Phantom Powered

Following the success of the pacman LEDs, I carried on to the ghost. The photo shows the fboard hole at the 12 fret marker and the opal and tinted acrylic that will be fitted in there. To give my ghost some character, the eyes and mouth were cut out from the black static dissipative bag that some of the electronic parts were supplied in. This was easy to cut, is very thin and blocks the light much better than permanent marker pen.









Once it is all fitted together it almost disappears. When it is not needed, it isn't a distraction either. I don't think the sandpaper was important at the time, but it makes a nice backdrop.






To help iron out the last few bugs in the software it was handy to put it all together. The leds are held in with masking tape, paperclips, old tyres and mattresses etc just so the overall effect could be seen working. When it is off, it looks pretty much like a plain fboard.



When it is on 'dim' (ie battery power saving mode) the blue leds at frets 5,7,9,15,17 & 19 are dimly lit along with the top segment of the pacman and the very top of the ghost. The processor clock is slowed down to 32kHz and it is waiting for a button press to fire up properly.






Once the button is pressed the animation comes to life - it all blinks & flashes like it is playing a game. There are separate sequences for normal chomping, eating powerpills and even croaking it occasionally!



It really needs a video clip to do it justice...