Fun with l.e.d.s

[ninogenio]

hey guys here is a little something different from me... i got some electronic stuff in the mail today, finally! so put a little project together. it uses the max7221 led driver chip and the atmega328 micro controller. they drive a little 8x8 led matrix.

really just a simple little project to get this off the ground. next up is led rgb where i feed each color channel with its own max7221.

i have also built a little temperature thermostat not visable in the video so when my rgb led matrix comes i can do plasma effects based on heat( seen an example on youtube and thought it looked cool )


Word of warning turn down your speaker volume before playing. i was playing some music unlimited on my vita and the camera picked the music up 10000 times louder than it was lol...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xcown2NYmrU&feature=youtu.be

for any one interested i got the code from here and just modified the speed and text too check that it was all working as hoped
http://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=22305.0;wap2

[lucastar]

Very nice, that is low-level programming!

[ninogenio]

cheers lucastar  ,

yeah i guess so 

[ferris]

Haha, nice one

[Kirl]

Haha, that was awesome, K++ for that! 

Wish I did more electro stuff like that. Cool little project to get started and thanks for the greets!  Looking forward to see your future projects with colors! 

That triangle thing looks like the all seeing eye!


Just noticed you missed an n in your name.

[jace_stknights]

Nice! reminds good old years at studies 

[Raizor]

Very cool

[ninogenio]

thanks very much guys, ive always experimented with electronic stuff from as far back as i remember even as a kid i used too love building the science projects you could buy that made things like a radio etc..

a project ive worked on for a while with the kids is a little robot. we put a parallax controller in a 3.5" hdd-usb caddy and added the motors and servos off one of there remote control cars put a screen in it, some sensors and a speaker.

she makes a few different faces and noises, and drives and turns but im still working on the sensors atm she just sticks the head on the wall and wheel spins thereafter  .

quote from kirl.

Just noticed you missed an n in your name.

we will put it down too a bug in the wiring  , ill be sure too post the color screen example as soon as its rigged up. cheers mate!

[Raizor]

I've always wanted to try my hand at electronics, and I have collected a few books over the years. To be honest, it still kinda scares me a bit, I'm not sure why. Would you recommend an Arduino as a first step Ninogenio? I've been thinking about building some sort of remote controlled webcam that sits on a motorized platform that I can control remotely. Not sure if that's a bit too ambitious for a first project though

Anyway, this is really great and has got me needing to actually read some of those books properly now. Any other suggestions for basic things I should pick up for getting started would be great (breadboards etc).

And thanks for the greet

[ninogenio]

hey raizor no problem mate.

the arduino is probably the best documented microcontroller out there with tons of libs and examples so defo the best too use as a jump start. i went a different way i started here http://www.parallax.com/ but in hind sight that maybe wasnt the right way although ive had tons of fun with the parallax too i built the game development extension board now it plugs into my tv and using a nunchuck controller i can play games with it.

yes definitely grab as many breadboards as you can you will soon need them .

also grab things like jumper cables, leds, resistors, capacitors, a few voltage regulators, these are all dirt cheep off fleabay..
also keep a look out for old bust electronic toys or items about the house, you can pull loads of stuff off them and use them with your breadboards..

once you have a nice little collection of parts making the actual stuff is easy..

the motorized webcam should be perfectly possible you will need a little motor controller for the arduino again cheep of ebay but makes driving motors in forward or reverse easy. for assembly you will probably need a glue gun and some sticks.

ill dig out some links with the parts you will need if you like.

[Raizor]

Thanks ninogenio for the info

ill dig out some links with the parts you will need if you like.

That would be lovely, thanks

[ninogenio]

no probs mate heres a little list of things you might like too grab if your interested in starting this project.

http://www.ladyada.net/make/mshield/
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2390-Point-Solderless-Breadboard-Protobloc-4-bindings-/130905556654?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item1e7a9446ae
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Electronic-Project-Beginners-Starter-Kit-quality-components-pack-with-breadboard-/110887787457?pt=UK_BOI_Electrical_Components_Supplies_ET&hash=item19d16d5bc1
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/75-Jumper-Cables-for-Solderless-Breadboard-Arduino-/171028359908?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item27d215aae4
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/140-Jumper-wires-for-Solderless-Breadboard-Arduino-/171043619319?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item27d2fe81f7
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sintron-Arduino-Uno-R3-USB-cable-for-starter-in-UK-/160996929563?pt=UK_Computing_Other_Computing_Networking&hash=item257c2a301b

that should be more than enought too get almost any basic project off the ground.

i would imagine you will be wanting too have the camera movable in three directions rotation Pitch and height. if this is the case you will need three motors and some sort of arm that sits on a small turn table that gets rotated with motor1, then motor2 will go somewhere in the middle of the arm and control the cameras height and the 3rd motor will control the pitch of the camera.

as for the arm i would just build it out of a mechano set it should be simple.

however before worrying about the arm and its ergonomics i would do the circuit on a bench first. this is where the motor shield comes in it makes driving motors really easy. you can drive up too 4 2 way (forward and backward variable speed) motors or 2 stepper motors.

its a simple case of plug the motor shield into the arduino, wire the motors too the motor shield, plug the whole thing into the pc. then yous the motor shield programing library too driving it all, these library's are very simple too use they are usually really primative and self explanitory. and that's 90% of the project done right there

theres loads of code examples floating around for the motor shield but that will be the super easy part for someone like your self.

its really one of those things that until you get the basic kit set up it does seem a bit scary but after a few projects you realize, its really not any harder than the stuff we do here.

[Raizor]

Wonderful ninogenio, thanks very much

[Kirl]

Good luck Raizor!

Nino, meaby a 3d printer would be something to look into someday. I know there's at least one open source project. Once you got it working, coding for it should be easy. Printing out a 3d plasma and a bunch of super shapes is on the top of my to do list once I get my hands on one.

I bet once 3d printing takes off it will be an even bigger revolution then the internet was. 

[combatking0]

Amazing build! I can only guess at how most of it works, and you've crammed so much into such a few LEDs.

[hellfire]

Pretty cool stuff, mate 

[ninogenio]

thanks very much guys!!

@kirl god yes id love one. just imagine how complex home electronic projects could be no more glu guns and cardboard boxes  . id probably get drunk and use it too play pranks on my mates 

@combatKing its not as hard as it looks mate. i built it as two circuits the microcontroller first debuging with individual leds, then the max led driver circuit wired the led matrix up and that was it really