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• Adafruit kit
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  Hi Mitch, Im new to the ATmega controllers- I got the brain machine kit from adafruit and it works fine - however, I can't see any references to the 6 pin Interface for uploading firmware; would really appreciate pointers such as a how to for this interface. Thanks for an interesting product, I studied meditators, hooked up to elaborate EEG apparatus back in 1986!

  Posted by 3d on July 07, 2012 at 20:33:10 Pacific Time

• NeuroDreamer sleep mask (Brain Machine 2.0)!
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  After 7 years of work (and play), my NeuroDreamer sleep mask is finally ready for production! I just made my Kickstarter live! Please spread the word, and help me help people get much needed rest.
  http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/maltman23/neurodreamer-sleep-mask-0
  
  This is, of course, an open source project. It is the project which I vastly simplified to create the original Brain Machine.
  
  NeuroDreamer sleep mask generates 4 brainwave frequencies at a time (instead of just 1, as with the Brain Machine), and it generates beautiful and soothing complex sounds in a chord of 4 notes(instead of just square waves playing one note, as with the Brain Machine). Also, there are 4 different colored lights over each eye, each fading in and out (rather than just 1 red LED over each eye merely blinking on and off, as with the Brain Machine).
  
  I'm so psyched that I finally have the NeuroDreamer sleep mask ready. I have preliminary documentation up on the NeuroDreamer website -- check it out:
  http://www.neurodreamer.com/
  
  Mitch.
  

  Posted by maltman23 on June 10, 2012 at 12:44:51 Pacific Time

• Confused about leds
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  Hi Mitch,
  I am making a version of the sleep machine using the arduino and I was wondering how you get the leds in synchrony with the sound. What confuses me is that from what I understand, the sound frequency we are tuning our brains isn't really coming from anywhere but it is rather an interpretation of our brain when it hears the two distinct frequencies from each ear. How do you program the leds so that they are in synchrony with this perception?
  Also, if I have my leds following a theta wave, let's say 4 hz, is there a certain amount of time I should have the leds on during that second, for example, if i turn the leds on for 0.125 seconds and then off for 0.125 seconds and repeat this four times, would that be any different from turning my leds for 0.200 of a second and then turning it off for 0.050 of a second and repeating these four times?
  I have been testing my brain machine with some different waves, so far, I have not been able to see the patterns people describe seeing, I am however hearing cool sounds like birds chirping and waterfalls. I don't know if that is part of the effect or if it is just me going crazy :)
  Hope you can help me, btw, this is awesome!

  Posted by nakamuri on May 07, 2012 at 20:14:27 Pacific Time

• Program the BM (ATTiny25 version) with Arduino
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  Has anyone tried to reprogram the Brain Machine (ATTiny25 version) using an Arduino as the ISP? I understand that arduino doesn't like certain lines of code and I was wondering if anyone knows how to modify the code for ATTiny25 version Brain Machine?
  
  Here's a link to the code:
  https://github.com/adafruit/Brain-Machine/blob/master/firmware/bm.c

  Posted by Denver Risley on May 01, 2012 at 16:04:54 Pacific Time

• Brain Machine Music Software
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  Hi Mitch,
  
  First of all I would like to thank you for making this incredible device.
  I've built one from an Arduino, using the instructions from
  
  https://github.com/LaughterOnWater/Arduino-Brain-Machine
  
  After playing around with it for a couple of days I thought it would be a cool idea to see if I could somehow sync the visuals to one of my favorite songs of all time: "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" by Pink Floyd. So I timed the song and devided it up in segments and chose one of the five frequencies to match it. Finally i manually edited the sketch to make it work.
  I was really pleased with the result, but realized it was a lot of work to do this for multiple songs. So i thought I'd try and make a program for it. I haven't finished it yet, but this is a screenshot of what it looks like so far:
  
  http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14711660/Picture%201.png
  
  Basically, you open an audio file and play and pause it at any time to insert a visual. Each frequency has a corresponding color, shown under the waveform. When you're done, you can export it as an Arduino sketch and upload it to your device.
  
  As I said, It isn't completely done yet, but I'm posting this here because I was wondering if anybody else would be interested in this and also to see if anyone has any feature ideas. I suppose I could also make it work without an audiofile, just using the binaural audio. And making it work with the MiniPOV version also shouldn't be a problem.
  
  I will post a link to it (and the source code) when it is done. It's built in RealBasic, so i'm guessing it should be cross-platform (this is my first Realbasic project).
  
  Any ideas are more than welcome
  
  René Nijman
  Holland

  Posted by Renenijman on September 09, 2011 at 16:35:40 Pacific Time

• Brain Machine kit user forum
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  FIY, Ladyada makes a Brain Machine kit, based on this Brain Machine project (except that it has its own PC Board, rather than using the MiniPOV PCB), and, as with all of her kits, she has a user forum for the kit. Lots of good discussion there, too:
  Brain Machine Kit user forum on Ladyada website

  Posted by maltman23 on February 20, 2011 at 15:27:34 Pacific Time

• Brain Machine for Arduino
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  I've created a brain machine for Arduino. Right now, it's in the development stage.
  The article about it is here:
  http://low.li/story/2011/01/arduino-brain-machine
  
  The git repository is here:
  https://github.com/LaughterOnWater/Arduino-Brain-Machine

  Posted by gr33nman on February 15, 2011 at 10:14:58 Pacific Time

• Brainwaves
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  Would there be a way to alter the code to help induce gamma waves or other different levels of meditation naturally like your original code?

  Posted by Anthony Marks on February 13, 2011 at 20:46:10 Pacific Time

• disregard prior message re brainmachine
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  Hi, after readiing other peoples questions and answers, I fixed my problem, got avrdude to work, reprogrammed controller just like shown in video. Thanks for the great device Mitch, hope to be fired up in a few miinutes. Also your TV b gone is a source of great pleasure quite often. You rock!
  Dave
  

  Posted by burntdigits on February 13, 2011 at 08:57:10 Pacific Time

• brain machine kit not programming
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  Hi, got the kit from makershed and she's all put together, pov program is working, now I want to run makefile to set it up as brainmachine. I get exactly to where you are in the podcast at the command prompt, enter in make program-slm and am told "make" not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.
  Admittedly I am not much of a computer maker, more of a mechanical guy.

  Posted by burntdigits on February 13, 2011 at 08:09:27 Pacific Time

• Attiny 25
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  I build the brain machine based on a attiny25 as shown here:
  
  https://github.com/adafruit/Brain-Machine/tree/master/firmware
  
  The audio frequency is right: 200Hz on one side but the led frequency is too high: 19 Hz (at the beginning).
  
  I'v burned the hex-file and compiled the sourece by myself, but with the same result.
  
  
  
  Has anybody build the bm with an attiny25 and has not got this problem ?
  

  Posted by Another Michael on December 22, 2010 at 06:54:28 Pacific Time

• Hello Mitch
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  can i make the led-s brighter by removing the resistors?

  Posted by Mati335 on September 07, 2010 at 06:41:10 Pacific Time

• Brain Machine code for 20MHz attiny2313
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  -Sorry for this double post-
  
  Hi Mitch,
  I went to buy the kit a week or so ago and it was out of stock.... so I looked at the schematic and parts and ordered everything from Digikey and built it myself. I ran the Make Program-SLM and everything seemed to work. But, I questioned the actual timing, etc... it didn't quite seem right. I read more and realized that the code was based on a 8MHz attiny2313... I bought the 20Mhz. I spent hours recalculating the values based on 20,000,000. I haven't tried to re-write the slm.c code yet because I really am NOT a programmer.
  So basically, is there Brain Machine code written for the 20Mhz tiny?
  Thanks,
  Todd

  Posted by toddwevans on August 07, 2010 at 12:05:09 Pacific Time

• enhanced visual suggestion
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  George, an old friend mine, just emailed me suggesting a method he has used to create spectacular visuals. I thought I'd share it here, in case anyone wants to try it:
  
  "Program a set of goggles such that the LEDs flash at mutually independent rates, where the LED on one eye
  maintains a constant flash rate in the mid to upper alpha frequency range, and
  the LED on the other eye ramps up and down in a slow cycle from about mid theta to mid beta frequency range and back.
  
  Try this with white LEDs and a white diffuser over the inside of the goggles, with eyes open. This will produce the best visuals you will ever see."
  
  If you try this out, please post here to share your experiences. I'll do the same.
  
  Cheers,
  Mitch.
  

  Posted by maltman23 on July 26, 2010 at 13:47:57 Pacific Time

• Problem Programming Microcontroller
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  Hey Mitch, I just bought the kit and soldered it all up, my connections look great, I don't see any bridges or cracks but when I try to program it in my serial port I get the error avrdude: initialization failed, rc=-1
  Double check connections and try again. The LED's all flash in sequence, the one in the glasses being the one closest to the left, to the right eye, when it reaches the capacitors I hear sound in the left ear, in the center then the right then the last four LED's flash from left to right as per the pattern. I'm going crazy to find out what I did wrong or what happened. Is it possible my controller fried on me?

  Posted by Karma X on May 28, 2010 at 10:41:17 Pacific Time

• Turning off Trip Glasses?
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  Hello Mitch,
  
  I had lots of fun at Maker Faire this past weekend and bought a pair of trip-glasses there. I was wondering, how do I turn them off before the 14 minute program is up?
  
  Pressing the "on" button again doesn't do it, nor does popping the battery out then back in (it just restarts the program (or continues it from where it left off).
  
  Any tips?
  
  Thanks!
  Jill

  Posted by Jill On the Run on May 26, 2010 at 15:35:28 Pacific Time

• New Error Message
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  Hi Mitch. Thanks for designing a fun and useful little kit. I've been useing the brain machine for a little over 2 weeks with no problems. I went to reprogram it earlier today and got an error message I don't know what to do with. Microprocessor programing is still new to me so it is probably something obvious and simple.
  
  avrdude: erasing chip
  avrdude: reading input file ""
  avrdude: error opening : Invalid argument
  avrdude: input file auto detected as invalid format
  avrdude: can't open input file : Invalid argument
  avrdude: write to file '' failed
  
  avrdude: safemode: Fuses OK
  
  avrdude done. Thank You.
  
  make: ***[program-slm.c] Error 1
  
  Thanks, Bill
  

  Posted by Jondalrun on May 16, 2010 at 20:08:10 Pacific Time

• High Powered Stereo Strobe ?
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  Hi Mitch
  
  I've been using my brain-specs for a while now and I rememebred when I was working in a nightclub, every time the strobe went on, I could see a wave of dots. I get the same kind of hallucinations with the specs at certain points in the sequence, making the connection between the 2 experiences fairly apparent.
  
  So I was thinking, how difficult would it be to control 2 nightclub grade stobes from the LED outputs on the chipboard? I'm assuming it's possible, but I'm more likely to actaully make it if it's fairly easy and you'd probably be the right guy to ask about such things.
  
  More importantly, would it be ethical to subject a nightclub full of raving clubbers, no doubt already recreationally medicated, to a high powered brainwave alteration experiment?
  
  That makes it sound quite bad, but I think it would be seriously ROCKIN'

  Posted by Infusion2k7 on May 08, 2010 at 16:50:23 Pacific Time

• Alternative design on MidiBox
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  Hi - check out a similar DIY design on MidiBox (MBlight). It's a little microcontroller that translates a MIDI message into blinking LEDs. A word of coution: Manupulate your brain at your own risk...
  http://www.midibox.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=mblight_mind-machine

  Posted by registrationsucks2 on April 16, 2010 at 09:35:20 Pacific Time

• Regarding programming MINIPOV3
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  last week we bought a minipov3 kit from ladyada.net.but we are in a confusion that we aint know whether it was preprogrammed or not.also we aint know how to check if it works a s brain machine.
  we wanna do this as our academic project.also we hav jus started the soldering.
  awaiting ur reps ASAP.....

  Posted by jesinian on April 04, 2010 at 22:37:21 Pacific Time

• Brain Machine 2
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  Mitch
  
  Has the Brain Machine 2, as mentioned in Make 10, pg 99, become a reality yet?
  
  I am interested in being able to mask the biaural base frequency in the SLM with music.
  
  I am going to build the original SLM at the Tokyo Hacker Space tomorrow.

  Posted by DrJ_in_Japan on March 19, 2010 at 08:35:56 Pacific Time

• brain machine
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  Is this brain machine for meditation? And if so how would you use it?

  Posted by stymie01 on March 14, 2010 at 11:58:02 Pacific Time

• I have the MiniPOV3 set up and ready to program
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  When I type in "make program-minipov" it doesn;t recognise the command "make".
  This is probably a n00b question, but how do I get it to compile?

  Posted by Infusion2k7 on January 12, 2010 at 16:04:07 Pacific Time

• trouble shooting my brain machine
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  So I have everything sodered in and connected. When I turn the brain machine on all leds ficker fast and at the same time. I do not have serial port on my computer so I picked a dynex one up from Best buy. Now when I start to plug the board the second led lights up as if I am making a connection somewhere but once it is in completely and switched on no light are illuminated. I have downloaded the firmware and opened a command prompt then I went to the file folder in which the firmware is located (c:\users\junktape productions\desktop\slm)I made sure that makefile was edited to list com5 instead of com1 since that is where this port is located. Then I type make program-slm and it claimed it as a non recognized command. Now I am unsure if the serial port is read the chip. I also wonder if you need a different command for window 7 cmd window. Well I figured I would give a better run down of the steps I have taken as to help someone help me thanks again and what a cool project!!

  Posted by junktapeproductions on January 03, 2010 at 12:34:21 Pacific Time

• programming
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  I have everything hooked up and I have the latest firmware in a folder on my desktop. How do I program the pov? I entered the folder through dos with the kit hooked up and I typed in the command on the video but it says it is not recognized as a command. i pretty new at this stuff and I appreciate the help!

  Posted by junktapeproductions on January 03, 2010 at 08:58:22 Pacific Time

• Would the MiniPOV v2 Work?
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  Hiya.
  I'm trying to get hold of the MiniPOV v3, but it's out of stock.
  
  Would the MiniPOV v2 work just as well? I have a parallel port but no serial port on my laptop.

  Posted by Infusion2k7 on December 30, 2009 at 18:41:30 Pacific Time

• do i have correct firmware?
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  i am at the build step on whether to load newest firmware.
  
  when i turn it on at this stage, the four leds begin blinking rapidly. but your aug 9 update mentions that they will blink 3 times and then start the sequence. i don't get the three times.
  
  also, all of the leds provided are the same size, while instructions mention large leds. do i need to search for larger leds and if so what specs.
  
  cool project. joe

  Posted by bottom-dragger on December 06, 2009 at 07:53:58 Pacific Time

• please help
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  What have I done wrong?
  
  "
  avrdude: verifying ...
  avrdude: 958 bytes of flash verified
  "
  
  C:\SLM>make program-slm
  
  Compiling: slm.c
  avr-gcc -c -I. -g -Os -funsigned-char -funsigned-bitfields -f
  pack-struct -fshort-enums -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -DF_CPU=8000000 -Wa,-ad
  hlns=slm.lst -mmcu=attiny2313 -std=gnu99 slm.c -o slm.o
  
  Linking: slm.elf
  avr-gcc -I. -g -Os -funsigned-char -funsigned-bitfields -f
  pack-struct -fshort-enums -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -DF_CPU=8000000 -Wa,-ad
  hlns=slm.o -mmcu=attiny2313 -std=gnu99 slm.o --output slm.elf -Wl,-Map=.map,--c
  ref
  
  Creating load file for Flash: slm.hex
  avr-objcopy -O ihex -R .eeprom slm.elf slm.hex
  avrdude -p attiny2313 -P com1 -c dasa -U flash:w:slm.hex
  
  avrdude: AVR device initialized and ready to accept instructions
  
  Reading | ################################################## | 100% 0.02s
  
  avrdude: Device signature = 0x1e910a
  avrdude: NOTE: FLASH memory has been specified, an erase cycle will be performed
  
  To disable this feature, specify the -D option.
  avrdude: erasing chip
  avrdude: reading input file "slm.hex"
  avrdude: input file slm.hex auto detected as Intel Hex
  avrdude: writing flash (958 bytes):
  
  Writing | ################################################## | 100% 1.28s
  
  avrdude: 958 bytes of flash written
  avrdude: verifying flash memory against slm.hex:
  avrdude: load data flash data from input file slm.hex:
  avrdude: input file slm.hex auto detected as Intel Hex
  avrdude: input file slm.hex contains 958 bytes
  avrdude: reading on-chip flash data:
  
  Reading | ################################################## | 100% 1.06s
  
  avrdude: verifying ...
  avrdude: 958 bytes of flash verified
  
  avrdude: safemode: Fuses OK
  
  avrdude done. Thank you.
  
  rm slm.elf slm.o
  
  C:\SLM>
  
  

  Posted by Jony11 on November 29, 2009 at 05:34:29 Pacific Time

• Chinoiserie Brain Machine
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  Hello Mitch!
  Just a note to thank you for creating such a remarkable project. As you can see in the pictures here, I've taken a slight detour from your original design. I wanted something that would blend in with my Chinese antiques. Surprisingly, I couldn't order velvet insulated wire, especially in red with a gold fringe.
  
  I'm working on a second version that uses a head tracker. I think that it might open up the experience a bit if the hallucinations have the illusion of fixed locations in space.

  Posted by Trylon on November 25, 2009 at 01:17:54 Pacific Time

• Soldering LED wires together
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  Hi Mitch.
  Thanks for this great project, I am eager to try it out.
  I am pretty much done, but I modified things a bit and put the LED's and battery on long leads using 18 gauge stranded wire. I plan on making a box for it all and putting it on my bedside table.
  I had the idea of soldering the two LED's together, + to + and - to - then running them on two wires to the circuit board. When I got to that point the thought occurred to me that maybe the two LED's are supposed to pulse at a different rate.
  Does it matter if the LED's are wired together or should I split them up again?
  

  Posted by Dwayne-Clare on October 25, 2009 at 00:47:33 Pacific Time

• Another little problem..ahem.
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  I'm not sure if my busted IC is the issue.. I accidentally broke off, I think, pin 20? Directly across from Pin 1. It doesn't look like it's actually connected to anything, however, so I may be in the clear? I'm following the flash instructions, even though it's supposed to be already flashed? Not sure if I have the latest if that is the case..and need to learn anyways. But, when I try to do 1e steps I get:
  
  C:\BM>make program-mypov.hex
  avrdude -p attiny2313 -P com4 -c dasa -U flash:w:
  
  avrdude: AVR device not responding
  avrdude: initialization failed, rc=-1
  Double check connections and try again, or use -F to override
  this check.
  
  
  avrdude done. Thank you.
  
  So..either that pin 20 is needed or I messed something up? The lights and what not flash nicely while it's trying...
  
  

  Posted by Clydesdale404 on October 08, 2009 at 08:17:44 Pacific Time

• Wrong parts?
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  Was just getting ready to start on this and noticed the parts included do not match the schematic. I have 8 100ohm resistors, 3 4.7Kohm resistors and the extras kit included 2 2.2Kohm. There's the other parts listed as well, but Seems I'm missing the 47s to the LEDs and have way too many 100 Ohms..in fact the schematic doesn't even list the 100ohm resistors as parts used at all??? And the change to the POV shows the two changed resistors with the caps as 1K...when the 2 in question that came as part of the kit are 2.2.
  
  

  Posted by Clydesdale404 on October 01, 2009 at 15:33:16 Pacific Time

• Question about headphone jack.
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  Pardon the noob question.. I'm a little puzzled on the connection for the headphone jack. I see the caps are not needed, but if you use them do you simply solder the headphone jack/wires with the + cap lead??

  Posted by Clydesdale404 on September 30, 2009 at 16:27:10 Pacific Time

• not starting BrainMachine code?
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  I have built a kit I just got (w/2.2k resistors). The miniPOV is lighting the 4 LEDs in sequence, but it never stop! The sound I hear are nice thumps from where led 3 & 4 would have been.
  
  I believe the board is well-soldered (I have been doing that for years).
  
  Any ideas what might be wrong?
  
  Thanks

  Posted by evogel99 on September 25, 2009 at 14:36:50 Pacific Time

• Error compiling slm.hex
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  I've installed all the avr tools on my Debian/GNU Linux system, but get these errors when trying to compile the firmware:
  
  slm.c:127:58: error: invalid suffix "b0000001" on integer constant
  slm.c:139:14: error: invalid suffix "b00000011" on integer constant
  slm.c:141:14: error: invalid suffix "b11111100" on integer constant
  slm.c:229:12: error: invalid suffix "b01000010" on integer constant
  slm.c:233:12: error: invalid suffix "b00000100" on integer constant
  slm.c:246:12: error: invalid suffix "b01000000" on integer constant
  slm.c:250:12: error: invalid suffix "b00001001" on integer constant
  slm.c:255:12: error: invalid suffix "b00000000" on integer constant
  slm.c:270:13: error: invalid suffix "b11111000" on integer constant
  slm.c:271:13: error: invalid suffix "b11111000" on integer constant
  slm.c:272:12: error: invalid suffix "b00100000" on integer constant
  slm.c:273:12: error: invalid suffix "b00010000" on integer constant
  make: *** [slm.o] Error 1
  
  Any thoughts?

  Posted by pwiseman on July 26, 2009 at 13:02:59 Pacific Time

• Just completed machine.
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  Hi just wanted to say thanks for posting this how-to. I was skeptical of the results from using this machine.
  
  I just put together mine in a day with some pretty ugly craftmanship, but to my suprise it worked first try.
  
  And I cannot believe how well this thing works. I was floored by the visuals. It gave me a new perspective on the human brain. I really enjoy this thing.
  
  Has anyone put together instructions to make the changes between different brainwaves more fluid? Although, I like the abrupt visualization changes, I feel it would be more relaxing with subtle dissolves between brain states.
  
  Thanks again!!!

  Posted by kaisersuzuki on July 24, 2009 at 14:46:07 Pacific Time

• Sound problem with Brain Machine
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  Hi everyone.
  
  I've been working on putting together my Brain Machine kit that I got from the Makershed.
  
  I'm at step 2f where you first plug in the headphones and listen to the noises. I just don't think the noises I'm hearing are the right ones. It's very loud and there's a pronounced pulsing, almost a clicking noise. Does anyone know of a place online where you can really hear the noises it's supposed to be making? I checked out that brain machine party video on youtube. Are the background noises in that video what it's supposed to sound like? Cause mine doesn't sound anything like that.
  
  I've tried 'make burn-fuse' and I deleted the slm.hex file and did 'make slm.hex' and then 'make program-slm' but no matter what it makes this noise that I just don't think is right.
  
  I'm still able to 'make test_leds' from the original miniPOV firmware folder and the 4 leds I've got on there light up in sequence so I think I must have it almost right.
  
  Any help anyone can offer is most appreciated.
  
  Thanks,
  
  skain
  
  

  Posted by skain on July 23, 2009 at 15:38:29 Pacific Time

• Processing port
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  Hello.
  I wrote a processing port of the brain machine. Enjoy!
  

  Posted by ucnv on July 14, 2009 at 10:57:57 Pacific Time

• Arduino? again.
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  Now... what if... i purchased the ATtiny2313 microcontroller and used it with the arduino, and programmed it with the arduino ide... how well would that work?

  Posted by lilbuzhr on July 01, 2009 at 21:56:20 Pacific Time

• Arduino?
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  Would the firmware with this project work if i wanted to use the arduino instead of the POV modification? If not, is there something minor i could tweak to make it work?

  Posted by lilbuzhr on June 24, 2009 at 18:12:42 Pacific Time

• Programming the SLM with different tables
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  How would I go about programming my slm to use a wider range of specific frequencies, which vary from 1 to 400hz?
  Its a wide range I know, I think the number of different frequencies is about 40. The reason being that, specific frequencies have certain effects upon different areas of the body/organs which can affect healing etc.

  Posted by whc83 on May 15, 2009 at 22:43:17 Pacific Time

• sound
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  Hi again Mitch,
  
  Unfortunateluy I believe I am still having problems getting the brain machine up and running.
  
  Sorry to be a pain but I get the distinct feeling the sound is wrong. Instead of a 'spacey' woo, wah noise I get an intrusive beeping pulse. If this is correct then thats ok but I do feel it's not so if perhaps you might know of an audio file of video out there that demonstates the correct sound that would be great.
  
  Also I have been looking around at some of your other projects and thought you might be interested in mine. I'm a final year undergraduate multimedia student in Huddersfield UK and am creating an installation piece for my final project.
  
  I am planning to use your brainwave kit as audio for the project and want to investigate the effects of different stimui on the body.
  
  Funny because my project uses leds for its visual too (albiet far more) but it's only now i've come across this project.
  
  Anyway here's my projects blurb, it's called sensation seeker:
  
  ‘Sensation Seeker’ is an installation project created to provide an abstract representation of an experience within a self-contained environment. A completely immersive and interactive portrayal of a physical act, presented in a custom built space in order to satisfy a need for variation in modern life. The initial experience used within this concept design uses biometric and geographical data recorded from a skydiver during a jump. This data is remixed to provide a visual, auditory and sensory journey through the flight offering a break from day to day reality.
  
  
  Please feel free to check out the development blog @ www.gregpidgeon.com. Think it might interest you
  
  Cheers
  
  Greg

  Posted by bigpidge on May 02, 2009 at 04:35:18 Pacific Time

• compiling and programming the microcontroller
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  Hi,
  
  I have worked up to 1e / 1f of this project and have gotten a little stuck.
  
  I have created the slr folder complete with MiniPov firmware in it and am looking to upload / compile to the MiniPov.
  
  In the documentation it outlines the code that would be used under windows and directs those with other os to the MiniPov website.
  
  I am running Mac OS X 10.5 (leopard) and am having trouble finding what code to use in terminal to compile the slr firmware instead of the standard 'minipovfirmware'.
  
  I am a new terminal user so apologies if this is an obvious question but if anyone can help it would be much appreciated.
  
  Cheers

  Posted by bigpidge on April 30, 2009 at 15:54:50 Pacific Time

• installing avrdude
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  My avrdude program is not installing. Could u tell me what might be the problem?

  Posted by DaChosen on December 04, 2008 at 04:53:53 Pacific Time

• programming the 20 MHz chip
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  Hi guys,
  
  I just build the SLM, its my first project in soldering. I bought the -20PU Atmel, of course the frequencies for the sound are not right (a buzzing sound). LEDs seem to be alright, I am not sure.
  But anyway - the sound. In the slm.c file there is a value of 9637 (e.g. beta waves) at the channel OCR1A at 8 MHz. I divided by 2.5 (=20 MHz) and used 3854 for one ear. Sounded good, could be 400 Hz.
  The other ear (OCR0A) has a value of 38... what the heck.. I dont really know how to change that... :-/ Anyone an idea?
  
  Thanks!

  Posted by ollifreund on November 28, 2008 at 10:55:21 Pacific Time

• programming using Mac OSX and serial-usb cable
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  Hi - Great machine! I'm trying to get mine programmed.
  
  I'm using a USB-serial cable, and going through mac osx. I've done everything instructed on the ladyada site for running on a mac, including installing xtools - and have managed to install the firmware and check the fuses, as described here http://ladyada.net/make/minipov3/software.html
  
  So now, I'm at a point in your instructions where I run 'make program-mypov' and 'make program-slm'
  
  In both situations I get a similar error, using program-mypov as an example:
  
  ----------------------------------------
  make program-mypov
  
  avrdude -p attiny2313 -P com1 -c dasa -U flash:w:mypov.hex
  com1: No such file or directory
  
  avrdude done. Thank you.
  
  make: *** [program-mypov] Error 1
  ----------------------------------------
  
  I'm assuming this doesn't indicate a successful program. Is there somewhere in the code that I can edit to tell it where the usb-serial is located? Something else?
  
  The only clue I can offer is when installing the firmware I was supposed to type into the terminal window: avrdude -p t2313 -c dasa -P /dev/cu.usbserial-FTCYG5C --- which didn't work until I changed the "cu.usbserial-FTCYG5C" bit to read "cu.PL2303-0000201D" which was the name of my serial port when I ran that "ls /dev/cu.*" command. Is this a clue to getting the program-slm and program-mypov commands to work? Also, what would correct code look like?
  
  Any help extremely appreciated. This is my first chip project and very unfamiliar with coding. Thanks in advance.

  Posted by m880 on October 29, 2008 at 09:09:53 Pacific Time

• Brainwave machine with RGB leds
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  

  Posted by yavid on September 09, 2008 at 11:20:50 Pacific Time

• Brain Machine workshop in Washington, DC
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  If anyone happens to be in or around Washington, DC -- I'll be giving another Brain Machine making workshop at HacDC on Sunday, 6-September, at 2pm. The workshop is free, but I'm asking people to reimburse me $25 for the parts. You can successfully build and bring home your own Brain Machine! For directions and more details:
  Brain Machine Workshop
  
  Cheers,
  Mitch.
  

  Posted by maltman23 on September 06, 2008 at 11:20:36 Pacific Time

• sorry again
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  
  To the following;
  
  http://d.hatena.ne.jp/dissociation/20080831

  Posted by puppu on September 06, 2008 at 09:40:52 Pacific Time

• sound only but
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  
  Hello
  
  very unconscious　awakening.
  
  i labored pretty to make. anyhow, i made. To the following;
  
  http://qrl.jp/?286103
  
  next time, i'm going to make LED parts.
  
  

  Posted by puppu on September 06, 2008 at 09:34:34 Pacific Time

• Problem with programming in the new firmware...
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  Okay so I finally got the whole VVVVVV thing to work, which was awesome. But now when I change the directory (cd c:/etc.) to where the SLMFirmware unzipped contents are, I can't do the "del slm.hex" thing. The slm file is saved as a .C file. And so if I do "del slm.c" it deletes it or whatever, but then when I "make slm.c" it says "make: *** No rule to make target 'slm.c'. Stop."
  And so now I'm trying to figure out if I need to change the slm.c file into a slm.hex file. I looked in the programming code and even replaced the slm.hex to slm.c to see if then cmd would recognize the slm.c file, but it doesn't. (I changed it back). Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

  Posted by David H 206 on August 21, 2008 at 19:58:58 Pacific Time

• hey mitch,
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  this has been driving me nuts. which is usually a pretty short trip. it looks like your makefile is set up so that "make clean" deletes the source.
  otherwise, it's been a blast.
  bobby

  Posted by foobert on August 05, 2008 at 08:27:24 Pacific Time

• Can't make it work
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  Hi Mitch
  After building the kit the LED's (4) all light and are blinking at various speeds.
  All software was downloaded and unzipped but that's as far as I can get it to work.From cmd.exe i get a message saying that "make is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file" and nothing happens.
  I have also noticed that all the files now seem to be saved as wordpad docs in machine code or something.
  Hope you can throw some light on the subject.
  no Pun intended
  Tom

  Posted by speedwayrider on August 03, 2008 at 11:02:38 Pacific Time

• fuses verification error
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  Hi,
  I picked up a kit at Hope. Everything seemed fine, the
  'VVVV' test went perfectly. Then I downloaded the slm
  firmware, compiled it and typed 'make program-slm'
  
  this is what I got:
  
  avrdude: verifying ...
  avrdude: verification error, first mismatch at byte 0x0000
  0x80 != 0x00
  avrdude: verification error; content mismatch
  
  avrdude: safemode: lfuse changed! Was e4, and is now 0
  Would you like this fuse to be changed back? [y/n] n
  avrdude: safemode: hfuse changed! Was df, and is now 0
  Would you like this fuse to be changed back? [y/n] n
  avrdude: safemode: efuse changed! Was ff, and is now 0
  Would you like this fuse to be changed back? [y/n] n
  avrdude: safemode: Fuses OK
  
  avrdude done. Thank you.
  
  make: *** [program-slm] Error 1
  
  
  What do I do now? I've tried re-running it several times, no-joy - and I can't reburn the minipov firmware either.
  
  any help would be appreciated.
  
  thanks,
  -sandy

  Posted by saender on July 26, 2008 at 22:35:08 Pacific Time

• More results?
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  i'm interested in hearing about people's experiences with this gear. This project was my first (but definitely not last!) soldering attempt. The brain machine is very cool. I've had a lot of very positive feedback from users, with a couple being kinda tweaked out and ending the sequence early.
  Is it possible that this device just isnt for everyone? I make it a point to ask people if they're prone to seizures or have been diagnosed with ADHD. I feel almost like a doctor when setting them up.
  One issue I need to tweak is ambient sound. Folks are often distracted by the sound of events around them. How can I evade this/ I used a pair of ham radio headsets (because they look so dang cool), putting dollar store guts into them...
  Thanks, Mitch, for putting this out there. One guy told me that he can't imagine why people would want to shoot up or snort stuff if they had this machine. The same guy said, "You're changing the world 14 minutes at a time!"

  Posted by WantonInn on July 22, 2008 at 15:47:25 Pacific Time

• Possible new project?
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  First off, I would like to say that this is an amazing project and introduction into the world of microcontrollers. What if we could do the same project, but as an intro to signal processing?
  
  I am in the middle of this kit, and something occurs to me. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the brain machine needs only to A. Remember 2 frequencies: one for the left ear and eye, and one for the right ear and eye, and B. Express each of those frequencies as both a sine wave of an appropriate amplitude for headphones, and a square wave of an appropriate amplitude for LEDs.
  
  My proposed idea is to satisfy A. and the first part of B. in a very simple way: simply create and play the frequencies through an MP3 player that supports stereo output, such as an iPod, computer, or $10 no-frills device. This device already outputs the desired frequency audio, and the only trick is to have it output the desired LED signal.
  
  But wait! Aren't the 2 LEDs going at the same frequency as the 2 audio channels? If that's the case, can't we build a circuit that takes the audio signal, converts the sine wave into a square wave with appropriate amplitude, and outputs both the original sine wave (amplified if necessary) and the LED driving square wave?
  
  This device would be easy to program with multiple tracks that could be chosen on the fly, it would be completely platform-independent (Macs would load the same audio files as any other OS users), and it would be a completely different lesson for the same device!
  
  I am in no way an electrical engineer, so I ask those of you in the know if this is actually feasible. I have taken enough courses to believe that it should be, and it could be just as fun as the original! Let me know what you think!

  Posted by AdamTheMechE on July 01, 2008 at 18:51:42 Pacific Time

• my kit assembled
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  finally got my kit I bought at SF Makersfaire 2008 put together.
  
  Thanks so much Mitch. I'll have to play with it more but i think the lights are a little too bright for me right now. Will try with wearing the glasses in different positions.
  
  Also you were right about the cheapie headphones being preferable. I tried the brain machine with my Etymotics ER4Ps and it was unpleasant both in volume and tone.
  
  Although now that I am reading this page again I see I used the old 400hz firmware.
  
  My build:
  http://flickr.com/photos/rkt88edmo/sets/72157605240499308/

  Posted by rkt88edmo on July 01, 2008 at 00:39:45 Pacific Time

• Brain Machine Kits
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  Thanks for all your patience, we now have the Make version of the Brain Machine available online at the Maker Shed: http://www.makezine.com/go/brainmachine
  
  Thanks again to Mitch!

  Posted by LJPRO on June 30, 2008 at 18:15:09 Pacific Time

• my attempt
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  hello,
  you can see my version of the machine here. made utilizing a stripboard.
  
  i've used a few times and i found the visuals very nice, but didnt make me relaxed.
  
  ive tried different LED colors:
  - clear red LEDs - clear and bright concentric red ripple-like patterns
  - diffused orange LEDs - as above, but the shapes were softer
  - clear yellowish green - barely visible patterns
  - diffused blue - LEDs didnt even blink,- probably voltage was too low to run them
  
  cheers

  Posted by happybara on June 07, 2008 at 11:41:29 Pacific Time

• Question about kit
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  I was one of the lucky ones to get the kit at the maker faire, and I'm just getting around to putting it together now. I noticed that the kit includes two 2.2Kohm resistors (for R5 and R6) instead of 1Kohm. I imagine this won't be a problem, it will just make the audio quieter, but was this intentional?
  
  Also, I'm modifying this in a couple of ways. Instead of the glasses I'm using a comfy padded eye mask with built in headphones, designed for business travelers. I will also change the firmware so it goes down to delta waves and then stops without coming back up. I am hoping this will thus function as a sleep aid.

  Posted by erics1 on May 28, 2008 at 16:03:40 Pacific Time

• USB Version
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  I've built my first brainwave machine and have been very happy with the results. My only complaint is that I don't like the serial interface on the minipov (my serial port is in the back of my computer and is not nearly as handy as the USB port in front). I'd like to build another brainwave machine with the following changes:
  
  -USB instead of serial
  
  -Volume Control and fader (I am nearly deaf in one ear so I'd like the ability to make that ear louder)
  
  -make use of the extra outputs by adding different colored LED's (prob red, yellow and blue)
  
  -use a 9V battery instead of the AA's.
  
  Now here's the problem: I've only just started getting interested in electronics and I am not sure how to accomplish all this (although the forums at ladyada have discussed the USB problem so I have some idea what to do there). I'm not asking anyone to figure all this out for me but I thought many people have probably already suggested or tried these changes and could offer some advice/help.
  
  Thanks Mitch for the great project. How's the more advanced design coming?

  Posted by yavid on May 27, 2008 at 10:22:14 Pacific Time

• KITS!!!??!??!?
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  so ive been looking all over and i read on an earlier post that these kits may be available soon on the maker store but in all actuality im tired of waiting!!!! is there anywhere or any way i can buy a kit?

  Posted by Rody21 on May 20, 2008 at 20:58:12 Pacific Time

• Brain Machine Kit
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  Hi Mitch
  I picked up a Brain Machine Kit at the Maker Faire. My wife and I just love the Brain Machine! I programmed a sleep mode and we use it daily to fall asleep.
  I wanted to purchase the kit as gifts. Do you know where I can purchase them online? I didn't see them in the Maker Shed. Sure, I know I could piece a kit together but the kit sold at the Maker Faire was well packaged. The kit included everything (although I did run out of wire) and at a great price.
  Anyways, hope you know something about these kits.
  Thanks.
  -garagemonkeysan
  

  Posted by garagemonkeysan on May 17, 2008 at 08:58:46 Pacific Time

• Brain Machine making workshop in Philly
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  For folks in the Philly region, I'll be giving a Brain Machine making workshop at The Hacktory, a new hacker space in Philadelphia. The workshop is on Saturday, May 10th, from 10am to 5pm.
  http://thehacktory.org/classes/brain-machine-workshop
  
  Mitch.
  

  Posted by maltman23 on May 08, 2008 at 00:53:39 Pacific Time

• OCR1A
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  What's OCR1A and what does it do?

  Posted by Always Tired on May 04, 2008 at 17:57:37 Pacific Time

• sound problem part 2
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  Hi again,
  
  I have an update. I used a multimeter and could not find any issues with it. I decided to go on a youtube search to see if I can see the various stages of the project. I found a link called "brain machine party" This features a bunch of people and Mitch assisting a group of people with making the brain machine. I am able to do the "V"s step as Mitch demonstrated. I still believe my sound is not right. However, after listening very carefully with high end headphones, the volume is lower in one ear. It does seem to make some subtle tone changes as well! However, it never stops, it is looping constantly. I was able to find a youtube link where someone has made a brain machine and shows the unit in action! Again, I tihnk my sound is different from his, I hope I am wrong! I just wonder if I have made some error with the headphone steps. I used some thicker wire than the 30gauge recommended in the parts list. Could that be the problem? The pictures posted in my other post show the thickness of the wires used in the connecting of the speaker connector. I wonder if the capacitors must be placed in a certain way? I figured they had to be and just mimic the same setup for the LEDs beside them. The step of updating the microcontroller for sound requires the downloading of special firmware made my Mitch. The firmware posted on this website only contains two files the makefile and the slm.c. There is no slm.hex. The delete step fails obviously since no slm.hex exists. The next step creates the slm.hex. I wondered if this is just to make sure that the wrong slm.hex does not get programmed onto the brain machines microcontroller. I also downloaded the alternate firmware on Mitch's offical website and noticed a lower tone volume but still doesn't sound right. Hope this description is more helpful. Thanks again.

  Posted by a2lloyd@gmail.com on April 25, 2008 at 07:50:18 Pacific Time

• sound problem
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  Hello!
  
  I am currently stuck with my brain machine project! I got stuck on step 2f. You say that you will hear sounds, well I hear the same sound on both left and right speakers of the headphones! I think I am doing something wrong. I had no trouble with the flashing of the firmware. I thought that I screwed up the R5 and R6 because I put them in backwards (brown on the right side of the r5 and brown starting on the left side of the r6) I have extras, so I pulled out one and put a fresh back in the same way. This did not solve the problem. I am including a large amount of pictures to help diagnose the problem. I had a ton of fun building this amazing invention! Great job!
  
  Here is a zip of 6 closeup pictures.
  
  http://www.sendspace.com/file/6lc3h8

  Posted by a2lloyd@gmail.com on April 20, 2008 at 15:07:07 Pacific Time

• can't program my kit :(
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  I've built the minipov3 kit precisely to the ladyada website design, save LEDs 1-4, R5 and R6. The lights flicker in sequence with a short pause after each cycle.
  I then installed the January 07 version of AVRdude and unzipped the firmware files to C:\slm.
  I turned off the kit, plugged it in to one of my two serial ports, then turned it back on.
  When I get to typing "make program-mypov", howevever, I get an error message. Here's what my screen says:
  C:\slm>make program-minipov
  avrdude -p attiny2313 -i 10 -P com2 -c dasa -U flash:w:minipov.hex
  
  avrdude: AVR device not responding
  avrdude: initialization failed, rc=-1
  Double check connections and try again, or use -F to override this check.
  
  avrdude done. Thank you.
  
  make: *** [program-minipov] Error 1
  
  
  
  
  I've tried changing the com port in "makefile", but that hasn't helped. I've looked at every post in response to the project here, and none seem to address this specific issue. Does anyone have a clue why I can't program this kit, and thus why I can't see some sweet visualizations?
  Thanks :D

  Posted by Travoid on April 13, 2008 at 13:50:51 Pacific Time

• LED2 port is dead- need to recode SLM to another port
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  Everything works, the brain machine is ready to go... but the LED2 port (PB1) never worked from the get-go. I soldered the left eye LED to the LED7 port (PB6) instead.
  
  This is fantastic, except that the SLM code points to the non-working PB1.
  
  How do I change the SLM code to reflect my left eye LED on PB6 now?
  
  Thanks so much for the help.
  
  -valerie

  Posted by valerievergen on April 09, 2008 at 12:38:25 Pacific Time

• very loud, not much of a 'beat'
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  hey mitch, i built it (hooray for me!) and the lights blink with a tight pattern (looks to be about right) but the sound is not what i expected. one ear is certainly a slightly different pitch than the other, but the noise is somewhat harsh -- it's LOUD, to say the least. Kinda sounds like tonal guitar feedback or like something from an older sci-fi movie (e.g. 2001/Andromeda Strain/Alien). the binaural beat is imperceptible, as to me it just sounds like on (loud) long tone (near the dial tone in frequency, i'd say).
  
  ANother person posted similar results i think, so i'm just asking, This is normal?
  
  Thanks mitch!

  Posted by geodonuts on March 24, 2008 at 14:35:46 Pacific Time

• I Want to Buy a Brain Machine
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  Anyone interested in selling their Brain Machine?
  Thanks,
  Lee

  Posted by capelee on March 17, 2008 at 08:16:17 Pacific Time

• not using kynar wire
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  can i use 20-24 gauge wire that i found lying around or do i absolutely need the 30 gauge stuff? will the voltage be that much different with slightly fatter wire?
  
  just trying to save myself about six bucks. thanks!

  Posted by geodonuts on March 15, 2008 at 11:53:43 Pacific Time

• To Slow
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  I build the machine, but the blink rate is about once a second.
  pls help

  Posted by paul32 on March 13, 2008 at 06:58:20 Pacific Time

• Frequency measurements
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  Hi Mitch. Here are the results of my oscilloscope measurements:
  
  6734-6,749 Hz
  12,48-12,5 Hz
  ~2,49 Hz (short time to measure in the standard-program)
  16,18-16,23 Hz
  
  Youre a bit too fast most of the time. Perhaps you could use an external clock source in order to achieve more accurate timings.

  Posted by Pink_Goblin on March 03, 2008 at 11:25:50 Pacific Time

• Brainwave Sequence Editor
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  Many thanks to Armin Bajramovic, who emailed me with software he wrote that makes it incredibly easy to create your own Brainwave Sequences for your Brain Machine.
  
  With this software you can create a Brainwave sequence visually, and at the click of a button it will create the firmware code that you just copy and paste into your Brain Machine firmware file (slm.c).
  
  Here is a screen shot:
  http://www.tvbgone.com/mfaire/slm/ArminBajramovic/screenshot.png
  
  And here is a link to the software (for Windows and Linux):
  http://www.tvbgone.com/mfaire/slm/ArminBajramovic/SLM_Sequence_editor.zip
  
  Enjoy,
  Mitch.
  

  Posted by maltman23 on February 25, 2008 at 23:19:28 Pacific Time

• New project
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  I plan on using my spare parts left over from this project for my own little idea, but I don't know enough about electronics to figure it out on my own. I'm working for a new independant coffee shop called BrewNerds and I want to wire my name tag to have a few blinking LED's on it. So, I have some of the LED's, the same ones used for the Brain Machine. I also have a bunch of capacitors and resistors. If I want to make a circuit so that a LED in my name tag can have a wire that runs down through/behind my apron and into my apron pocket, where the batteries and whatever necessary components would go, how would I wire the circuit? I have a case thing for 2 AA batteries (same as the one in the brain machine) should that run to a resistor, then a capacitor, then the, lets say, 2 LED's and then back down to the batteries? Would this succesfully make it blink?

  Posted by cdxnolan on February 23, 2008 at 20:38:23 Pacific Time

• Firmware runs too fast
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  Hi!
  
  I progged my Tiny2313 using
  
  make burn-fuse
  and then
  make program-slm
  
  Works fine, no errors.
  Problem: The LEDS blink like HELL, the sound is way to high.
  The program ends after ~13 mins.
  What's wrong?
  
  

  Posted by Pink_Goblin on February 22, 2008 at 15:22:32 Pacific Time

• More programs?
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  Is there a place that people are collecting scripts to try out? I'm not much of a programmer, but would love to see how others are modifying the initial code and try out other programs for various 'states'.
  
  Thanks for the awesome project. I've been looking for one of these for years since I last tried one and didn't really want to spend the hundreds of dollars that they usually cost pre-made.
  

  Posted by DaytimeDreamer on February 15, 2008 at 16:00:17 Pacific Time

• LED's
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  Hi!
  Have just completed the construction of my very own brain machine [am waiting for the adhesive to dry atm, heh heh].
  Everything went fine during setup. However now upon turning it on, I notice that one of the LEDs has a much more noticeable flicker [to the effect of which it looks dimmer then the other one].
  Is this supposed to happen? Or is there a problem I have made somewhere?
  Any help would be greatly appreciated. Cheers!
  Ed

  Posted by edenist on February 14, 2008 at 07:42:58 Pacific Time

• .hex & Fusebits needed
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  Hi Mitch!
  
  Great project, I saw the vid of your talk at the CCC-Congress in Berlin. I do not use the MiniPOV-Kit and I would'n like to mess around with the C-compiler because I use other languages. I just want to see my BrainMachine running.
  So it would be really cool if you could add the compiled hex-file of the firmware into the .zip-file of this project and also the settings for the fusebits (screenshot should be ok), so I/ppl can just burn the firmware onto any Tiny2313 without using the C-compiler.
  
  Thank you very much!
  
  Pink_Goblin from Germany

  Posted by Pink_Goblin on February 03, 2008 at 12:13:52 Pacific Time

• BrainMachine with ATTiny2313-20PU
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  Hi,
  
  i have built the brain machine. It works fine but the program doesn't stop after 14minutes and also not after 60minutes ....
  
  my question: should i change the frequency value in sim.c file or is this normal?
  Are there any other problems with the 2313-20PU instead of the v-edition?
  
  Thomas

  Posted by chiemera on January 15, 2008 at 15:01:28 Pacific Time

• Brain Hacking.
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  Hi there Mitch. I built your Brain machine from a mini-POV3 kit, and I had no problems with it. The directions were great and the machine is great.
  
  For the past couple of days (I built it 3 days ago), I've been trying to figure out how to make it end nicer, so I opened up the code, and looked around. I can't really figure anything out. I wanted to make the volume and brightness fade out at the end instead of just stopping so abruptly. But I've been told that it's impossible, so I'm still trying.
  
  Anyway, I also thought it would sound nicer if the audio transitioned from one phase to the next. So I wrote a function to do that. And then I kept reading about people changing the frequencies it ran at, so I decided to just make some predefined variables that will set up the frequencies so it's alot easier to find what's best for someone. Well, I really don't have any complaints, just wanted to let you know that everyone i know likes it.
  
  Oh yeah, and if yo8u happen to know how I can make it fade out at the end, or some other way to make it less abrupt, that would be awesome.
  
  Oh, and feel free to take a look at the changes I made. I'll keep the C source up at http://www.chibu.net/slm/

  Posted by DLanigan on January 06, 2008 at 09:01:38 Pacific Time

• standing on the shoulders of giants...
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  based on this project, I made some improvements, like sine-wave audio and import of gnaural "schedule" files, to be seen at http://www.tahina.priv.at/electronics.html
  
  thanks, mitch, for the inspiration and starting point!

  Posted by cmock on December 24, 2007 at 15:56:34 Pacific Time

• beta makes me flinch
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  Mitch--
  
  Great project, thanks for putting it out there!
  
  I've been able to get mine to work, and have re-programmed it using the updated firmware.
  
  I'm encountering what may be a "meatware" issue:
  
  I'm sometimes finding the "beta" stretches to be very unnerving, especially the first few times the sequence returns from alpha to beta. The sensation I get is a sustained version of the momentary feeling I would have if I had just spotted a rock flying towards my head. Rationally, I know this isn't the case, but the feeling can be extremely powerful, and sometimes I have to just turn the SLM off. Has anyone else reported results like this, or is it just me?
  
  I have a theory. The audio beat-frequency seems straightforward enough, but I'm wondering about the LEDs. Is it possible I'm reacting to an on/off cycle as two transitions rather than one cycle? That would double the effective frequency and might be inducing gamma waves instead of beta: that would account for my anxiety. Is there an edit I can make to slm.c to leave the audio as-is but halve the blink frequency?
  
  Has anyone tried monitoring someone with an EEG while they're using the SLM?
  

  Posted by hubieillin on November 20, 2007 at 15:38:28 Pacific Time

• design changes
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  So I finally got a chance to work on the glasses, and decided to modify them for lucid dreaming. I glued the LEDs into holes drilled into a half of a 1.5" PVC pipe to give my eyes some space. I bought one of those fabric sleep masks (about $3), cut two holes for the PVC halves and then used the silicone adhesive to glue the LEDs on the PVC pipes into the mask. I also extended the wires for the LEDs to about three feet.
  In the slm.c file, add another brainwave type:
  
  
  else if (brainChr == 'n') {
  delay_one_tenth_ms(pgm_read_dword(&brainwaveTab[index].bwDuration));
  return; // Null (simply delay)
  }
  
  This is just a delay. In the values table, create another set for five-hours of the new wave (a five hour delay). this is so that by the time the unit turns on, you are deep asleep. You may also want to just program the glasses to only run the second half of the pre-programmed sequence so that your brain can "warm up." I also tripled all of the values in the time field so the dream session lasted longer.
  
  I found that with this setup the glasses work better for normal use because the sleeping mask shuts out any interfering light.
  
  I used these the other night; I had the most realistic dreams I have ever had, although I don't clearly remember what they were about. I was aware of the dream, but did not was not able to control it.
  
  I ordered some different colored LEDs a few days ago; when they arrive I will put them in and tell everyone if there was any difference.
  
  

  Posted by chennate on November 17, 2007 at 13:46:27 Pacific Time

• Brainwave Glasses
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  Hey Mitch, I know the brainwave glasses work by inducing certain states via light pasing thru the eyes.. where would i find information on the effects of modulated light on living cells and or the resonant frequencies of cells in relation to the applied light source?? Can applying such light to living tissue affect regeneration and or degeneration?

  Posted by whc83 on November 02, 2007 at 19:01:20 Pacific Time

• Austin Maker Faire 2007
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  Hi Everyone,
  
  I just returned from the Austin Maker Faire (October 20th and 21st). What a great time! I think there were 20,000 people there. And hundreds of Makers had booths and workshops. Lots of people built their own Brain Machines at my workshop, many of whom had never built anything at all before. And everyone got theirs going.
  
  I took pictures of 231 of the thousand, or so, people who tried out the Brain Machine at my workshop. Most people really liked it, as you can see from the photos I uploaded to my Flickr page:
  Austin Maker Faire photos
  As you can see, there were a lot of happy people tripping out to their inner world.
  
  Mitch.
  

  Posted by maltman23 on October 24, 2007 at 14:59:08 Pacific Time

• What am I doing wrong?
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  make slm.hex does not make the .hex file.
  make slm.hex returns:
  Compiling: slm.c
  avr-gcc -c -I. -g -Os -funsigned-char -funsigned-bitfields -fpack-struct -fshort-enums -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -DF_CPU=8000000 -Wa,-adhlns=slm.lst -mmcu=attiny2313 -std=gnu99 slm.c -o slm.o
  slm.c:127:58: error: invalid suffix "b0000001" on integer constant
  slm.c:139:14: error: invalid suffix "b00000011" on integer constant
  slm.c:141:14: error: invalid suffix "b11111100" on integer constant
  slm.c:229:12: error: invalid suffix "b01000010" on integer constant
  slm.c:233:12: error: invalid suffix "b00000100" on integer constant
  slm.c:246:12: error: invalid suffix "b01000000" on integer constant
  slm.c:250:12: error: invalid suffix "b00001001" on integer constant
  slm.c:255:12: error: invalid suffix "b00000000" on integer constant
  slm.c:270:13: error: invalid suffix "b11111000" on integer constant
  slm.c:271:13: error: invalid suffix "b11111000" on integer constant
  slm.c:272:12: error: invalid suffix "b00100000" on integer constant
  slm.c:273:12: error: invalid suffix "b00010000" on integer constant
  make: *** [slm.o] Error 1

  Posted by Wyrd on October 20, 2007 at 04:06:37 Pacific Time

• new error message
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  What's happened here?
  
  
  /slm$ make program-slm
  avrdude -p attiny2313 -i 10 -P /dev/ttyUSB0 -c dasa -U flash:w:
  
  avrdude: AVR device initialized and ready to accept instructions
  
  Reading | ################################################## | 100% 2.21s
  
  avrdude: Device signature = 0x1e910a
  avrdude: NOTE: FLASH memory has been specified, an erase cycle will be performed
  To disable this feature, specify the -D option.
  avrdude: erasing chip
  avrdude: reading input file ""
  avrdude: error opening : No such file or directory
  avrdude: input file auto detected as invalid format
  avrdude: can't open input file : No such file or directory
  avrdude: write to file '' failed
  
  avrdude: safemode: Fuses OK
  
  avrdude done. Thank you.
  
  make: *** [program-slm] Error 1

  Posted by Wyrd on October 18, 2007 at 17:51:04 Pacific Time

• LEDs don't light
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  I have a problem with the LEDs in the glasses not lighting.
  
  I desoldered the leads and connected them right at the terminals for the battery leads and they light - so I know the LED are OK and the wires are properly connected to the LED itself, but when they're soldered at the LED pad 1 & 2 they will not light.
  
  After checking my joints I decided that the capacitors may be the problem.
  
  My invoice from Mouser says these are 50v 1uF 5x11 Bi-Polar Aluminum Electrolytic Capacitors.
  
  I'm no electronics tech but my research tells me the Bi-polar caps have no polarity requirement but electrolytic caps do.
  
  So could I have them stuffed backwards or does my problem lie elsewhere... and where might that be?
  
  The first steps went flawlessly and Ladyada's firmware compiled, loaded and ran (the VVVVV's) right off the bat.
  I'm stumped - anyone have a clue?
  
  TFYT

  Posted by Wyrd on October 18, 2007 at 05:50:27 Pacific Time

• Audio question
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  Hi!
  
  Great project. I completed it as soon as I got the mini POV kit. One issue though: The audio does not seem to vary in pitch. I couldn't find the exact caps that you used, so I used a 1uf Tantalum polarized cap from Radio Shack. I got no errors in any step of the process, I made sure that they were wired up correctly, and I hear a tone out of each ear. But there does not seem to be any modulation in pitch. any ideas?

  Posted by spudtech on September 20, 2007 at 20:52:27 Pacific Time

• Alternate caps/status LEDs?
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  Hey Mitch, thanks for a great project. I heard about this from 2600, and it got me to dust off my soldering iron and do my first PCB project ever. I built the miniPOV a few days ago and finished off the Brain Machine tonight.
  
  I have 2 questions.
  1) I wasn't able to readily find 1uF caps, so instead I used the closest I could find, 2.2 uF caps. It seems to work, but if anything the tones are a bit loud and harsh - would this be related to not using 1uF capacitors?
  
  2)I don't know C nor microcontrollers so I'm blindly asking this - since the 4 LEDs from the miniPOV setup are left on the board, it seems these could be used to indicate which routine the machine is in, a, b, t, or d. I don't know what the usefulness of this would be except perhaps of interest to an observer. I'll try to figure this out on my own, if possible. But if I'm barking up the wrong tree, please let me know :)
  
  Thanks again. Cool stuff.
  

  Posted by OblivionRatula on September 10, 2007 at 19:43:44 Pacific Time

• Wire Gauge
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  The first brain machine I built seems to have a short in it (which is nearly impossible for me to find after glueing the stereo jack on top of several connections.) I think that somewhere along the lines of stripping the 30 gauge Kynar wire, I must have put a kink in one of the wires that shouldn't be there. I am about to build my second brain machine and was wondering if I could use a heavier gauge wire (I have speaker wire that I believe is 24-gauge). Will this affect the machine? Is there anything other can Kynar wire that I can use to make the machine a bit more sturdy?
  
  Thanks,
  
  Zythe84

  Posted by zythe84 on September 08, 2007 at 09:33:43 Pacific Time

• troble unzipping and text editor
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  I cant figure out how to unzip the files. Am I to open the slm or make file. I tried to open it with win zip. I dont know where to find or what to do with the text editor. Please help me.
  Thankyou

  Posted by atnekn on September 05, 2007 at 19:33:37 Pacific Time

• Awesome BrainMachine
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  Cool ass...just built the "brainmachine" I saw some cool stuff. It really does work. Not quite like trippin but saw some really cool colors/patterns....and it changes up.
  
  Worth the effort to buy/build.

  Posted by thecybologist on August 20, 2007 at 22:30:49 Pacific Time

• Stepping Down Frequencies
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  I found a piece of software called BrainWave Generator that slowly fades from higher frequencies to lower ones seamlessly. I wanted to recreate this effect using my brainwave machine, so I copied the code defining each frequency and created intermediate frequencies, so that instead of jumping back and forth, it gradually stepped to a lower frequency, and then back up.
  
  However, when I ran the make program-myslm, there was an error. I'm guessing I don't understand the programming well enough, and there is probably something I need to define somewhere in order to make this work.
  
  Here is what the section I edited looks like:
  
  "
  void do_brainwave_element(int index) {
  char brainChr = pgm_read_byte(&brainwaveTab[index].bwType);
  if (brainChr == 'b') {
  // PORTB &= 0b00001100; // (for debugging purposes only -- commented out for SLM)
  // PORTB |= 0b10000000;
  // Beta
  // start Timer 1 with the correct Offset Frequency for a binaural beat for the Brainwave Type
  // to Right ear speaker through output OC1A (PB3, pin 15)
  OCR1A = 18628; // T1 generates 214.719Hz, for a binaural beat of 14.4Hz
  // delay for the time specified in the table while blinking the LEDs at the correct rate
  // onTime = 34.7ms, offTime = 34.7ms --> 14.4Hz
  blink_LEDs( pgm_read_dword(&brainwaveTab[index].bwDuration), 347, 347 );
  return; // Beta
  }
  
  else if (brainChr == 'l') {
  // PORTB &= 0b00001100; // (for debugging purposes only -- commented out for SLM)
  // PORTB |= 0b01000000;
  // Alpha
  // start Timer 1 with the correct Offset Frequency for a binaural beat for the Brainwave Type
  // to Right ear speaker through output OC1A (PB3, pin 15)
  OCR1A = 18768; // T1 generates 213.117Hz, for a binaural beat of 12.8Hz
  // delay for the time specified in the table while blinking the LEDs at the correct rate
  // onTime = 45.1ms, offTime = 45.0ms --> 11.1Hz
  blink_LEDs( pgm_read_dword(&brainwaveTab[index].bwDuration), 451, 450 );
  return; // Alpha
  }
  
  
  else if (brainChr == 'a') {
  // PORTB &= 0b00001100; // (for debugging purposes only -- commented out for SLM)
  // PORTB |= 0b01000000;
  // Alpha
  // start Timer 1 with the correct Offset Frequency for a binaural beat for the Brainwave Type
  // to Right ear speaker through output OC1A (PB3, pin 15)
  OCR1A = 18919; // T1 generates 211.416Hz, for a binaural beat of 11.1Hz
  // delay for the time specified in the table while blinking the LEDs at the correct rate
  // onTime = 45.1ms, offTime = 45.0ms --> 11.1Hz
  blink_LEDs( pgm_read_dword(&brainwaveTab[index].bwDuration), 451, 450 );
  return; // Alpha
  }
  
  else if (brainChr == 'c') {
  // PORTB &= 0b00001100; // (for debugging purposes only -- commented out for SLM)
  // PORTB |= 0b01000000;
  // Alpha
  // start Timer 1 with the correct Offset Frequency for a binaural beat for the Brainwave Type
  // to Right ear speaker through output OC1A (PB3, pin 15)
  OCR1A = 19145; // T1 generates 208.921Hz, for a binaural beat of 8.6Hz
  // delay for the time specified in the table while blinking the LEDs at the correct rate
  // onTime = 45.1ms, offTime = 45.0ms --> 11.1Hz
  blink_LEDs( pgm_read_dword(&brainwaveTab[index].bwDuration), 451, 450 );
  return; // Alpha
  }
  
  else if (brainChr == 'k') {
  // PORTB &= 0b00001100; // (for debugging purposes only -- commented out for SLM)
  // PORTB |= 0b01000000;
  // Alpha
  // start Timer 1 with the correct Offset Frequency for a binaural beat for the Brainwave Type
  // to Right ear speaker through output OC1A (PB3, pin 15)
  OCR1A = 19293; // T1 generates 207.318Hz, for a binaural beat of 7.0Hz
  // delay for the time specified in the table while blinking the LEDs at the correct rate
  // onTime = 45.1ms, offTime = 45.0ms --> 11.1Hz
  blink_LEDs( pgm_read_dword(&brainwaveTab[index].bwDuration), 451, 450 );
  return; // Alpha
  }
  
  else if (brainChr == 't') {
  // PORTB &= 0b00001100; // (for debugging purposes only -- commented out for SLM)
  // PORTB |= 0b00100000;
  // Theta
  // start Timer 1 with the correct Offset Frequency for a binaural beat for the Brainwave Type
  // to Right ear speaker through output OC1A (PB3, pin 15)
  OCR1A = 19386; // T1 generates 206.324Hz, for a binaural beat of 6.0Hz
  // delay for the time specified in the table while blinking the LEDs at the correct rate
  // onTime = 83.5ms, offTime = 83.5ms --> 6.0Hz
  blink_LEDs( pgm_read_dword(&brainwaveTab[index].bwDuration), 835, 835 );
  return; // Theta
  }
  
  else if (brainChr == 'i') {
  // PORTB &= 0b00001100; // (for debugging purposes only -- commented out for SLM)
  // PORTB |= 0b01000000;
  // Alpha
  // start Timer 1 with the correct Offset Frequency for a binaural beat for the Brainwave Type
  // to Right ear speaker through output OC1A (PB3, pin 15)
  OCR1A = 19567; // T1 generates 204.415Hz, for a binaural beat of 4.1Hz
  // delay for the time specified in the table while blinking the LEDs at the correct rate
  // onTime = 45.1ms, offTime = 45.0ms --> 11.1Hz
  blink_LEDs( pgm_read_dword(&brainwaveTab[index].bwDuration), 451, 450 );
  return; // Alpha
  }
  
  else if (brainChr == 'e') {
  // PORTB &= 0b00001100; // (for debugging purposes only -- commented out for SLM)
  // PORTB |= 0b01000000;
  // Alpha
  // start Timer 1 with the correct Offset Frequency for a binaural beat for the Brainwave Type
  // to Right ear speaker through output OC1A (PB3, pin 15)
  OCR1A = 19672; // T1 generates 203.324Hz, for a binaural beat of 3Hz
  // delay for the time specified in the table while blinking the LEDs at the correct rate
  // onTime = 45.1ms, offTime = 45.0ms --> 11.1Hz
  blink_LEDs( pgm_read_dword(&brainwaveTab[index].bwDuration), 451, 450 );
  return; // Alpha
  }
  
  else if (brainChr == 'd') {
  // PORTB &= 0b00001100; // (for debugging purposes only -- commented out for SLM)
  // PORTB |= 0b00010000;
  // Delta
  // start Timer 1 with the correct Offset Frequency for a binaural beat for the Brainwave Type
  // to Right ear speaker through output OC1A (PB3, pin 15)
  OCR1A = 19750; // T1 generates 202.521Hz, for a binaural beat of 2.2Hz
  // delay for the time specified in the table while blinking the LEDs at the correct rate
  // onTime = 225.3ms, offTime = 225.3ms --> 2.2Hz
  blink_LEDs( pgm_read_dword(&brainwaveTab[index].bwDuration), 2253, 2253 );
  return; // Delta
  }
  
  else if (brainChr == 's') {
  // PORTB &= 0b00001100; // (for debugging purposes only -- commented out for SLM)
  // PORTB |= 0b01000000;
  // Alpha
  // start Timer 1 with the correct Offset Frequency for a binaural beat for the Brainwave Type
  // to Right ear speaker through output OC1A (PB3, pin 15)
  OCR1A = 19868; // T1 generates 201.319Hz, for a binaural beat of 1Hz
  // delay for the time specified in the table while blinking the LEDs at the correct rate
  // onTime = 45.1ms, offTime = 45.0ms --> 11.1Hz
  blink_LEDs( pgm_read_dword(&brainwaveTab[index].bwDuration), 451, 450 );
  return; // Alpha
  }
  
  // this should never be executed, since we catch the end of table in the main loop
  else {
  // PORTB &= 0b00001100; // (for debugging purposes only -- commented out for SLM)
  // PORTB |= 0b00000010;
  return; // end of table
  }
  }
  
  "
  Then in the meditation part i had it go like this:
  
  "
  char bwType; // 'a' for Alpha, 'b' for Beta, 't' for Theta, or 'd' for Delta ('0' signifies last entry in table
  unsigned long int bwDuration; // Duration of this Brainwave Type (divide by 10,000 to get seconds)
  } const brainwaveTab[] PROGMEM = {
  { 'b', 30000 },
  { 'l', 30000 },
  { 'a', 30000 },
  { 'c', 30000 },
  { 'k', 30000 },
  { 't', 30000 },
  { 'i', 30000 },
  { 'e', 30000 },
  { 'd', 30000 },
  { 's', 30000 },
  { 's', 30000 },
  { 'd', 30000 },
  { 'e', 30000 },
  { 'i', 30000 },
  { 't', 30000 },
  { 'k', 30000 },
  { 'c', 30000 },
  { 'a', 30000 },
  { 'l', 30000 },
  { 'b', 30000 },
  { '0', 0 }
  };
  "
  
  Please help!

  Posted by zythe84 on August 20, 2007 at 12:05:34 Pacific Time

• Adding switches to control the Brain Machine
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  For those interested in adding switches to their Brain Machine, here is some firmware that I wrote that will read switches added to D1 (pin 3) and D2 (pin 6) of the microcontroller.
  
  DDRD = 0b11111001; // Set PD1 and PD2 as inputs
  PORTD = 0b00000110; // Activate pull-up resistors on PD1 and PD2
  
  while(1) {
  // turn on LED at PB6 if PD1 is High, else turn off LED at PB6
  if (bit_is_set(PIND, 0)) PORTB |= 0b01000000;
  else PORTB &= 0b10111111;
  // turn on LED at PB7 if PD2 is High, else turn off LED at PB7
  if (bit_is_set(PIND, 1)) PORTB |= 0b10000000;
  else PORTB &= 0b01111111;
  }
  
  The switches should be connected between the PortD pins and ground, so that when the switch is closed, the pin is grounded (and when the switch is open the pin will be high because of the internal pull-up resistors that we activated).
  
  You can modify the above code to make the Brain Machine start do different sequences, turn it off quickly, or whatever you like.
  
  Mitch.
  

  Posted by maltman23 on August 17, 2007 at 15:21:50 Pacific Time

• 
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  Hello Everyone,
  
  Greetings from Berlin. Sorry for the delay in responses to questions over the last two weeks. I've been at the Chaos Communications Camp in Berlin, which is a fantastic outdoor hackers conference. I had a great time!
  
  About 800 people tried out the Brain Machine at the Camp, and most people really loved it. Check out some photos, if you like:
  http://www.flickr.com/photos/maltman23/sets/72157601504498401/
  40 people built their own Brain Machine at the workshop that I held (and 10 people built open source TV-B-Gones, which is an upcoming article in MAKE Magazine). It was a very common thing to see people around Camp wearing bizarre glasses with blinking red lights before their eyes. The presentation I gave about the Brain Machine was very popular and well received. Here is some French press on the event:
  http://www.lexpress.fr/info/quotidien/reportage-photo/default.asp?id=459241
  Check out the photo on the lower left corner. :)
  
  I'll be answering questions on this site again over the next few days as I have time.
  
  Best,
  Mitch.
  

  Posted by maltman23 on August 17, 2007 at 05:31:40 Pacific Time

• Homebrew machine advice
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  I'm trying to build my own machine like this from a PIC 18F452 that will allow for brain entrainment, as well as lucid dreaming. Its going well (when I have time to work on it at least), but I wanted to ask about the pre-programmed sequence on this brain machine.
  
  I see that you toggle between multiple brain wave types instead of going directly from one to the other. I understand the reason for doing this, but is it wholly necessary? Can I achieve the same effects by simple going from say, Beta for 5 minutes directly to the next level down with no transitions?
  
  Mainly I'm curious to reduce my code :P

  Posted by H4T on August 16, 2007 at 11:32:25 Pacific Time

• 
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  I was wondering how critical it is to have the freqs. for the lights and sound running at say 14.2hz as opposed to just 14hz? I am writing your sequence into an arduino sketch and it can make all the difference in the world efficiency wise using a "byte" instead of a "float"

  Posted by greyskale on August 10, 2007 at 17:08:09 Pacific Time

• compiling problems
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  I got the minipov put together last night. Played around with it for about an hour and started to work on putting the slm firmware on. I ran into a problem with the binary notation and fixed that as per instructed. There was also a problem with the fact that my avrlibs did not have the function sleep_cpu(), i replaced this with the function sleep_mode() and it programmed fine. Tonight i plan on wiring up the headphones and place the eye led's. I will keep all updated on how well it works. I am working on ubuntu 6.06, gcc 4.0, with a keyspan usa-19hs usb/serial converter. Great project mitch. I have had tons of fun so far. My first intro to microcontrollers.

  Posted by krazylink on August 10, 2007 at 12:17:59 Pacific Time

• Let us all Post our Experiences USING the glasses!
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  It is so hard not to post twice. Sorry!
  
  Hey Guys, now that over a thousand people have used Mitch's Glasses, why not use This Thread to post what happened when we put them on and how we have enjoyed them.
  
  I will go first.
  
  When I first put them on, I did not see any shapes, only colors. But, they were beautiful colors and at one point it looked like an undersea scene. The same thing happed for about six sessions. After that, for some reason, I did not see any colors anymore , it was just dark. I opened my eyes to see if the LEDs were not working and they were working fine. I was wondering if this is normal. Does a person get de-sythisized to this? I changed the battery to a fresh battery and moved the LEDs so they where closer to my eyes, but same thing. Go Fish!!! But, even though I don't see the colors, I still get the benefit from wearing them. I also pulled them back away from my eyes and saw a little bit of the colors. But, they always relax me and make me feel good to wear them.
  
  I was thinking of making another pair or pairs using different plans on the chipset. And, making the glasses more comfortable. You tell me how. I think placing the battery and board away from the glasses is a good idea. I even thought of a headband to keep glasses on might be a good idea. I intend to LUCID dream with this setup. But, I thought I would use this program the way it is until I get comfortable programming for a different setup.
  
  Hats off to Mitch Everyone! for introducing us to a new concept!
  
  I am going to try to click the mouse only once now so as not to double post.
  
  :-)

  Posted by MovieMaker on August 09, 2007 at 06:34:47 Pacific Time

• A few BETTER mods
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  I got mine built. I started building it the way it was in the article but I relized that the side of my glasses were to big. So I did some mods.
  1. Took off the Board and battery pack from glasses.
  2. Extended LED power cords so I could put device in my pocket.
  3. I put pieces of shrink tubing on the big four-wire cable ( for LEDs) and the cables for the head phones (Permanent now instead of using different head phones).
  4. I will put the board and battery pack inside a project box for the sake of making everything look pretty.
  
  I did run into 30 mins worth of trouble because there was a short that I should have checked for first but instead 29 mins fiddle-fartin' with a damn resistor trying to figure out what was the issue. But everything is good now.
  
  Im afraid to take this out in public, I may get arrested for suspected terrorism...

  Posted by dannydutton on August 08, 2007 at 17:44:30 Pacific Time

• Glue
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  Is it possible to use hot glue instead of the Silicone Glue you said to use in the article? Because I got everything working and I not sure.
  Did anyone else get a piece of double-side foam tape in thier kit? Can i use that instead?

  Posted by dannydutton on August 08, 2007 at 06:34:42 Pacific Time

• Finally got things a goin'
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  Well, I ditched the stupid RadioShack Usb2Serial cable (Expensive!), and finally programmed the chip.
  
  I understand now, from reading your other posts that the capacitors are for making the squarewave smooth into a sign wave for easier listening.
  
  My only concern now is the unit was supposed to be programmed for about 14 minutes and my wife guessed it at about 10 minutes. I have to get a stop watch on that.
  
  I had only one session so far, I had all kinds of colors and stuff. I did not see any shapes yet. But, it was relaxing and enjoyable.
  
  I salute you, Mitch for a Job Well Done!
  
  :-)

  Posted by MovieMaker on August 05, 2007 at 20:46:34 Pacific Time

• Programming?
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  In he magazine, you tell us to change the array in mypov.c by adding 1's on the first six lines (blue box on the side). WHen you say "pattern", do I just do the first six lines:
  B8(10000000)
  B8(01000000)
  B8(00100000)
  B8(00010000)
  B8(00100000)
  B8(01000000)
  B8(00000000)
  B8(00000000)
  B8(00000000)
  
  Or do I continue them something like this:
  B8(10000000)
  B8(01000000)
  B8(00100000)
  B8(00010000)
  B8(00100000)
  B8(01000000)
  B8(10000000)
  B8(01000000)
  B8(00100000)
  
  Can you please help me? Everything else is very well explained but this (or maybe its obvious and Im just an idiot...).

  Posted by dannydutton on August 05, 2007 at 05:07:17 Pacific Time

• Mitch, Help with capacitors,Please!
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  Hi Mitch,
  
  I thought I was going to have to wait two or three weeks before I got my POV3. It was going to KILL me, but guess what??? The next day, it arrived in the mail. That day was today. I had previously purchased two 1uf caps. But, they were way to big to put on the unit because they had leads in oposite directions. Anyway I did find two 470 caps. A little small ,but I installed them. Now my lights are blink in sequence and it sounds a little like a heart beat through the headsets. I haven't programmed anything yet. My question is: should I just remove those caps from the circuit all together? and is it normal for that sound to be so low (barely audible? A prompt reply would be apreciated because I am fixing to seal everything in place.
  
  Thanks for your help in the past. and Thanks in Advance for this.
  
  :-)

  Posted by MovieMaker on August 04, 2007 at 18:53:06 Pacific Time

• Mitch, Help with capacitors,Please!
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  Hi Mitch,
  
  I thought I was going to have to wait two or three weeks before I got my POV3. It was going to KILL me, but guess what??? The next day, it arrived in the mail. That day was today. I had previously purchased two 1uf caps. But, they were way to big to put on the unit because they had leads in oposite directions. Anyway I did find two 470 caps. A little small ,but I installed them. Now my lights are blink in sequence and it sounds a little like a heart beat through the headsets. I haven't programmed anything yet. My question is: should I just remove those caps from the circuit all together? and is it normal for that sound to be so low (barely audible? A prompt reply would be apreciated because I am fixing to seal everything in place.
  
  Thanks for your help in the past. and Thanks in Advance for this.
  
  :-)

  Posted by MovieMaker on August 04, 2007 at 18:53:04 Pacific Time

• Side LEDs?
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  What do the LEDs on the side of the glasses exactly do? Do they light up as well or are the just a waste of solder and time?

  Posted by dannydutton on August 02, 2007 at 19:01:25 Pacific Time

• What voltage is VCC ???
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  I have looked hi and lo and do not see the kind of voltage. I am assumming either 3,6, or 9. But it would be nice to know in order to make the battery holder.
  
  :-)

  Posted by MovieMaker on August 01, 2007 at 17:23:56 Pacific Time

• Using 24 guage Kynar wire?
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  So, my local Radio Shack only has 24 guage and lower Kynar (wire wrap) wire. Can I use this or does it have to be 30 guage? I'd order over the internet but unforunately I need it tomorrow.

  Posted by aenikolopov on August 01, 2007 at 12:35:15 Pacific Time

• How to change unit for Lucid Dreaming
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  Hi Mitch,
  Your unit looks Fantastic. I would like to build one. But, my need is to LUCID DREAM. It is almost the same technology. What resistors, capacitors, diodes, etc. do I have to change in order to do this? Or do I justl have to change to C program? Any help would be apreciated.
  
  yhmmc@yahoo.com is my email address.
  
  

  Posted by MovieMaker on August 01, 2007 at 08:15:41 Pacific Time

• Changed the program
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  Hi,
  I changed the program to make smooth linear transitions between the frequencies.
  
  BrainwaveElement:
  
  struct brainwaveElement {
  char bwType; // 'a' for Alpha, 'b' for Beta, 't' for Theta, or 'd' for Delta ('0' signifies last entry in table
  unsigned long int bwDuration; // Duration of this Brainwave Type (divide by 10,000 to get seconds)
  } const brainwaveTab[] PROGMEM = {
  { 'b', 600000 },
  { 'z', 800000 },
  { 'a', 600000 },
  { 'r', 800000 },
  { 't', 300000 },
  { 'm', 900000 },
  { 'd', 100000 },
  { 'n', 900000 },
  { 't', 300000 },
  { 's', 800000 },
  { 'a', 600000 },
  { 'x', 800000 },
  { 'b', 600000 },
  { '0', 0 }
  };
  
  Add this procedure after the blink_LEDs procedure:
  
  /*
  Function to slowly decrease or increase frequency over a period of time
  */
  void linearSlope(unsigned long int duration, unsigned long int startAudio, unsigned long int endAudio, unsigned long int startLed, unsigned long int endLed) {
  unsigned long int countDown=duration;
  unsigned long int audioFrequency=startAudio;
  unsigned long int ledPeriod=startLed;
  
  while (countDown>0)
  {
  OCR1A=audioFrequency;
  PORTB |= 0b00000011; // turn on LEDs at PB0, PB1
  delay_one_tenth_ms(ledPeriod); // for onTime
  PORTB &= 0b11111100; // turn off LEDs at PB0, PB1
  delay_one_tenth_ms(ledPeriod); // for offTime
  //recalculate values
  if (countDown<2*ledPeriod)
  {
  countDown=0;
  break;
  }
  else
  {
  countDown-=2*ledPeriod;
  }
  if (endAudio>startAudio)
  {
  audioFrequency=((duration-countDown)*(endAudio-startAudio))/duration+startAudio;
  ledPeriod=((duration-countDown)*(endLed-startLed))/duration+startLed;
  }
  else
  {
  audioFrequency=startAudio-((duration-countDown)*(startAudio-endAudio))/duration;
  ledPeriod=startLed-((duration-countDown)*(startLed-endLed))/duration;
  }
  }
  }
  
  
  
  After void do_brainwave_element(int index) {
  char brainChr = pgm_read_byte(&brainwaveTab[index].bwType);
  
  Add this
  
  if (brainChr == 'z') //b->a
  {
  linearSlope( pgm_read_dword(&brainwaveTab[index].bwDuration),9637,9714,347,450);
  }
  
  if (brainChr == 'x') //a->b
  {
  linearSlope( pgm_read_dword(&brainwaveTab[index].bwDuration),9714,9637,450,347);
  }
  
  if (brainChr == 'r') //a->t
  {
  linearSlope( pgm_read_dword(&brainwaveTab[index].bwDuration),9714,9836,450,835);
  }
  
  if (brainChr == 's') //t->a
  {
  linearSlope( pgm_read_dword(&brainwaveTab[index].bwDuration),9836,9714,835,450);
  }
  
  if (brainChr == 'm') //t->d
  {
  linearSlope( pgm_read_dword(&brainwaveTab[index].bwDuration),9836,9928,835,2253);
  }
  
  if (brainChr == 'n') //d->t
  {
  linearSlope( pgm_read_dword(&brainwaveTab[index].bwDuration),9928,9836,2253,835);
  }
  
  Enjoy
  
  

  Posted by Bleupomme on July 29, 2007 at 12:23:54 Pacific Time

• LED's
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  What effect (if any) would there be if you used a different color LED (say blue).

  Posted by KimoK on July 29, 2007 at 03:50:15 Pacific Time

• Mouser out of phone jacks
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  Looking up the phone jack at Mouser, part #161-3402 shows that 161-3402 is listed as obsolete (ie, unavailable), though it is the 7.79mm jack, not the 3.5mm listed in the article. #161-3402-E is the 3.5mm version, but it is listed as out of stock until mid August. My question is - where could I find a replacement for this? Can I just rip out any old 3.5mm headphone jack off an old walkman or somesuch, or can I potentially get this through RS?

  Posted by aenikolopov on July 27, 2007 at 17:21:44 Pacific Time

• help on programming the slr
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  hello
  
  I am trying to program the slr, and I cannot get the slr.hex to be created. I get this message, can anyone help me?
  
  irongus
  
  C:\My Documents\slm>make slm.hex
  
  Compiling: slm.c
  avr-gcc -c -I. -g -Os -funsigned-char -funsigned-bitfields -f
  pack-struct -fshort-enums -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -DF_CPU=8000000 -Wa,-ad
  hlns=slm.lst -mmcu=attiny2313 -std=gnu99 slm.c -o slm.o
  avr-gcc: _spawnv: No such file or directory
  MAKE.EXE: *** [slm.o] Error 1
  
  

  Posted by irongus on July 24, 2007 at 16:06:00 Pacific Time

• delay sequence
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  I got it working! now I want to program so there is a five hour delay and then begins to stimulate beta waves (put it on before you go to sleep so it kicks in right in the middle of REM phase of sleep). How do I program a new sequence where the leds remain off? I tried but I can only make a delay which the leds remain on.
  
  heres what I put into the slm.c folder:
  
  
  else if (brainChr == 'n') {
  // PORTB &= 0b00001100; // (for debugging purposes only -- commented out for SLM)
  // PORTB |= 0b00010000;
  // Nothing
  // start Timer 1 with the correct Offset Frequency for a binaural beat for the Brainwave Type
  // to Right ear speaker through output OC1A (PB3, pin 15)
  OCR1A = 9928; // T1 generates 0.0Hz, for a binaural beat of 0.0Hz
  // delay for the time specified in the table while blinking the LEDs at the correct rate
  // onTime = 0.0ms, offTime = 0.0ms --> 0.0Hz
  blink_LEDs( pgm_read_dword(&brainwaveTab[index].bwDuration), 0, 0 );
  return; // Nothing
  }

  Posted by chennate on July 21, 2007 at 19:50:02 Pacific Time

• RE: SLM for sleep
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  @ Robert (PCSA)
  
  Regarding your difficulty in getting the compiled program to write to the chip...
  
  You have to modify the Makefile. Open it with a text editor, and a few lines down you should see
  
  # Default target.
  all: begin gccversion \
  minipov.hex all_leds.hex alt_leds.hex mypov.hex test_leds.hex \
  largeimage.hex slm.hex lowslm.hex\
  finished end
  
  # Program the device w/various programs
  program-minipov: minipov.hex
  program-all_leds: all_leds.hex
  program-test_leds: test_leds.hex
  program-alt_leds: alt_leds.hex
  program-mypov: mypov.hex
  program-test_sensor: test_sensor.hex
  program-largeimage: largeimage.hex
  program-makefair: makefair.hex
  program-slm: slm.hex
  program-lowslm: lowslm.hex
  
  You have to add your program names in these two places, I believe. For example, I wrote a program called lowslm.c to lower the audio frequencies by an octave, so I had to let the Makefile know to look for it.
  
  Hope this helps!

  Posted by tenax8 on July 20, 2007 at 13:10:57 Pacific Time

• SLM for sleep!
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  Hi Mitch,
  
  First off, thank you so much for this great project. I’m hoping to put your inventiveness to good use for some friends and I, but I was hoping you could help me.
  
  I’d done some research on sleep patterns in the past and learned that our sleep cycles proceed in phases (essentially from alpha waves, to theta, to delta, back to theta, then beta for REM and the cycle repeats starting with the first theta portion.) I also remembered reading that even when we take a fifteen minute “power” nap, our brain spends a little bit of time in each phase (even though a typical sleep cycle lasts approximately ninety minutes.)
  
  In short, I was hoping to use the SLM to reproduce our natural sleep cycles in a much shorter timeframe and run experiments on a short and long-term basis. Imagine getting in several sleep cycles in the amount of time it would normally take to get through one!
  
  I began by altering your code as seen below. This is the only portion of the code I changed (although ultimately I’ll need to alter the frequencies to take into account spindles and k-complexes.)
  
  } const brainwaveTab[] PROGMEM = {
  { 'a', 2700000 },
  { 't', 2700000 },
  { 'd', 1575000 },
  { 't', 2700000 },
  { 'b', 1575000 },
  { 't', 2700000 },
  { 'd', 1575000 },
  { 't', 2700000 },
  { 'b', 1575000 },
  { 't', 600000 },
  { '0', 0 }
  };
  
  Now, I’ve saved this c-file as hsleep1 and when I run “make hsleep1.hex” there doesn’t appear to be a problem. However, things get crazy when I try to run “make program-hsleep1”.
  
  ********************************
  
  C:\slm>make program-hsleep1
  avrdude –p attiny2313 -: com1 -c dasa –U flash:w:
  
  avrdude: AVR device initialized and ready to accept instructions
  
  Reading | ################################################## | 100% 0.59s
  
  avrdude: Device signature = 0x1e910a
  avrdude: NOTE: FLASH memory has been specified, an erase cycle will be performed
  
  To disable this feature, specify the –D option.
  avrdude: erasing chip
  avrdude: reading input file “” // I think is where it crashes
  avrdude: error opening : No such file or directory
  avrdude: input file auto detected as invalid format
  avrdude: can’t open input file : No such file or directory
  avrdude: write to file ’’ failed
  
  avrdude: safemode: Fuses OK
  
  avrdude done. Thank you.
  
  make: *** [program-hsleep1] Error 1
  
  ******************************
  
  If anyone out there could give me some ideas on how to correct whatever’s going on, I’d greatly appreciate it. Thanks again Mitch for the awesome project.
  
  Robert
  

  Posted by PCSA on July 19, 2007 at 13:54:54 Pacific Time

• Up and running - a few mods
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  I just finished my first try at the machine. What a great project!
  
  My soldering experience is very limited (and comes from the era of "the bigger the blob, the better the job"), so I was pretty nervous about soldering such fine connections. But, I guess I got pretty lucky because it worked the very first try with no problems at all.
  
  I did make a few design choices that made it come out looking pretty nice. For one, I chose a project enclosure so that I wouldn't have a circuit board stuck to the side of my glasses. The enclosure helps a lot: I drilled a 1/4" hole where I was able to properly mount the headset jack, and I cut another tiny hole for the LED and battery pack wires to come through and used some of the silicone on the inside for strain relief. A square hole cut into the front allows the 9-pin connector to come out just far enough to allow a cable connection. (I did make the mistake of choosing an enclosure that wasn't tall enough to accomodate the capacitors that I'd already soldered onto the board, so I had to drill a couple holes in the top where they stick out a tiny bit (almost flush with the top surface). Next time, I'll try to find smaller capacitors or I'll mount them horizontally.
  
  Next, insteadof using sunglasses, I used a pair of safety glasses - the kind you're supposed to use when around power tools. This has a couple good benefits: The plastic is thicker, so the LED's mount much more securely. A 13/64" drill bit made holes that the LEDs practically snap into, so no glue was needed on the outside. Another benefit to the safety glasses is that they have a lot of clearance on the inside - so I drilled a tiny hole at the top of the frame abve each LED and routed the wires inside. I drilled another into the sides where the arms meet the face of the glasses, and used that for routing all the wires. The result is that there are very few visible wires so it looks very pro.
  
  I mounted the enclosure on one side and the battery pack on the other (with the switch pointing inward so that the batteries can be changed without removing the pack. I used the silicon to mount the enclosure and battery pack to the glasses (another benefit to using safety glasses: The sides are huge and have lots of gluing surface).
  
  One question: Where would I connect a potentiometer to provide a volume control without dimming the lights? The enclosure has enough room to mount a little knob, and I think that would be a great feature so that volume-controlled headphones become unnecessary.
  
  If you can't tell already, I had a blast with this project. I plan on making several of them. I'd REALLY love to be able to have five or six different programs selectable by a switch, but I'm thinking that would require three chips and lots more wiring. I might instead just make a collection of different machines, each dedicated to a single program. (1. The current meditation, 2.get to sleep, 3.increase alertness, 4.relax, 5.stimulate lucid dreaming.)
  
  Thanks for such a great project!
  
  Wayne

  Posted by WayneZ on July 18, 2007 at 19:48:36 Pacific Time

• SLM folder&programming
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  Mitch,
  I am still not getting something in step 1e.
  I got the hardware to work the led's to light after changing the serial cable from a belkin to the one recommended from newegg.
  I got the vvvvv to light but not from an slm directory,from ladaynet instructions. Now can't get to change to the slm programming.
  Where does the slm folder go or what do I need to do?

  Posted by TVinU on July 18, 2007 at 04:58:41 Pacific Time

• adding some abient sounds?
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  Mitch,
  I cannot tell you how much I love this project, I would like to add some sound in with the brainwaves, like rain falling.
  I am fairly new to the whole microprocessor programming so if this is stupid i am sorry. I would like to have a small audio track loop like 3 seconds (or so) of rain falling to play with the brainwaves. Is this possible? I am not opposed to using a separate microcontroller and then adding in two small speakers in the headset that is connected to the SLM. So essentially I would like to have one playing a small rain loop and then the SLM doing its thing. any help or suggestions, or even telling me "that is not the right way to do that" would be great. Thanks for your time and response, in advance.
  

  Posted by tehCaptin2 on July 16, 2007 at 09:09:46 Pacific Time

• Problems with my Audio
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  Hello,
  This is an amazing project, but i am unable to get the audio to work. I have connected everything as described, but have run into a road block with the audio. I burned the fuses as i read someone else had audio issues, but it still will not work. I am quite proficient with soldering, and there are no bridges and I believe that everything is connected properly, but obviously it is not since i get no audio. Any help would be really appreciated. Thank you

  Posted by tehCaptin on July 15, 2007 at 11:46:52 Pacific Time

• Programming
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  Having trouble installing slm programming.
  I am using xp and opened the command prompt.
  Is this where to use the slm program.
  What else is there to do?
  tv

  Posted by TVinU on July 14, 2007 at 12:31:48 Pacific Time

• 
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  I finally got the controller programmed and all of the connections straightened out, but I haven't been able to find any of the 30 guage wire. Is it OK if I use 28 guage wire that is not wrapped? Or are there any other solutions that anyone has? Thanks.

  Posted by chennate on July 10, 2007 at 14:32:09 Pacific Time

• A couple of construction tips
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  Hi Mitch. Great project. I have a tip that should make step 2e easier. I have alot of experience soldering but soldering the Kynar wire on the pads in step 2e looked a bit tricky. So I after step 2b I left the capacitor leads in place and when I got to step 2e I bent the end of the Kynar wire into small hooks and attached them to the capacitor leads, pushed them down against the pads and then soldered them. This made it alot easier to ensure the wire was in place during the soldering.
  
  One other thing tip - I wasn't exactly sure what to buy for the silicone adhesive - until I looked very carefully at the photo of the parts and noticed that it's aquarium sealant. The finding a small tube of it was a snap.

  Posted by cyber_alchemist on July 08, 2007 at 19:38:40 Pacific Time

• SLM Timing
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  I have my kit up and running, but the timing is off. Comparing to your timing chart, my timing is consistently a multiple of 7 (e.g. 60 seconds lasts 420 sec, 10 sec lasts 70, etc). I built from kit and am programming w/ the USBtiny kit using AVRDUDE. Do you have a fix? Thanks.

  Posted by zzag on July 07, 2007 at 10:51:43 Pacific Time

• Re: SLM Programming sequences
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  > Hey Mitch,
  > Great machine! Took a few tries but I finally got my SLM programmed and
  > running. I had started out having built the Brainwave machine using the
  > lpt port with 8 leds and ran connected to a computer.. The advantage of
  > that one is it was easy to program on the fly . but yours are
  > portable..:) I am still trying to make sense of how to program these
  > controllers to do what you want and was wondering if you had any other
  > slm code written other than what was provided with the slm? Like maybe
  > from wake to deep sleep, or just something to restful..I have fallen
  > aslepp with the SLM on but everytime it ends i am wide awake again
  >
  > Thanks Bill
  >
  > Posted by whc83 on June 30, 2007 at 18:04:16 Pacific Time
  
  Hi Bill,
  
  I have been working on sequences for waking up and for going to sleep, and for going back to sleep (when you wake up in the middle of the night). I don't have those sequences ready to give out yet, but I can tell you a bit about each.
  
  But first I'll say that you can try your own sequences. Feel free to play around with the sequence given in the SLM firmware. For instance, you can truncate the meditation sequence. The meditation sequence brings you from being awake, to very relaxed, hanging out there awhile, and then back up again feeling fabulous. If you delete all of the brainwaveElements after the way-relaxed elements, then you are left feeling very (very!) relaxed. I have tried this out on my sister-in-law, who is not a very good sleeper, and it worked great for her (I actually just had her try it out just before going to bed, wearing the glasses only for 7 minutes, rather than the full 14 minutes, taking the glasses off during the way-relaxed part of the sequence).
  
  To truncate the meditation sequence to stop after becoming way relaxed, delete all of the lines after the last Delta brainwaveElement, but be sure to leave the last brainwaveElement of " '0', 0 ", which tells the firmware to turn off the microcontroller. It might be better for sleeping, though, if you add in several more Theta and Delta brainwaveElements added before turning it off.
  
  Going into meditation is somewhat similar to going to sleep, but it is not the same. Meditation requires that you keep some beta stimulated so that you do not fall asleep. The idea of meditation is to stimulate your subconscious mind as well as your deeper unconscious mind while being awake enough to experience it. For sleep, on the other hand, turning off your conscious mind is important, so you want to eventually fade out all Beta. So, start with Beta, then start fading it out while increasing Alpha, then fade Theta in while fading Alpha out. Then pulse some Delta while having mostly Theta. End the sequence with an extended play of Theta. You should be able to find some places on the web where the sleep sequence is well documented.
  
  To wake up, you start out with some Beta, but lots of Alpha, and a little Theta. Then fade out the Theta while fading the Beta in some. Then fade out Alpha while fading in Beta, ending with just Beta.
  
  Going back to sleep after waking up is not so easy for lots of people. My experience is that if you bring people more fully awake, then they will fall asleep much more easily. So, what I have done is do a short wakeup sequence, bringing the person to a "known good state" (so to speak), and then do a sleep sequence. I have found that this works really well for most people.
  
  I hope that gets your creative juices flowing.
  
  Mitch.
  

  Posted by maltman23 on July 03, 2007 at 18:20:17 Pacific Time

• Lame Question
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  Hi, my husband fell in love with the idea of this project and I am trying to surprise him with the whole kit before he gets to it. My main question is about soldering irons. The one he has got chwed up by my cat and I would like to get him a new one. It was one of those cheapy ones from the hardware store and he mentioned he wants to get a more appropiate one for electronics. Any suggestions? would like to spend less that $70
  Thanks!!

  Posted by MaruatCircleStudiox on July 02, 2007 at 15:02:34 Pacific Time

• Triple LED goggles
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  aren't looking like a success. As I'd feared, the color doesn't have an impact thru the eyelid, and the spacing of the LEDs as I did it (about 3/4" apart) diminishes the cycle impact - it's not a strong enough repeated impact on the optic nerve.
  
  So I wouldn't recommend the experiment.

  Posted by Swampdog on June 27, 2007 at 11:10:40 Pacific Time

• Doh!
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  So I go back to see if maybe I've got a solder bridge or a short that's keeping the sound from working. I'm examining the board with a magnifying glass. Finally I notice - I never put the 1K resistors in pads 5 & 6. That'll do it, that right there, yup, you betcha. Now I just need to figure out how to make the blue leds light up.
  
  

  Posted by Swampdog on June 26, 2007 at 18:10:18 Pacific Time

• I appreciate the article
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  Hi Mitch - Thank you for contributing this project. I ordered the mouser.com parts and am getting my 7 year old son interested in this project. We are going to have a lot fun. Thanks again. Stephen

  Posted by stephenhobbs on June 26, 2007 at 17:39:35 Pacific Time

• V2
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  Let me start off with THANKS, what a great product. I'm planning to build several pairs and taking them to burning man for people to play with.
  
  I made one of these with a few small difficulties* that I worked thru. I'm now on V2 and I've got a few small difficulties that I haven't yet worked thru. V2 has 3 leds in 3 colors per eye. I wired the leds into the 5-8 sockets and modified the program as follows:
  In the function blink_leds I changed
  for (int i=0; i<(duration/(onTime+offTime)); i++) {
  PORTB |= 0b00000011; // turn on LEDs at PB0, PB1
  delay_one_tenth_ms(onTime); // for onTime
  PORTB &= 0b11111100; // turn off LEDs at PB0, PB1
  delay_one_tenth_ms(offTime); // for offTime
  -----------
  to
  for (int i=0; i<(duration/(3*(onTime+offTime))); i++) {
  PORTB |= 0b00000011; // turn on LEDs at PB0, PB1
  delay_one_tenth_ms(onTime); // for onTime
  PORTB &= 0b11111100; // turn off LEDs at PB0, PB1
  delay_one_tenth_ms(offTime); // for offTime
  PORTB |= 0b00110000; // turn on LEDs at PB0, PB1
  delay_one_tenth_ms(onTime); // for onTime
  PORTB &= 0b11001111; // turn off LEDs at PB0, PB1
  delay_one_tenth_ms(offTime); // for offTime
  PORTB |= 0b11000000; // turn on LEDs at PB0, PB1
  delay_one_tenth_ms(onTime); // for onTime
  PORTB &= 0b00111111; // turn off LEDs at PB0, PB1
  delay_one_tenth_ms(offTime); // for offTime
  }
  -----------------
  Problem 1: The blue LED (on sockets 7-8) doesn't light up. I tinkered with the program, I think I've addressed it correctly. I think the LEDs have a different resistance than the others so I'll experiment with putting different levels of resistance in those sockets this evening. Suggestions welcome. I'm using Radio Shack super bright blue LEDs.
  Problem 2: No sound. I had originally wired the battery in backwards and the chip got pretty hot. Is it likely I burned it out? The solders all look clean, I'll check them again. I'm using the radio shack bipolar 1Mf capacitors which are a little awkward - the wiring comes off the ends and it's a little bulky. Suggestions?
  
  -----------
  *here are issues I encountered on my V1 in case it's helpful to anyone else building.
  
  1. Wired the "original" LEDs into sockets 5-8 instead of 1-4 b/c I'd read it wrong which was which.
  2. Wired the battery pack backwards. Symptom - nothing works and the chip gets hot.
  3. I had a struggle getting the AvrDude software loaded. In hindsight,I don't think I rtfm'd at ladyada.com. I read "download and install" and went out to google to find Avrdude, etc. I think this could be clearer, but fault primarily mine.
  4. I did glue the battery pack with the switch facing inboard with the hope that when I need to replace batteries I can get the case cover off without snipping the cable ties. Worst case, I snip the cable ties and redo them, but the glue is fine.
  5. I find the volume a little too loud in the earphones. I think the easy solution is to get a pair of earphones with built in volume control, used to be pretty cheap ones you could get that way. I think it intensifies the effect with the volume up and I get interesting aural afterimages.
  
  -----
  I'm also planning to experiment with another project in Make 10. I want to take the "dice" project, add in a variable capacitor to be able to adjust the timing up and down, and wire it up to 3 LEDs per eye or a 3 way LED. I saw something like this at Maker Faire 1.0 and it made really trippy visuals although I don't think it's going to manipulate your brainwaves.
  
  (sorry for the long note)

  Posted by Swampdog on June 26, 2007 at 10:23:12 Pacific Time

• Capacitor
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  Is there a replacement 1uf capacitor for the brain machine? Mouser is back ordered until september.

  Posted by TVinU on June 25, 2007 at 15:03:09 Pacific Time

• Running make program-mypov
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  when I execute "make program-mypov" I get the following error message:
  avrdude -p attiny2313 -P com1 -c dasa -U flash:w:mypov.hex
  error at ..\slm\avrdude.comf:370 unrecognized character: "u"
  make: *** [program-mypov] Error 1
  
  any ideas?
  thanks,
  bill.

  Posted by wmindel on June 22, 2007 at 18:21:28 Pacific Time

• Volume control
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  Suggestion: for someone that is bothered by a loud volume try putting the headset against the hard boney area above/behind the ear. The audiologist does this during a hearing test.
  I built the miniPOV and the USB charger some months ago but never got around to programming the POV. Real life. Priority interupts. Now I feel re-inspired.
  My problem is that I'm a little more than half deaf. Volume control will most likely be required. I read all of the current posts so I have your fix for that.
  I was thinking about cannabalizing a $1 store or old radio for parts but I haven't had a lot of luck with desoldering so I'll probably just buy the parts.
  This could work well for power naps. Power down, sleep 10-20 mins, power up. Or is going thru the sequence enough without the sleep?
  Thanks for an inexpensive and fun project. Sounds like one could save money on LSD, sleep aids, uppers, downers, antidepressants, shrinks, etc. with the SLM. I'm kidding about the LSD.

  Posted by sasha916 on June 22, 2007 at 11:14:47 Pacific Time

• WinAvr software
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  Mitch,
  1. I think I soldered everything right. When I turn on the power the lights light up one after another - not all at once. Is that right?
  2. I can't find the link to download WinAVR from the ladyada website - I've looked everywhere - can you, please, post a link?
  I appreciate all the help (its my first "soldering/programming" project - so nothing seems easy :)
  Bill.
  

  Posted by wmindel on June 22, 2007 at 09:08:19 Pacific Time

• chnage the tone/pitch?
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  Hello,
  
  Can anyone give quick easy instructions for changing the pitch of the binaural tones?
  
  The default tones are too high pitch and loud to be relaxing. I built my goggles last week and have been using them daily, and my only complaint is the sound is just too darn loud.
  
  Thanks

  Posted by jeffthrow on June 20, 2007 at 15:09:10 Pacific Time

• compiling?
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  so i was doing well. i got most of the kinks worked out, but im down to downloading the slm program onto it. i dont seem to have slm.hex, although i do have slm.c. where do i find it/how do i make it?

  Posted by sonicboom16 on June 18, 2007 at 13:34:30 Pacific Time

• More programming troubles.
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  I'm pretty sure I have everything soldered correctly, but the programming instructions are just plain bad... i hooked up the headphone jack and no sound comes through. the red lights still do the VVVVV pattern though... can i get a step by step from someone?

  Posted by cdxnolan on June 18, 2007 at 13:28:46 Pacific Time

• More programming troubles.
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  Posted by cdxnolan on June 18, 2007 at 13:26:27 Pacific Time

• soldering, great!! Programming, eh...
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  Hi Mitch,
  
  Things were moving along great until I got to the programming part. My command window doesn't seem to like the word "make". It says "not recognized as an internal or external command". What am I doing wrong?
  
  jim

  Posted by jvanis65 on June 16, 2007 at 13:24:21 Pacific Time

• The IC...
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  I bought two minipov3 kits, one for practice and the other to build the slm. I successfully completed soldering both kits and then promptly mangled the pins on one of the integrated circuits as I was putting it in its socket. As I straightened out the pins, some of them broke off! I was wondering if I specifically need ladyada's IC with its preprogrammed info or will a "blank" replacement IC of the same type work with your firmware?

  Posted by evenmadderdawg on June 16, 2007 at 10:40:04 Pacific Time

• Got it working
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  I received the MiniPOV kit and the extra parts from Mouser, and got my SLM built. It works great.
  
  At first I tried programming it on my Mac + Keyspan USB serial. Regardless of delay given to avrdude, it will not work. I'll look into this as this is my preferred platform. I next tried the January 2007 WinAVR package on a my windows box, and that worked.
  
  The only odd thing is that when it runs the full sequence and the cpu is put into sleep mode, it will not restart at the next power toggle. I have to connect +V to pin 10 to reset, then it runs fine. If the power is toggled while the code is running, it restarts normally. FWIW, my chip is the attiny2313V-10PU. Anybody else have this problem?
  
  Mitch, thanks for putting this project together!
  
  -Brent
  
  P.s. My kit came with 100 Ohm resistors, since a poster below said theirs came with 100k Ohm. 100 Ohm is given in some kits, according to ladyada.net.

  Posted by AustinMTB on June 14, 2007 at 18:24:16 Pacific Time

• Program cd
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  I finished soldering, and the lights flashed, but I'm having trouble programming it. When I type cd and hit enter it says "The system cannot find the path specified". I have tried changing the directory to other things and I keep getting the same message. Do you have any idea what the problem may be?
  

  Posted by ice19berg on June 14, 2007 at 18:13:40 Pacific Time

• Using more LEDs
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  >Question: Do you think it would be
  >possible to fire the other spare LEDs as
  >periphery in the glasses. Maybe have them
  >'transition' to the next stage for the
  >main center LEDs. Do you even think thats
  >worth looking in to?
  >
  >Posted by radiorental on June 11, 2007 at
  >10:21:43 Pacific Time
  
  Yes, this is worth looking into.
  
  Brains emit frequencies across a spectrum, from down to almost DC, up to about 100Hz. Not only that, but they emit varying amplitudes at these frequencies continuously, all at once.
  
  The Brain Machine in this article simplifies things tremendously by only emits one brainwave frequency at a time, and the amplitude is either totally on or totally off. I am amazed at how well this works on almost everyone whose tried the ones I've built. And by now more than 1000 people have tried it.
  
  But it can be even more effective if we model brainwave sequences closer to what the brain actually does when it goes from one state to another and all of the states in between (such as awake to meditation, awake to sleep, etc).
  
  Adding more LEDs would allow emitting more than one brainwave frequency at a time. That makes it easier for your brain to entrain to the various frequencies. The trade-off is that this makes the firmware more complex. (I decided to make the firmware as simple as possible for this project so that it was easier to hack for people just starting out with microcontrollers).
  
  I am currently working on a much more complex version of this Brain Machine. It has 4 LEDs, one for each brainwave type. I am actually using 4 different colored LEDs. The brightness of each LED can be adjusted independently by the firmware. So I can program the Brain Machine to vary the amplitude of each brainwave frequency over time throughout the sequence it produces. This more closely models what goes on in a person's brain. I am also doing something similar with the sound: instead of one pitch, I am using 4 pitches to create a musical chord, with one pitch per brainwave type, with the volume of each being independently adjustable by the firmware. I am finding that separating out the 4 brainwave types into 4 different colored LEDs and 4 different pitches makes this more complex Brain Machine extremely effective for peoples' brains to entrain to.
  
  To study this further, I am building an EEG (an instrument for measuring brainwave frequencies and amplitudes), which will allow me to experiment with all this more rigorously. For those interested in building their own EEG, here is a online community that is working on an open source one that works really well:
  http://openeeg.sourceforge.net/
  
  Mitch.
  

  Posted by maltman23 on June 11, 2007 at 12:50:28 Pacific Time

• enviroment for windows
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  Hi, in instructions, inc Ladyada, there's no mention of recomended tools for windows. hehe.. you both just jump from download samples then 'make' (o; I did manage to find a setup of gnu tools but it wont compile. Can you insert a link to a recommended download?
  
  thanks

  Posted by radiorental on June 09, 2007 at 15:29:07 Pacific Time

• Wow
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  Just finished and tried it out. A little loud, but not painfully so. I'm not sure my brain waves changed much, but it was quite a light show! I was surprised at all the colors and patterns that my eyes & brain produced from two flashing LEDs. Just about every color you can imagine.
  
  After I got it put together, I realized that changing batteries may be a bit of a problem. I guess I 'll have to cut the cable ties and maybe leave the battery cover off after installing new ones, so that I can just slip batteries under the cable ties in the future. Has anyone tried that?
  
  

  Posted by Replicant on June 07, 2007 at 12:35:37 Pacific Time

• couple questions
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  Most of the way built... need to finish last assembly bits. 2 questions:
  
  1. Any thought to being able to change batteries? wire ties and silicone make it kinda hard with the arrangement shown in the magazine, at least it looks that way. I glued the battery lid vertically onto the side of the glasses, with the screw exposed above the top.. I think it might work and allow the battery part to detach. We'll see.
  
  2. Seems rather loud from the hookup-test-drive, even with some largish headphones not ear-buds. Any ideas on quieting it a bit without messing up the RC cutoff?
  
  

  Posted by edwinh on June 05, 2007 at 23:14:41 Pacific Time

• Error on compiling-Mac
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  I've got the miniPOV working and accepting miniPOV programs with no problem, but when I try to compile and send the slm firmware I get the following errors:
  
Compiling: slm.c
avr-gcc -c -I. -g -Os -funsigned-char -funsigned-bitfields -fpack-struct -fshort-enums -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -DF_CPU=8000000 -Wa,-adhlns=slm.lst -mmcu=attiny2313 -std=gnu99 slm.c -o slm.o
slm.c:127:58: error: invalid suffix "b0000001" on integer constant
slm.c:139:14: error: invalid suffix "b00000011" on integer constant
slm.c:141:14: error: invalid suffix "b11111100" on integer constant
slm.c:229:12: error: invalid suffix "b01000010" on integer constant
slm.c:233:12: error: invalid suffix "b00000100" on integer constant
slm.c:246:12: error: invalid suffix "b01000000" on integer constant
slm.c:250:12: error: invalid suffix "b00001001" on integer constant
slm.c:255:12: error: invalid suffix "b00000000" on integer constant
slm.c:270:13: error: invalid suffix "b11111000" on integer constant
slm.c:271:13: error: invalid suffix "b11111000" on integer constant
slm.c:272:12: error: invalid suffix "b00100000" on integer constant
slm.c:273:12: error: invalid suffix "b00010000" on integer constant
make: *** [slm.o] Error 1

  I'm running Mac OS 10.4.9. Any ideas? I've edited the makefile to my specs and like I said, there are no errors compiling and sending any of the miniPOV programs.

  Posted by TheCheatOSX on June 05, 2007 at 19:39:24 Pacific Time

• Correction
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  Sorry, that should be 30 awg magnet wire.

  Posted by ice19berg on June 04, 2007 at 15:35:34 Pacific Time

• 30 awg wire
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  I just got back from radio shack where i found everything i needed except the 30 awg wire. They had 3 awg magnet wire and i bought it, but i don't think it's the right stuff. Can i use this, or should i just get lower awg wire?
  
  Thanks,
  Seth

  Posted by ice19berg on June 04, 2007 at 15:22:37 Pacific Time

• Low-Tech Version of Brain Machine
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  Back in 1959, rtist Brion Gysin and scientist Ian Sommerville created a similar flicker device they dubbed the "Dreamachine". It is simply a large cardboard tube with pattered holes cut into it, attached to a phonograph turntable and a light bulb hanging inside of it. You set the turntable at 78 RPM, turn on the light (the only light in the room), and sit in front of it with your eyes closed. The flashing lights will trigger your optic nerves. According to Gysin, instrumental music will help the effect, but vocal music will interfere since your brain will be trying to understand the lyrics. Wikipedia has a good article on the Dreamachine, as well as a number of related links:
  
  
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamachine
  
  
  For those with no access to a turntable that spins at 78 RPM, 45 RPM plans are available:
  http://www.permuted.org.uk/dmpdown.htm

  Posted by unidyne on June 02, 2007 at 11:23:10 Pacific Time

• Example audio done in ChucK
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  The computer music folks at Princeton created a language called ChucK (http://chuck.cs.princeton.edu/) that does realtime synthesis and many other things. They have downloadable binaries if you want to try it out.
  
  Binaural beats are easy to create by setting one channel to a base frequency, and the other channel to the base frequency plus X Hz, where X is the frequency corresponding to various brain waves (2.2, 6, 11.1, 14.4 are used). In code:
  
  
// Define left and right oscillators
SinOsc sl => dac.left;
SinOsc sr => dac.right;
0.75 => sl.gain;
0.75 => sr.gain;

// Define beat frequencies (in Hz)
2.2 => float delta;
6.0 => float theta;
11.1 => float alpha;
14.4 => float beta;

// Base tone: A
440.0 => float baseFreq;

// Define a shortcut function to set frequencies
fun void brainwave(float offset, dur length)
{
baseFreq => sr.freq;
baseFreq + offset => sl.freq;
length => now;
}


// Basic meditation sequence
brainwave(beta, 60::second);
brainwave(alpha, 10::second);
// continue per article's docs...

  
  The code above worked fine on my mac.

  Posted by AustinMTB on May 29, 2007 at 22:50:03 Pacific Time

• wire wrap?
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  This will be my first attempt at projects like this, and im just trying to clarify what the Kynar wire is. From what i can gather, its just a 30 gauge wire that you connect things with, right?

  Posted by darkarchives on May 29, 2007 at 17:37:16 Pacific Time

• Other scripts or effects?
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  ANyone know of any other scripts or effectst that would be compatible with this device (and a place to get the c files?)

  Posted by chembro84 on May 29, 2007 at 16:36:55 Pacific Time

• A Brain Wave Machine in 2 minutes
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  The article says that the audio part alone can entrain the brain. I don't have a mini POV kit but I do have a computer so why not using it to generate the binaural beats.
  
  I don't know whether the thing really induces hallucinations or not but here's a quick way for you guys with a Mac to check:
  
  Audio ToolBox is a audio function generator for the Machintosh that can do the job required here. It can be downloaded
  here as a trial version.
  
  The really cool thing about it is that it can be controlled via AppleScript. You can write a script to generate the sequence of binaural beats.
  
  I've posted a script here. It is a very simple sequence and my first Apple Script so... please be indulgent!
  

  Posted by LeGazier on May 26, 2007 at 20:56:34 Pacific Time

• Entrainment?
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  I searched this but didn't see much credible evidence on the subject. Has anyone tried this device or one similar to achieve altered brain states?

  Posted by buchacho on May 18, 2007 at 16:58:25 Pacific Time

• Applications for Lucid Dreaming
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  Hi Mitch,
  
  I am an administrator at www.dreamviews.com/community. We are a lucid dreaming site and discussion often turns to brainwave entrainment, especially in regards to meditation and programming your mind to have lucid dreams. I invite you and all the readers of this magazine to visit us. I will also be posting a topic with a link to this article.
  
  Mitch, have you ever given thought to developing a device similar to the Nova Dreamer?
  
  Regards,
  Seeker

  Posted by Seeker_dreamviews on May 18, 2007 at 09:44:00 Pacific Time

• minipov2 fixed
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  Wouldn't you know it, ten minutes after I post, I get it fixed.
  
  Change
  
  AVRDUDE_PROGRAMMER = dasa
  
  to
  
  AVRDUDE_PROGRAMMER = dt006
  
  change port to
  
  AVRDUDE_PORT = lpt1
  
  and in default target add slm.hex
  
  all: begin gccversion \
  minipov.hex all_leds.hex alt_leds.hex mypov.hex test_leds.hex \
  largeimage.hex slm.hex\
  finished end
  
  this is all in the makefile supplied by Mr. Altman.
  
  Now my MiniPOV2 is an SLM!
  
  

  Posted by tenax8 on May 17, 2007 at 10:37:33 Pacific Time

• SLM with miniPOV2?
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  I have a miniPOV2 (which programs via the parallel port) that I am trying to make into an SLM, but I am running into problems with writing the slm.hex file to the chip.
  
  In the makefile, I have changed the fourth line to:
  
  AVRDUDE_PORT = lpt1
  
  and I have a feeling that I should be changing the previous line
  
  AVRDUDE_PROGRAMMER = dasa
  
  to something else, but I don't know what. It seems that dasa is a programmer that utilizes the serial port, and I assume we are using it because we are writing to ROM on the chip? but beyond that I don't rally understand.
  
  Suffice it to say, I am newb.
  
  All of the source code for miniPOV2 from ladyada.net works fine, including her makefile. I have created slm.hex using her makefile, but still get errors when writing it to the chip.
  
  Does anyone have any ideas about this? Or can we get code that works with miniPOV2?
  
  thanks

  Posted by tenax8 on May 17, 2007 at 10:15:34 Pacific Time

• question about capacitors
  You must be logged in to reply.
  
  
  Hi ! looks like a cool experiment! I might give it a try...
  I see that in the magazine the capacitors values are 1uF and that in the schematic that you put online at :
  http://makezine.com/images/10/SLMschematic.pdf
  they seem to be .1uF ...
  what would be best to use ?
  also does "bipolar capacitors" stand for regular electrolytic capacitors or is it something special that I don't know about ?
  thanx good job for the article!

  Posted by phil.savard on May 17, 2007 at 10:15:10 Pacific Time

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