Testing is Almost Complete

Here's a bit better of an image. 

Intermediate Trails Final

Today I finished the Intermediate trail setup.  All of the matrixes are mounted in their housings and everything is wired in the order they will appear on the sign.  I should be able to get all of the other signs built this week and then we'll just have to mount them,solder all of the final connections and bring it outside.  I think it's looking good though.

Arduino Mega, with Serial1, wireless and memory card, plus enclosure

So today I got the arduino mega hooked up, ran the wires to the spi inputs for the Mega (53,52,51,50), attached a shield so after I do my final tests I can solder the wires in permanently, hooked up the xbee and 18 led matrixes.  It's working great, on external power it boots up everytime and read the memory card data and the pushed to the displays. Also, yesterday all of the pieces for my housing came in.  TAP Plastics did a great job of cutting everything and keeping everything organized.  Now we'll just need to create a template for drilling the holes, and start assembly.  Is that a light at the end of the tunnel I see?

Micro SD Trials and Tribulations

So I decided I needed some sort of fall back plan if the wireless system to the sign goes down for a significant period of time. While browsing the internet I came across this MicroSD shield from Sparkfun.com .  I thought it would be just as easy and hooking up a few wires and bam I'd be saving away on the card.  Well it should have been.  But I struggled all day with this. I could get it to recognize the card, finally I was able to write to the card with the library that sparkfun had on their site.  However I couldn't read to it. I found all sorts of great libraries for FAT16 file systems out on the internet, but most had the wiring to the arduino done differently.  Even if I went into the code of the library to change the pin setup it still wouldn't work.  I couldn't understand why sparkfun had the final pin to the micro SD holder go to pin 8 instead of 10 like everyone else.  So this morning I rewired the shield to my arduino and low and behold we're writing and aving info just like that.  Almost made yesterday worth it, almost.  I wouldn't hesitate purchasing the shield from sparkfun I would however be aware that it isn't going to sit properly on top of your arduino.  You'll have to think of some other wiring system.

Design for LED Housing

Here is a quick sketch of how each sign will be built. The back part (smaller) will be mounted to the sign. I will mount the LED boards to the front section, then slide it over the smaller once and secure them togther. When finished we will have 6 different sized housing from 6 LEDs to 1 LED. Placing an order with TAP Plastics today

2 sets running wireless

I've got the beginner and intermediate trails running and parsing their select data from the wireless feed. It seems like power will not be and issue at all.

8 Matrixes and counting

We're up to 8 running and updating. Might try to get 12 on one Arduino before I leave work today.

Hooked up and lookin pretty

We're up and running. After alittle hiccup I was able to plug straight into my Arduino and get the trail statuses displaying right away. We're a go. We just need the rest of our boards to be cleared of this hiccup and we'll be good to go.

Final PCB in House.

After a long process, my boards have come in. We're on to the final phase of the build. Big thanks to Stillwell Baker & Screaming Circuits.

Art Guitar side Project

Been on a hiaitus while I'm figureing out the solar power and pcb boards. But here's a video of a side project for Guitar Town happening at Copper Mountain this weekend. This is my art guitar, wonder where I got some of these ideas? It's not perfect by any means, but I basically put it together in 2 days. I had the idea 2 weeks ago but the parts took a long time, and I really haven't had much time to tweak it before this weekend. Gotta say I'm pretty happy with it though.

8 MAX72XX is the limit

I reached the limit on how many MAX7219's can be chained together. That's 8. Good article here, so I'll have to use another 3 outputs on the arduino for my 5th matrix. Photos soon.

External Power

So I did some reading and some internet searching, and think I have at least part of the power issue figured out. I purchased a 7805 +5VDC Voltage Regulator, wired up my 1/2 size breadboard as my external power supply and added an led to that board and to 3 others down the line as a visual to see if power is being routed properly. Now with just the ground from the Arduino going into the circuit I can get everything operating properly. So the next test will be to get a Voltage Regulator with a higher current rating and a heat sink to get up to the current I need to drive all of the leds. 2 internet posts that helped a bunch. *ITP Physical Computing & *http://pixelriot.com/pmatp/node/285

Also http://www.tkk.fi/Misc/Electronics/circuits/psu_5v.html

4 and counting

We're up to 4 8x8 2 color matrixes. Hopefully move to 5 tomorrow. Then it's time to really start focusing on the power supply.

Cutting the cord

Well one of them. We're now offcially wireless. I got 2 xbees talking to each other and was able to move my 2 matrixes across the room. This article here helped a lot with setting up the xbees. Next step will be power. Preferably we'd run on solar power (I can get one matrix running & xbee if I plug straight into the solar panel) still working on wiring up the battery and running off of that.

Of note I didn't have to change my arduino code at all, just plugged one xbee straight into the iobridge, GND->GND, 5V->5V, Rx->Tx & Tx ->Rx. The other xbee went to the arduino, 3.3v ->3v, GND->GND, Rx ->Tx & Tx ->Rx. Simple as that. Photos shortly, gotta charge my camera.