Modular POV Final Project

pov

[Jonathan] sent us his final project for ECE 476. His group built an LED POV display that can be updated wirelessly from a computer. They built it in a somewhat modular fashion, with the LED strip being a simple to replace module. This goes along with their plan to build a 3D version of the display. They have made it able to switch easily from it’s internal programming to direct computer control, allowing them to leave it alone in clock mode, or take control to play with it. The updates seem really quick, you can see them in effect in the video after the break. All source code and schematics are available on the site. We love these final projects, they usually have tons of data and great pictures. Keep them coming.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKi7VSX-nqk]

12 thoughts on “Modular POV Final Project

  1. I would love to see another layer of abstraction that lets you push data in Cartesian coordinates to allow images and text that can be orthogonal and right-side-up, so to speak.

  2. We already did parts of that. Through the gui, you can load 63×63 bit images in cartesian. A java program that was written then converts it to polar coordinates and displays the image on the propeller clock. That’s how all the 1, 2, 3, and the smiley are generated on the display. Of course, we are interested in updating our program so that we can somehow do that on the fly and maybe make all the numbers on the clock point in a “upright” direction dynamically and not through rom (which can be done through that program I mentioned in the beginning). A future study would also to do this in a 3D version or in games as well. You can see this cartesian to poloar generation better here: http://instruct1.cit.cornell.edu/courses/ee476/FinalProjects/s2009/ht227/POV1.MP4 The left side of the GUI (when house is displayed) is the picture in polar coordinate. The right side is it in cartesian.

  3. I need to update the info on our website (hope to do so this weekend), but we actually did a very similar project for our Sr. Design course…Only we passed up on the wireless in favor of doing multiple layers for a 3D effect.
    http://thearbweb.com/AQT
    a short demo is up on youtube, more coming later:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRXr3jaKFxc
    The current version moves the wave faster and with less visibility between the layers…it also displays (rough) 3D maps.

    Funny that two groups on opposite sides of the country were working on the same thing at the same time :)
    -Kellen

  4. Nice work! The second video (the one you posted here in the comments) is much clearer than the one on your project site, and the animation came out much better.

    A very cool project indeed.

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