Dear FastLED Community,
I’ve quietly been reading here for more than a year.
I’m blown away by all these creative projects.
Currently, I’m also working on an LED art project myself. I’d say the hardware is halfway finished.
I call it the ‚Pineapple‘, because once finished it is meant to resemble the fruit (with a little bit of imagination? )
The idea is to mount the Pineapple on top of a tube and to power it using a usb-powerbank so it can be carried around and used as a mobile LED installation totem for music festivals. Hopefully that helps keeping the group together…
The construction consists of 2 fruit baskets from the hardware store. A pyramidical reflector with a WS2812B at its tip is attached to each triangle (lots of soldering, hotglueing and zip tying…). Making these triangles involved some 3D printing and Vacuum molding, I can explain this in more detail if someone’s interested. I use translucent PVC as a diffuser for the top (and bottom) for even light distribution. I’m still looking for a suitable diffusor material for the sides since the PVC is not flexible enough (see image) to be wrapped around the basket tight enough. Maybe someone’s got an idea?
I am still very unsure about the coding.
I have managed to get the demoreel100 working. I also managed to set the led brightness according to a environment brightness sensor and potentiometer (very useful for battery saving at a festival). When browsing the community I am seeing wonderful patterns that leave me wondering if they can be found in some library or are all selfmade.
Is there a way to map on a cylindrical/spherical matrix?
The Torch (v2) by @Jason_Coon and all these cylindrical Ikea lamp hacks should also be using some kind of a cylindrical matrix…?
My current setup features WS2812Bs (140 once finished) and an Arduino Uno.
For the latter, I am however considering getting a more powerful micro controller, to be able to:
A) store more patterns
B) maybe run @Jason_Coon 's Webserver (should I get the all new esp32? Or is fastLED and the web server still more stable on esp8266?)
C) display music reactive animations. For this I found:
- @Stefan_Petrick 's beautiful trippy animations using a MSGEQ7 + Teensy
- @Andrew_Tuline 's FastLED Demos using a MEMS microphone and Arduino
Are the micro controllers all programmed using the Arduino IDE?
Now I am really confused, what kind of micro controller and microphone I should get. Could someone help me out?
All my programs are tested on an Arduino Nano with APA102 LED’s (for any that use other libraries with interrupts, i.e. IR). Otherwise, WS2812 for strands without any Interrupt driven inputs. I use the Nano because I have a LOT of small displays rather than just a couple.
For a similar piece, I had to cut and glue individual diffusers for each LED out of some thin frosted plastic (plastic poster board, I think?). It was tedious, but looked the best of everything I tried.
I would say use whatever microcontroller you’re most comfortable with, at least while you’re developing a piece. I prefer to use a Teensy while developing, because it’s super fast and easy to upload to, using the Arduino IDE (plus Teensyduino). The Teensy LC even has a 5V data pin which doesn’t require a level shifter like most 3.3v logic level boards. I think the Uno is also 5V logic, so switching to the Teensy LC might be easiest.
I switch to an ESP8266 if I need wi-fi for remote control. ESP32 support is definitely still in active development, but pretty stable already.
For audio input/analysis via microphone, I’ve used the Macetech Shades Audio Sensor: http://macetech.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=61 . It has a microphone and MSGEQ7 built in. I’ve also used software FFT, but you’ll need a fast MCU (Teensy) to run it and your LEDs. I’ve found the MSGEQ7 is easier for me.
@Jason_Coon so I just ordered myself an ESP8266 and ESP32 to play around with. For the Webserver, Do i need one of those boards you are offering on your website? I’m located in Germany, so I’d prefer to source all components from Europe if possible…
Thank you @Jeremy_Spencer !, the shield and µC have arrived and I’ve been playing around with them quiet a bit already.
@Jason_Coon : Firstly thank you for your outstanding work on that ESP8266-fastled-webserver! It’s working like a charm, mostly
Right now, I am trying to make the ESP8266-fastled-audio work in AP mode, as this is going to be a music reactive mobile installation (using the https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/spectrum-shield-hookup-guide?_ga=2.49138406.1128583825.1526403614-1433341011.1524679430).
However, I seem to be having the same problem as https://github.com/jasoncoon/esp8266-fastled-audio/issues/4 .
The “[0] Connected from 192.168.4.2 url: /” message doesn’t show as the non-audio webserver does. And I can’t connect to the WiFi-Access-Point from all my devices.
Looking into the two repositories (ESP8266-fastled-webserver vs. ESP8266-fastled-audio) it seems like the latest updates (6 and 4 month ago to WiFi.h, data folder and esp8266-fastled-webserver.ino) have not yet been implemented on the audio branch.
I am not familiar enough with your code, but I am guessing that if those changes would be implemented on ESP8266-fastled-audio, it would work…?
Generally ESP8266-fastled-audio seems to be identical to ESP8266-fastled-webserver except the added patterns in and Audio.h file. Is that correct?
I’ve spent an hour or so trying to get the websocket server working in AP mode, no success yet. I’ve run out of time and will look at it again over the weekend…
@Jeremy_Spencer Any success yet on that subject yet…? I’m trying to work out an alternative mapping for the analyzer columns for my layout right now…
This is what half of the pineapple looks like right now missing/deleted image from Google+
@Rik_Rose sorry, not yet. I’ll try and look at it this evening. For now you could set up an access point on your phone and code those details into the controller…
@Rik_Rose , there seems to be a problem with the websocketserver library in AP mode on ESP8266 core 2.4.0
I’m going to work on converting the code to use the async websocket library instead.
I do have code for @Jason_Coon 's webinterface that runs well in AP mode but it’s the older version without websockets. I should update it anyway. I’ll let you know how I get on…
)
Any idea when a restock might happen?