LED matrices are so fun to play with. The low resolution and chunky pixels give them the aesthetics I really enjoy.
I’ve built a 64x64 pixel art frame [0]. With the diffuser in front of the matrix, it looks like animations are floating in the air. I got parts for v2, but I’m yet to find time to build it.
I really like how electronics today are very accessible to start playing with. Basic stuff is mostly plug-and-play, and essentially it becomes a software project.
Classic project I want to do but know I’ll never make the time for lol that’s really cool man. Saving this on the off chance I one day get off my rear for it
Hehe I know what you mean. I mentioned I have parts for v2 (stronger controller, rotary encoder with a big brass knob and completely offline - hardware real time clock), but we’ll see if it will ever happen.
> About a third of a cent per LED, not even counting the rest of the hardware!
At €20 per 32x8 module (2000/256), that's €0.078 per LED which is considerably more expensive than a third of a eurocent, I think? Even if it was €20 for all 6 panels, that's still over a eurocent per LED (2000/1536).
> I'm amazed at how cheap the LED matrix listed in the parts list is.
Cheaper now - AliExpress will sell you 6 32x8 boards for £59.21 (3.85p per LED or ¢5.16 if you're a colonial) saving you ~€52 over the original €120 price.
I bought something like that for a birthday gift, €15 all in all, comes with USB for power and an app / bluetooth for programming it. It was really well received!
I made something very similar recently as a gift. I borrowed code for a led matrix project I liked: NHL scoreboard, wrote a simple application framework, and then ported it to using it. Then I made a bunch of fun simple apps following the same thing, snake, screensavers, weather, stocks and crypto and a clock. Its easy to write new ones and I started on using a layout engine to make it even easier but never finished with that.
I did something similar a few years ago. I put together a Pimoroni Interstate 75 (which is an RP Pico with an integrated LED matrix connector), a 32x64 matrix, a NES controller port, designed a simple case for it and made a Tetris. It was a fun project and the first time I had really done anything with hardware.
I've been meaning to do a write up of the project, but I keep putting it off. I wrote the software bits in C++. To speed up iteration (i.e. not have to deploy to real hardware for every tweak to the game code), I made a small web harness that ran the core logic as wasm.
Neat project! I'd be interested in how the power supply is done. I've wanted to do things with LEDs like this, but not knowing much about electronics this always seems the most complicated part to me, specifically powering both the micro-controller and the LEDs with a single wall plug in a safe and reliable way.
It's not really hard at all, calculate the max power the leds will draw and get a psu that'll never exceed 90% of that. Your average usage will be waaay lower anyways since you don't usually show all white.
5v power supplies are easily available, Meanwell is a popular & reputable brand. The same psu can run your lights and microcontroller.
Newer said it was a hard problem in general, it's hard for me with my limited familiarity with electronics, that's why I was curious how it was done here.
I recall the last time I wanted to do this, my problem with it was that my microcontroller had a different voltage requirement than the LEDs and I tried to put together a little circuit that delivered the right voltage to the microcontroller and LED matrix from a single 5V power supply. I think it worked kind of ok and then not anymore and I had trouble figuring out where I went wrong, most likely did some bad soldering somewhere.
Fully lit, these would be blindingly bright, and would need tens of amps of power supply (source: I have a strip of 100 WS2813s (I think, anyway the 12V ones) and the 3A supply I have would be fully loaded if they were all on full bright white. These suckers are bright).
However, you can always just limit it in software. Total "brightness budget" for the display, scale everything to dimmer if exceeded.
I keep wanting to build a large "lite brite" style display for my window. I keep getting stopped even though I have a lot of the tools necessary, like this laser engraver.
You just gave me an idea about an extremely simple way to build this using a Raspberry Pi Zero and my cheap laser engraver.
LED matrices are so fun to play with. The low resolution and chunky pixels give them the aesthetics I really enjoy.
I’ve built a 64x64 pixel art frame [0]. With the diffuser in front of the matrix, it looks like animations are floating in the air. I got parts for v2, but I’m yet to find time to build it.
I really like how electronics today are very accessible to start playing with. Basic stuff is mostly plug-and-play, and essentially it becomes a software project.
https://github.com/Stanko/retro-frame
Classic project I want to do but know I’ll never make the time for lol that’s really cool man. Saving this on the off chance I one day get off my rear for it
Hehe I know what you mean. I mentioned I have parts for v2 (stronger controller, rotary encoder with a big brass knob and completely offline - hardware real time clock), but we’ll see if it will ever happen.
Projects like this are always interesting to me because it is fairly outside of my skill set, but I feel like I could get there ha. We’ll see!
I'm amazed at how cheap the LED matrix listed in the parts list is. About a third of a cent per LED, not even counting the rest of the hardware! Wow.
> About a third of a cent per LED, not even counting the rest of the hardware!
At €20 per 32x8 module (2000/256), that's €0.078 per LED which is considerably more expensive than a third of a eurocent, I think? Even if it was €20 for all 6 panels, that's still over a eurocent per LED (2000/1536).
> I'm amazed at how cheap the LED matrix listed in the parts list is.
Cheaper now - AliExpress will sell you 6 32x8 boards for £59.21 (3.85p per LED or ¢5.16 if you're a colonial) saving you ~€52 over the original €120 price.
Technically it would depend on the colony.
The US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand are all ex colonies and all use the cent. I'm sure there are a few more, we did get around a bit.
> Technically it would depend on the colony.
Fair point. I keep forgetting how many people have weird currencies outside of Merkia.
I bought something like that for a birthday gift, €15 all in all, comes with USB for power and an app / bluetooth for programming it. It was really well received!
I made something very similar recently as a gift. I borrowed code for a led matrix project I liked: NHL scoreboard, wrote a simple application framework, and then ported it to using it. Then I made a bunch of fun simple apps following the same thing, snake, screensavers, weather, stocks and crypto and a clock. Its easy to write new ones and I started on using a layout engine to make it even easier but never finished with that.
https://github.com/krruzic/tfeos
I did something similar a few years ago. I put together a Pimoroni Interstate 75 (which is an RP Pico with an integrated LED matrix connector), a 32x64 matrix, a NES controller port, designed a simple case for it and made a Tetris. It was a fun project and the first time I had really done anything with hardware.
I've been meaning to do a write up of the project, but I keep putting it off. I wrote the software bits in C++. To speed up iteration (i.e. not have to deploy to real hardware for every tweak to the game code), I made a small web harness that ran the core logic as wasm.
https://imgur.com/a/tetris-HoXenDg
Looks really smooth! Would love to see that write up, or even the source if you would be willing to share it.
Neat project! I'd be interested in how the power supply is done. I've wanted to do things with LEDs like this, but not knowing much about electronics this always seems the most complicated part to me, specifically powering both the micro-controller and the LEDs with a single wall plug in a safe and reliable way.
It's not really hard at all, calculate the max power the leds will draw and get a psu that'll never exceed 90% of that. Your average usage will be waaay lower anyways since you don't usually show all white.
5v power supplies are easily available, Meanwell is a popular & reputable brand. The same psu can run your lights and microcontroller.
Newer said it was a hard problem in general, it's hard for me with my limited familiarity with electronics, that's why I was curious how it was done here.
I recall the last time I wanted to do this, my problem with it was that my microcontroller had a different voltage requirement than the LEDs and I tried to put together a little circuit that delivered the right voltage to the microcontroller and LED matrix from a single 5V power supply. I think it worked kind of ok and then not anymore and I had trouble figuring out where I went wrong, most likely did some bad soldering somewhere.
Fully lit, these would be blindingly bright, and would need tens of amps of power supply (source: I have a strip of 100 WS2813s (I think, anyway the 12V ones) and the 3A supply I have would be fully loaded if they were all on full bright white. These suckers are bright).
However, you can always just limit it in software. Total "brightness budget" for the display, scale everything to dimmer if exceeded.
Cool project.
I keep wanting to build a large "lite brite" style display for my window. I keep getting stopped even though I have a lot of the tools necessary, like this laser engraver.
You just gave me an idea about an extremely simple way to build this using a Raspberry Pi Zero and my cheap laser engraver.
Related: LEDmePlay, a 32x32 DIY arduino Mega 2560 game console with various games and there‘s even a handheld version!
https://mithotronic.de/ledmeplay.php
Exactly half the resolution of a TI83 (which is 96x64)
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