, sorry no pics of the pieces individually but there was lots (24 small detail and 48 large)
2. All pieces added with the door/lid on the top. 
3. The sub face cut in and some packers being glued for the sub screws and the door with custom hinges on a ball bearing pivot slide
4. The change of heart to a portal 2 companion cube, chopped out the chamfers and added the timber to form the right shape
5. Bit of a test run with some colour (wasn't a bad guess for using an iPhone and colour cards) and the door with its mounting bolts
6. The perspex arrived so I placed some of the pieces to get a bit of an idea for the final product. You can see I removed the small detail pieces since the perspex and lighting needed to be located underneath it
7. 4 of the led strips and perspex in place with detail pieces in position
8. same as above but showing the routing for wiring and channel for the ring lighting (luckily that is the bottom of the cube where the port is going so I could afford to be a bit aggressive
9. The led strips for the small bars (24 of)
10.  The prototype for the ring lighting assembly. I kicked around ideas for ages with this to make it as easy as possible and minimal effort unfortunately there is no easy way. This worked beautifully and was the thinnest design since I had a absolute maximum of 30mm to play with.
11. The prototype in action (those are 2000mcd pink leds which were way to strong but the principle is there), strangely the pic makes the light look insanely bright which it was to a degree 
12. My first full ring.. not too bad for a carpenter, 504 leds and 170 resistors  only 4 more to go 
13. Power running to the ring via 12v battery cluster (some circuits not going )
14. Fixed the dodgie soldering and placed the ring in one side for a inspiration shot before starting the rest

I suppose I better mention the running gear also, Earthquake FF12 400w. I have basically mimicked the specs down to 2-5% tolerance (air volume and port tuning). 

Back to the soldering


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## Kreij (Aug 31, 2011)

About #10 above : You could have taped and etched a circular curcuit board for the LEDs, resistors and power runs.


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## Cube (Aug 31, 2011)

Kreij said:


> About #10 above : You could have taped and etched a circular curcuit board for the LEDs, resistors and power runs.



is that like a pcb? sorry I'm not a electronics guru.. I have had the perspex laser cut with the holes already so I'm a bit stuck down this path without costing myself more. Thanks for the advice though


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## Cube (Aug 31, 2011)

MightyMission said:


> Excellent soldering work.
> I love the concept of this and it looks great,you should be happy with your achievement



Thanks for the comment, my soldering has improved since the first ring. I'll take a pic of a better one when I finish it


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## Kreij (Aug 31, 2011)

Cube said:


> is that like a pcb? sorry I'm not a electronics guru.. I have had the perspex laser cut with the holes already so I'm a bit stuck down this path without costing myself more. Thanks for the advice though



Yes. We had to make them in school when I was working on my electronics degree and building hand-made, discreet component rf amplifiers for school projects.
Basicaly you got a copper covered curcuit board and put tape over the areas where you want the copper to stay (for the runs). You then etch away the exposed copper in an acid solution and you are left with a pcb. You then just have to drill small holes for the components.

Not hard really, but I have no idea what copper clad boards cost these days.
They were cheap when I was in school back when there were dinosaurs.

Wouldn't hurt to look into it for your next project, or just the fun of building pcbs on your own.

Anyway, you did great work with the way you did it. !!


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## Cube (Aug 31, 2011)

Kreij said:


> Yes. We had to make them in school when I was working on my electronics degree and building hand-made, discreet component rf amplifiers for school projects.
> Basicaly you got a copper covered curcuit board and put tape over the areas where you want the copper to stay (for the runs). You then etch away the exposed copper in an acid solution and you are left with a pcb. You then just have to drill small holes for the components.
> 
> Not hard really, but I have no idea what copper clad boards cost these days.
> ...



that would have been a great way to do it, I'm like an electrical noobie so I researched pcb's and put a few feelers out there but no companies wanted to estimate a product for me  I even sat there for a couple hours figuring out how to use eagle and kinda made a design for quotes. I will definitely keep your idea in mind for future, cheers


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## Kreij (Aug 31, 2011)

You don't want a company to make the board for you, you just need the raw materials for making a curcuit board. If there is an electronic tech school near you (or you know of one you can call) ask them where you can get that kind of stuff. 
If when you call you get a receptionist (which is likely) hang up, do a little research into the teachers at the school and ask for one specifically who sems like he might know that (like an RF teacher). Most tech school teachers came from the industry and are usually more than willing to help people that love the tech like they do.


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## Cube (Aug 31, 2011)

Kreij said:


> You don't want a company to make the board for you, you just need the raw materials for making a curcuit board. If there is an electronic tech school near you (or you know of one you can call) ask them where you can get that kind of stuff.
> If when you call you get a receptionist (which is likely) hang up, do a little research into the teachers at the school and ask for one specifically who sems like he might know that (like an RF teacher). Most tech school teachers came from the industry and are usually more than willing to help people that love the tech like they do.



aaahhh see I was barking up the wrong tree to begin with  next time gadget


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## Kreij (Aug 31, 2011)

Lol ... and you thought we are all just a bunch of Facebook users.
In the future, just ask, Cube. The collective knowledge of TPU members is awesome.

Oh .. don't forget to access the full compilation of TPU knowledge you have to be assimilate into the collective.
It's really pretty painless and the Borg hardware is hardly noticable.


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## xBruce88x (Aug 31, 2011)

hah... borg... "Make it so number one"

awesome companion cube mode Cube.


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## Cube (Aug 31, 2011)

Kreij said:


> Lol ... and you thought we are all just a bunch of Facebook users.
> In the future, just ask, Cube. The collective knowledge of TPU members is awesome.
> 
> Oh .. don't forget to access the full compilation of TPU knowledge you have to be assimilate into the collective.
> It's really pretty painless and the Borg hardware is hardly noticable.



Haha I didn't think that, this site has been helpful to me even before registering, plus facebook is something like this to me 
I'll check out the full access thing, thanks Kreij


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## Cube (Aug 31, 2011)

xBruce88x said:


> hah... borg... "Make it so number one"
> 
> awesome companion cube mode Cube.



 mate, it's a long road but the end is near.. I hope


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## Cube (Aug 31, 2011)

Can anyone suggest some ideas for led drivers. Are they easy enough to make to custom power consumption/regulation? 

I worked out there is 20mA draw from 1 led strip, so 24 of those is 480mA..
and the rings draw 3400mA, x5 = 17000mA

Is that correct  ..17 amp seems excessive for a bunch of leds..?

Or do I only need to supply 20mA to all the strips and 3400mA to all the rings... 

Yet the if the rings draw 3.4amp, howcome a 12v battery cluster of AA's can power it fine.. ?


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## Cube (Sep 5, 2011)

Ok so I have been going pretty hard out in the last couple days but the results are showing. I think I am at about 98% now, just need some detail screws and a lil something I thought of early on in the project.. so close I can almost taste the cake


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## Black Panther (Sep 5, 2011)

Very beautiful work!


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## 1Kurgan1 (Sep 5, 2011)

Very impressive, great job.


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## Cube (Sep 5, 2011)

Thanks guys, I was just testing the sub.. seems to be quite sensitive which is great but since the controls are going to be shut inside the cube I'm trying to find the optimal settings for music and movies. somewhere round 100Hz cut off and about 80-90% juice (well it was a bit dark but it looked around that and sounded good).


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## Cube (Sep 6, 2011)

*Completion*

All done now, well for the moment. Two minds about the mesh cover- maybe with better matched colours I will add it on otherwise it will have none. I originally had other ideas for the lighting like having it sound controlled or maybe computer programmed but for the moment I'm happy with all of them lighting together. Detail screws are in and a bit of ratman art in the cave. This was a triumph, I'm making a note here - huge success  

I added a small clip on Youtube with 'exile vilify' in the background. Some of the pics here and some others I have taken of the build.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOyz4w9Mq0E


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## Cube (Sep 9, 2011)

*some help would be appreciated*

so I have the cube lighting up from a 12v 20A supply - the rig draws 17.5A. I found this schematic online of a 3.5mm audio jack, couple transistor capacitors resistors etc that basically makes a sound controlled circuit. From what I can work out there are 3 circuits (durr) but there are no values for the resistors and capacitors that control the sound frequency cut-out point (like a cross over). Could anyone tell me which one would operate the bass end of the frequency??  maybe either of the three could with the right caps and resistors.....

here is the schematic- 

and there is a link to see how it works via 3 leds in bottle caps and coloured water
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yd3hzYAJzOo&feature=related

To go the whole hog, I guess I need this circuit or something alike to operate with a cross over dial (so I can change the cut off point of when the lights light up) and a external switch to activate it from the outside of the box but not blow up to the 20 amps of juice flowing through the system

Any help would be greatly appreciated


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## Swamp Monster (Sep 9, 2011)

Circuit in the top controls the high frequency,
Circuit in the middle controls bass frequency,
Circuit in the bottom controls Middle range frequency.

For the bass, elements C2 and R11 controls frequency. Equation for bass frequency selection is in picture "Equation 1".
For high frequency, R10 and C1 are key elements. I hope I am not mistaken, please correct me if I am wrong.

*edit* - Found this online Filter calculator.
http://www.muzique.com/schem/filter.htm

About middle frequency (band-pass filter) more info here:
http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/filter/filter_4.html


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## Cube (Sep 9, 2011)

Swamp Monster said:


> Circuit in the top controls the high frequency,
> Circuit in the middle controls bass frequency,
> Circuit in the bottom controls Middle range frequency.
> 
> ...



Thanks so much, hopefully I can integrate that middle circuit into the system. It would be a fixed frequency cut off but I will look into the adjustment side of things also.


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## Red_or_Dead (Sep 9, 2011)

awesome

I too have a box for a PC case, no literally, a black and brown box, it looks shit, but only I will see it so thats cool


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## Splave (Sep 9, 2011)

unbelievable craftsmanship

pic applies


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## Cube (Sep 10, 2011)

Thanks Red_or_Dead and Splave, but I dunno Red.. add some cellophane and you got yourself some case mods!!  and where did you find a pic of me on the net Splave, identity theft lol

But on a more serious note, I'm thinking of adding this sub to my computer system which is evolving. Sound-wise I have a set of logitech z5500's but how to add the extra sub into the system.... I've been reading some forums and seems the best way is by adding a receiver into the mix. Sorta needing a reciever with optical in and out with sub out

Mac Pro ----> Reciever ---> z5500
                                ---> companion cube
(via optical cable except reciever to sub)

Any thoughts....?


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## BumbleBee (Sep 11, 2011)

great work 

if I may make a suggestion. a riser would decouple the Portal Cube from the ground and tighten up the lower frequencies. glossy white riser with blue and red led?


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## Cube (Sep 11, 2011)

BumbleBee said:


> great work
> 
> if I may make a suggestion. a riser would decouple the Portal Cube from the ground and tighten up the lower frequencies. glossy white riser with blue and red led?



I will have to think about something like that because you are correct in the coupling effect since the port is on the bottom side of the cube. Maybe I should make a calibration button riser 

Went to Jaycar before and picked up the optical splitter and found an amp at JB's, couple cables later the system works great!! Now I just have to figure out and make this circuit for the sound reactive device to control the leds


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## BumbleBee (Sep 11, 2011)

ever work with arduino boards?

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imagine the possibilities!


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## Cube (Sep 11, 2011)

BumbleBee said:


> ever work with arduino boards?
> 
> imagine the possibilities!



I'm a carpenter by trade and have very little experience with electronics but I would love to have the cube light up like in the videos. I would have to redo the wiring  but it would be worth it. Think I've got some research to do, can you post me some links?

I've been looking around at the arduino boards and there are quite a few to choose from, but I'm wondering where in the circuit does it go in my application..? Do you know much about them? There is 17 amps coming from the power source to the rings (3.4 amp each) and only 480 mA for all 24 bar/strip leds. Just wondering how much current can an arduino board handle? Any help would be greatly appreciated


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## BumbleBee (Sep 11, 2011)

I only know about them. I know Arduino boards are popular for DIY projects. 

http://arduino.cc/en/Guide/HomePage

here are some Arduino projects and tutorials

http://www.arduino.cc/playground/Projects/ArduinoUsers

there are a lot of resources available...


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## Cube (Sep 13, 2011)

I gotta say this Arduino board thing all sounds great but I can't seem to find the right information to implement it to my system. So far it seems to me that I will need a relay of some kind to power the Arduino without frying it from 20 amps but I'm confused on how from an individual pin connection on the Arduino board will give enough power to the led array (especially the rings 3.4amp) ....

Can anyone steer me in the right direction please? In the meantime I will try to research.

I found this online after some reading and this seems to be a solution, I would need quite a few of them or a bigger one with more outputs. I like the idea of it not being connected to the arduino (apart from the signal) and can power quite a bit. Correct me here if I am wrong but since I have 1 power source of 20 A, all these power FET switches would have to handle 20 A?? even though each array will draw far less than that if I connect 1 array per FET switch. The pic is of a 4 bank FET switch, but I would need 8 of these connected to 1 arduino, then 1 big long USB chord to run to the computer.. Plus I like the PWM feature of these switches, could add to the visual feast 

Please tell me if there is something better out there


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## Terry (Sep 17, 2011)

*Arduino to control displays, audio driven??*

We are having some discussion about using Arduino and these FET switch cards to control complex LED displays like this.

The switch modules are good for about 10a per channel with a 12v supply (turns the fets on strongly).  

One limitation is the number of PwM channels available on Arduino (6 of 14 I/o on the UNO/ 328 version, 14 of 54 on the Mega 1280/2560 version). These are for dimming LED channels, any I/O can turn simple on-off.

What about audio controlling the display?? Anyone seen arduino software to do this?? external filters could be used, but 'software in cheap'...

Regards, Terry King
...On the Mediterranean in Italy
terry@yourduino.com


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## Solaris17 (Sep 17, 2011)

this is sweet.


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## Cube (Sep 28, 2011)

*Arduino*

So I ended up buying the arduino Mega and a bunch of mosfet fet's with cabling, some pics of the progress. I setup just 4 arrays as a test and it works great. It's taking some adjusting to fit the boards and power supply but I'm slowly getting there

you'll have to stitch the two pics together because my camera made it too high resolution to pull it down under 195.3kb

Ok so that layout was way too clustered and barely fit down the ratman den so I made a new one that worked much better and felt a bit cleaner on the organisation of all the arrays. I have mounted it but it will have to come back out soon to install a PWM shield for the arduino mega. I'm great at carpentry, getting better with electronics but programming  ...... Slowly muddling my way through it and understanding the language bit by bit. Especially when it came to making software PWM for even 1 array.  
Hopefully it comes soon, the project is so close to finished now 

oh and I added the aperture logo surrounding the port opening (just have to rub out my guide marks oops)


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## Cube (Oct 8, 2011)

*riser*



BumbleBee said:


> great work
> 
> RISER:
> 
> ...


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