There is a tar file with STL files for the controller from 'Thingiverse' and lightburn files for the wood parts as well as the 48x32 include file that drives the display and reads the joysticks, this is used to build all games upon. The file is here: <a href="https://jacquesmattheij.com/48x32.tar" rel="nofollow">https://jacquesmattheij.com/48x32.tar</a><p>If you make any improvements I'd love to hear about them, soon I'll have a gitlab repository up with all of the code related parts as well as a schematic for the hardware (though it is so simple that if you just read the include file you'll know exactly how to hook it all up).<p>Best of luck with any re-creation efforts, if you run into trouble feel free to mail me (email in profile).
These kind of projects are cool to me because they are a sort of blend of retro and modern. In that MCUs only got fast enough fairly recently to do this sort of thing well.<p>All those older low resolution led scrolling signs you used to see around in the 70s, 80s, 90s, etc, had to use a CPLD or FPGA to get a decent refresh rate. Now that fast-ish MCUs are a thing, it's easier to get a mostly software based solution that looks decent, has a reasonable refresh/scan rate, etc.<p>Edit: Noted below, I had missed that these were addressable matrixes, not passive ones.
Hey Andrew! Try this: If you make the grid pixels square and drop a sheet of translucent acrylic on top of that, the effect is pretty cool.<p>Here's a "Game of Life" display I made using this technique:
<a href="https://digitalhorology.etsy.com/listing/1644589175" rel="nofollow">https://digitalhorology.etsy.com/listing/1644589175</a><p>This is where I get the black LED acrylic:<p><a href="https://www.tapplastics.com/product/plastics/cut_to_size_plastic/black_led_sheet/668" rel="nofollow">https://www.tapplastics.com/product/plastics/cut_to_size_pla...</a>
I’ve been wanting to get into playing with LED matrices since seeing a great show by United Visual Artists in London which made a lot of use of them for really cool minimal visual effects.<p>My research suggests the best way to get started is with a HUB75 LED matrix (you can buy 32x32 or 64x64) and a MatrixPortal S3 board, which is an Arduino type thing with all the relevant connectors etc. for the LED board already installed. You can also buy and solder the relevant connections to an existing board, but I wanted something as easy as possible out of the box (even easier would be the Pimoroni Cosmic Unicorn, which contains it all in one pre built enclosure)
A few weeks ago I went through one of those drive through Christmas light displays. It had dozens of 10-20ft metal sculpture frames of various designs that were wrapped in lights. On some structures there was very basic programming, certain lights would turn off and on in a sequence to simulate movement, but the basic metal structure had a pre-defined shape. It got me thinking if it would be possible to build a cheap metal structure that's like 20ftx40ft LED wall using chinese WLEDS in a grid, using arduino etc. Basically a giant, cheap, low resolution, display. Anybody seen something like this this?
Makes me think of this (crazy expensive) arcade machine<p><a href="https://www.betson.com/amusement-products/space-invaders-frenzy/" rel="nofollow">https://www.betson.com/amusement-products/space-invaders-fre...</a><p>which implements space invaders on an LED display. The visuals are absolutely gorgeous but the machine at my local mall is set to be a ticket redemption machine which doesn't deliver enough gameplay per dollar to really seem fun.
> This is a problem, but not one that I can directly solve because the school mandates that they have both an Android smartphone and a Windows laptop.<p>That seems really weird, how does it work when the state mandates that a minor has to have access to proprietary software, from a TOS/user agreement point of view?
Beautiful project. Reminds me of Long Pong by Look Mum No Computer: <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cm83RIhDbwo" rel="nofollow">https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cm83RIhDbwo</a>