watch futurama on an 8x8 pixel screen

tired of hi-def? (booo!!!)

here's how to convert otherwise reasonable quality video into pixelated garbage and play it on a 2 color 8x8 led matrix, with no sound and only moderate sync.

ingredients:
- (1) 8x8 2 color led matrix
- (1) atmel avr atmega168
- (2) 74hc595 shift register
- (1) 3.3V regulator
- (1) a linux system

this is a mid level avr project, in that it assumes ( does not explain ) how to get a program onto a chip. it's pretty easy once you've done it though, so don't worry. to see how to actually load up a program, The Real Elliot has a nice introduction.

onto the show!

Step 1 Have linux, avr-gcc, python, mplayer...

you'll need linux to use this method, because i used common linuxy things in it. these things are, in no particular order:

1. avr-gcc: needed to make c code into avr code --> wiki stuff about it

2. python: a surprisingly nice programming language --> official site

3. python image library: used here to turn nice video into tiny specs of light without nearly as much hassle as that sounds like. --> pil

4. mplayer: used to turn video into stills --> mplayer

5. mencoder: (optional) change the frame rate of video --> same place as mplayer

i think that is all of the dependancies.

Comments

[fostersfriend]

cool but don't u think it's misssing a arduino

[rtty21]

what a mess! looks fun!

[robeargamgee]

ha. I agree, i was like.. hmm? then stomach punch - bam got it! Thanks. We need you to write a dictionary for everything that needs an explanation. :)

[eshneto]

 Really great explanation. Keep on going!

[ReCreate]

What movie/show is that?

[arduinoe]

does the display actually flicker like that or is that just a similar refresh rate to the camarea

[darthneo]

probably the camera

[taz699]

Awesome explanation. I wish you where my robotics teacher in high school. lol

[cantthinkof bettername]

I wish I had a robotics teacher.

[andrew101]

lol mee 2

[cantthinkof bettername]

is that a whippet?

[andrew101]

lol ur the second person to ask. no its not mine but its an odd mix breed. i dont remember what it is. but i suppose it looks sort of like that due to the angle i took the photo from.

[cantthinkof bettername]

I only asked because I saw the other post ,and I thought it would be funny and/or annoying if I asked too. I looked up whippets, an they do look similar, but I don't think it is a whippet.

[andrew101]

haha lol

[cantthinkof bettername]

Yeah, It worked!

[sparr]

You could add shades of color by storing more than 1 bit of data per subpixel per frame. That 5ms delay for each line is plenty of time to do some pseudo-PWM. It would make the data much larger though.

[alex_arseneau]

how would you go about making the screen a 8x6. Meaning that it would be 8 matrix's wide and 6 matrix's tall. How do you interface all the matrix's to act as one big screen

[sparr]

To simply scale this design up, you would need 48 of the matrixes, obviously. The circuit would be laid out as if you had one long 384x8-pixel matrix, even though you would arrange them physically in a rectangle. You would need an additional shift register for each matrix, and all the shift registers would need to be chained together to cascade. And you would need a row driver capable of putting out enough current to drive 384 LEDs at once.

That is not a particularly feasible design. The largest display I have seen like that was 4x2 * 8x8, and that was stretching it. You would probably want to build a 8x1 * 8x8 display, then get more creative in stacking those to avoid ridiculous input pin counts.

[sethj]

do you mean 64x48 pixels? you could do that by adding a few more shift registers and adjusting the code to notice them.

[darkman111]

if anyone wants to watch futurama and other shows like american dad the boondocks and robot chicken all seasons and episodes from these show u should try http://newamericandadepisodes.com/ also has funny clips and pics

[Self-Serving Martyr]

You could always buy a Zoombox. It's a much easier way to get a giant, crappy picture.

[yx516]

I think he wants SMALL crappy picture ;)

[Wash0ut]

actually, if you pay close attention during the beginning you can see how "futurama" fans out and at the end you can make out a small outline of the tube the guy is sliding through. Nothing great but still distinctive. But who care it's still Awsome!

[sethj]

has anyone noticed the animated gif?

[naught101]

yep. took a while, but that's classic.

[Bluemetal]

This was the best, most graphical and easiest to understand explanation of a shift register. :-)

[sethj]

:)

[robonut625]

Cool! Great description of the '595! lol

[royalestel]

This is pretty cool. If you add a transparent LCD screen in front of it, you can make your own HDR display! Actually, that's something I've been kicking around for a while.

[garydion]

Glad to see someone else using these displays! Should you be interested in a simpler circuit I am using an ATmega8 and a single 74HC373 to drive this display. Less hardware, but probably not quite as bright as I'm multiplexing red/green. I'm working with a friend to create a JAVA app that streams animations to the micro resulting in a very similar effect. Once downloaded to flash, we'll end up with some animated "amulets", much like the Christmas ornaments seen here recently. Great instructable!

[sethj]

thanks, this is my first instructable. this site is pretty cool! i'm wondering, how are you going about the streaming? i had considered having my python script dump straight into rs232 serial and putting a max232 on the board, but haven't gotten around to it yet... usb would be cooler.

[Jacob S.]

thats pretty cool, I love projects like this, you know, with no practical usage. I didn't know they sold led matrixes like that, I'll have to get a few peace out

[inevitable_chaos]

Should've done it for an intro with less happening in it. Otherwise, pretty good.

[sethj]

thanks! i had wanted to do something easy like Lost with its big zooming "LOST" but i don't have any dvds of it. the code and everything is included here so if anyone wants to make a data set of something but not build the device, i can try try and load it onto mine and post the video... won't have sound though :)

[PetervG]

It seems to me like the 8x8 matrix playing the Futurama intro was just flashing random things.

[sethj]

yeah, it does look kind of random. looking at the code, though, you can see that it is in fact a direct resampling of the show...