Sometimes a project forms itself around a component rather than an idea, and thus it was that [Maximilien] found himself building a data rate monitor for the connection between two data centers. Some MD0657C2-R LED dot matrix displays for not a lot needed a project.
The displays are mounted in groups of four on small PCBs, driven by a MAX6952, which are then controlled by a Pi Pico. There are several display panels in the project, each of which is a pained and laser-etched acrylic sheet with a pair of the LED boards mounted behind it. These in turn go on the front of a wooden enclosure, with a set of LED ring lights behind to illuminate the etched parts of the panels. Each display panel has its own Pico, daisy chained together and driven by a Pico W that supplies network connectivity.
As you might expect, this isn’t the first status panel we’ve brought you over the years.
Gives me a WarGames vibe, it’s a real WOPR.
Looks like some alt-history Soviet style. Like.
Yeah, it’s nice and all but definitely not “The Way It Should Be”.
I mean just ~10% are actively used – the rest is wasted real estate.
A) very small labels/names
B) the arrows are not very distinct(? dunno if that’s the right term)
And weren’t there some analog-style meters? Those are much closer to “The Way It Should Be”.
Numbers must be read.
An analog meter’s deflection can just be “seen”.
cute attempt at an idea, marginally constructed, a lot of effort but if it is not dedicated to you (which I doubt you have 2 private datacenters to monitor) expect it to be discontinued after you are asked to leave providing a golden trophy to the managers
I like the look of those displays, but maxim chips are pure madness. MAX6952 costs around USD 25 both at Mouser and Digikey. And the whole thing can easily be replaced by a 50ct uC a hand full of resistors and maybe some extra transistors for the higher current common lines.
MAX7219 is also popular on chinese multiplexed displays, but it’s “fake” but affordable and “works”. It has two mayor pitfalls. It needs a pullup / pull down resistor on one of it’s pins, or it may start up in a defective state, lights the whole display, and a power cycle is the only way out (which does not help without the resistor). The other mayor limitation is due to Maxim design stupidity. Brightness control is extremely limited. You can not use it to adjust the brightness depending on the light level around you. It’s barely sufficient to adjust for LED efficiency. With even a small 50ct uC, you can easily get 12 bit PWM, which gives you fine control over around 70dB.
It pains me to point out that each pane is painted. ;)
I’m a little surprised how much vitriol is being thrown the maker’s way for what is, really, just a nice little project and is fairly nice looking. Quibbles about uC choice aside, maybe. Gets too close to religion for me. :)
And latency monitoring is always important for good service. I have tales…
uC choice, OS choice, OS flavor choice (if Un*x, do you mean BSD or Linux? which one? Which fork? etc.)
Religion doesn’t even begin to cover it.
This is so cool! Love the display – and, like another commenter said, am struggling to understand the negative comments. Great work.