[Space Project] LED Wall

Is there any documentation on the old wall? The most recent I heard was that the former HIC is no longer interested in rebuilding it so I might try my hand at it. Any info on the LEDs themselves or details on how they were run in the past would obviously be a step in the right direction

This is the code that it was running, I believe:

1 Like

No idea how the old one was built, but I could probably give some input if you’re looking to build a new one from scratch. I made about 4 dozen panels with 1000 to 4000 LEDs per panel for a contract project recently.

http://i.imgur.com/iWyeZ6H.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/jvEam8C.jpg

The strips are from http://www.shiji-led.com/en/product.asp?sid=175&i=3&j= and I believe they were under $10 for the 60LED/m strips each. You can run up to 1000 LEDs per Teensy 3.0 or 4000 LEDs per Teensy 3.1 using the OctoWS2811 library OctoWS2811 LED Library, Driving Hundreds to Thousands of WS2811 LEDs with Teensy 3.0

I would guess this is what the old panel did, but I was never really around much to see it in operation.

2 Likes

I was thinking of perhaps using a Pi and a fadecandy. You can only controll 512 LEDs per FC unit but you can control multiple FC’s per Pi. Ardent Mobile Cloud Platform powered 2500 LEDs off of one Pi using 5 FC’s so it clearly scales if we want a larger panel. Does anyone remember the layout on the panels? Were they laid out in 16x16 panels?

Dan, organized a group LED buy. So we should have lots of LEDs for the
wall.

Those almost setup in the Bunker before the move.

We also have a Teensy 3.1 connected to that Pi.

1 Like

Yup. They are all still in the panels on the shelf above the soldering stations

Excellent. Do you remember if you were using the OctoWS2811 controller board or a fadecandy or??

It was using the Octo board.

1 Like

Are the Pi, Teensy, and Octo still available or will we need to replace them?

Still there!

1 Like

I’ve been meaning to grab the panels and put this up again, I’ve just been lazy and we don’t have an immediately obvious wall to nail them to. There was some good work on it done before, the panels are there and wired, ready to be coded.

I grabbed the controller a month ago or so and got it going to control a spare LED from the OLD two panels. Really it just needs somebody to grab it and put some hours in. I’ll get to it eventually, I paid for a couple of the panels.

I think the “obvious” wall for the panels is above the door.

Above the TV

or above the mirrors

Above the lockers

On the ceiling

LIGHT ALL THE THINGS! so… yeah… plenty of options. whoever
rebuilds it gets to pick where

1 Like

Project necromancy!

Alright, I’m at the space staring at these panels. I don’t understand how the current connector configuration was designed to send the signal to the panels. Here are some photos:

This looks like the data connector on a panel:

This is the output from the OctoWS2811:

Am I missing intermediate connectors to get from the screw terminals to the black jacks?

Every panel seems to have one of these connectors on the base:

image

Are they meant to connect to the taped red and white wires to connect the power for the panels?

1 Like