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Title: Theatre Acoustic Panels |
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Date: 2021-10-21 |
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Category: Creations |
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Summary: Panels for acoustic treatment in my home theatre. |
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Short: 3 |
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|
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Acoustic treatment is one of the most overlooked aspects of home audio. There's |
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no point in spending money on premium speakers if the room they are playing in |
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has poor acoustics. |
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|
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The primary purpose of acoustic panels is to reduce the reverberations caused by |
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sound reflecting off the smooth walls of the theatre. The path of the reflected |
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sound is a longer distance to your ear compared to the sound coming directly |
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from the speaker. This causes the reflected sound to be delayed by the time it |
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reaches your ear. The delayed signal interferes with itself, causing comb |
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filtering which distorts the signal. |
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|
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Acoustic panels are placed geometrically where the sound from the speakers would |
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reflect off the wall to reach the listener's ears. The insulation inside the |
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panels absorbs energy from the soundwave which reduces its volume and |
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interference. |
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|
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![twelve L-shaped corners of the panels stacked together leaning on a table saw in a wood shop]({static}/images/panel/panel1.jpg) |
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|
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I made six frames in the wood shop of my local makerspace, Protospace. After |
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cutting the 1x4" pine boards to length, I made a jig so I could quickly join |
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them together with screws. |
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|
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![a panel with insulation inside on the ground about to be wrapped with black fabric]({static}/images/panel/panel2.jpg) |
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|
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I added 4" batts of Rockwool insulation into each frame after it was assembled. |
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I then wrapped the frame with black speaker fabric and stabled it in place while |
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trying to pull it taut. |
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|
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I sat in my theatre while a friend slid a handheld mirror along the wall until I |
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could see the middle of the speaker in its reflection. This told me the centre |
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point of where to mount each panel because the reflected sound would take the |
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same path to my ear. |
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|
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<span class="aside">Four in the front, two in the back</span> |
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![four black acoustic panels mounted on the walls in my home theatre]({static}/images/panel/panel3.jpg) |
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Title: Garage Door Opener Hack |
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Date: 2021-12-26 |
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Category: Creations |
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Summary: Hacking my garage door opener to work over Wifi. |
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Short: 5 |
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|
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In the quest to automate as much of my house as possible, I thought it would be |
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useful to be able to remotely control my garage door from my home automation |
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system. If I suspected that I forgot to close it while leaving, I could check in |
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my security cameras and then close it from anywhere. It's nice having this peace |
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of mind, even if it almost never happens. |
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|
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Instead of reverse engineering the wireless protocol, cracking the encryption, |
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and sending my own commands, I figured it would be much easier to hack the |
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hardware. I cracked open a spare remote to find that it contained a basic PCB |
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with simple tactile switches. |
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|
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![the six parts of the spare remote on my desk: metal clip, plastic buttons, battery, PCB, and two halves of the case]({static}/images/garage/garage1.jpg) |
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|
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My plan was to solder an Arduino controlled relay in parallel with the button |
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that toggled the garage door. I would also power the remote from the 3 V pin. I |
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soldered four wires on to the appropriate pins. |
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|
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![a closeup of the green PCB with two wires soldered to the battery terminals and two to the button pins]({static}/images/garage/garage2.jpg) |
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|
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I drilled a hole in the plastic case and routed the wires through it while |
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reassembling the remote. It's connected to an Adafruit ESP8266 Arduino with a |
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relay module shield. |
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|
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The Arduino joins my isolated home automation Wifi network and connects over |
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MQTT, a simple messaging protocol, to my automation server. When it receives a |
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command over MQTT it toggles the relay on for a quarter of a second and then |
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off, simulating a button press. |
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|
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![the completed system: an arduino with a white relay and wires leading to the reassembled garage door remote]({static}/images/garage/garage3.jpg) |
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|
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Update: this system has been flawless for two months now. It's worked every time |
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I've tried to toggle the door and has never opened by mistake. |
After Width: | Height: | Size: 239 KiB |
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Before Width: | Height: | Size: 92 KiB After Width: | Height: | Size: 151 KiB |
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{% extends "base.html" %} |
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{% block meta %} |
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{% endblock %} |
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{% block style %} |
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{% endblock %} |
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{% block content %} |
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Nothing to see here... |
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{% endblock %} |
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{% extends "base.html" %} |
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{% block meta %} |
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{% endblock %} |
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{% block style %} |
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{% endblock %} |
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{% block content %} |
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Nothing to see here... |
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{% endblock %} |