Sonic Screwdriver Sounds by Arduino and ATTiny85

This shows the long, arduous, exhausting process that puts sound in my Custom Sonics. ACTUALLY this is the easiest part of the entire process of making a custom screwdriver.
The Smith, Tennant, and Pertwee sounds are the best I have to work with. ANY sound can be done, but the limits of the ATTiny85 can really change the playback of some audio. It has to be a VERY small clip to sound right. Any sound effect that takes more than a second to loop would sound 'off' or even unrecognizable...

[@y0uareatube]

That's pretty amazing. Good job.

[@MIMadDogsHC]

I am fascinated with this. I think the electronic side would probably be the toughest for me.

[@АркадийСтон]

Hello, great screwdriver! Can you show the project code? Please

[@badman1998100]

Hi i hope this gets seen but i would just like to know where you get the wav to code program from as im trying to use one i found but when uploading to the Attiny85 i get error: redefinition of 'const unsigned char sample []' come up and i dont know how to fix that. could some one please help i would be very greateful. The main reason for this is because when i use the original files i dont get any sound although i have done the wiring correctly.

[@davidsharko5293]

Cool sonic

[@PreviouslyOrion]

Cool! I'm just going to do what you did with your Mk 1 sonic and gut the toy and use it for my custom

[@thedvaproductions2278]

hi sanholo80, just thought it might help, if u buy the big finish audio drama: 'witch of the well" there is the big finish 8th Dr sonic screwdriver sound witch would be great to add to one of your sonic's, as it features dozens of times, just thought it might help, love your work, all the best

[@johannesfruseth6587]

2 questions: 1: What do you use as a power source for your atTiny85? 2: Could I have the full code for the screwdriver? Unrelated: I LOVE your creations!!

[@ricoharmafake-name8062]

Dear Sanholo80Could you please upload the classic, Tennant or Smith code for the sonic? I don't mind which one - I've been forever trying to replicate the FX with tone libraries and whatnot! ThanksJonathan

[@nathanalaneller]

Can you make Dalek gun sound effects? I'm making a Dalek handgun & need a compact sound module.

[@elibaiioud5290]

Do you have a website where I can buy a sonic screwdriver??

[@tombaines6622]

Can you have multiple sounds on one of these ATTINY85 chips?

[@Sanholo80]

NO! Well... yes, but no. But if it helps, yes. You could store a couple short melodies if you just use tones but .4 seconds of a coded .wav file will fill the storage of an ATTiny85. There are bigger ATMEL chips and other equivalents. I use 85's because of the physical size of the chip.

[@chavisglover6175]

could you do a tutorial on the electronics

[@thrim5120]

u should make the sounds so that when you move the sonic around the sound changes like in the tv show

[@chavisglover6175]

please do a video on how to wire a sonic screwdriver

[@chavisglover6175]

you should put a heat shrink tube on the electronics

[@therestorationofdrwho1865]

Would you ever make sound chips separately?

[@goimei]

Why dont you do something similar to crystal focus lightsabers?

[@Sanholo80]

Tim McAndrew I don't have the room. To get my sonics to work the way I want and still be to scale, gutting the toys or making my own chips was the only answer.

[@pizzaroger2003]

couldn't you just get a different thing so it doesn't play the sound in 8bit?

[@supertwillson]

There is a minimized AOL mail window on your desktop. Did you use the TARDIS to film this in 2015 and 1995 at the same time?

[@Sanholo80]

Ted Willson I get email from all over time and space. And HEY.... shut up!

[@Sanholo80]

Sanholo80 You can also see a LimeWire folder... and if you turn the camera around, my bald spot.

[@nathanalaneller]

Im trying to make a TCE (tissue compression eliminator), the longest sound file i have is 7 seconds. Would it work for this setup? Buy the way, is ther a step by step instructabel on this? How to wire it up, install sounds & wire it to the prop?

[@Sanholo80]

Quite the opposite. 7 seconds is WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY too long for this setup. You can only fit about .3-.5 seconds of a .wav or mp3 in the ATTiny85 with the rest of the program code. In something as big as a TCE you could use a bigger chip or even fit a pre-fab soundboard. This is the Instructables page that got me started:

[@nathanalaneller]

+Sanholo80 Is ther a way to make a three part sound effect? For exsample, one sound effect broken up in three parts, the begining of the sound, the middle of the sound which loops continus as long as the button is being pressed, then the end sound is played once you let go of the button? And of corse it starts all over again with the first sound when you press the button again.

[@Sanholo80]

Check out the Adafruit SFX board. It can do multiple sounds and you can control how they're played. You'd have to write a pretty lengthy code to do that with an Arduino.

[@alwinpriven2400]

is there are way to encode sound to a chip without an Arduino?

[@Sanholo80]

There are other chip programmers out there. It looks like a flash drive that you attach the ATTINY85 to and insert in a USB slot. Then you can transfer directly to the chip instead of through an Arduino. I've seen them, but I haven't tried one.

[@alwinpriven2400]

+Sanholo80 do you know how they are called? I've never heard of them. P.S how did you shorten the length of the sound to under a second?

[@Sanholo80]

Search Tiny AVR Programmer. Sparkfun makes one for $20. But you can get an Arduino for $30-$40 and have more fun with it. I use a freeware program called Audacity to alter sound files. There's another program called EnCode that will change the sound file you make to code.

[@alwinpriven2400]

+Sanholo80 so basically, I need an ATTINY85, a Tiny AVR Programmer and that's it? but how do I connect the ATTINY85 to the circuit in the screwdriver? or do you show it in a video?

[@Sanholo80]

This is the INSTRUCTABLE page that convinced me to build my first screwdriver. He shows all the details of putting the electronics together.

[@nutsineekijbunchoo4664]

Could you please point me to where you got "EnCode" software?

[@Sanholo80]

Here's where I found it(links are near the bottom for your OS):

[@nutsineekijbunchoo4664]

+Sanholo80 Thank you! Now I can't seem to find where the converted file lives. Is it in .txt?

[@Sanholo80]

No Prob. When you double click Encode; then select your audio file; you should get a message "copied to clipboard". Right click in the desired field of your program and select Paste. You CAN make a .txt copy by Pasting in a notepad or whatever. But its literally as if you selected a bunch of numbers and did a right click Copy.

[@PaulEKing-et4qi]

I couldn't help but noticing a Romana Sonic in there... Wonder what luck S.O.B. is gonna get that?? :D haha

[@Sanholo80]

Some guy asked if I ever thought of making one. This is what happens when I think too hard! It was a quick and fun "something different" to do, other than the hour I spent being anal about brush strokes in my green pearl paint job.

[@therestorationofdrwho1865]

Great job!

[@mostly_water]

Could you possibly post the code somewhere, like the comment section? I just don't know anything about coding- I've figured out how to code the ATTiny with the Arduino, the one thing I just cannot figure out for the LIFE of me is how to write the code. So if you could post the code you used here, I would be immensely grateful.

[@Sanholo80]

The trick is getting the right bootloader and clocking the ATTiny85 to 20mhz instead of 8. Here's a couple codes that I've used:

[@mostly_water]

Thank you for pointing me to those links, but it seems I've run into a brick wall here. I'm able to successfully upload code to the arduino that plays the sound (I learned how to do that from High-Low Tech tutorial) and I can upload other sketches like Blink and Fade to the ATTiny85 with no problem. The issue now comes when I try to upload the PCM playback sketch (which I modified to play the sonic screwdriver sound) to the ATTiny85; the Arduino IDE has an error compiling for the ATTiny. I've tried different ATTiny cores, downgrading the IDE, etc but I can't seem to get it to work. Also- I don't see an option for clocking the ATTiny85 to 20mhz. It seems that anything past 8mhz needs an external crystal. What do you think I could do?

[@Sanholo80]

Sorry I meant a 20PU on 16mhz internal. There's a bod version. Try this forum: forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=73783.0 I wanna say I had to modify a file or add a specific attiny85 library before it would work. One of those things you have to do the first time, but can forget about it every time after.

[@mostly_water]

Awesome, thank you! Last thing- do you think you could email me the sketch file you used? It would help me immensely as I don't know a thing about coding. My email is [e-mail] . Thank you again for your help thus far!

[@Sanholo80]

No prob, Dan. I went looking for the original source just now, but couldn't find it. Its a neat code! You can trim any sound file down to .4 seconds and change it from a wav or mp4 to code using a freeware called EnCode. I'll copy paste my Matt Smith era file and send it over. Its the loudest and you can change the playback mhz to alter it to the Tennant sound!

[@beratozdemir_]

hello

[@floydmurray9824]

Why you using windows vista? WHY YOU USING AOL?!!?!?!?

[@Sanholo80]

+JoesPinkRadio Ha! Its frustrating as hell. Its an old PC that I use as a junk drive/programming platform. The AOL address is ancient but still lets me sign in. I have other emails. The videos are shot on 1/2 of my corner desk where my old PC and Raspberry Pi monitors sit (also where I clean up parts and assemble screwdrivers). My game/browsing set up is on the other half.

[@floydmurray9824]

Sanholo80 oh xD I was gonna say!

[@jacobwhite6247]

+Sanholo80 If requested, could you make a custom sound unit to put into a RB Replicas War Doctor Sonic....? And if thats a yes, how much would you sell it for....?

[@jacobwhite6247]

+Sanholo80 If requested, could you make a custom sound unit to put into a RB Replicas War Doctor Sonic....? And if thats a yes, how much would you sell it for....?

[@goimei]

Not true cause they have a chip called the nano biscotti, very small:3

[@Sanholo80]

That's true. They do. But 1x.7 inches doesn't fit in a 1/2×9/16inch space. So...

[@CaptainLuffyStrawHat]

I could not understand anything he said xD

[@crafthorizom3514]

my cu