DiaBLE - Diabolo LED holder & whistles by alunmj

Last crawled date: 3 years, 4 months ago

I've been disappointed over many years that there are no truly good diabolo LED kits.
Sure, lots of light-up juggling balls, juggling clubs, poi, poi sticks, bo sticks, etc, but the best you can get with commercially available diabolo light kits is "three lights that spin around, and go through the usual cycle of colours".
Nothing you could set to music.
Nothing you could put images or text onto.
Nothing you could control remotely.
Nothing that allows two diabolos to show the same light sequences together.
Guess I have to make one, then.
The first prototype consisted of an Adafruit Bluefruit Feather LE, tied with wire to the cut-off top of a plastic milk jug, and a NeoPixel strip wired into it.
Then I bought myself a 3D printer.
Lots of work later, and the results are as you see here.
Goal
The overall goal is to create a modular system for attaching to a diabolo, so you can add lights, whistles, measuring tools (accelerometers, etc), or ... well, what else would you think to attach to a diabolo? Suggestions are welcome!
The attachment points are designed to be small, light, cheap and replaceable - so they're basically big enough to screw underneath the main axle nuts, and fit a regular sized socket spanner inside.
Setup
Unscrew one of the nuts, remove it and the washer underneath, pop the cap onto the axle, then drop the washer and nut inside. Use a socket spanner to screw the nut back into place. Do this on both sides, making sure the axle is balanced equally.
Pick a component for each side - I like to use the LED box on the audience-facing side, and a (non-whistling) whistle box on the other side to balance the diabolo and avoid precession.
Turn on the lights, and start your diabolo as usual!
Electronics / Software
I will be putting details of the electronics and software for this on a github repository when I have time - in the meantime, if you figure out how to wire it up for yourself, please let me know!
Use
You should find your diabolo spins as easily with these attachment points (called "Caps" here, in reference to the milk-jug caps in the prototype) as before - almost no weight, no effect on spin, so you can always leave them in place. No tools once these are in place!
With one on each side of the diabolo, you can attach the LED body to the outward-facing side, and one of the whistle bodies facing yourself as balance, so the diabolo doesn't precess.
You should hand-tighten whatever pieces are being screwed into the caps, not so tight you break the pieces, but tight enough that you don't discover the joys of unexpected high-velocity aggressive disassembly. Remember the diabolo is spinning faster than 4000 RPM.
Whistles
I also tried to print some whistles, with some examples here, but none of them make so much as a peep. Please feel free to discover where I'm going wrong!
Photos
I've uploaded an album of photos and videos of this project here: https://1drv.ms/u/s!ApsF_dWzHBm6oo8UrCmx7mcNkvm65Q?e=FN0eo2