Building your OWN Novadreamer-esque device

at home.no/lucid/link.htm you can find a zip file containing everything needed to build the device (its called DreamWeaver). I don’t know of anyone have tried, but I have found the transistor to be way too expencive. If you know anything about electronics I suggests to find a cheaper part/way of doing it.

I found the transistor for a couple of bucks at a local electronics store. The infared sensor was another thing altogether. I have NO idea where to buy Optek sensors.

I actually managed to find the Optek sensor. I used the new Google catalog search to find the part. It turns out that a place called Electronics Expediters sells them, and it should arive on my doorstep in a day or two. Awesome! I can’t wait. :grin:

I’ve build the device, although I can’t seem to get it working properly. The LEDs just flash, regardless as to the software settings.

Does anyone know how to contact the author about this problem? His CompuServe e-mail address no longer works.

I figured out the problem at around 5:00am last night (morning?) Two of the gameport leads were mixed up. I resoldered those, and now I have a working Dreamweaver. Now I just need to get brighter LEDs, and I’m set. Whoo-hoo!

Now I have not one, but TWO working devices! Now it’s just a matter of fixing up my old Pentium as the software will not run under Windows XP.

send one to me =p

That’s awesome. Let us know if you have any luck with it working or not. (I’m sure you will. lol)

That reminds me, maybe you could think about selling them for way cheaper than the novadreamers or whatever and the stuff any windows xp users would need to use it. (Like make the things yourself, and include additional whatevers one would need to use it.) You could probably make a nice chunk of change.

I have 0 experience writting Windows XP drivers. Some guys were going to make Windows drivers to run the program a few years ago (read old Usenet archives for exact details) but opted out before the project really took off. Fortunately, an older computer running DOS sits by my side that is primarily used for the Dreamweaver.

It wouldn’t be “nice” for me to sell the device, as it’s not my own invention. If you want one, BUILD IT! The parts are not hard to come by and you could certainly pick up some valuable skills while working on it.

If that doesn’t work you can always record your voice on your computer saying something like, “You are dreaming now, you will now go lucid” or something similiar than setup task scheduler to go off at a certain time. Of course this is for people with a computer by where they sleep. And for those people without computers just burn a wav file that says it and set your wake time on your alarm to go off at whatever time and put it on repeat so it will keep playing. Also make sure you have it on music/cd instead of alarm :wink: .

I’ve just built it as well. I used separate (and inexpensive) IR led and phototransistor. That bit works well. I can see the numbers changing from 0 to below 200 when I place the goggle on the eye. Moving the eyes with the lid closed causes the signal to change. Now I have a problem with the LED. It keeps flashing as soon as run dreamweaver. I’ve tried different transistors, even PNP and the sucker keeps flashing. Whats goin on???
I thought it may have been windows 98, but when I run it under dos it does the same but the movement detector no longer works. Arrrrrrrgggghhhhh!

Problem found! Hint : that switch is very important

Hi,

I’ve decided to give this device a shot, i’ve done a lot of other things with electronics. I’ve just build a totally fanless silent computer, then i saw this post and thought what a good combination. The pc board i’m using is the via epia board with a fanless eden processor. It’s 533mhz and can run xp :smile:. anyway, I might build this device (or something similar) and write some software for xp. Then I can combine sounds and stuff.

Great, another project to add to the pile :smile:

Hmmmm, I see it uses the printer port AND the game port. I think this is a little excessive. It could be done with just the printer port. maybe a serial port. i’ll look into it

For those of you with XP you just have to create a startup disk from another computer with win95/98 or dos. (run: fomat a: /s).
Now open notepad write “dreamwvr” save the file on the floppy as “autoexec.bat” (be shure theres no .txt behind. (select ‘all file types’ at the filetype option) if the file exists overwrite it (be shure it’s not c:) )
Extract all files from the zip file to the floppy (directly at a: (no folders))
Now you just have to start the computer with the floppy in it and the program starts automaticly.

I don’t know if u can run dos from xp but if you can just run the command.com that is at your floppy and write ‘dremwvr’

Yes, yes it is. Unfortunately, the documentation for Dreamweaver is very minimal and misorganized, so you have to read the included mess from a Compuserve message archive to figure out the function of the button.

Also, the program does not save any settings. If anyone here is a programmer with some spare time, I have some work for you…

Hey,

I am a programmer, and I would be able to write a windows program for the device, but i have to get my hands on the hardware to do it. What is the other IR led and phototransister part numbers?

You can use any one you like, so long as the IR diode can handle 33mA.
I used an SEP8736 for the diode
and SDP8436 for the tranny.
When mounting, glue a little barrier between them so that the only light reaching the detector (tranny) will be that reflected from the eye.

I’m running it on a 166mhz Pentium, using DOS. It works fine under Windows 98, but will not run under any OS/2 based operaing system such as Windows NT, 2000, or XP. This is why I’d like to see someone make a version that runs under Windows XP. Also, if someone with hardware knowledge converted it to USB, that would be great as well.

I used all the parts listed in the file. The optec sensor cost me $4 from Electronics Expediters (sp?) although they generally don’t sell to individuals.