LED Hat Display with Pong

A while ago, as my first microcontroller project, I made a Pong game on a 5x7 LED display, but then nothing became of it. Recently I was given a hard hat as part of a uniform (for an engineering competition) and told to customize it, and remembered pong.

In this instructable I will show you how to make a scrolling LED display and how to install it in a hard hat. It also plays pong!

Step 1 Materials

Parts:
-2 10k potentiometers
- 3 4.7 kOhm resistors
-4 SPST toggle switches
-1 5x7 bicolour LED display
-1 8 pin dipswitch
-1 Hardhat
-1 atmega168 microcontroller (or arduino)
-1 28 Pin 'skinny' socket
-1 breadboard
-1 3.7V lithium polymer battery
-Wire
-Solder
-Hot Glue

Tools:
-Soldering Iron
-Hot Glue Gun
-Wire Stripper
-Hobby Knife
-Plexiglas Cutting Knife
- Microcontroller Programmer (optional)

Comments

[stratos13pao]

well thats a really nice project
I am Greek and the letters ertw are greek so i wonder if they or u are related to greece someway
i cant though find their meaneing i would love an answer

[reggae_boyz]

UOIT being represented rather nicely, good job.

[howstoyou]

Does ERTW stand for Electronics, Robotics, Technology, W00T?

[J_Hodgie]

Nope, Engineers Rule The World.

[ninja slacker]

love the hard hat and love the choice of song.

[J-Five]

Cool But I think someone had just too much time on their hands.

[bumsugger]

Sheeeeeeeeesh!!

[puzzlefreak]

That was simply awesome. Nice project.

[Patrik]

Very cool project! And just ever so slightly geeky. :-D

That 5x7 LED display is a great find, by the way - $1.49 for 70 LEDs! That's just over 2 cents per LED - must be some sort of record...

Since you're at an engineering school, I assume ERTW stands for Equal Rights Towards Women. Now, can I get my bonus points? ;-)

Google - is there anything it can't do?

[Derin]

yes it cant give me pages for my school reports

[J_Hodgie]

Thanks for the comment. Not quite, but it is in the link.

[thefunktopus]

it's engineers return to work, i think this because you say the hat is for an engineering project.

[sidgug]

Great project. Well done. I will be able to learn a lot from studying your code. I'm just not sure about the bi-colour display. Will I need to change much in the code if I just hook it up to a single colour matrix? Thanks for posting the code.

[J_Hodgie]

No, I just controlled the bi-colour display in the hat through the dip-switches above it, so the code is already in one colour.

[cheezydog100]

you are a genus but im only 10 and cant do this but i'll probaly try i'd put it on my math book need some thin to do lol

[Thornburg]

It is so awesome, yet so random. I am impressed. +1 Favorited

[clamoring]

Very very nice work. I was looking for an Arduino project. This looks like just the thing!

[DamionLee]

That's a nice Instructable. Almost has me ready to go into the attic to find my old hard-hat. Think I may have to find some other housing for it instead. Well done.

[ansem27]

(removed by author or community request)

[DamionLee]

That's a very suspect link ansem. Perhaps you should take your spam elsewhere. (The link is not for Think Geek, but for some page on a free host with ansem's name in it - look at the status bar at the bottom of your browser when hovering your mouse cursor over a link before clicking on it).

[ongissim]

Awesome! This is similar to this; only your led matrix is in landscape, which makes pong much easier to play! Nice job.

[noremakk]

Is there a way to program the display using a Mac?

[J_Hodgie]

Yes, there is. There are also some more resources at http://www.arduino.cc/

[maker12]

ponghat!

[dj whatever]

OMG we have the same heli. I have an Instructable for this!!!

[gmoon]

Nooooo liner?? Canya nay wear it, laddie? (awwwww, you get a + anyway. Nice job.)

[J_Hodgie]

There is a liner, it is propping the helmet up in the main photo. I just removed it to take a picture of the finished electronics. And thanks for the comment.

[mrmath]

You got my vote for the LED contest.

[J_Hodgie]

Thanks!

[455H013]

Hey, do you go to UOIT? Also, engineers rule the world

[455H013]

Replying to myself, it says you do on step 9. I'm a second year mech eng.

[J_Hodgie]

Yes I do, I am in second year mechatronics.

[darkmuskrat]

I agree with Gorillaz, this is cool

[GorillazMiko]

Incredible job. Reminds me a lot of Kiteman's UV Ray light Instructable.

[stourleyk]

Oh, I thought it said, "with bong." My bad.

[nagutron]

My lord. This just reminded me of one of the funniest Overheard in New York posts of all time:

And What Part Will the Helmet Play in That?

Nerdy hipster to friends: You want nerdy? You know what I did today? I worked on this robot helmet I'm making on my floor. Yep, a robot helmet complete with LED lights -- for my girlfriend. See? That's love right there.
Girlfriend, explaining: I told him we could have butt sex.
Nerdy hipster, emphatically: But not until I finish the helmet!

--L train

[Kiteman]

Very nice - the long pots make it look quite impish, but aren't they vulnerable to getting knocked off? Maybe shorter knobs would have been better?

[J_Hodgie]

Thanks. The long pots are very sturdy, no risk there, so it is basically what you want (or to get the more authentic pong feeling)

[angelicgundam90]

Hey what engineering competition are you talking about? FIRST? an awesome hard hat

[J_Hodgie]

The competition is the Ontario Engineering Competition. Thanks.