LedBanner: Difference between revisions
(Add led banner simulator info) |
(Add game-of-life) |
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The following can be displayed: | The following can be displayed: | ||
* scrolling fixed images | * scrolling fixed images, horizontal or vertical | ||
* scrolling text in various colours | * scrolling text in various colours | ||
* animated GIFs | * animated GIFs | ||
* real-time generated images, e.g. game-of-life | |||
* etc. | * etc. | ||
| Line 45: | Line 46: | ||
=== Display server === | === Display server === | ||
To drive the LEDs, a display server written in C does the low-level driving of the LEDs over the SPI port. | To drive the LEDs, a display server written in C does the low-level driving of the LEDs over the SPI port. | ||
It also | It also takes care of the white balance and gamma correction. | ||
There is a simple SDL simulator of the display server that can be run stand-alone on a PC to preview led banner animations, effects, etc. The code can be found in the 'sim' subdirectory of the ledbanner repo. | |||
=== Sources === | === Sources === | ||
* [https://github.com/bertrik/ledbanner ledbanner display server] source code | * [https://github.com/bertrik/ledbanner ledbanner display server] source code | ||
* [https://github.com/bertrik/nyancat nyancat], a set of small C programs to generate animated GIFs of 80x8 pixels, written specifically for the LedBanner. | * [https://github.com/bertrik/nyancat nyancat], a set of small C programs to generate animated GIFs of 80x8 pixels, written specifically for the LedBanner. | ||
* [https://github.com/sgielen/clife Game of Life for a 80x8 LED screen] | |||
Revision as of 14:59, 30 June 2014
| Project LedBanner | |
|---|---|
| Status | Completed |
| Contact | User:Juerd |
| Last Update | 2014-06-30 |
Introduction
The LED banner is an active RGB LED display, consisting of 8 rows of 80 pixels each fixed on a flexible banner. A Raspberry Pi drives it.
The following can be displayed:
- scrolling fixed images, horizontal or vertical
- scrolling text in various colours
- animated GIFs
- real-time generated images, e.g. game-of-life
- etc.
The use of a flexible banner makes it easy to transport and easy to put up.
Hardware
The hardware consists of the following parts:
Raspberry Pi
A Raspberry Pi is used because it can be controlled over the network, can run perl scripts and has a fast SPI port to drive the LEDs.
Power supply
The power supply has been chosen to supply sufficient current for the LEDs. When the space is closed, the Raspberry Pi stays powered from the "standby 5V" output, while the LEDs are powered down.
LED strips
The display consists of 8 pieces of LED strip of 80 LEDs each. They are arranged in a left-to-right zig-zag manner for ease of connecting them in series.
The LED strip consists of pairs of RGB LEDs, where each pair is controlled by an LPD8806. See [1] for more information on driving these chips.
Flexible banner
The banner itself is custom made, with metal eyelets in each corner for fixation.
Software
The software runs on the Pi and is mostly written in Perl.
Display server
To drive the LEDs, a display server written in C does the low-level driving of the LEDs over the SPI port. It also takes care of the white balance and gamma correction.
There is a simple SDL simulator of the display server that can be run stand-alone on a PC to preview led banner animations, effects, etc. The code can be found in the 'sim' subdirectory of the ledbanner repo.
Sources
- ledbanner display server source code
- nyancat, a set of small C programs to generate animated GIFs of 80x8 pixels, written specifically for the LedBanner.
- Game of Life for a 80x8 LED screen