Fun with the LOLShield

We had a fantastic weekend at LVL1. Not only was LVL1 at an awesome Actors Theater event, we also had some important visitors at the space on Saturday! On Saturday, Mitch Altman (of TV-B-Gone fame) and Jimmy Rodgers (of LOLshield fame) presented a soldering workshop. There must have been 50 people around! Also Matt Mets and Dale Dougherty were here from Make Magazine. Big thanks to Mitch, Jimmy, Matt and Dale for being part of the LVL1 experience. Our doors are always open to you!

During the soldering workshop, I built at LOLShield. Nice kit – lots of LEDs to solder. Jimmy was really good at making his LEDs come out in neat little rows – mine, not so much. Here is my video

I came upon this post and decided to make an animated LOLShield LVL1 logo. I had to download python 2.6 and the PIL library and the script ran perfectly. I created an animated gif using Gimp. Set up an image to be 9X14 in grayscale. Then draw your picture (zoomed in) and animate it using multiple layers. When you save as a gif, Gimp will make the layers into a animated gif. It is not hard. Here is my gif…

It is tiny! Next run the script in the command line and then cut and paste the code. Here is the Arduino program I am using.


/*
Basic LoL Shield Test

Writen for the LoL Shield, designed by Jimmie Rodgers:

http://jimmieprodgers.com/kits/lolshield/

This needs the Charliplexing library, which you can get at the
LoL Shield project page: http://code.google.com/p/lolshield/

Created by Jimmie Rodgers on 12/30/2009.
Adapted from: http://www.arduino.cc/playground/Code/BitMath

History:
December 30, 2009 - V1.0 first version written at 26C3/Berlin

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the terms of the GNU Version 3 General Public
License as published by the Free Software Foundation;
or (at your option) any later version.

This library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
Lesser General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public
License along with this library; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA
*/

#include //AVR library for writing to ROM
#include //Imports the library, which needs to be
//Initialized in setup.

int blinkdelay = 100; //Sets the time each frame is shown

/*
The BitMap array is what contains the frame data. Each line is one full frame.
Since each number is 16 bits, we can easily fit all 14 LEDs per row into it.
The number is calculated by adding up all the bits, starting with lowest on
the left of each row. 18000 was chosen as the kill number, so make sure that
is at the end of the matrix, or the program will continue to read into memory.

Here PROGMEM is called, which stores the array into ROM, which leaves us
with our RAM. You cannot change the array during run-time, only when you
upload to the Arduino. You will need to pull it out of ROM, which is covered
below. If you want it to stay in RAM, just delete PROGMEM
*/

uint16_t BitMap[][9] PROGMEM = {
{ 16382 , 8193 , 10501 , 11525 , 10581 , 10581 , 11053 , 8193 , 8191 , },
{ 16381 , 8193 , 10501 , 11525 , 10581 , 10581 , 11053 , 8193 , 12287 , },
{ 16379 , 8193 , 10501 , 11525 , 10581 , 10581 , 11053 , 8193 , 14335 , },
{ 16379 , 8193 , 10501 , 11525 , 10581 , 10581 , 11053 , 8193 , 15359 , },
{ 16375 , 8193 , 10501 , 11525 , 10581 , 10581 , 11053 , 8193 , 15359 , },
{ 16367 , 8193 , 10501 , 11525 , 10581 , 10581 , 11053 , 8193 , 15871 , },
{ 16351 , 8193 , 10501 , 11525 , 10581 , 10581 , 11053 , 8193 , 16127 , },
{ 16319 , 8193 , 10501 , 11525 , 10581 , 10581 , 11053 , 8193 , 16255 , },
{ 16255 , 8193 , 10501 , 11525 , 10581 , 10581 , 11053 , 8193 , 16319 , },
{ 16127 , 8193 , 10501 , 11525 , 10581 , 10581 , 11053 , 8193 , 16351 , },
{ 15871 , 8193 , 10501 , 11525 , 10581 , 10581 , 11053 , 8193 , 16367 , },
{ 15359 , 8193 , 10501 , 11525 , 10581 , 10581 , 11053 , 8193 , 16375 , },
{ 14335 , 8193 , 10501 , 11525 , 10581 , 10581 , 11053 , 8193 , 16379 , },
{ 12287 , 8193 , 10501 , 11525 , 10581 , 10581 , 11053 , 8193 , 16381 , },
{ 8191 , 8193 , 10501 , 11525 , 10581 , 10581 , 11053 , 8193 , 16382 , },
{ 16383 , 1 , 10501 , 11525 , 10581 , 10581 , 11053 , 8192 , 16383 , },
{ 16383 , 8193 , 2309 , 11525 , 10581 , 10581 , 11052 , 8193 , 16383 , },
{ 16383 , 8193 , 10501 , 3333 , 10581 , 10580 , 11053 , 8193 , 16383 , },
{ 16383 , 8193 , 10501 , 11525 , 2388 , 10581 , 11053 , 8193 , 16383 , },
{ 16383 , 8193 , 10501 , 11524 , 10581 , 2389 , 11053 , 8193 , 16383 , },
{ 16383 , 8193 , 10500 , 11525 , 10581 , 10581 , 2861 , 8193 , 16383 , },
{ 16383 , 8192 , 10501 , 11525 , 10581 , 10581 , 11053 , 1 , 16383 , },
{18000}
};

void setup() {
LedSign::Init(); //Initializes the screen
}
void loop() {
DisplayBitMap(); //Displays the bitmap

}

void DisplayBitMap()
{
boolean run=true; //While this is true, the screen updates
byte frame = 0; //Frame counter
byte line = 0; //Row counter
unsigned long data; //Temporary storage of the row data

while(run == true) {
for(line = 0; line < 9; line++) {

//Here we fetch data from program memory with a pointer.
data = pgm_read_word_near (&BitMap[frame][line]);

//Kills the loop if the kill number is found
if (data==18000){
frame = 0;
data = pgm_read_word_near (&BitMap[frame][line]);
//run=false;
}

//This is where the bit-shifting happens to pull out
//each LED from a row. If the bit is 1, then the LED
//is turned on, otherwise it is turned off.
else for (byte led=0; led<14; ++led) {
if (data & (1< LedSign::Set(led, line, 1);
}
else {
LedSign::Set(led, line, 0);
}

}

}

//Delays the next update
delay(blinkdelay);
frame++;
}
}

I had to adjust the code to keep it from blinking at the end of the animation.

Posted: August 17th, 2010 | Author: brian | Filed under: Uncategorized | No Comments »

In case you missed it

LVL1 Made the Sunday paper. Read all about it!

Posted: July 19th, 2010 | Author: brian | Filed under: hackerspaces, space, www | No Comments »

RC Airshow June 5, 6

From Tim H…

As mentioned at the meeting last night, my model airplane club will
have a charity airshow on June 5 and 6. We have about 15 invited
pilots from around the country that have won many championships in
various categories of RC flying.

As of the moment, we will have several aerobatic demos with aircraft
wingspans exceeding 10 feet. We have one turbine powered jet that has
a true speed of 199 mph (not scale but actual radar detector speed).
We expect to have a national champion aerobatic helicopter and a
turbine powered helicopter. Also we will have a candy drop for the
kids and an egg drop for teens and adults. (Wear an old shirt for this
one.)

Details:
When: Saturday and Sunday, June 5 and 6 11 am to 5 pm. (Saturday is
the best day b/c out of towners leave early on Sunday)

Where: Tom Sawyer Park. 1/2 mile south of Westport on Hurstbourne
Parkway.

Cost: suggested donation is $3 per person (Hundred dollar bills are
welcome) All proceeds go to Kosair Charities.

More info: http://wingsairshow.org/

Fox In The Moring News will broadcasting live on Friday from 5 am to 9
am.

Posted: May 28th, 2010 | Author: brian | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , | No Comments »

Freeduino Spring training materials

I have put the materials on line for the Freeduino Spring Training class if you want to take a look. In these lessons you will find sample circuits for most of the things you might want to do with your Freeduino/Arduino. All of the code examples work and are debugged. Enjoy!

http://wiki.lvl1.org/Freediuino_Spring_Training

Brian

Posted: May 25th, 2010 | Author: brian | Filed under: diy, freeduino, workshops | Tags: , | No Comments »

Freeduino Spring Training Workshop


LVL1 is proud to announce it’s latest class- the Freeduino Spring Training Workshop. Time and place is May 18, 2010 from 7-10 pm at the U of L Speed School Room 210. This workshop will help you learn the skills to be able to play with that shiny Arduino or Freeduino that you have been dying to figure out! Our coaches will step you through building several fun circuits that demonstrate how to interface your Arduino with LED’s, LCD’s, switches, sensors, potentiometers, motors and sound. After taking this class, you should be able to breadboard a circuit and then program your Arduino. We know this class will be a GRAND SLAM!

The cost of the workshop is $50 ($80 if you need a Freeduino). Besides the world class instruction, you will get your very own breadboard, several LED’s (even a tri-colored one), a cool blue LCD display, a temperature sensor, a photo sensor, several switches, many resistors (with brightly colored bands!), a few potentiometers, a motor and a speaker… everything you need to batter up!

OK, enough with the cheezy baseball references. This highly requested workshop will be just what you need to get started learning electronics, bit-banging, embedded computer interfacing and programming. It is sure to be a h.. good time.

Sign up is easy. GO HERE!

Here is a copy of the flyer if you would like to read it, or post it somewhere. Hope to see you there!

Posted: May 3rd, 2010 | Author: brian | Filed under: diy, freeduino, workshops | Tags: , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Very Important – Please read this post

http://groups.google.com/group/lvl1/browse_thread/thread/a5136f930098ff51

We are ready to find a space, but we need help doing so. It is time to commit to being a paying part of this hackerspace. It is also time to talk to those real estate contacts and find a great space. Read this post again.

http://groups.google.com/group/lvl1/browse_thread/thread/a5136f930098ff51

Posted: March 31st, 2010 | Author: brian | Filed under: meeting, space | Tags: , | No Comments »

Video of LVL1′s TV-B-Gone workshop

Posted: March 29th, 2010 | Author: brian | Filed under: workshops | Tags: , | No Comments »

Working on some CNC signs.

These are for my Boy Scout troop. They are being made on my homemade CNC machine. The plans for the CNC I used are here. There are newer plans now – these will be the next machine I build. This is where I got my electronics.

Click through the pictures, and I will tell the story.

Posted: March 28th, 2010 | Author: brian | Filed under: CNC, diy | Tags: , | 1 Comment »

Change in Meeting Location

The next meeting (Tues. 3/2) will be held a Heine Brothers Coffee, 119
Chenoweth Lane Louisville KY 40207. They will have a space saved for
us and it’s much quieter than BBC.

It is just around the corner from BBC. Here is a map.

Posted: February 25th, 2010 | Author: brian | Filed under: meeting | Tags: | No Comments »

I built an Elmo!

For those of you who do not know… and Elmo is a document camera. Basically what I did here is I took an old security camera (from a dome) that was abandoned and re purposed it with some pvc pipe and wood, etc.

I had to rewire the camera to a 12v wall wart plug and also change the composite video out to an RCA jack. I mounted the camera on the end of a piece of PVC pipe attached to some scrap wood. The pink thing on the top of the Elmo is a plastic gum container that is holding a circuit board that is needed for the camera. It is there for protection and is screwed to the pvc pipe. Not pretty, but functional.

The whole thing does work and produces a nice clean video signal that I can output to a projector. I hope to be able to use it for LVL1′s Freeduino soldering classes. The only problem with it is that it shows skin tones and tans as a green color. I think this has to do with the white balance or something.

Posted: February 24th, 2010 | Author: brian | Filed under: diy, video, workshops | Tags: , | 1 Comment »