How To Add A Three Lightning Bolt Thunder And Lightning Thunderstorm To Your Scenery
This project creates a realistic looking thunderstorm scene with three LED pixel strips that flash independently. The lightning flashes are random and the LEDs flash bright white. You can also substitute standard 12v LED light bulbs for the pixel strips. The storm starts and stops based on a random counter and flashes depend on the level of thunder sound that plays on a mini MP3 player.
Thunder And Lightning Storm Features
- 3 LED pixel strips flash independently
- Three pixel LED strips flash as lighting is called to strike.
- Lightning flash is random.
- The LEDs flash bright white.
- Can substitute standard 12v LED light bulbs for the pixel strips.
- The storm start and stops based on random counter.
- Flash depends on level of thunder sound that plays on mini mp3 player.
- Sound can be player on external Bluetooth speaker
- Flash controllers come to you fully programmed.
- You can change the programs using the included programmer. We provide real-time help if you need it.
Thunder And Lightning Circuit
This project results in a fully automated system
The control circuitry is completely housed on this circuit board.
You get the circuit board and parts in a kit that you find here.
The programs and thunder sounds are preloaded.
All that you have to do is insert the parts an make simple solder joints.
Thunderstorm Video Demonstration.
The video below shows the system working on my bench.
Click on the image to the left to watch the video showing it working.
The Program
To add variety to the scene, the the timer is set to randomly start the storm anywhere between nnnn minutes and yyy minutes. You can change that time and reload the program.
The lightning strikes when the sound from the mp3 player exceeds a threshold of mmmm in the program, You can increase that number to decrease the number of flashes.
The time between thunder sounds can be increased by changing the sound peaks on the SD card.
Howl to reload a program on an Arduino Mini Pro is here.
How to change an arduino program without any knowledge of programming, go here.
Help,
If the above is too much for you, send us a message via our contact form with information about how you would like your storm to display. We will make the change for you.
Operation
When power is turned on, a programmable timer starts running. It decides when the storm should start, how long it should last and when it should stop. You can vary the cycles anyway you wish. The instruction manual tells you how to do this.
When it decides that a storm should start, it applies power to the audio player and Lightning Flash Randomizer.
The Lightning Flash Randomizer randomly decides which LED strips light and the duration of lighting. These can be varied as you wish. The instruction manual tells you how to do this.
The strips do not flash until the sound or the thunder reaches a threshold level. The Lightning Flash Randomizer.reads the level continuously through the Lighting Trigger wire. When it reads the threshold level or above, it starts flashing the lights.
The LEDs use 12 volt power. All the boards use 5 volt power. So the LEDs are connected to a separate 12 volt power source.
For this project the SD card come loaded with thunder sounds and the mino pro boards and player all come loaded with the proper programs.
You get an instruction manual that shows you how to make changed to the programs.
Assembly
All connections between parts are made via traces on the circuit board.
The circuit board shows exactly where the elements are placed on the board,
So it is a simple matter of inserting the parts, soldering them in place with a fine point soldering tip on which there is a minuscule drop of solder and finally trimming off any protruding wires or pins to a comfortable length.
The screw terminals come as 2 pin units. They are designed to be joined by using the slots on each side. So, for example to make a 4 pin screw terminal, join two two pin terminals.
The Arduino board comes without pins. Cut pin headers to proper lengths and solder them in place.
The pins on the DFPlayer and Arduino board (now with pins you just soldered on) connect to the circuit board via Dupont pin sockets. Cut the pin sockets to length and insert the pins into the sockets.
The sockets will be soldered to the circuit board. With the pins or the DFPlayer and and Arduino board inserted, you can be sure that the pin sockets will be vertical when soldered to the board.
Now add all the elements to the board and solder in place.
The SD card is loaded with the recommended sounds for this project. If you wish to use different thunder sounds, this page shows how to load them on the card .
Operation
This storm is controlled by a manual switch. The connections are labeled SW1 and SW2 . To control it via another micro controller just connect the trigger from that controller to SW1 . That switch is usually located on a control panel which is likely to be some distance from the circuit board.
Attach the speaker to S+ and S-. The + and – match those on the speaker. Speakers have an upper limit of 3 watts.
If you wish more volume, add a 5v amplifier. How to do that is here.
TX and RX are connections for a bluetooth module. By using such a module you can play sound on a Bluetooth speaker that you place at a removed location. How to do that is here.
Connect to a 5 volt power supply via the labeled terminals.
Connect to a 12 volt power supply via the labeled terminals.
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