UPDATE!! Schematic is ONLINE!
UPDATE 2!! Code is ONLINE!
This project details my rather rapid build of a 24x8 matrix.
My inspiration for this project came from Syst3mX's 24x6 matrix. A 24x6 matrix was huge, but it just was too small for me, as not much can be done in only 6 lines. My goal was to increase the line count on that display, so I could have a few extra pixels.
Basically this is just a 24x8 matrix with a cool, interlocking foamboard grid that makes it possible to have a really big display. This display is 3 feet long, and just over a foot high! Thats half the size of a large, flatscreen TV! Plus, the whole thing is arduino controlled, so you can program it to do other cool things, besides just showing text! :)
I am just also a high school student, and i love to make stuff. So would you consider voting for this project in the current contests? Thanks!
Difficulty: This project will be pretty simple for an expert, but a beginner will struggle with it. Better for those who have had some experience with soldering/building circuits.
Cost: The entire project can be done for less than $70, much less if you already have an arduino board.
Time: 2 weekends or about 1 full season of Star Trek's work.
UPDATE 2!! Code is ONLINE!
This project details my rather rapid build of a 24x8 matrix.
My inspiration for this project came from Syst3mX's 24x6 matrix. A 24x6 matrix was huge, but it just was too small for me, as not much can be done in only 6 lines. My goal was to increase the line count on that display, so I could have a few extra pixels.
Basically this is just a 24x8 matrix with a cool, interlocking foamboard grid that makes it possible to have a really big display. This display is 3 feet long, and just over a foot high! Thats half the size of a large, flatscreen TV! Plus, the whole thing is arduino controlled, so you can program it to do other cool things, besides just showing text! :)
I am just also a high school student, and i love to make stuff. So would you consider voting for this project in the current contests? Thanks!
Difficulty: This project will be pretty simple for an expert, but a beginner will struggle with it. Better for those who have had some experience with soldering/building circuits.
Cost: The entire project can be done for less than $70, much less if you already have an arduino board.
Time: 2 weekends or about 1 full season of Star Trek's work.
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Signing UpStep 1: Materials
This project uses a lot of materials, so its best to have them all in one list. To build this completely, you will need
• 192 LEDs (LEDs can fail or be fried easily, so I recommend getting 200 even)
• 3 x 74HC595 shift registers
• 24 resistors (Use this to get the values you need (http://led.linear1.org/1led.wiz), you will have to know your LEDs forward voltage and current, as well as what you are supplying it with (in the case of arduino it is usually 5v sourced))
• 8 x 1k resistors
• 8 x 2N3904 transistors
• 1 x 4017 decade counter
• 1 x Arduino board or Atmega 328 chip. Make sure you have the tools to program it if you just have the chip
• Wire (lots of it!). I went through probably 50ft of wire making this. At least 50ft, if not more...
(A side note on the wire, solid core wire in a thin gauge (22-26ish), is very helpful when building this, because we will strip most of the coating of to solder it. If you can find some uncoated wire, that will help for most of the building process, and save you lots of time stripping wire)
• Tracing (sketching) paper. You can also use wax paper or parchment paper if you cannot find tracing paper
• Glue. I just used white Elmers glue and it worked great
• A foamboard panel (36 in long). I used this board from walmart, its just the right size. They had it in single-piece packages and were in the school supplies. Alternatively, you can use cardboard, or a similar type of board.
• Electrical tape (optional, but really useful)
Shameless plug- I get most of my parts from taydaelectronics.com- great store (especially for students on a budget :D), but shipping takes a while (~10 days). If you want to get it quick, I recommend Digikey or Mouser electronics. Great stores, and digikey usually gets to me in 2 days.
• 192 LEDs (LEDs can fail or be fried easily, so I recommend getting 200 even)
• 3 x 74HC595 shift registers
• 24 resistors (Use this to get the values you need (http://led.linear1.org/1led.wiz), you will have to know your LEDs forward voltage and current, as well as what you are supplying it with (in the case of arduino it is usually 5v sourced))
• 8 x 1k resistors
• 8 x 2N3904 transistors
• 1 x 4017 decade counter
• 1 x Arduino board or Atmega 328 chip. Make sure you have the tools to program it if you just have the chip
• Wire (lots of it!). I went through probably 50ft of wire making this. At least 50ft, if not more...
(A side note on the wire, solid core wire in a thin gauge (22-26ish), is very helpful when building this, because we will strip most of the coating of to solder it. If you can find some uncoated wire, that will help for most of the building process, and save you lots of time stripping wire)
• Tracing (sketching) paper. You can also use wax paper or parchment paper if you cannot find tracing paper
• Glue. I just used white Elmers glue and it worked great
• A foamboard panel (36 in long). I used this board from walmart, its just the right size. They had it in single-piece packages and were in the school supplies. Alternatively, you can use cardboard, or a similar type of board.
• Electrical tape (optional, but really useful)
Shameless plug- I get most of my parts from taydaelectronics.com- great store (especially for students on a budget :D), but shipping takes a while (~10 days). If you want to get it quick, I recommend Digikey or Mouser electronics. Great stores, and digikey usually gets to me in 2 days.
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if you are running the looping message code. Just put a B before every letter you want to put for the message so HELLO would be byte your_text[60][8]={BH,BE,BL,BL,BO};
Ever get your sign working? Sorry to not be on instructables as much as I should be...
Ideally I would like to have one of these displaying time with a RTC module occasionally scrolling with news/weather/email inbox info with an ethernet module and prehaps actual temperature info from sensors. Unfortunately that is way beyond what I am capable of, coding wise. My soldering and hardware ability is good, but just learning to program.
It would be nice if the Arduing LCD library could be modified so you could control a sign matrix such as this just like a big LCD display. Do you think this would be possible?
Anyways, great work. Thanks for the inspiration!
To be honest, my programming skills arent that great either. Working through this code was really hard...
I have no idea if the LCD library could be modified, my guess would be probably not as LEDs and LCDs are quite different (in terms of driving them)
Some modifications would be necessary, but not too difficult with a little experimentation. More shift registers if you use a chip with fewer outputs, power changes, fun stuff.
Overall, this is a great instructable, and I may just build something like this (though wouldn't it be fun to turn your whole house into a display?)!
An ATTiny would be amazing to power this because its so tiny.. but I dont know if they have the needed space in bytes- my code right now takes up about 6k of memory :O