Resurrecting the decibel meter via KickStarter

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Resurrecting the decibel meter via KickStarter

Post by jpswensen » January 10th, 2017, 5:07 pm

I brought up the decibel meter a few days ago and another lively discussion ensued. It seems that many of us have fond memories of it and other wish they could have seen it. I know ideas have been thrown out before about resurrecting it, but nothing has really happened. I could make a simple one in a solid weekend of work for about $700-1000. I would take the easiest route possible (hence the higher cost), but was wondering what people think about whether it would get funded. The nice thing about this one, as opposed to the block A electronics device I have talked about on here before, is that I wouldn't have to jump through a million product licensing hoops to get it approved. Additionally, it could all be done with off-the-shelf parts:
1) a USB-connected OEM sound meter - $100
2) a RaspberryPi 3 and voltage regulator - $45
3) a 40"+ LED TV (focus on high brightness and high viewing angle so the students down in the crazies section can see it) plus mounting hardware - $500-800

There are a couple of outstanding questions though:
1) If the meter was donated to the school after the kickstarter, would they actually install it
2) Who is the right person to contact about the willingness of the school to do so (I contacted the USUSA VP of Athletics this morning, but haven't heard back yet)
3) What do you think I should set the fundraising goal as? I was thinking somewhere in the $2,000 range, but am open to suggestions if you think that is too high an wouldn't get enough backers.

During lunch today I wrote up a rough draft for the KickStarter and would like some feedback.
Rough Kickstarter Narrative:
It is widely known that the origin of the word decibel comes from the shortening of the phrase “decimate the bell”. This is in reference to some obscure village in Europe where the townspeople were so angry that their shouts toppled the town’s bell tower.

Actually, that is a load of crap. The ‘bel’ portion of decibel was named after Alexander Graham Bell. But, I think my story is way more cool.

Legend tells of a time when the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum at Utah State University had a decibel meter in the northeast corner and that at times the publishing of the rising sound levels within the arena would send students into a mad frenzy of cacophony and screaming only rivaled by Allen Fieldhouse and Cameron Indoor Stadium. Then, sometime in the space between the 2002-2003 season and the 2003-2004 season, the decibel meter was either broken or deemed unnecessary. With it died a little bit of the Spectrum Magic and began a slow descent of the raucous (and appropriately irreverent) Aggie spirit that once filled The Spectrum, culminating with its near complete neutering by The Apology (see http://www.usu.edu/today/pdf/2011/november/Apology.pdf).

Just as the Spectrum Magic began to wane the Day the Decibel Meter Died, its timely return could be the means of a Spectrum resurgence. We hope that you will take it upon yourself to be a part of that resurgence.

If you are from a school other than Utah State University and you think that a high-quality decibel meter could help your arena, you are free to pay the higher levels and I will collect contact information for the school of your choice and shipping information.

Minimum amount I want to raise: $2,000-3,000 to make it worth my time to put this all together. The minimum possible solution will be a screen with the sound level measured at the device and continuously displayed. If well above the campaign target amount, time will be dedicated to the stretch goals of making a much more complete and interactive interface. While the primary goal is to fund the decibel meter for USU, I am open to creating them for other schools also (though see the premium I would be charging to do so in the reward levels below).

Kickstarter rewards:
1) $10 for USU decibel meter - no reward other than the undying gratitude of Aggies fans past and future
2) $25 for USU decibel meter - vinyl decal “Bringing back the Spectrum Magic, 120 decibels at a time"
3) $100 for USU decibel meter - vinyl decal and your name is listed on the back panel of the device to forever memorialize your part in bring back a critical piece of Spectrum lore
4) $1,000 for USU decibel meter - I will work with USUSA Athletics VP to hold an unveiling ceremony where you will have the honor of unveiling the decibel meter (half of this will be donated to USUSA to try and garner their support). This could be a great advertising opportunity for a local business. If purchased and cooperation of USUSA cannot be obtained, this will be refunded.
4) $250 - access to the software developed, components used, etc. and allowed to use it in building your own (cannot resell your devices, NDA to disallow publication of parts list, but can develop for just one school. Great for high schools and smaller budgets where you want to get up and running quickly, but are OK with buying the parts and assembling yourself)
5) $3,000 - a complete solution, shipping, and phone support for getting it installed at your school.
6) $4,500 - a complete solution, shipping, on-site setup and training (will need someone from the institution’s facilities group to provide building alterations), and phone support.

Stretch goals:
1) Make an Android and iPhone app that can connect to the decibel meter. It will take a local decibel measurement on each connected device and allow competitions between different sections of the stadium.
a) This will also involve the creation of an “administrator” function where they can decide what is currently showing, whether it is on/off, etc.
2) Make the interface have a lot more info like plots of the sound level during the whole game. Have a per-game high score and an all-time high score.
3) Meters that are connected to the internet will publish to a website that lets us settle once and for all the debate over who has the loudest arena.


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Re: Resurrecting the decibel meter via KickStarter

Post by SaintAggie » January 10th, 2017, 8:28 pm

Love the idea. We really would need to know it would be used tho...



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Re: Resurrecting the decibel meter via KickStarter

Post by Roy McAvoy » January 10th, 2017, 8:53 pm

Wow thanks for all your work on that post. I would definitely be happy to donate. But am skeptical as to USU actually being able to put it to use.



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Re: Resurrecting the decibel meter via KickStarter

Post by treesap32 » January 10th, 2017, 10:29 pm

I would donate. The thing that made the other decibel meter great is that it had a blue and white "police" light on the top that would go off when it reached over 100 decibels. This was a reward for the crowd going crazy and would also attract attention to the meter during the game. Is there anything similar that could be done on the new one?



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Re: Resurrecting the decibel meter via KickStarter

Post by jpswensen » January 10th, 2017, 11:08 pm

treesap32 wrote:I would donate. The thing that made the other decibel meter great is that it had a blue and white "police" light on the top that would go off when it reached over 100 decibels. This was a reward for the crowd going crazy and would also attract attention to the meter during the game. Is there anything similar that could be done on the new one?
Since it is on a TV/computer screen and I will be writing a custom computer program to show the measurements and any other graphics, I can easily program in animations and other components that attempt to motivate the the crowd to drive the volume even higher. In fact, these could be automated so that any time the rate of change upward is "fast enough" that it would really start trying to get the crowd to push it higher.

For simplicity of fabrication, however, I would probably have it all be animations on the screen instead of adding another piece of hardware on the top (e.g. A blue light). The animation could be a a blue light, though, for nostalgia sake concerning the previous decibel meter. The TV I have been looking at to implement it with is a 49" TV. I had investigated what size screen and letter size I would need to make it easy visible from the top rows all the way across the arena and calculated in needed to be at least 40". The most affordable but still high brightness and high viewing angle TV I could find is 49".

If I implement a "admin mode", we could even have someone on the event staff with a mobile app that can trigger when the meter begins to display things like the blue light or other animations that indicate the crowd should pay attention and try to drive up the volume.


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Internet-connected Aggie A's: www.sports-iot.com
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Re: Resurrecting the decibel meter via KickStarter

Post by USUBlue » January 11th, 2017, 12:07 am

jpswensen wrote:
treesap32 wrote:I would donate. The thing that made the other decibel meter great is that it had a blue and white "police" light on the top that would go off when it reached over 100 decibels. This was a reward for the crowd going crazy and would also attract attention to the meter during the game. Is there anything similar that could be done on the new one?
Since it is on a TV/computer screen and I will be writing a custom computer program to show the measurements and any other graphics, I can easily program in animations and other components that attempt to motivate the the crowd to drive the volume even higher. In fact, these could be automated so that any time the rate of change upward is "fast enough" that it would really start trying to get the crowd to push it higher.

For simplicity of fabrication, however, I would probably have it all be animations on the screen instead of adding another piece of hardware on the top (e.g. A blue light). The animation could be a a blue light, though, for nostalgia sake concerning the previous decibel meter. The TV I have been looking at to implement it with is a 49" TV. I had investigated what size screen and letter size I would need to make it easy visible from the top rows all the way across the arena and calculated in needed to be at least 40". The most affordable but still high brightness and high viewing angle TV I could find is 49".

If I implement a "admin mode", we could even have someone on the event staff with a mobile app that can trigger when the meter begins to display things like the blue light or other animations that indicate the crowd should pay attention and try to drive up the volume.
I think what you are trying to do is great -- but as an Aggie that enjoyed the old decibel meter; it is critical that it has a mechanical component like a blue/white flashing light. It's what made it great and it's what motivated people to get louder to have it light up and stay on sometimes for a minute or so. Animations may be cool, but their look fake and don't have the same effect -- like the decibel meter at the Jazz games is just lame and fake. It's also the reason there still is a strong market for the old style pinball machines -- a certain level of mechanics will always be cool.

I'm hoping it's not too tough just to add a blue/white light on top of the screen and a trigger that lights it up whenever 100 is reached. Just say'in.



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Re: Resurrecting the decibel meter via KickStarter

Post by aceofspadeskb » January 11th, 2017, 7:39 am

If you got pre-approval from the appropriate authorities to install it I'd donate.



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Re: Resurrecting the decibel meter via KickStarter

Post by OKAggie » January 11th, 2017, 8:23 am

aceofspadeskb wrote:If you got pre-approval from the appropriate authorities to install it I'd donate.
Me too. There are not many tangible ways a fan (especially one 1200 miles from the Spectrum) can help restore the Spectrum Magic, but this seems like a solid one. Keep us posted.


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Re: Resurrecting the decibel meter via KickStarter

Post by SaintAggie » January 11th, 2017, 8:50 am

OKAggie wrote:
aceofspadeskb wrote:If you got pre-approval from the appropriate authorities to install it I'd donate.
Me too. There are not many tangible ways a fan (especially one 1200 miles from the Spectrum) can help restore the Spectrum Magic, but this seems like a solid one. Keep us posted.
+1



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Re: Resurrecting the decibel meter via KickStarter

Post by jpswensen » January 11th, 2017, 9:38 am

aceofspadeskb wrote:If you got pre-approval from the appropriate authorities to install it I'd donate.
This definitely needs to be my next step. Several people I talked to in person also said they think I need to include an official letter on the KickStarter page from someone in authority from the Athletic Department that says that if it gets funded, it will be installed. Now I need to figure out who has that kind of power and start discussions.


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Re: Resurrecting the decibel meter via KickStarter

Post by jpswensen » January 11th, 2017, 9:50 am

USUBlue wrote:
jpswensen wrote:
treesap32 wrote:I would donate. The thing that made the other decibel meter great is that it had a blue and white "police" light on the top that would go off when it reached over 100 decibels. This was a reward for the crowd going crazy and would also attract attention to the meter during the game. Is there anything similar that could be done on the new one?
Since it is on a TV/computer screen and I will be writing a custom computer program to show the measurements and any other graphics, I can easily program in animations and other components that attempt to motivate the the crowd to drive the volume even higher. In fact, these could be automated so that any time the rate of change upward is "fast enough" that it would really start trying to get the crowd to push it higher.

For simplicity of fabrication, however, I would probably have it all be animations on the screen instead of adding another piece of hardware on the top (e.g. A blue light). The animation could be a a blue light, though, for nostalgia sake concerning the previous decibel meter. The TV I have been looking at to implement it with is a 49" TV. I had investigated what size screen and letter size I would need to make it easy visible from the top rows all the way across the arena and calculated in needed to be at least 40". The most affordable but still high brightness and high viewing angle TV I could find is 49".

If I implement a "admin mode", we could even have someone on the event staff with a mobile app that can trigger when the meter begins to display things like the blue light or other animations that indicate the crowd should pay attention and try to drive up the volume.
I think what you are trying to do is great -- but as an Aggie that enjoyed the old decibel meter; it is critical that it has a mechanical component like a blue/white flashing light. It's what made it great and it's what motivated people to get louder to have it light up and stay on sometimes for a minute or so. Animations may be cool, but their look fake and don't have the same effect -- like the decibel meter at the Jazz games is just lame and fake. It's also the reason there still is a strong market for the old style pinball machines -- a certain level of mechanics will always be cool.

I'm hoping it's not too tough just to add a blue/white light on top of the screen and a trigger that lights it up whenever 100 is reached. Just say'in.
I'm not opposed to having real physical lights that go off instead of just showing it on the screen. My only concern would be that if I did something like the traditional blue spinning light (see that I then have to built in another mounting component to attach it either to the television used or the swivel mount of the television. not impossible, but it makes it a bit more work.

What do you think about something like a flashing LED bar (see It wouldn't carry the same nostalgia factor, but I think it would be much easier to attach to the TV and/or TV mount.


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Re: Resurrecting the decibel meter via KickStarter

Post by USUBlue » January 11th, 2017, 11:28 am

I think a flashing bar could work; it just comes down to how it looks -- animation is Not the way to go. Just show the number on the screen and have the flashing light or bar go off when it hits 100.



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Re: Resurrecting the decibel meter via KickStarter

Post by treesap32 » January 11th, 2017, 11:34 am

USUBlue wrote:I think a flashing bar could work; it just comes down to how it looks -- animation is Not the way to go. Just show the number on the screen and have the flashing light or bar go off when it hits 100.
Agreed. Something to immediately draw attention and show that you "set it off". I remember it hitting 100, going off and then having the whole crowd realize it and get EVEN LOUDER.



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Re: Resurrecting the decibel meter via KickStarter

Post by AngusAg » January 11th, 2017, 11:41 am

This is a great idea. Thank you for taking the initiative. I would definitely contribute. This would go a LONG way in helping bring back the Spectrum (along with winning.) As far as animation - a commensurate stampede of bulls when it hit certain levels, would be appropriate, with an all-out, lost control stampede when it hits 120 or whatever. Also, anyway to tie it into the jumbotron when it hits a certain level?

Thanks again for your effort. :thumbsup:



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Re: Resurrecting the decibel meter via KickStarter

Post by jpswensen » January 11th, 2017, 12:35 pm

Well, a letter is out to the AD, a few other people in the AD office, and the USUSA VP of Athletics . I didn't know the exact right person to contact so I tried to hit a smattering, but tried not to make it seem like spamming. I will keep everyone updated on whether I get a green light from the AD's office.


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Re: Resurrecting the decibel meter via KickStarter

Post by USUBlue » January 11th, 2017, 2:02 pm

AngusAg wrote:This is a great idea. Thank you for taking the initiative. I would definitely contribute. This would go a LONG way in helping bring back the Spectrum (along with winning.) As far as animation - a commensurate stampede of bulls when it hit certain levels, would be appropriate, with an all-out, lost control stampede when it hits 120 or whatever. Also, anyway to tie it into the jumbotron when it hits a certain level?

Thanks again for your effort. :thumbsup:
The disadvantage to animation, besides looking fake, is that you have to be watching the screen to know what the levels are, etc. With a flashing light, that is bright enough to really stand out, you don't have to be watching it -- when the light goes off it will draw attention to it. Far better than any animation -- just go to the Jazz game and see how lame their animated decibel meter is.



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Re: Resurrecting the decibel meter via KickStarter

Post by usublue20 » January 11th, 2017, 2:19 pm

As a local business owner I have been approached by USU sports marketing to place my signs etc around the Spectrum and/or Maverick Stadium. Its something I would really like to do. However the quoted costs were more then I could afford at the moment. My business deals in sound, well hearing anyways (audiologist). If something were put together that I could sponsor on a continuing basis that wouldn't break the bank I would love to be apart of it. I had talked with my USU sales rep about it a couple years and he thought it might be possibility. But, when he put his advertising package together just a plain sign at the Spectrum was over $5,000 per year which was more then I could afford at the time.



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Re: Resurrecting the decibel meter via KickStarter

Post by AngusAg » January 11th, 2017, 2:31 pm

USUBlue wrote:
AngusAg wrote:This is a great idea. Thank you for taking the initiative. I would definitely contribute. This would go a LONG way in helping bring back the Spectrum (along with winning.) As far as animation - a commensurate stampede of bulls when it hit certain levels, would be appropriate, with an all-out, lost control stampede when it hits 120 or whatever. Also, anyway to tie it into the jumbotron when it hits a certain level?

Thanks again for your effort. :thumbsup:
The disadvantage to animation, besides looking fake, is that you have to be watching the screen to know what the levels are, etc. With a flashing light, that is bright enough to really stand out, you don't have to be watching it -- when the light goes off it will draw attention to it. Far better than any animation -- just go to the Jazz game and see how lame their animated decibel meter is.
Would agree, but I was thinking why not have both. Especially if you were able to connect to the jumbotron with video. You could include flashing lights as well as live stampede video. Add in some stampede thunder with its own 135 decibels and you'd have a winner IMO.



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Re: Resurrecting the decibel meter via KickStarter

Post by Socrates2121 » January 11th, 2017, 2:45 pm

Count me in as a definite contributor to this. Great idea.

It has to be done right though. In my opinion, a flashing light at 100 decibels and other than that, just the number displayed on the screen. Don't get cute or it loses some of it's value to me.


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Re: Resurrecting the decibel meter via KickStarter

Post by jpswensen » January 11th, 2017, 2:49 pm

usublue20 wrote:As a local business owner I have been approached by USU sports marketing to place my signs etc around the Spectrum and/or Maverick Stadium. Its something I would really like to do. However the quoted costs were more then I could afford at the moment. My business deals in sound, well hearing anyways (audiologist). If something were put together that I could sponsor on a continuing basis that wouldn't break the bank I would love to be apart of it. I had talked with my USU sales rep about it a couple years and he thought it might be possibility. But, when he put his advertising package together just a plain sign at the Spectrum was over $5,000 per year which was more then I could afford at the time.
I had considered building in a mode from the school's administrator interface where the school could monetize the decibel meter and sell per-game or per-season sponsorship where they would provide logo/banner time on the screen. But, that would probably still have to go through USU Sports Marketing, not me as the KickStarter creator.

I did have that one KickStarter reward level in my proposal for a "sponsor" that gets to do the unveiling. Of course, that would have to go through the AD office also. The intent of that level was to basically give $500 of the KickStarter funds to the school to essentially cover the facilities cost of installing the hardware in the stadium.


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Re: Resurrecting the decibel meter via KickStarter

Post by USU78 » January 11th, 2017, 3:28 pm

Thought: The Deci - Bull!


You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

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Re: Resurrecting the decibel meter via KickStarter

Post by ProvoAggie » January 11th, 2017, 4:30 pm

Why use TV's when you could improve visibility and lower cost with LED number displays? Seems like this could be built very simply by using cheaper components and if you did them in blue it would really stand out. The problem with a TV is that a 40" TV isn't going to have as good of visibility or viewing angles. I love the overall idea and would definitely support it.



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Re: Resurrecting the decibel meter via KickStarter

Post by GeoAg » January 11th, 2017, 5:27 pm

jpswensen wrote:
USUBlue wrote:
jpswensen wrote:
treesap32 wrote:I would donate. The thing that made the other decibel meter great is that it had a blue and white "police" light on the top that would go off when it reached over 100 decibels. This was a reward for the crowd going crazy and would also attract attention to the meter during the game. Is there anything similar that could be done on the new one?
Since it is on a TV/computer screen and I will be writing a custom computer program to show the measurements and any other graphics, I can easily program in animations and other components that attempt to motivate the the crowd to drive the volume even higher. In fact, these could be automated so that any time the rate of change upward is "fast enough" that it would really start trying to get the crowd to push it higher.

For simplicity of fabrication, however, I would probably have it all be animations on the screen instead of adding another piece of hardware on the top (e.g. A blue light). The animation could be a a blue light, though, for nostalgia sake concerning the previous decibel meter. The TV I have been looking at to implement it with is a 49" TV. I had investigated what size screen and letter size I would need to make it easy visible from the top rows all the way across the arena and calculated in needed to be at least 40". The most affordable but still high brightness and high viewing angle TV I could find is 49".

If I implement a "admin mode", we could even have someone on the event staff with a mobile app that can trigger when the meter begins to display things like the blue light or other animations that indicate the crowd should pay attention and try to drive up the volume.
I think what you are trying to do is great -- but as an Aggie that enjoyed the old decibel meter; it is critical that it has a mechanical component like a blue/white flashing light. It's what made it great and it's what motivated people to get louder to have it light up and stay on sometimes for a minute or so. Animations may be cool, but their look fake and don't have the same effect -- like the decibel meter at the Jazz games is just lame and fake. It's also the reason there still is a strong market for the old style pinball machines -- a certain level of mechanics will always be cool.

I'm hoping it's not too tough just to add a blue/white light on top of the screen and a trigger that lights it up whenever 100 is reached. Just say'in.
I'm not opposed to having real physical lights that go off instead of just showing it on the screen. My only concern would be that if I did something like the traditional blue spinning light (see that I then have to built in another mounting component to attach it either to the television used or the swivel mount of the television. not impossible, but it makes it a bit more work.

What do you think about something like a flashing LED bar (see It wouldn't carry the same nostalgia factor, but I think it would be much easier to attach to the TV and/or TV mount.
I like the bar Idea. You could get a lot more lights I believe. I've used LED siren-type lights before and would be concerned that it would be big and bright enough. If the bar is easier to mount, I think it would definitely be the way to go, even if it meant a somewhat expensive addition to the current budget.

You'll also want to consider that in order to make the AD want to bite on this you'll have to offer to provide free maintenance for the life of the item as well. I would be willing to help out with that if needed.


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Re: Resurrecting the decibel meter via KickStarter

Post by jpswensen » January 11th, 2017, 5:28 pm

ProvoAggie wrote:Why use TV's when you could improve visibility and lower cost with LED number displays? Seems like this could be built very simply by using cheaper components and if you did them in blue it would really stand out. The problem with a TV is that a 40" TV isn't going to have as good of visibility or viewing angles. I love the overall idea and would definitely support it.
I had thought about getting some large 7-segment displays. The largest I could find were 12" high (see http://shop.evilmadscientist.com/productsmenu/107) and were about $50 each. I would also need to make an electronics board that can supply and switch two different voltages for the segment voltage (31.5V) and the decimal point voltage (10.5V). Each segment on the 7 segment display has 60 LEDs. This means that each of those 7 segment displays has 60*7=420 LEDs . For 3 digits this is 1240 LEDs.

The TV model I have been looking at is 49" and has a brightness of 496 cd/m^2 and a viewing angle of 54 degrees (to each side). The total height of a 49" 16:9 is 24 inches. So, the total letter height could be almost 2 times as large as the biggest 7-segment display I could find.

Edit: I would argue that the $50x3 for the 7-segment display plus whatever circuit board I have to design and populate to control the segments, plus designing and fabricating a housing for the segments and the electronics, may drive the cost as high as a large TV and mount. Even a bare bones circuit board is going to cost >$100 for a small number of boards (with the integrated circuits that go on it). That assumes I make no mistakes on the first board design and don't have to make a second run.

So, I could potentially either buy some 12" 7 segment displays or make a circuit board and solder in more than 1240 LEDs and make a diffuser to get more uniform light, but I really don't feel like designing a circuit board to both mount and/or supply & control that many LED or LED segments. The LEDs would be brighter, but it would be a much bigger effort to make.


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Re: Resurrecting the decibel meter via KickStarter

Post by treesap32 » January 11th, 2017, 5:54 pm

You can get up to 72 inch 7-segment digit displays on AliExpress.com . They even have blue displays on there though I couldn't find blue in that large of a size.

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Re: Resurrecting the decibel meter via KickStarter

Post by tetonaggie » January 11th, 2017, 8:14 pm

If you get the ok from the AD, I will donate to this great cause.


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Re: Resurrecting the decibel meter via KickStarter

Post by USUaggie » January 11th, 2017, 8:50 pm

Where do you plan to mount this? You may want to consider two units if it is at the top of the arena so everyone will be able to see one. The video board was not there blocking the view back in the day.

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Re: Resurrecting the decibel meter via KickStarter

Post by Aggie-Man » January 12th, 2017, 9:52 am

If you get approval to go ahead count me in!



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Re: Resurrecting the decibel meter via KickStarter

Post by jpswensen » January 12th, 2017, 12:58 pm

USUaggie wrote:Where do you plan to mount this? You may want to consider two units if it is at the top of the arena so everyone will be able to see one. The video board was not there blocking the view back in the day.

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My thought was to put in in the northeast corner at the top of the stairs, near where it was the last time. I haven't sat in the west side of the arena since the new video board was installed. Can anyone confirm that the the top of the stairs on the northeast side are visible from the southwest side of the stadium?


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Re: Resurrecting the decibel meter via KickStarter

Post by USUBlue » January 12th, 2017, 1:03 pm

jpswensen wrote:
USUaggie wrote:Where do you plan to mount this? You may want to consider two units if it is at the top of the arena so everyone will be able to see one. The video board was not there blocking the view back in the day.

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My thought was to put in in the northeast corner at the top of the stairs, near where it was the last time. I haven't sat in the west side of the arena since the new video board was installed. Can anyone confirm that the the top of the stairs on the northeast side are visible from the southwest side of the stadium?
It is Not! The scoreboard blocks it from even as low as Row 15 -- it may take 2 decibel meters.



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Re: Resurrecting the decibel meter via KickStarter

Post by jpswensen » January 14th, 2017, 6:45 pm

UPDATE:

I heard back from the AD's office and have OK news and bad news. We'll do bad news first:
1) the AD's office (or USU in general) cannot participate in crowdfunding. They cannot be the direct beneficiary or the originator.
2) they cannot endorse a crowdfunding effort either because they don't want to have donors target them if things don't go as planned. "Also, with us endorsing the campaign, there is a perceived agreement between us and the individuals who donate to the campaign that the meter will function correctly, we will be able to successfully install the meter/auxiliary equipment and the meter will function, as desired, during events held in the Spectrum. That puts quite a bit of legal risk on us as donors will target us, if things don’t go as planned."
3) I thought that maybe making it able to be used for advertising would be a positive, but since they have sold rights to multimedia advertisements in the Spectrum to a third party, that would actually be harder.

The OK news is that they said that if the meter gets made, then we can talk about the potential of getting it installed.

Long story short, it seems there is the possibility it could get installed (the crowdfunding would likely need to offer the meter and cash donation to cover installation) but that the AD office cannot officially endorse or promise anything.

Thoughts on whether it is still worth pursuing?


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Re: Resurrecting the decibel meter via KickStarter

Post by jpswensen » January 19th, 2017, 2:57 pm

Gonna ping and add some more info to get feedback. Final response from the AD's office was:

"Thanks for your interest in the decibel meter project. When <staff> sent you his response he was speaking on behalf of the department – as well as our AD John Hartwell. We cannot outwardly promote the fundraising campaign for all the reasons <staff> pointed out in his email. An email or a verbal comment in support of the campaign is an endorsement"

The first email made it sound like if it was donated they would consider installing it, but no guarantees. I can guarantee you that if funded I will deliver a decibel meter, mounting hardware, phone support, and cash to install it to the university. What I couldn't guarantee is that they will install it.

So, that being said:
1) Thoughts on whether I should try the KickStarter anyway?
2) How much of a hangup is not having official AD support?


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Re: Resurrecting the decibel meter via KickStarter

Post by jpswensen » January 26th, 2017, 6:56 pm

Does anyone have really old video footage from the Spectrum? I went and looked at what is available on here and it looks like it only goes back to 2010. I am hoping to find some footage of the decibel meter for the KickStarter promo video.

Despite not getting formal endorsement from the AD's office, I am going to see if I can get it funded and will donate it. Then it is in the hands of the AD's office and you can guarantee I will start publicizing that they have it so we can get pressure to actually install it.


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Re: Resurrecting the decibel meter via KickStarter

Post by ProvoAggie » January 27th, 2017, 10:32 am

jpswensen wrote:Does anyone have really old video footage from the Spectrum? I went and looked at what is available on here and it looks like it only goes back to 2010. I am hoping to find some footage of the decibel meter for the KickStarter promo video.

Despite not getting formal endorsement from the AD's office, I am going to see if I can get it funded and will donate it. Then it is in the hands of the AD's office and you can guarantee I will start publicizing that they have it so we can get pressure to actually install it.
We also have the 1998 game against Utah on here. I'm not sure if the Decibel meter is ever shown or not. I have a few other games that I still need to cap off of some VHS tapes that were sent to me but coming off of old VHS tapes the quality isn't that great. Here is that Utah game: viewtopic.php?f=12&t=36810&p=373715&hilit=Utah#p373715



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Re: Resurrecting the decibel meter via KickStarter

Post by jpswensen » January 27th, 2017, 10:41 am

ProvoAggie wrote:
jpswensen wrote:Does anyone have really old video footage from the Spectrum? I went and looked at what is available on here and it looks like it only goes back to 2010. I am hoping to find some footage of the decibel meter for the KickStarter promo video.

Despite not getting formal endorsement from the AD's office, I am going to see if I can get it funded and will donate it. Then it is in the hands of the AD's office and you can guarantee I will start publicizing that they have it so we can get pressure to actually install it.
We also have the 1998 game against Utah on here. I'm not sure if the Decibel meter is ever shown or not. I have a few other games that I still need to cap off of some VHS tapes that were sent to me but coming off of old VHS tapes the quality isn't that great. Here is that Utah game: viewtopic.php?f=12&t=36810&p=373715&hilit=Utah#p373715
Thanks! I hadn't gone through and looked at every page in the Downloads->Video section. I had just seen that it seemed like they were all in chronological order and didn't think to look for outliers.


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