The main chip used in Nate’s design is a PIC16LF628A. The main chip used in the Kvasar is a PIC16F84A. The two chips have identical pinouts and could be interchanged for many applications. The 628A is a much better chip and it costs about half as much money. There are 4MHz and 20MHz versions of both chips. The 20MHz chips are not necessary for any projects mentioned in this thread, so buy the 4MHz version. They are much less expensive.
Both chips can be purchased through Digi-Key, Mouser, etc. for just a few dollars. Check the Microchip website for datasheets. If you are a student or a business you can get free samples.
Hey computerman, Thanks for all the info! Im still quite wrapped up in a different project, but if I ever come back to the kvasar all your info will deffinitely help. One little idea though, at the beggining startup of the kvasar, couldnt you have the chip slowly modify th irled brightness through pwm? Make it so you put the mask on, turn it on, then move your eyes back and forth until it beeps or blinks saying it has auto calibrated. Just an idea.
P.S. about my other project, do you have much experience with serial lcds? Mine used to work fine and is now having problems. Im having a really hard time debugging it too, cant figure out what is wrong with it.
That is kinda how it calibrates. To calibrate, you put the goggles on and push button B. You will hear one beep and the left LED will light. Do that with your eyes open. Then you close your eyes and push button A. The left LED will go out and calibration will start. Shortly after you will hear 2 beeps. Then push button C. DONE. The whole calibration process takes about 10 seconds.
I may have found another alternate sensor as well. I will test it and let you know what results I get. Cross your fingers!!
As for serial LCD’s, I have not worked too much with LCD’s and what work I have done they are all 4-bit parallel - But we are getting off-topic. If you want to discuss your project more, please PM me.
Just letting everybody know that the Kvasar website is back online - for how long who knows. I have created an archive of it just in case it goes down again.
Ok, sounds like a pretty good way to calibrate the device and good luck with the sensor. Yea, I will keep my project off this thread, just wanted to ask that real quick since I was at a dead end. Also thanks for creating an archive, its always a pain when something good seems to vanish from the web. Maybe you could put up a link to that archive/all the different files for it you have accumulated(modified source code, pcb, etc.)
Im from Hungary, I dont speak englis too good so I somethime write wrong.
Plese anybody say to me: The Kvasar is work good?
I has made 1 of this… but not work. I think ther is a problem whit transistors because i tur on the machine and all LED-s are lighting and the speaker try to beep.
I use the HLC2701 sensor. I programed the PIC whith the moded program.
(Sorry for the errors!)
So… I been wondering, how do you program a PIC chip? Do you take it in to an electronics place and they’ll charge you to do it? I’m interested in making this one.
Edit: Wait, I found a link that tells you how to make a programmer. Don’t know how much it costs, though.
sorry. I guess Ill answer them real quick. To the best of my knowledge, I dont know of any place that will program the chips for you. The creator of the mask you linked to, however, will send you all the components for a pretty cheap amount. As to programming chips on your own, just google around there are tons of different programmers out there ranging from quite simple for only a single chip to a bit more complex to be able to program many different kinds of chips. You should look into picaxe chips if you want to make your life really easy, they are normal pic chips with a bootloader put on it that makes it easy to program (though you are limited to their basic language only). Good luck.
I’m not doing anything as fancy as a DIY Kvasar, but it might be interesting still. I made a simple digital timer with a cell phone vibrator, that goes off at set times in the sleep cycle. I’m planning on adding GSR sensing to it once I get enough data about how the resistance varies with my setup. If you’re interested in following along, check out:
ok just found this site today so happy i did lol, so much great stuff and discussions. I’m trying to get back into attempting to LD, kind of gave up or forgot about it like 6 months ago, would love to make a pair of these glasses though to help assist me in achieving my goals, always thought the NovaDreamer and others looked really cool. I’m pretty much a complete novice when it comes to electronics however, I want to make the easier glasses that have been tutorialed with using the parallel port. However i have a newer laptop that doesnt have a parallel port, so i’m wondering; I remember people mentioning thinking about doing it, but has anyone made these glasses with a serial port connection? Would it be pretty much the same construction process as if u were to use a parallel port? Or if not would something like a parallel port to usb cord converter work just the same so i could use it on my laptop? Thanks in advance really want to make myself a pair of these (btw sorry if this has already been answered, tried to read through all the posts might have missed some tho)
Well, nate’s device if I remember correctly was nothing more than a couple of time delays till flashing LEDs so either the 08 or 08M would work fine. The REM dreamer is actually a very simple but touchy device having to do with IR signals. All you really need to get started is something to drive the LED (no problem) and something to interpret the signals from your IR receiver(once again no problem)…The problem comes about with getting the device to get stable signals and interpret them correctly. You could probably still pull this off with either chip. The 08M does have a few perks that could make it easier…overall I prefer the 08M.
I didn’t think I would get an answer as the thread is so old
To the best of my knowledge I don’t think it’s possible to make the REM dreamer with a PICAXE 08M. From seeing pictures of the REM dreamer on their website, it shows the PIC as being a 28 pin chip. The PICAXE 08M is just 8 pins but only 5 input/output. I would imagine you would need something like the 28X1 or 28X2 PICAXE chip wouldn’t you agree?
The REM dreamer does have a lot of functions compared to Nate’s device. It far supersedes any of the other REM LD masks to this date especially when you buy the REM dreamer pro package which allows connection to a PC among some other features. For this the bigger PICAXE is best suited I would agree, wouldn’t you?
It all depends on how many features you want to implement. I was saying that for something that simply senses eye movement and responds you could do so with the smaller 8pin chips. These chips do even have the capability of communicating with the computer through the serial port(be careful of the voltage levels…).
However, if you want room on board the chip to store data or are going to communicate with something outside(such as an i2c eeprom for memory storage) or will have lot of different settings, or multiple outputs. A larger chip would be necessary. Essentially it completely depends upon how many features you want to implement.
(btw sorry if this has already been answered, tried to read through all the posts might have missed some tho)