While I’ve been waiting for the PCB to be made I’ve been working on designing the software. I’ve been using LucidChart to design flowcharts of the main systems. Hand Controller The Hand Controller sends a stream of data from the accelerometer and light trigger. It has a few different modes depending on whether the game […]
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Display Panel Working Prototype
Tonight I cut the display from 1/4″ poplar on a laser cutter and installed the switches, pots and displays. (The single 7 segment display on the left still needs to be mounted.) I struggled with how to easily mount the other two displays – a short (<1/4″) very thin wood screw was needed… then hot glue […]
Connectors
Deciding on connectors between the PCBs and off-board components was more difficult than I expected. There are dozens of systems for connections and I wasn’t familiar with most of them. I ended up buying a grab bag of connectors (for only $7.95) at Jameco – the process of digging through and sorting 200 random pieces […]
Next steps
Prior to pcb fab run verify: PoE at 12v over full 100 ft run. Communications work both ways. Photo transistor works over 10 ft run. All the above work together Changes: Shrink RJ45 pcb to same width as controller board Silkscreen full pcb layer to include mounting holes for alignment Rework to fit 4 RJ45 […]
PCB plan
Bay Area Circuits will built a 2 sided board for $30 (educational discount) up to 50 sq. in. I’m planning to do a single board with all my PCBs on it: 2 Hand Contollers (1.25″ x 4.75″) 2 Sensor Boxes (1″ x 2″) 1 Mega shield (2″ x 4″) 1 RJ-45 dual jack (main box […]
1D fireworks
My first LED strip project was a vertical one-dimensional fireworks display. It’s 2 meters tall with 120 LEDs driven by an Arduino Uno. Here’s the code for the Arduino. boom.ino #include <FastLED.h> #define NUM_LEDS 120 #define DATA_PIN 6 CRGB leds[NUM_LEDS]; // sets up block of memory #define NUM_SPARKS 61 // max number (could be NUM_LEDS […]