Re: [house4hack] htxt Maker Competition

[Tom Van den Bon]

so were doing the build log thing in this thread?

As mentioned i'm doing a led matrix tetris thingie. For the led's I'm using these from seeedstudio (http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/Digital-RGB-LED-FlexiStrip-60-LED-1-Meter-p-1666.html). We are planning to build a bigger version of this as well at BinarySpace, but for this I'm keeping the dimensions so that I don't have to cut the strips too much.

I did however cut the strips into 10 lengths of 20 led's (1m is 60 leds) since I'm making a 20x10 matrix.

For the matrix itself I'm using 3mm black perspex and laser cut into horizontal and vertical pieces to form a grid. The idea is that the black perspex will form a light barrier and that the display is nice little blocks. I drew up the following in openscad:

I've added little notches into the horizontal pieces so that strip can go underneath it.

For the case itself I used a script to generate a box that will house the grid and the electronics:

The box is also made from 3mm black perspex with a white semi transparent top panel. I have cut and assebled the structure and everything fits nicely. I have also loosely put in the leds and soldered everything up. It looks pretty cool albeit a bit rough.

Still need to take photos but will put that into next progress update.

Should I continue with the progress updates or just post something when I'm done?

T

On Mon, Dec 22, 2014 at 8:07 PM, Paul Scott <psco...@gmail.com> wrote:

Lol that's awesome!  Sounds hella fun!

On Mon, 22 Dec 2014 19:42 Tom Van den Bon <tvd...@gmail.com> wrote:

Nice! We should maybe use this email thread as build logs? Could be motivation to finish it. Im building a 10x20 matrix display with addr rgb leds. The plan is to code tetris on it and to mod an old atari 2600 controller into a wireless controller to play the tetris :)

T

On 22 Dec 2014 9:52 AM, "Paul Scott" <psco...@gmail.com> wrote:

I'm doing a solar powered garden irrigation computer. Soil moisture sensors, rain sensors and a solenoid water valve, so that the veggie garden always has optimal growth conditions

-- Paul

On Mon, 22 Dec 2014 09:50 Tom Van den Bon <tvd...@gmail.com> wrote:

Awesome! looking forward to what you guys come up with :)

T

On Sun, Dec 21, 2014 at 10:24 PM, Philip Booysen <philip...@gmail.com> wrote:

Challenge accepted too :)

On Dec 21, 2014 8:26 PM, "Tom Van den Bon" <tvd...@gmail.com> wrote:

Definitely agreed! We need a raspberry pi at our new space so we will be winning the compo (yeah Im that cocky) I started on a cool entry today so I dare everybody to prove me wrong...

:)

T

On 20 Dec 2014 6:16 AM, "Schalk Heunis" <schalk...@gmail.com> wrote:

I think it is great that htxt wants to help with the walkthroughs and write-ups.  There are lots of cool things coming out of our local makerspaces, not too many how-to's, tuts etc.  Believe this is a role that htxt can play - they seem to be very good at turning thoughts into words!

S

On Thu, Dec 18, 2014 at 4:52 PM, Paul Scott <psco...@gmail.com> wrote:

http://www.htxt.co.za/2014/12/18/show-us-your-makes-and-win-a-limited-edition-raspberry-pi/

Not a great prize imho, but great that making is becoming more of a thing in SA

-- Paul

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[Philip Booysen]

No this is awesome. No better transparency and document early and release often is the best.

P

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[Tom Van den Bon]

ok, time for a new update since I've been pretty busy with it the past couple of days.

First off the assembly. It was a bit of a pain to put it all together and solder the required connections. Although a lot easier than if it was individual leds. Also, I don't want to glue, attach anything permanent yet until I'm happy with it so two rubber bands are holding everything together

The grids went together great and the led's fit in perfectly

All the led's are daisy chained and I routed power connections to each strip (apart from just hooking up the previous strip I ran power connections from the psu to each strip individually).

It's messy but looks interesting. I left in enough space in the box for the electonics (thats the gap at the bottom). I still need to cut a plate for the bottom of the grid as the bottom row of led's are bleeding out (you'll see what I mean on the other pics).

The current closed up matrix looks like this:

With the adafruit neopixel libraries I had them lit up very quickly:

The photos and video really don't do them justice as it looks awesome in real life.

I then started to code a basic tetris game. Sounds easy enough but it did take me a few hours to get it all playable. I hooked up the controller to the arduino directly (for now). It's basically 4 digital outputs (ie. each direction and button). 

Currently the button rotates the pieces, left and right moves them ... left and right and pressing down will drop the piece quickly downwards. Not sure yet if it should drop it automatically to the lowest possible point or just move downwards faster than usual.

The end result is a playable version of tetris:

Again, taking photos of the matrix has been a bit of a nightmare, but you get the idea. You can see the bottom row where the grid isn't closed off properly.

I'm currently busy uploading a video of it in action here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPZyxvnao7I&feature=youtu.be

The biggest features the game currently lack is sound and a way to display score. Also I still want to make the controller wireless and then everything needs to be put together.

The ws2811 led's are pretty processor intensive and I'm worried that the sound won't work so well on the arduino itself (the neopixel library regularly disable and enable interrupts which screws around with the tone() functions).

But I'll figure something out. As for the score, I'm also not sure what to do there yet. I did find some 8x8 led matrix modules which I might incorporate into the enclosure.

Until next time :)

T

On Fri, Dec 26, 2014 at 6:26 PM, Paul Scott <psco...@gmail.com> wrote:

Update

I had forgotten that I also ordered a few of these in October,  but due to postal strikes haven't got yet http://shop.ciseco.co.uk/xrf-wireless-rf-radio-uart-serial-data-module-xbee-shaped/

May just use them!

-- Paul

On Tue, 23 Dec 2014 15:40 Paul Scott <psco...@gmail.com> wrote:

Wifi distance is only about 8m to the router, but I was seriously considering the nrf24l01 kit as a solution. As you say, they are way lower power, and using a hacked up rpi as a "server" for multiple devices may just be a cool solution anyway.

The other option is an XBee wifi shield, although I am really not sure I want to spend that kind of money (the Stalker has a built in XBee socket on it)

-- Paul

On Tue Dec 23 2014 at 15:05:54 Adam Oxford <thecu...@gmail.com> wrote:

+This thread is teh awesome. That is all - Adam@htxt+

(PS - apologies for not replying earlier - have been whisked off on a birthday surprise over Christmas and very little in the way of internet connection)

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[Philip Booysen]

Wow. Flippen amazing Tom!

P

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[Org Jansen van Rensburg]

I have to echo Paul: Awesome!

From my side I suggest to only let it go down faster. This will allow you to move the falling block sideways into a hole at the bottom.

One other nice feature I liked about some tetris games, was a next block preview. It showed you the next block that will come so that you can think ahead.

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[Tom Van den Bon]

New Update:

@Org, The way it currently works it allows you to move in the blocks sideways, although that will get more and more difficult as you complete more levels (everything gets faster). I also implemented your idea on the score display:

So I decided to work on the score display today. I have a few of these 8x8 matrix displays (http://www.diyelectronics.co.za/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=33_4_16&products_id=340). I decided to design a small enclosure that will house 2 of these and that will mount on top of the matrix.

This is what I designed in OpenScad:

After 3d printing it:

 

LED matrix modules fit in perfectly:

Modules soldered in:

I designed a plate for laser cutting that goes on top to diffuse the led's

Everything hooked up and assembled

The idea is to mount the display on top of the matrix:

Some code changes later and it shows the next tetris block and the amount of lines completed (up to 99). Will still change the code to maybe flip between lines completed and next block or something like that. I'm not 100 happy with the display yet (although it might look better printed in black). Everything is being held together with prestik until I decide how to proceed.

Next up is probably sound and then I will need to start putting things together more permanently.

Thanks for the feedback :)

T

[Tom Van den Bon]

Hey Paul,

Thats pretty cool. Keen on seeing what you come up with. btw - what parts are you still waiting on? Maybe we can help with some loaner parts to help with your project?

T

On Mon, Dec 29, 2014 at 6:19 PM, Paul Scott <psco...@gmail.com> wrote:

Seeing as though I now have some doubts that delivery of parts will take place before this thing closes, I have started a second project too (also more of an aesthetic thing).

It is based on the open tempescope project which can be found at http://www.tempescope.com

I am making significant mods to the original,  but it should function similarly.

Let me know what you think!

-- Paul

Tom Van den Bon 

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[Tom Van den Bon]

Final Update. Since today is the deadline for the maker competition I figured I need to finish this today. The game is essentially working, but it's a huge mess of wires and everything is held together with the rubber bands. 

To clean everything up I added a rocker switch, power adapter plug, speaker gril and port for the atari controller to the design:

After a day of cutting the new parts, putting everything together, cleaning the wiring, etc. I ended up with the following:

And the final tetris game:

The video of it in action is still busy uploading

There is still a lot more I would like to do with it, but I like how it turned out. I have one bug left in the sound (not all the notes play correctly in the tetris tune, but I'll fix that still. For now, I'm off to play some tetris and drink some beer :)

T

[Tom Van den Bon]

Short demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26r6UmWeFbs&feature=youtu.be :)

[Philip Booysen]

Awesome and well done. Kicks the lama's ass.

P

[Sebastian Schocke]

Awesome work... The final design is very elegant and plays well. Can't wait to try it out

[Org Jansen van Rensburg]

Nice one Tom. It is an awesome use for that old Atari joystick!

[Tom Van den Bon]

Thanks Guys! It was a fun project. Next up is a 2 player version with pong!

T