Hello Sparkfun community, I just joined in order to get some help since I figured this would be the best place.
I’m working on making a Lawgiver from the 1995 film Judge Dredd with working LEDs and different sounds I can trigger.
http://orig09.deviantart.net/4525/f/201 … 3o2qwr.jpg
I’ve never worked with circuits before, but I have friends who have who are helping me. I originally planned on using an Arduino board to program everything until I thought I might not need it. However, I might go back to my original idea. I’ve gotten the LEDs figured out: a slide switch to turn the pair of 5 red LEDs on the sides and the two LEDs on the green square and red triangle on the left of the gun. A push button to light a muzzle LED when held down set behind the trigger.
The audio is what is confusing me. In the film the gun has voice recognition. While that is doable in the real world, I want to take an easier route. There are 5 different sounds corresponding to the “ammunition mode” the gun is in. I found the Adafruit Audio FX Sound Board https://www.adafruit.com/products/2133 which has built in storage for WAV files and 11 triggers. While I could just put 5 buttons on my gun and press them to trigger each different sound, I wanted something more subtle.
I was thinking a rotary switch such as the 10 Position Rotary Switch found in the Sparkfun store or a thumbwheel switch built into the handle of the gun. That way I could turn the switch to different positions while holding the gun.
Would something like that be possible? I’d assume the switch would just close a different circuit connected to the different triggers on the Sound Board at each position. Could the rotary switch be used for that, since most of the tutorials I find for it use it as a potentiometer? Would my life be easier if I just used an Arduino or RedBoard for all of this? Feel free to send me any links to tutorials or projects that have a similar “one mechanical switch to trigger several circuits” theme. I found a nice looking tutorial for the “pulling the trigger triggers lights and a blaster sound” part of the gun, but my subtle mode-changing sound problem is still confusing me.
Thanks!