I now have all parts at hand to start building the novadreamer like goggles as described by brindefalk (kvavar goggles). It was easy to get the common parts such as perfboard, transistors etc. but it was a bugger to get the specific IR sensor (for REM detection).
However, I am looking forward to use my new induction device and I will be happy to post my experiences with this gadget as well as pictures of it (once it is finished ).
As the question of selling home-built novadreamers via ebay was raised already, how much do you think, people would be willing to spend in a homemade, fully functional device such as the one descibed above?
Please note, that you also would have to build a PIC programmer in order to be able to program the PIC16F84 used to control the Kvasar mask if you wanted to build the mask on your own. Also, buying a single IR sensor, alone costed my 20 EUR, as they are hard to get here.
Wouldn t you agree, that 50 EUR would be a reasonable price?
Haha, Vinz. It was just a few days ago that I thought how I would go about selling it but at this point I can’t say that I will. Think I need to work with it some more before I give up.
why are you so narrow-minded? There hardly seem to be replies from people who bought and tested the real novadreamer, probably as there are only a few nd owners here in the first place. So what can we do?
Some people try to save money and explore other ways to get hands on a novadreamer like device, such as the Kvasar goggles. And as the functionality of the home-built novadreamer resembles the one of the real novadreamer, why not post your experience with that thingy right here. Would you rather philosophise about a tool that you will never be able to buy due to its high price? No one but you complained about the posts so far. If you do not want to read the replies scroll down or die
hmm now i aint 2 happy, the dude that i was gonna buy a nova dreamer off never replyed to me when i was able to go up to Queensland ( a state in australia) and buy it from him face to face. Maybe he was a fake… oh well. Glad i didnt know after reading a little more, but still.
Maybe you are right, but when you find a topic that interests you, it is frustrating to find that the replies do not cover the topic.
Anyway,
I’m building a DreamWeaver. It is a simple design, but the sensor is not for sale. So I bought a sensor that’s like the original, but the signal was to faint. I invested 80 hours of building an amplifier. It is almost finished. Then my very own ND clone is ready!!!
The Kvasar is to complex to build yourself if you ask me…
i started building a Kvasar about a week ago and it’s almost done. All i need is my sensors (which will be shipped out on Wednesday from Hamamatsu Michigan) and my programmer (which I’m going to buy the parts for today)… If everything goes well, in the next two weeks i should have my mask complete without any significant obstacles yet…
and you know what ? I don’t even know what half the components do, i had NO idea how to read a diagram before i started the project and my soldering was ALL OVER the place… I started with a large (pretty big) version of the electronics and yesterday I reduced it to half the size with some creative placement, making use of the lines on the back of the plates i have.
Come on, if I could get so far without ANY SORT knowledge in electronics (I’m a Fine Arts student) I think you can easily assume the Kvasar is not a complicated project…
I hope the Kvasar works when you’re ready building. For me the sensor was the biggest problem, I can not order it in NL The concept seems very complex, programming a microcontroller, making your own programmer. The dreamweaver is a very simple design, it’s only a program with a switch, sensor and led on the game-port and parr port.
The sensor of the dreamweaver also can not be ordered from the NL, but I’m working around that problem. Because the output is displayed on the computer screen you can build your own sensor + amplifier. There is no way (in my vision) you can do that with the Kvasar because you can not read the output of the sensor. Luckily for you, you could order all the components.
I mailed the Kvasar maker by the way. I asked him if it worked for him. He told me the the following:
[b]I have not used the mask that much since I found that
it interfered to much with my sleeping, but in the
time I used, it seemed to work.
Regards
Björn Brindefalk[/b]
So it seems to work!! That’s good news.
Good luck building it to a finish and when it works, please post it…
I’m planning to do an “idiot’s tips to building the kvasar” (i’m in the right position lol) page as soon as it’s done, so hopefully more people will find the courage to “challange” the project. I noticed there are many people who’d wish to build some sort of LD goggles (with or without REM detection) and there aren’t that many helpful pages along the way.
I noticed the Dream Weaver when i tried to figure out which device i’d want to build (i was aiming for something that just flickers some leds every 90 minutes, nothing fancy whatsoever)… The good part about it is the software. You have everything there, so you can monitor eye movement, rem intervals, etc etc… it’s pretty much a very complete research tool. The bad part is the wires hanging from your face.
The kvasar doesn’t have the monitoring tools (but i understand they MAY happen in the near future), but it’s self contained.
So i guess there is no “perfect device” (which brings me back to the point of the thread actually)… it all depends on what you want to get out of it. LEDS that flicker every 90 minutes work well (dwax seems very content with the goggles he built) for some… Others may want the REM detection from the kvasar, and some may want the fully computer-operated dreamweaver (which does seem very exciting i have to say, it’s just the wiring problem that convinced me not to build that one, i’d probably have troubles sleeping with the wires around)
Either ways, all these are very simple and easy to build (honestly) alternatives to the nova dreamer (which is hard to find)…
On DJem’s collection of documents page, there’s a page that tells you how to make one with an alarm clock, all you need is good timing. I’m thinking about building one soon.
There are nova dreamers for sale on e bay right now. Just remember that you do not need a nova dreamer to have LD ’s. It works great for some people but not so well for others.
Maybe it is not as complicated as it looks. I took one look at that page and I did not understand a thing on it. I figured that there was no way I could build that. How much did it cost you to build ? Does it have REM detection?
So far i spent 15$ canadian on the Kvasar parts (got some overpriced from Radioshack and some for free) and 6$ canadian for the Pic programmer parts which I’m going to start building today (following these plans semis.demon.co.uk/uJDM/uJDMmain.htm which are REALLY easy to understand, especially with the pictures)…
Piece of advice, don’t buy things from Radio Shack (i spent 1,40$ on an IR led that I could have bought for 30c somewhere else)… I bought a PIC16F84A (100% compatible with the regular 84, but you have to recompile the program for it) for 10$ and the rest of the parts are VERY CHEAP (10c for 5 resistors kinda thing)…
The S4810 I’m hopefully getting soon from Hamamatsu. If you know someone with a company you can probably call them and ask for a sample… They only ship with min of 50$ orders and only to companies, but I got them to send me two photosensors.
If you build the alarm clock thing, you might want to check timers. I saw these electronic timers (you know, the ones that turn lights on and off) that you can program to turn things on and off about 10 times during a day, with an interval of 1 min between the switches (which you can’t do with the old timers they had)… You could probably connect some sort of faint strobe light or those red led christmas lights to it and make them go on for one minute at 90 minute intervals… it might work
The timer was about 10$ and I found it at Canadian Tire (hehehe)… I guess you can find them pretty much anywhere if you look for one.
Anyway, as soon as i’m done with my Kvasar (and i’m hoping it will work) I’ll post some “hints” on a webpage. Might help some people.
I took another look at the kavasar site and the link you gave. It does not look as complicated as I thought. Good luck with your project and let us know how you make out.
Makes the price of the nova dreamer even more annoying.
Here it is. 90 hours to make a amplifier that works with the dreamweaver software.
As you can see there is a control on the computer where the amplifier can be adjusted. Min = 150 times max = 450 times.
Isn’t that cool or what.
The mask is a sleepmask they use during a flight, for a good night sleep in a plane.
The mask when placed on your face must feel comfortable. In that place the holes must be in the right position. Not an easy task…
Anyway. The sensor and 1 high power led are placed in a melted soda screwtop. I melted the screwtop in an angle so that the sensor can be placed in a parallel position to the eye.
The other eye is left free. So I can see the computerscreen when the mask is on. So I used only 1 led. I figured that 1 led should do. An other advantage is that in this way you can easily sleep placing your head on this side.
The switch the dreamweaver uses is normally placed on the mask. I placed the switch on the side of the bed. This way lesser cables have to be connected to the mask, making it lighter…
that looks really high tech hehehe… how did you make the mask ? and do you have a close up of it ? it looks pretty neat.
