Every time I look around in this group I feel the need to build something with lots of leds… there’s so many nice things and ideas to see here
So this weekend I did a rework of a 7 segment clock I did a few months back. I will upload all the files to Thingiverse later including source code. Took a while to figure out some parts but I think it’s hard to beat how easy and fast it is to build…
@Chris_Parton Regarding software: I’m used to a lot of 3d programs so the biggest challenge was “thinking different”. Going from polygon based modelling to CAD/CAM is quite different
I’m looking for a good modelling software at the moment. The one I’m using is way too powerful and way too expensive for what I’m doing. I just don’t like the way SketchUp and all push towards using online services
While I do like OpenSCADs approach for parametric models I’m not sure what to try next for simple modelling. Fusion 360 maybe? Cloud again?! :-/
@Daniel_Cikic give Rhino a try (https://www.rhino3d.com/) I use it exclusively @ work and have for years now. The nurbs based modeling allows greater surface control, which is ideal for 3D printing. Check out a few YouTube videos and see what you think, from my understanding the demo is fully featured. Good luck and great digits. I have an upcoming project in which these may become very useful- I’ll be sure to hit you up if I have any troubles
-Tom https://www.rhino3d.com/
@Tom_Schubert Thanks for bringing Rhino back to my mind, totally forgot about that one! I remember nurbs beeing very tedious in 3ds max, maybe I should try Rhino
About the clock: When using it for own projects the addition I just made might be welcome:
This will add a 3rd module to the clock. But you can add more modules if you like to.
@Chris, usually I like tools like Openscad but I must is pretty usefully for basic model or if you have dev or math background. I recently test Fusion360 (u can easily a free license for a couple of years) I was surprised of what you can do without strong modeling skills. So simple to polish your model (corner, ‘chanfrin’, …) But overall I appreciate 2 things: 1/ the ability to crawl the history and to touch anything in the past and get all the next action to be reapplied automatically. 2/ pattern: in many case you get some identical pattern and so stupid to make it with Fusion360. At least having a try …
For CAD I used FreeCAD for a while and it was OK. I use OnShape now and really love it. It’s UI just clicked with me and it’s super solid. Lots of video tutorials and very active and helpful forums.
I am currently working on a 7 segment display housing which I can daisy chain. With 4 pins I will make this possible. Inside each left side there is a gap where the other end can connect. There will be a 4 pin connection inside the gap.
5v gnd data and analog. The analog will check how many digits are connected. This can be done by placing a resistor in every digit. So the microcontroller will know how many digits there are connected by checking the total resistence. missing/deleted image from Google+
This is a Facebook and Instagram follower/like counter. Still tweaking the code. Controller is a esp8266 connecting to a Raspberry Pi to handle the API requests of Facebook. missing/deleted image from Google+
