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SaDiablo81

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  1. Like
    SaDiablo81 reacted to iFreilicht in [STALLED] Iris 16 - Building an RGB power button   
    HYPE!
     
  2. Like
    SaDiablo81 reacted to iFreilicht in [STALLED] Iris 16 - Building an RGB power button   
    Technical Update:
     

     
    I finished a prototype implementation of BAM/BCM (Binary Code Modulation) and Charlieplexing on the Arduino Micro, and results are very promising!
     
    To reiterate, with Charlieplexing I am able to control all 36 LEDs individually using just 7 I/O pins. Because Charlieplexing requires tri-state logic to work properly, I can not use the built-in PWM facilities of the microcontroller, so I'm using BCM to minimize the processor overhead caused by a implementing the modulation in software.
     
    There are two main concerns when doing this, flickering and brightness. Because of the high number of LEDs, for 24-bit colour it is required to switch the state of the output pins 56 times for just a single frame of animation. Even worse, because some of them need to take much longer than others, more than 114000 steps are required for one animation frame. Additionally, each LED can maximally be on for 1/7th of the time. If the microcontroller isn't able to switch between states fast enough, the LEDs would seem to flicker and potentially be much darker than desired.
     
    But after finishing my implementation on 6 LEDs using 3 pins, it is fairly safe to say that at least flickering won't be an issue. The Arduino Micro has a 16MHz crystal, and I am able to render at a little over 320 FPS. Switching over to 7 pins would only decrease that to about 138 FPS, which is still pretty great. Additionally, Iris 16 will run at 48MHz, so thrice as fast. There's also no noticeable flickering of any sort, so that's pretty great.
     
    The only unknown now is the brightness. We'll see how that works out, but I'm pretty positive that it will be bright enough.
     
    There's actually some pretty neat stuff like manual loop unrolling and adaptive delay correction built in to my implementation that allows for these fast speeds and also makes the whole thing more accurate. Reading this back those two sound like awesome marketing buzzwords.
     
    I'll make the source code available in due time, but please understand that it'll stay confidential for now.
     
    Hope to give you some hardware updates soon, thanks for reading!
  3. Like
    SaDiablo81 got a reaction from iFreilicht in [STALLED] Iris 16 - Building an RGB power button   
    Glad to hear things are progressing well
  4. Like
    SaDiablo81 reacted to iFreilicht in [STALLED] Iris 16 - Building an RGB power button   
    Update! LED rings arrived!
    This is what I got, plus leftover parts from the assembly line. Quite a few failed attempts it seems.

     
    That first break was so satisfying. I only broke out the unpopulated ones until I have the necessary equipment to test the others.

     
    Sides come of first. Then the top is removed and the individual PCBs are broken out. I had to use strong pliers for the little bridges between the two rows.

     
    Something I wanted to avoid: Leftover material outside the perimeter of the PCB. This means manual sanding is required before the whole unit can be assembled. I'll see whether I can fix this.

     
    Just so you get an idea of the scale. The things are fucking tiny.

     
    And this is what's left after breaking out one panel. The crossed out ones I'll keep for now, maybe I can troubleshoot the issue that caused manufacturing mishaps myself.

  5. Like
    SaDiablo81 reacted to iFreilicht in [STALLED] Iris 16 - Building an RGB power button   
    Great to hear! I'll do my best to make this happen as quickly as possible
  6. Like
    SaDiablo81 reacted to iFreilicht in [STALLED] Iris 16 - Building an RGB power button   
    For now I am. But when time for production comes I'll do a crowdfunding campaign or group buy of sorts. Maybe I'll be able to break even, who knows? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
     
     
  7. Like
    SaDiablo81 reacted to iFreilicht in [STALLED] Iris 16 - Building an RGB power button   
    Super-mini update:
     
    Today I lay-outed, plotted and submitted for production a breakout PCB for the Iris 16 LED ring. I also ordered the necessary parts and some soldering equipment. To save money and time, I'll try to solder this one myself. Should be fun with a 20pin connector with 0.5mm pin pitch
     
    If everything goes well, the first functional prototype will be done in two weeks! Then I check whether the LEDs will be bright enough with the multiplexing method I'm using. That is the final go/no go hurdle to pass. If it works out, everything else "just needs to be done", but can pretty much be guaranteed to succeed.
  8. Like
    SaDiablo81 reacted to iFreilicht in [STALLED] Iris 16 - Building an RGB power button   
    PCB, but I'll be receiving it in a few days. This is what the whole project hinges on, as I don't know whether the LEDs will actually be bright enough the way I'm trying to multiplex them. If not, it's back to the drawing board.
     
    I'm not sure what you're referring to by "it", but you could get an adafruit vandal button like this one: https://www.adafruit.com/product/3350
    It has three LEDs inside. Unfortunately, it is not compatible with the RGB LED strip headers some mainboards have today, as the button uses a common anode as opposed to the common cathode of LED strips. EDIT: This is actually not correct, 5050 LED strips and mainboards like the Asus AURA ones use a common anode, so this button would work perfectly fine.
     
    That's cool, go for it! Putting projects in the backlog is never fun, make it happen! If you want to keep the option of getting my button in the future, make sure to use a 16mm vandal switch now. I plan to make bigger versions as well but those will take even longer to develop, if they ever come out at all.
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