Interactive LED Matrix Is A Great Way To Learn About Motion Controls

It’s simple enough to wire up an LED matrix and have it display some pre-programmed routines. What can be more fun is when the LEDs are actually interactive in some regard. [Giulio Pons] achieved this with his interactive LED box, which lets you play with the pixels via motion controls.

The build runs of a Wemos D1 mini, which is a devboard based around the ESP8266 microcontroller. [Giulio] hooked this up to a matrix of WS2812B addressable LEDs in two 32×8 panels, creating a total display of 512 RGB LEDs. The LEDs are driven with the aid of an Adafruit graphics library that lets the whole display be addressed via XY coordinates. For interactivity, [Giulio] added a MPU6050 3-axis gyroscope and accelerometer to the build. Meanwhile, power is via 18650 lithium-ion cells, with the classic old 7805 regulator stepping down their output to a safe voltage. Thanks to the motion sensing abilities of the MPU6050, [Giulio] was able to code animations where the LEDs emulate glowing balls rolling around on a plane.

It’s a simple build, but one that taught [Giulio] all kinds of useful skills—from working with microcontrollers to doing the maths for motion controls. There’s a lot you can do with LED matrixes if you put your mind to it, and if you just start experimenting, you’re almost certain to learn something. Video after the break.

 

4 thoughts on “Interactive LED Matrix Is A Great Way To Learn About Motion Controls

  1. Cool …
    (here’s some interesting things to try as next steps)
    Add mass. All dots, once free to move, appear to instantly jump to a fixed velocity. Consider simulating acceleration. Next, try simulating inelastic collisions or a bit of bouncing when dots hit each other and transfer their energy to each other.

  2. Add a function to start a Game of Life simulation using whatever configuration the lighted dots are in when you stop moving the box for a few seconds. Moving it again restores the original configuration of dots.

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