Maker Project: RGB LED Animated Pixel Box

[@OneCoolDude08]

I'm a programmer by day, an electronics hobbyist by night, and I have loved LED's since I was a little kid. This looks like a lot of fun. I think I will make a few for myself, a few for gifts, and a few to sell on eBay... since nobody else wants to sell the dang things, lol.

[@Vendzor]

@OneCoolDude08 have you listed any on eBay in the last three years?

[@Jero8]

Yep - spot on. The content really carries Tested. If not great interviewers, they're great editors who obviously have some very interesting contacts to source material. I do really like the talk segments too, especially Still Untitled simply because Adam is such an interesting personality. This Is Only A Test is still great to listen to while gaming or doing housework - the dynamic/tension there between Will and Norm is both frustrating and hilarious at times.

[@xenodrone]

I've been looking at videos of Raspberry Pi and Arduino stuff, trying to decide if I should get into the game, and this video just convinced me. I don't know anything about programming, but I know how to solder and read instructions. I think I could figure this out. I'm convinced. thanks!

[@molomono9795]

xenodrone I'm sure you have figured it out by now but depending on the chips used to drive the LEDS you can possibly use pre-made software to control them. Glediator is an example of a useful program that works for WS2801-2811-2812 chips. The hardware is quite doable for led projects, the software that you can write is more complex. But the great benefit of led matrix's is how graphic the programming becomes which makes it a useful tool when learning how to program for a specific architecture, be it WS2801 or shift registers you can see exactly what is going on.

[@richsadowsky8580]

the protocol has some inherent limits on how fast and many LEDs are supported in a single data pin. As long as you inject power you should be able to drive thousands in serial. Nice project.

[@MTGeomancer]

FYI: For a static image, the number of LEDs will be limited by the current required. Either your power supply limit, or the wire capacity limit. For motion however, the limit will be in your frame rate. The higher the frame rate, the more often each pixel needs updated, and that will quickly escalate to the point your I/O port can't keep up.

[@rodrigues3780]

Yessssssss!!! That guys has no knowledge what so ever.

[@bunkkasponge]

Im on it! Pixels here I come!!! Oh those days when pixels go out of fashion i will cry or welcome that new thing of nostalgia :D

[@MrMaliciousintention]

Please keep us updated on this guys! If these at some point these come up for sale, i WILL TOTALLY BUY ONE!!! Not even kidding, maybe even two or three. Because lets face it folks, One running Pac-Man, "chasing" two or three of the ghosts on my wall.... Well all know how bad ass that would be!!

[@Tupster]

Looks like way more hardware than is actually needed for that application, but it is really cool :)

[@Mikej1592]

He's just like it's so easy just a few bucks here, few more there and then your using your smart phone to wirelessly show pictures on your wall and I'm sitting here awestruck at how intensely complicated that setup looks. I really just need to pick up some of this stuff and start messing around with it.

[@justmusicvid]

This was a good project. The unit has other possibilities. Great Job.

[@tested]

Ponoko. They're located in the SF bay area

[@MCSoulEater63]

I'm not sure how you meant it, because you used a double negative, but if you meant that they were the one who didn't read the description, then I would have to say that wouldn't be a reason to comment to them, they said "if this was available in retail" meaning they know it isn't and were just saying IF it was then... I know it really is not important, I just felt like typing today so I replied to you, sorry for taking your time, and thank you for giving me something to do for a bit.

[@tested]

working on it!

[@pork3d]

This needs to be a kit I want one so bad

[@Simon-fb2od]

@Vignesh Raagav Raman Kothandaraman haha I bet he now stills wants one

[@RSpudieD]

So cool, it would be cool to see a movie on this is we could

[@SlumberingDragonEntertainment]

Really nice. I'd like to see the Imp from Final Fantasy and maybe the Drake from Dragon Warrior too.

[@Aknuckle]

I would buy one in a heart beat.

[@bigboss97]

Can't wait to see this.

[@deldri]

Arduino + WiFi Shield is around 30€ from China

[@croydon21H]

@3:56 did you say arduino and wifi cost is $100? can you please tell how?

[@Locut0s]

God dam that is so simple and so cool! I need to make one of these :D Thanks guys!

[@amb4901]

I would love one of these!! especially to do 16 bit sprites, granted it would need to be bigger for that..

[@gwokymarla]

Cool dude! I would totally hang one of those up on my wall.

[@cuddles6938]

How about adding SOUND to each animated image. Maybe then you could have Pacman chomping some dots along with the sound effects.

[@Chainsawyou]

Definitely kick start this people will go crazy for them!

[@GundamZeroSeven]

Very cool. I bet they would sell good if you made a bunch.

[@danny1111105]

well, it would be odd having 4 pixels to represent each piece, but pretty cool.

[@thekbshouse]

The .png pictures are called spritesheets.

[@davidmarden4789]

I work for Chumpcar as west coast chief of tech and black flag steward and I'd like to build or buy one to use as a number board. We have a tough time getting people off the track sometimes.

[@Arazand]

Make a NES emulator with this as a screen with wireless controllers. That would be sooo awesome! These are 16 by 16 and one foot wide, a NES runs at 256 by 240 sooo... a 16 feet wide screen in total... not this would be a convention or über nerd thing but still how cool would that be. Run an emulator, use this as a screen, have it as a public show thing on the side of a building or something like that and have people connect with their cellphone to play... so awesome.

[@zawzero]

Just ordered a pi, will build this next week :)

[@JimLeonard]

I've seen him overload functions in a menu authoring scripting language because he needed trigonometry functions -- for a game he was writing. Yes, he is a programmer.

[@909raiden]

So cool! Show more!

[@jimie93]

Cannot wait!

Kickstart it, i want 2-3 of these!!!

[@Khether0001]

the technology barrier can often be more easily surpassed than the economic one.

[@Stonerman023]

Wow, it looks really cool, but if I made one I´d like it to be 16x64 (or 48) and you could have it work as a graphic equalizer as well, or have a row of goombas chasing mario, or some ghosts chasing Pac-man, and him chowing down a pill to chase the ghosts!

[@mymidmorningnap]

oh man, if these were available in retail i would have like 3

[@DouglasLambert]

That is awesome! Norm, get us the instructions for this build, for the love of God!

[@JeffLange1]

What was the laser cutting service you mentioned?

[@JimLeonard]

Wanted to hit you when you said you weren't a programmer. YES YOU ARE

[@tiagotiagot]

Does it send a black frame and then very quickly the next actual frame of the animation or just the next frame in a quick burst? Or does it store the next frame as it is coming without displaying it and then gets a command to change to it when it is done?

[@beetrootTheSecond]

Can you please make a tutorial for the wiring and a parts list because I am interested at making one thanks

[@ColteConn]

thank you so much for telling me about ponoko

[@AKAPhilfish]

A friend of mine suggested adding a chip-tune player; I think that it's a great idea! Make it happen!!!!!!!

[@marian519]

Where did you buy the LED strips?

[@tyeron9192]

Nice is it possible do you have the software to build it

[@scottydoo32]

Id love to have samus on one of these. Running, shooting and rolling into a ball

[@Thelaughingman26]

where can we get one of the raspberry pi arduinos ?

[@HaroldKuilman]

I only have 3 words for this: ONE DAY BUIlD!!

[@CoreyMurnaghan]

Nice! I'm thinking a cool wall clock...

[@YQN2149]

a walking lemming, how tasteful!

[@AkshayParmarkingofdiamonds]

Awesome. Are those 4 sell

[@GASNICABRUNATNA]

The Fade candy from Adafruit is $25 and can do this standalone.

[@Laflamablanca969]

CNC stands for Computer Numerical Control. It has nothing to do with the actual cutting method. The asian fella was correct, regardless of what method you used to cut it (laser, router etc...)

[@Saphir__]

I'd run Pokemon sprites all day on that thing.

[@garypaulie]

Brilliant :-) may make one soon

[@chemicallust77]

Very cool...would love to see more :-)

[@ROSCOLUX302]

My god! Think of how much money you could make if this went commercial! And, what if you expanded the pixels to 60x60 or higher! ROLLIN" IN CASH!

[@thomasvanlommel]

Where can I find those Gif files you're using?? Could you send them to me?

[@zawzero]

Will you use it with your Thinkpad Macbook?

[@Zeouterlimits]

Yeah, I guessed it was surmountable. £17 is pretty great, thanks for that. I'm still way off from doing this myself.

[@emilioguzman1192]

Which LED's would you use to turn a pixel yellow?

[@TheMXriders]

green and red

[@anastasiadunbar5246]

red,green&blue = white blue and red = magenta (purple/pink) blue and green = cyan (light blue) red and green = yellow no lights = black

[@RobertMelton]

Yes!

[@peon17]

I want one. Now.

[@starmalion1]

Thats awesome!!!

[@scootermcgoober]

Software is called PixelPi its on my github

[@TomHowbridge]

So you did not think of the obvious pong and Tetris

[@carolteran9833]

which three colors of led make up each pixel?

[@deldri]

+Sofía Terán Each Pixel consists of an RGB LED. This is a red, a green and blue LED mosty in one chip. Depending on the dimming steps (PWM/Analog/PDM etc.) you can mix all colors you want.

[@JR9979]

+Sofía Terán RGB LED's, red, green, blue.

[@pamiv51]

Would this work with the new pi zero

[@slickplaid]

Norm, get us build instructions, sourcing on parts, and links to the software!

[@MCSoulEater63]

You replied to the wrong comment. This should be on the one below .

[@zahirkhan778]

it would be great if the pixls can be made smaller

[@OneCoolDude08]

You will go insane trying to reply to every person who makes a clueless statement! P.S, Where can I buy a Raspberry Pi Arduino BeagleBone to hook up to my Apple Thinkpad running the BeOS Linux operating system. I wrote a program in the BASIC machine code Python Logo language to control my RCA Craftsman garage door opener?

[@DKshad0w]

I want one...

[@ToxicNova5]

I want one!

[@pyroman136]

Did it annoy you too how he kept touching the led box? He kept pawing it and all I could think of was "Get your hands off it!!!!". /rant

[@jjeokam]

I WANT ONE!!! How much? :D

[@Llyod3000]

I have one :P but with only 5x7 Pixels as a coffe table...

[@lordgarth1]

More fun to just make.

[@truhlikfredy]

what is the cheap rgb strip source?

[@Vendzor]

@truhlikfredy Amazon

[@Jero8]

I agree, particularly Norm. He often talks too much/talks over the guests, whereas a good interviewer should let the interviewee tell most of the story. Norm seems to want to show off his knowledge too much. I find Will to be much more natural, however - so no qualms about him.

[@frilandfilm1]

MORE!!!

[@JoelLagunaYomama]

Can you make some Minecraft images?

[@allluckyseven]

Make it play the games' songs!

[@Joepopa12]

Need to rig up enough to display and play a nintendo game.

[@Evaster1]

im interested

[@MegaGoVideo]

paten it and sell dinamic pateren for it like sports emblums and beveriges logos u will be ritch

[@iCharlyoseayo]

I want 4

[@artconnolly9519]

Make a tv size one and play Mario for real (8bit) of coarse lol

[@magichris4hire]

shut up and take my rings!!! I want one.

[@AKAPhilfish]

I second André Fosstvedt's Kickstart it comment! Do it!

[@heyhey1385]

Its Already a product adafruit /products/1357

[@Zeouterlimits]

Really cool, would like to do it myself, but yes, way too bright.

[@ayellowfinger132]

It would be awesome with minecraft!

[@ihtsarl9115]

put that desperate poor frog in a pool before it dehydrates

[@kidweird]

Just take my money

[@404notfoundish]

hey

[@41tinman41]

TAKE ALL MY MONEY!!!

[@Knives047]

Shut up and take my money!