The assingnment for this week was: Propose a final project that integrates the range of units covered, answering the following questions:
The project will be some interactive small LED arrays that will interact with the user by a Laser pointer. Small nodes will compose it and when they are put together can be used as a small screen, and the user can use it as a board to write or drawn, where instead of using a pen will be using a laser pointer.
I found similar projects in two different sources, out of fab labs network. First is made by Eiji Hayashi and the project name is “Laser Command”. It is demonstrated in his website: https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~ehayashi/projects/lasercommand/. This project is originally made to be a game plataform, using the same idea.
The other source I found is from Michael Ciuffo an Electrical Engineer from MIT. His project is demonstrated at his website as well: http://ch00ftech.com/2012/07/26/the-laser-doodler/.
Both of them used basically the same strategy, using a premade LED matrix and did not used sensors, using the LEDs itself as sensors.
- a bunch of LEDs (red or green).
- FR1 boards for PCB.
- Laser pointers.
- resistors (for the LEDs and maybe some 0ohm resistors to jump traces at the board).
- AVR microcontroller (probably Attiny84).
- Pin Headers.
- 20MHz resonators.
- 1uF capacitor.
- FTDI cables to communicate to the computer.
- Translucent white acrylic boards.
- PLA filaments for the cover boxes (if 3D printed).
- Wood for the cover boxes (if laser cutted).
- Hot glue.
Most of these materials are available at the inventory. I was gifted the translucent acrylic board, but you can easily find it at inventables.com. Also I needed to buy the laser pointers. Preferably, use the low power ones, otherwise it can be dangerous for your eyes.
At this date, the laser pointer can be found as low as 7.99 at eBay. The translucent acrylic can be found at inventables for $11.20 for a 12x24in.
- The LED array design and board.
- The control board with the microcontroller.
- The cover boxes can be made using 3D printers or press fit constructions (laser cutter).
- CAD for 3D Design of the cover boxes.
- 3D printing if the cover boxes are 3D printed.
- Press-fit construction and Parametric design with Inkscape for the cover box design.
- Computer-controlled cutting if the cover box are laser cutted.
- Electronics design and production to make the electronic board.
- CAM by using the Fab Modules to ill the electronic boards.
- Embedded programming for each node of the project.
- Input devices to identify which LED is being pointed.
- Output devices using the LED array.
- Networking and communication to send informations to the board and to the computer.
- Interface and application programming, to allow the control of the LED array from the computer.
- Improve the communication between the microcontroller and the computer.
- Create the user interface to allow control the LEDs from the computer.
- Adjust the electronic design to connect the board in each other.
- Decide what is the best for the cover box (3D printed or laser cutted), design and make it.
- Make a Pro-video of the final prototype.
-What is the ideal communication protocol to talk to the nodes
- How it can be bigger (by now each node is only 3x3 LEDs)
- Is there a better way to debouncing the switch of the LEDs.
- June 1st to 4th: Develop the user interface.
- June 4th to 8th: Adjust the electronic design.
- June 8th to 11th: Make the cover boxes.
- June 11th to 15th: Improve the communication and debouncing (if I have time)
- June 15th: have completed the project and make the PRO video
- How easily is to draw/write using the laser pointer?
- Is there missing LEDs when you point to it?
- Is it easily replicable to make bigger nodes or screens?