[Wilywyrm] needed to come up with a final project for art class that commented on a social issue. Healthcare, schmealthcare, he said, and busted out this movie poster about the NSA spying scandal instead.
The circuit uses three extended-duty astable 555 timers to control the brightness of the 5050 RGB common-anode LED strips that run up the sides of the 24″ x 12″ x 1/4″ acrylic panels. Each of the three panels was laser-engraved at 600 DPI on an Epilog laser engraver and features a different aspect of the poster. There’s one for Snowden, one for Daniel Craig, and one for the text.
[Wilywyrm] tied the color channels together in the first panel to output white light. He used red for the second panel and blue for the third. A complete list of parts with build notes is available on his Google Drive. [Wilywyrm]’s notes include improvement ideas, like making all the RGB strips color-adjustable with more 555s or a microcontroller and timers.
Perhaps [Wilywyrm] could get into the clear whiteboard business after college.
Fucking A man I want this so badly right now “slow claps”
Much meaning
So spelling
wow
-doge
Wanting, a man claps
On style much to be noted
Off topic response
Haiku?
So much needing in some punctuation.
I had the clap once, but your mom told me first.
Frighteningly off topic: Am i the only one who prefers schmitt triggers for astable oscillators?
You’re not. When I walked into the storeroom to get resistors, the guy on duty suggested using something besides a 555 (I think he said schmitt triggers, and even warned me about pin 7 shorting), but I have a tube of them and they were all I knew how to use, so I went with them. Now that I have time to look into it, these triggers are so much simpler. Probably should’ve used them, would have cut down on parts too.
I grew up with the 555 so its always what i reach for first … but i have been meaning to get some dirt cheap 8pdip micros and use those for many projects
I make oscillators out of what’s available as in uncommitted gates or
parts that fits my requirement. I think I have only used the 555 timers
a handful of times in the last 10 years.
Interesting part I have used: TI’s TPS2811, Dual 2A (peak) MOSFET gate
driver with 40V regulator and hysteresis (aka schmitt trigger).
I used that to generate low duty cycle pulses to drive a MOSFET in a
fast transient loads (50A/us) for testing power supplies.
Great job! (though, “not a hack!” ;)
Suggestions for improvements (some impractical):
1. More of a margin around the edges, which would help when you…
2. Reduce/eliminate the light leaks
3. AR coating on the PMMA (to reduce/eliminate the “infinity mirror” effect)
For #3, you might try contacting Ben Krasnow ;)
Why villain, would it not be hero ?