The scope of this project is almost as jaw-dropping as the cost of the parts. [LeoneLabs] calls the project PixelBrite. It’s a highly-polished modular RGB LED panel system, and he’s not keeping it a secret. We think it’s reasonable to call the build documentation mammoth. If you’re a fan of fast-motion assembly videos he’s got you covered there as well.
It’s interesting to compare this build to some of the Daft Punk tables from years back. It shows how economies of scale in the hobby electronics industry have helped new and affordable products to emerge. For instance, this offering is a 10×10 grid which is outside of the normal 8 pixel wide orientation dictated by 8-bit microcontrollers. The reason for the change is that this doesn’t use a matrix built with point-to-point soldering. It uses a string of RGB pixels (WS2801).
The enclosure is also a thing of beauty. The dividers that make up each cell are laser cut foam board. This makes the joints very tight to prevent light from leaking into the next cell. The housing is acrylic held in place by an aluminum rail system. Need more than one panel? No problem, a single connector chains one panel to the next. But we did mentioned the cost of materials. Unassembled you can expect to drop over five hundred bones for the pleasure of seeing this thing blink.
Meh, cost. There were a few sourcing choices here that could have been improved (Adafruit vs eBay for the LED pixels cost almost twice as much as it could have; OSH Park would have done professional boards for less than what was spent on proto supplies). But you can’t ever expect a one-off to be economically efficient – economies of scale, as the writeup mentions, are important.
For what it’s worth I’ve easily spent a couple thousand on my iPad/Macbook breakouts so far, between panels and components and PCBs. And they’re nowhere near the physical scale of this project.
That build log is simply astonishing, as is the amount of thought that went into this project. Bravo!
Very nice instructables.
but when you can buy a 50″ tv for the same price, with millions of pixel individually adressables with a single hdmi cable, wouldn’t it be easyer to simulate the big pixel effect ?
that’s not as cool
0.1w X 100 leds = 10W of light (gross). does your plasma tv emit so much wattage? didnt check
Very, very disappointed. No tetris was played on that panel. ;)
Good idea and perfect realization!
Eeew Through hole. What is this 2001?
Killer cool with using foam board, keeps the whole panel very light. I would have thought of using black Lexan but that might have reduced the light output.
Very nice project. Is amazing the new projects that are coming with LEDs.
By far the best RGB Matrix I have seen to date. Probably the best development and proof of concept I have ever seen in a hobby-esque project.