Extreme AVS Machine Chain - Etz Chaim
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, 01-19-2014 at 07:19 PM (99533 Views)
Before there was a MindPlace Kasina seekers of extreme AVS experiences or those who wished to combine multiple control sources together, might have to resort to a little creativity. The amazing thing about the Kasina is that it combines many of these functions into one machine ? compact simple and beautiful! But if you don?t mind creating a little cable salad and you have the full line of MindPlace machines available to you, then you will find vast new inner vistas await. The DIY blog posts of Craig Tice have inspired me to share some of my own adaptions. So, for AVS geeks everywhere, I present the Etz Chaim ? Ladder of Lights mind machine chain.
Parts list:
- MindPlace Procyon
- MindPlace Proteus
- MindPlace Sirius (discontinued)
- MindPlace ThoughtStream
- SanDisk Sansa Clip Zip MP3 player
- Belkin RockStar Multi-headphone splitter
- 2 x 6 inch right angled 3.5mm audio patch cables (at least)
- Small spiral cable wrap.
- Large lens sunglasses (I used the old white bulb frames that used to be packaged with the MindPlace Sirius)
- LED strip from Sirius Ganzframes (not in my build? see above)
- LED strip from Procyon Ganzframes
- LED strip from Proteus Ganzframes
Per design, each MindPlace mind machine has a few features that others do not have. The goal of this build was to combine the unique functions of all these machines together into one consolidated set of light glasses. I combined the light strips from 3 pairs of MindPlace Ganzframe light glasses. As you can well imagine it makes for quite an amazing experience with every color of the rainbow being and blending, massaging your mind frame to changeling tessellations. I also kept the connectors and wiring in place so I can use the output of different machines for a variety of purposes. I will detail some of suggested setups at the end of this post.
Here is what all the lights look like when they are on at one time. There are a total of 22 LEDs. That is why I called the glasses the Etz Chaim ? Ladder of Lights ? for the 22 paths of the Tree of Life. (if that is unfamiliar to you, don?t worry about it. Mysticism aside?)
I have an older Sirius on hand that I purchased years ago. It has white bulb style glasses with big frames. They aren?t the most comfortable frames in the world (new ones are much better) but I always liked the quality of the light that they produced. It has kind of a warm feeling to it. The bulbs protrude out a bit so in this build that provides an ever-so-slight brightness boost. If you don?t have a pair of these around then you will need to go searching for large frame glasses which aren?t difficult to locate given some of the bug-eye fashion trends.
In this particular pair of glasses, all the light strips fit perfectly. A bonus is that the added Ganzframe light strips being flat and flexible, with some adhesive already on them from the factory, are very tough, easy to remove, and mount with little need for further steps to hold them firmly in place.
This picture show the inside of the finished project.
I didn?t think ahead enough to take a picture before I did the mounting, so many months ago. Luckily I found that some else had played with modifying these glasses and this is their image of them. Source: http://blog.lincomatic.com/?p=993
Take a pair of Procyon Ganzframes and a pair of Proteus ones as well and remove the LED PCB strips from them. This is easily done by removing the diffusers and pulling the light strips out of the housing. They are fairly durable and if careful there is only a very small risk of damaging them. The hardest part is that the wire harness is fed through a plastic hole in the frame of the glasses before they are soldered. Re-soldering wires this small and delicate is not something I pop my hand up to volunteer for, so I opt to carve away the plastic until I can remove the wire. The glasses are cosmetically destroyed at this point but my eyes and nerves are fine. You could put them back together later if you wish with a little tape to cover the destruction.
If you need a more detailed tutorial on removing the light strips then let me know in the comments. I?ve done it several times but never documented it.
What I opted to do was place the Proteus strip on the top as it contains red and green LEDs and even by itself can be quite bright. I made the decision to reverse the strip as it mounted better and gave the additional benefit of reversed eye stimulation if I used the same AudioStrobe source at the same time on the Proteus and Procyon. The Proteus strip is outlined in green above. The nose piece and upper rim of the Sirius glasses provide a convenient space to anchor the strip.
The one downside is that the wire harness for this strip is now on the reverse side from the others. I hate stray, disobedient cables as much as the next person (and probably more), so I fed this wire around the front of the E.C. glasses and secured it with electrical tape. Not pretty, but still a nice ride with the lights off. Later images will show this.
The Procyon strip labelled in blue snuggles in with ease at the bottom of the lens, again tucking behind the nose piece. Note that the vertical alignment of the all of the LEDs works itself out naturally with no further hassle. Once the strips have been separated from the original Ganzframes, it is actually an easy, breezy build.
The images above and below show the arrangement of LED colors. Since the Proteus strip is reversed you are able to make a variety of different effects from one AudioStrobe source? and that is only one potential way.
This image shows the electrical tape stretched around the front of the frames to hold the Proteus cable in place before it feeds into the main harness. it is not that objectionable. I wonder why I left that Poly Carbonate sticker on? Must have been in a hurry to get to the good stuff.
Now that we have 3 cables slithering from old Etzy, we had better take some steps to prevent future frustration and regret. Repeat after me: ?Spiral cable wrap is my friend.?
From the end of the spiral harness we have an extremely manageable set of connectors. The small size spiral wrap that you can buy most anywhere fits the combined diameter of these cables really well, with a nice, tight wrap. The original plugs and wiring remain unaltered so unless you have been really ham-handed everything should work like nothing had ever happened. But we now have whole new worlds to explore.
Quick note: I was feeling a bit well organized that day so I took the red/green stickers from the original Proteus glasses and taped them to the proper connector; just in case premature aging sets in.
So fire it up and test it out. All good and gravy. Let?s see what we can do with this thing!
Part 2 will detail some suggested setups.