Present Reality VR Gift Cube

thingiverse

I previously made a maze gift cube, and a video game gift cube. This year I wanted to step it up a notch and make a virtual reality gift cube. I thought present (like a gift) reality would be a cute name. So anyway, my job called me away out of state a couple of times and I've had a lot of crunch time at work which took me away from this project that I was already running short on time trying to get it finished before Christmas. So looks like I won't be finished by Christmas. boo! So anyway, I guess I'll post what I have so far. I'm not sure when I can get back to it. Maybe it will have to wait until next Christmas. So, I chalk this one up to just another unfinished but cool idea project that I wish I had time for and didn't but instead ran out of time making it and buying all the parts and wasting a lot of time and money and no one really getting to enjoy it and me not getting the praise and respect for making something really really cool but instead it all fails and falls apart. But really, I'm not bitter at all about it! Yeah, it probably won't fester and become a sore spot in my life. So anyway I'm posting this somewhat made but not completed project that sort of works and does some cool things but you just have to have a really vivid imagination of what it could potentially be. Please be generous and kind with your imagination will ya! No, no a little more generous and kind. Um, a little more. multiply that by a huge factor. OK, yeah getting warmer.Of course if you ask, I'm unlikely to spend my time helping you as you probably aren't going to pay me the thousands of dollars in support money. And if you call I'm not a nice person so don't expect me to be gentile and sweet and loving if you call - so yeah, if you - a complete stranger - calls, you can expect to hear the joyful immediate clicking sound of the hang up button... or worse. I guess these days it would be me tapping on the cell phone screen hang-up button that doesn't work a few times and humiliating myself with grunts and args and yelling come on until I realize I have to swipe to make it hang up. Or you can text me and I'll likely ignore you or write some flippant comment that I love to send to people who ask me silly questions like how to screw in a screw. As one of my professors so eloquently said it: Figure it out for yourself! But for those of you smart enough and adventurous enough to go ahead and put one of these together and get it working, well, you're probably smart and you could have designed and built one yourself anyway so this is probably a garbage design to you that you just on a whim though you'd see how bad of an engineer this guy is and wanted to see how bad bad can be! In that case, OK, yeah, you hurt my feelings but maybe I can take it. sniff sniff. But if you're kind at least tell me you made one and you like it even if only a little bit. Or lie and say it's great! (I'm not really advocating that anyone should lie - truth is the best policy!) I lie sometimes... in bed. ha ha. Anyway, if you were looking for the happy little elf movie like at the beginning of a series of unfortunate events then this isn't it and you should go to the other theatre.BOM (build of materials):Headset:esp32 dev module 30pin ~$3.50 on aliexpress2@ 1.8" lcd ST7735S displays ~$2 each on aliexpress1 BMI160 accelerometers ~$2 each on aliexpress (also one for the controller)YX5300 serial controlled audio board ~ $2 on aliexpressmicro servo ~$2 on aliexpress@2 WS2812b leds - buy a strip of 144 per meter and cut them up - ~10 cents eachmain board pcb (see gerber file) - ~$2 on jclpcb2@ lenses ~$1 on aliexpressearbuds ~$2 on aliexpress1000mf cap ~10 cents on aliexprss1 inch cloth strap for the headband ~$5 for many meters on walmart2@ 32gb micro sd card ~$3 each on aliexpress (don't get bigger as audio board can't handle bigger)Controller:C3 super mini board ~$2.50 on aliexpresscontroller board pcb (see gerber file) - ~$2 on jclpcb1 BMI160 accelerometers ~$2 each on aliexpress (one on the headset too)joystick module ~2 on aliexpress2@ button modules ~$1 on aliexpressvibration motor module ~$1 on aliexpress1.5v to 5v buck converter 50 cents on aliexpressAA battery holder ~50 cents on aliexpressMisc stuff:a few 40 pin header male and female ~$1 on aliexpressa few 40- pin f-to-f jumper wires $1 on aliexpress1cmx1cm foam rubber strip to put around face - ~$2 on walmartnumber 4 - 3/8" sheet metal screws (a bunch of them) ~ $8 for 100 on ebay (i think number 4 and 4mm are the same thing if you wonder like me)CYA glue (cyanoacrylate super glue) medium viscosity - $16 for cyafixed medium on amazon3d printed partsNot sure what else - I'm sure I'm forgetting to list something so I'll just say sorry in advance.I'm actually not sure how much I spent on each one. I hope they were less than $50 each! Probably the most I've spent on everyone. I'm sure it was much more since several things I bought during development didn't pan out and so were a waste of money.WARNINGS AND DISCLAIMERS: Of course, use at your own risk! If you or your gift recipient poke an eye out, or electrocute yourself, or get dizzy and fall on your face, or get headaches, or your head explodes, or die in some special and unique or shameful way and get on the Darwin Award list, don't come crying to me, you've been warned! I guess there is some dead corpse (all corpses are dead I think) that sheds a tear now and then but I think that's either a hoax or a really weird phenomenon. (OK, there are fake corpses walking around at Halloween but those don't count and I haven't seen any of those cry unless someone steals their candy). I mean if you died, it would be hard to come crying to me anyway unless I died too and then we met in the afterlife and you were complaining about it or you wanted to laugh about it that you the headset melted and turned into a laser that pierced your brain or something? But anyway, even then don't come crying to me! Think before you try to see if the controller might get stuck in your mouth people!!! I mean, it just might!!! Be careful out there, put on the whole armor to protect against the firey darts of the devil! Besides, I expect to go to heaven because I know Jesus as my Savior, and yeah, it's said there's no tears in heaven, so really I wouldn't expect anyone coming crying to me anyway in the afterlife either. Not that I expect it will, but treat it like it could kill you at any moment, don't look at it funny or anger it in any way, and maybe you might survive!What, you want to make them and sell them? Be my guest, you have my blessing. But again, I'm not your tech support, and I'm not a nice person if you call! Now of course, I'd like some sort of compensation if you do sell any of them, even a dollar would be nice (or more), or at least a thank you message, or a post card of where you went on vacation with all your multimillion dollar profits that you didn't share would be excellent if not spiteful, but yeah, something, anything (within reason), as one should. I hope you can see the time and effort I spent on this: designing and creating the 3d files, designing and creating the electronics, designing and creating the software, testing, failing, recovering, wondering if it will ever work or be completed, putting it together, dealing with nonsense, etc. and whatnot. Was not nice being mocked by one of he family members at Christmas for the other gift cube. Seems that was looking a gift box in the mouth, but whatever, I'm trying to overlook it and still struggling, trying not to be bitter. I mean, maybe sometimes they're right. ahhh! There's no peace inside until all is forgiven. This was not a trivial project and not for the faint of heart!Romans 8:18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.https://presentreality.net/So, there's a few games in there. There's a monster wars game where you are Bobzilla and fight against some other monsters. It's mostly a rip-off of some Xbox Godzilla type fighting game - mostly the same, but totally different! There's some cave adventure where you look for some jewel and try not to die from robots protecting it by swiping them with a lightsaber (like a super lame super slow beatsaber without music). There's the Christmas story 3d theater which features my ugly mug at the beginning - yeah I 3d scanned my head and put it in the game for laughs. There's some other mech walker type game - it's pretty lame as I didn't get to do much on it. There's an asteroid miner type game where you have to get close to asteroids without bumping into them to get resources. It's super hard - even for me. The idea is that when you complete the games then it will unlock the drawer and the drawer would have a gift card in it (that you supply not me). For now, to open the drawer, you just go to the menu and tell it to unlock it and it does so yeah haven't programmed that far yet.Anyway, it is sort of a vr headset. It does 3d and it has an accelerometer so as you turn your head it will look around. The controller is connected via bluetooth so you can sort of swipe around or use the joystick or buttons and such. it does have a bad drifting problem and my solution was just to have it slowly drift back to the center so if you look right or left too long you sort of have to look straight forward to correct it but then it has bugs so yeah all bets are off on it working right. But anyway, here it is in all it's ugly unfinished glory!