LED Skywriter
This is a Propeller controlled WS2812 strip consisting of 10 RGB LEDs flying through the air. As cool as it would be to do on an Elev-8, I had to use something a little more automated because of the low lighting conditions. By the looks of things, I have some code to fix. I'm not sure what happened to the "L"...
I took the pic using a cheap digital camera Canon S100, the shutter was open for 15 seconds to capture the LED routine. It doesn't look like this in real life, but it makes for some cool pictures.
I thought I'd start a thread on it. Most of this stems from the Activitybot LED writer I made, I'll add him to this thread along the way.
We can't fly more than 30 minutes after sunset, and this is hard to bench test so this may take a long time to get right.
I made a pic for FliteTest because I'm always recruiting RC people into robotics. The last two pics are JM's WS2812 demo code. I really like the color wheel it brings stuff to life.
I took the pic using a cheap digital camera Canon S100, the shutter was open for 15 seconds to capture the LED routine. It doesn't look like this in real life, but it makes for some cool pictures.
I thought I'd start a thread on it. Most of this stems from the Activitybot LED writer I made, I'll add him to this thread along the way.
We can't fly more than 30 minutes after sunset, and this is hard to bench test so this may take a long time to get right.
I made a pic for FliteTest because I'm always recruiting RC people into robotics. The last two pics are JM's WS2812 demo code. I really like the color wheel it brings stuff to life.
Comments
facepalm.jpg
-Phil
I know how it goes, you think you have every detail covered, then one minor item trips you up. That's OK, we hope to see more photo's with the correction made, got to spell the host name right.
You are probably going to be busy meeting with prospective clients for ad space, well done.
Mike Y.
I'm open to requests. The shutter is open for 15 seconds. That gives me about 12 seconds workable time (kinda like a margin around the pic). Letters including the space between them are 1.2 seconds long and 0.5 second space between words.
I updated the first post with a PDF of the font and the Prop C code I used. I didn't make every letter yet, it was getting close to sunset and I still had to pack everything up, move code to laptop and drive to the spot.
I also noticed the bottom of the 'L' was 200ms too long in my code.
Here's a list things I will add:
Better color control.
Fix a few of the letters to make them less blocky
Here's the list of things I want to add:
"Dot matrix" mode where there will be a small gap between each 100ms slot.
ESP wifi control via mobile device.
Some hardware changes:
The entire thing needs to be shrunk down. I used a Protoboard because it has a 5v and 3.3v power supply. I can use a Prop Stick once I figure out a good way to get both 5v and 3.3v. I'm also using a 1000mah 2S LiPo that can be switched out for something much smaller.
I'd like to be able to write sideways, meaning along the top of the horizon instead of into it. If I put the LED strip vertical I will need to fly at a very precise speed, but then it will probably look like this. So I might experiment with adding a servo and IMU. I think it would look a lot better, before I go through the trouble of adding the hardware I'll have to test it out.
Congratulations!!!!!!! It is AWESOME!!!!!
As I said on FB Im' trying to produce a similar result with smoke but I need huge smoke production. Althought smoke is enough in the ground , in the air things are changing.....
Yes, we need smoke spirals!
I added easier color control and making the font is easier as well. You send each letter 6 variables, the first three are the letter's RGB value and the next three are the background RGB value. This makes it easy to invert text or you can just leave the background off.
I added "dot matrix" mode.
I had to test it out so I put the LED strip on my Activity Bot and did it inside. The surface was a little bumpy so it doesn't look as smooth as when in the air.
I have kinks to work out. I'm not sure if I like sending the RGB values to the letter. I'm thinking about sending the RGB value to each pixel, and using the array to draw horizontal lines and not vertical lines. I would like to figure that out before programming all of the letters.
Ideas are welcome and appreciated.
Can't wait to flight test these. Here are some pics -
This one is my favorite. I thought the dot matrix style would look cool.
Thing.
Ever.
DITTO!
Pictures like that are worthy of representing a company or product.
I forgot to mention that the main post "candy canes" look great too (and cannot be misspelled...)!
In my former career as an architect, (hand drawn days!) we would proof, proof and proof read drawings. As soon as they were printed, we would would unroll a set of prints, look down and see a mistake on the title page! UGH. Stuff happens and it is hard to proof your own work!
Which is why so many of my posts are edited a few seconds after they are initially posted. Still trying to figure out how those errors can be missed the first time around.