Forums > Technical Discussion > Open source LED poi
Login/Join to ParticipateSILVER Member
veteran
1,228 posts
Location: on the wrong planet, United Kingdom
veteran
1,228 posts
Location: on the wrong planet, United Kingdom
Posted:
If you've been to Play or the last couple of Nuneaton meets, you've probably seen my previous prototypes in action.
I've nearly completed the third set of prototypes, and I'll be taking them to The Bristol Juggling Convention this weekend.
I'm documenting as much of the design process as I can over at https://polar-lights.org.uk, so that anyone else interested in building their own LED poi can get a headstart. Now that I'm happy with the prototypes, and don't need to spend so much time actually building things, I'll be working on the site more.
I'm hoping to add sections on Assembly language programming for PIC microcontrollers, and step by step instructions for assembling the latest prototypes.
Seeing as the site wiki is read only (for the moment), I'd welcome comments and suggestions, on the poi and the site.
If you've been to Play or the last couple of Nuneaton meets, you've probably seen my previous prototypes in action.
I've nearly completed the third set of prototypes, and I'll be taking them to The Bristol Juggling Convention this weekend.
I'm documenting as much of the design process as I can over at https://polar-lights.org.uk, so that anyone else interested in building their own LED poi can get a headstart. Now that I'm happy with the prototypes, and don't need to spend so much time actually building things, I'll be working on the site more.
I'm hoping to add sections on Assembly language programming for PIC microcontrollers, and step by step instructions for assembling the latest prototypes.
Seeing as the site wiki is read only (for the moment), I'd welcome comments and suggestions, on the poi and the site.
You aren't thinking or really existing unless you're willing to risk even your own sanity in the judgment of your existence.
Green peppers, lime pickle and whole-grain mustard = best sandwich filling.
GOLD Member
enthusiast
389 posts
Location: Utrecht [NL], Netherlands
enthusiast
389 posts
Location: Utrecht [NL], Netherlands
Posted:
HAR HAR! pirate po is back
Too bad you're tutorial was offline. But I managed to figure out PWM'ing and stuff anyways
Hope to see the polar-lights site online soon!
HAR HAR! pirate po is back
Too bad you're tutorial was offline. But I managed to figure out PWM'ing and stuff anyways
Hope to see the polar-lights site online soon!
"Don’t know how long, this one’s gonna take;
I could fail, but I’d rather be a fuckup, than a fake"
SILVER Member
veteran
1,228 posts
Location: on the wrong planet, United Kingdom
veteran
1,228 posts
Location: on the wrong planet, United Kingdom
Posted:
polar-lights.org.uk is back online! Needs a bit of work and Falmouth is round the corner, so it'll have to stay as it is until I get back
polar-lights.org.uk is back online! Needs a bit of work and Falmouth is round the corner, so it'll have to stay as it is until I get back
You aren't thinking or really existing unless you're willing to risk even your own sanity in the judgment of your existence.
Green peppers, lime pickle and whole-grain mustard = best sandwich filling.
SILVER Member
Member
23 posts
Location: Brissie, Australia
Member
23 posts
Location: Brissie, Australia
Posted:
Cool! I've been waiting for this; I did mess around a little on my own a while back (very unsophisticated, not using a PIC or anything), but didn't really get anywhere since I've got so many other things too do...
Having a quick look at your setup, it looks extremely cool Now I just need the time to make some for myself... Nice work!
~Chris
Written by: polarity
polar-lights.org.uk is back online! Needs a bit of work and Falmouth is round the corner, so it'll have to stay as it is until I get back
Cool! I've been waiting for this; I did mess around a little on my own a while back (very unsophisticated, not using a PIC or anything), but didn't really get anywhere since I've got so many other things too do...
Having a quick look at your setup, it looks extremely cool
Now I just need the time to make some for myself... Nice work!~Chris
GOLD Member
enthusiast
389 posts
Location: Utrecht [NL], Netherlands
enthusiast
389 posts
Location: Utrecht [NL], Netherlands
Posted:
@polarity. Nice to see your site is up and running again :-) it gave me enough inspiration to start programming (yet again) and finally managed a way to manually set the brightness of a single or more leds... which gives me more possibilities ^_^ like pink strobes. Before now i could only strobe in 6 colors (and white). kinda strange if you realize i could do pwm-rainbow fades... but hey, small baby steps :-)
Programming isn't that easy for n00bs :-D but with a little patience man can achieve much!
@polarity. Nice to see your site is up and running again :-) it gave me enough inspiration to start programming (yet again) and finally managed a way to manually set the brightness of a single or more leds... which gives me more possibilities ^_^ like pink strobes. Before now i could only strobe in 6 colors (and white). kinda strange if you realize i could do pwm-rainbow fades... but hey, small baby steps :-)
Programming isn't that easy for n00bs :-D but with a little patience man can achieve much!
"Don’t know how long, this one’s gonna take;
I could fail, but I’d rather be a fuckup, than a fake"
SILVER Member
member
133 posts
Location: Churchill College, Cambridge, United Kingdom
member
133 posts
Location: Churchill College, Cambridge, United Kingdom
Posted:
Hiya Polarity, your wiki page has been very inspirational in motivating me to learn about PIC programming - me and 2 friends have recently formed a team ... mainly for trying to create a PIC-controlled glow staff, and maybe fight some crime on the side
Just wanted to say thanks for sharing all your progress We're using a PIC16F88, some n-channel MOSFETs to switch power around, and of course, some SuperFluxes ... I've just been getting my ahead around resistor values today ... such a rubbish system with all those colour bands! Thank god for online calculators
Hiya Polarity, your wiki page has been very inspirational in motivating me to learn about PIC programming - me and 2 friends have recently formed a team ... mainly for trying to create a PIC-controlled glow staff, and maybe fight some crime on the side
Just wanted to say thanks for sharing all your progress
We're using a PIC16F88, some n-channel MOSFETs to switch power around, and of course, some SuperFluxes ... I've just been getting my ahead around resistor values today ... such a rubbish system with all those colour bands! Thank god for online calculators SILVER Member
veteran
1,228 posts
Location: on the wrong planet, United Kingdom
veteran
1,228 posts
Location: on the wrong planet, United Kingdom
Posted:
Sorry, wiki's been down a couple of days, as I moved it onto another server. Got to make more effort in putting stuff up, and try and make some more progress. Not much happening as it costs so much to make prototypes, and I've got a bunch of other stuff I'm supposed to be saving for. I may do some more work on the code when I've got some time, as I want to have something new before I go travelling.
Resistor color bands? It's down to memory. If you use them long enough it becomes second nature, and you end up thinking the numbers just by looking at them. The colors are used for some other things in electronics too, so they're worth knowing.
From memory:
Black = 0
Brown = 1
Red = 2
Orange = 3
Yellow = 4
Green = 5
Blue = 6
Purple = 7
Grey = 8
White = 9
I usually buy loads in the values I need from Farnell, so I just order them by value anyway, and the mixed bags never have enough of the common values like 100k.
Sorry, wiki's been down a couple of days, as I moved it onto another server. Got to make more effort in putting stuff up, and try and make some more progress. Not much happening as it costs so much to make prototypes, and I've got a bunch of other stuff I'm supposed to be saving for. I may do some more work on the code when I've got some time, as I want to have something new before I go travelling.
Resistor color bands? It's down to memory. If you use them long enough it becomes second nature, and you end up thinking the numbers just by looking at them. The colors are used for some other things in electronics too, so they're worth knowing.
From memory:
Black = 0
Brown = 1
Red = 2
Orange = 3
Yellow = 4
Green = 5
Blue = 6
Purple = 7
Grey = 8
White = 9
I usually buy loads in the values I need from Farnell, so I just order them by value anyway, and the mixed bags never have enough of the common values like 100k.
You aren't thinking or really existing unless you're willing to risk even your own sanity in the judgment of your existence.
Green peppers, lime pickle and whole-grain mustard = best sandwich filling.
SILVER Member
KeepTheWorldSpinning Originator
49 posts
Location: Scarborough, UK
KeepTheWorldSpinning Originator
49 posts
Location: Scarborough, UK
Posted:
just been reading up on loads of sites on LED's PIC chips n micro thingy-ma-jigs and ive been intrested with making my own LED poi for quite some time (in other words takin flashy toys apart and reconstructing them)
so to the point... im hopin somone could give me a simple project for making LED poi that are on consistantly, strobe and phase.
msg me or add me if you up for it =]
willow2x@hotmail.com
just been reading up on loads of sites on LED's PIC chips n micro thingy-ma-jigs and ive been intrested with making my own LED poi for quite some time (in other words takin flashy toys apart and reconstructing them)
so to the point... im hopin somone could give me a simple project for making LED poi that are on consistantly, strobe and phase.
msg me or add me if you up for it =]
willow2x@hotmail.com
KeepTheWorldSpinning with me =]
SILVER Member
member
133 posts
Location: Churchill College, Cambridge, United Kingdom
member
133 posts
Location: Churchill College, Cambridge, United Kingdom
Posted:
Polarity's website is good for a starter. Then this website got me going, its got some very simple projects involving PICs that can be modified for use in sock poi, and it supplies a lot of the source code
https://www.petesworld.demon.co.uk/homebrew/PIC/picprojects.htm
I'm currently designing my PCB for my glowstaff... its a nightmare!
there's a reason people don't make PCBs 2cm wide...
Polarity's website is good for a starter. Then this website got me going, its got some very simple projects involving PICs that can be modified for use in sock poi, and it supplies a lot of the source code
https://www.petesworld.demon.co.uk/homebrew/PIC/picprojects.htm
I'm currently designing my PCB for my glowstaff... its a nightmare!
there's a reason people don't make PCBs 2cm wide... SILVER Member
newbie
42 posts
Location: New Zealand
newbie
42 posts
Location: New Zealand
Posted:
Yup, another PIC glowstaff project here, at breadboard stage. Using a Picaxe for ease of programming.
Holy *^$#@! those ProLight RGB's are pricey when you're paying in NZ dollars...
Yup, another PIC glowstaff project here, at breadboard stage. Using a Picaxe for ease of programming.
Holy *^$#@! those ProLight RGB's are pricey when you're paying in NZ dollars...
SILVER Member
member
133 posts
Location: Churchill College, Cambridge, United Kingdom
member
133 posts
Location: Churchill College, Cambridge, United Kingdom
Posted:
hiya happyinmotion! good luck with your staff be sure to keep all us HOPpers updated! Are you using ProLights then?
The superbright RGB LEDs linked on PolarLight's site are rather expensive, and as they shipped from Germany, took AGES to get to England ... and the parcel looked like the dog dragged it in, it was so tatty. Unsuprisingly, one of the LED's red lights was broken ... very annoying. Luckily, what looks like exactly the same LEDs are on offer here:
https://www.rapidonline.com/productinfo.a...;moduleno=76740
They use different resistor values, so I assume they're of subtely different brightness. They're substantially cheaper too! Bargainacious
hiya happyinmotion! good luck with your staff
be sure to keep all us HOPpers updated! Are you using ProLights then? The superbright RGB LEDs linked on PolarLight's site are rather expensive, and as they shipped from Germany, took AGES to get to England ... and the parcel looked like the dog dragged it in, it was so tatty. Unsuprisingly, one of the LED's red lights was broken ... very annoying. Luckily, what looks like exactly the same LEDs are on offer here:
https://www.rapidonline.com/productinfo.a...;moduleno=76740
They use different resistor values, so I assume they're of subtely different brightness. They're substantially cheaper too! Bargainacious
BRONZE Member
old hand
1,174 posts
Location: Great Malvern [UK]
old hand
1,174 posts
Location: Great Malvern [UK]
Posted:
I've been busy over the weekend working on my Open Source GUI which will allow you to quickly put together colour sequences for glow toys. I intend to have seperate plugin modules for each type of toy (Hyperlights, aerotechs, polar lights etc. etc.) which will turn the representation in the program into something the different toys can handle.
There's still lots of bugs, it's somewhat crude to do things, there's no documentation on how to use it and there's no way of loading things into / out of the software yet... BUT, it's definitely progressing
Right now I've stuck a creative commons license in with it, but I think the GPL v2 license is probably a better one.
Non-Https Image Link
Get a copy of Pre-Alpha v0002 here. To run it, you'll need to download and install Python and wxPython. NOTE: The latter two downloads are for the windows versions. If you're running Linux or a MAC, you'll need to find the appropriate version. I've not tested on anything other than windows so I'd be interested to hear how you get on if you're brave enough to try it
[Edit]I was going to call it "GlowPRO" (as in Glow Programming) but looking at that screen shot, I've clearly forgotten to change the name of the thing and a lot of the source files need to be modified to make them less Hyper-centric
EDITED_BY: *HyperLight (1180455402)
I've been busy over the weekend working on my Open Source GUI which will allow you to quickly put together colour sequences for glow toys. I intend to have seperate plugin modules for each type of toy (Hyperlights, aerotechs, polar lights etc. etc.) which will turn the representation in the program into something the different toys can handle.
There's still lots of bugs, it's somewhat crude to do things, there's no documentation on how to use it and there's no way of loading things into / out of the software yet... BUT, it's definitely progressing
Right now I've stuck a creative commons license in with it, but I think the GPL v2 license is probably a better one.Non-Https Image Link
Get a copy of Pre-Alpha v0002 here. To run it, you'll need to download and install Python and wxPython. NOTE: The latter two downloads are for the windows versions. If you're running Linux or a MAC, you'll need to find the appropriate version. I've not tested on anything other than windows so I'd be interested to hear how you get on if you're brave enough to try it
[Edit]I was going to call it "GlowPRO" (as in Glow Programming) but looking at that screen shot, I've clearly forgotten to change the name of the thing and a lot of the source files need to be modified to make them less Hyper-centric
EDITED_BY: *HyperLight (1180455402)
Cake or Death?
GOLD Member
enthusiast
389 posts
Location: Utrecht [NL], Netherlands
enthusiast
389 posts
Location: Utrecht [NL], Netherlands
Posted:
Wow jon, that looks pretty user-friendly! Is it also possible to select, drag and drop? That'll be cool.
Wow jon, that looks pretty user-friendly! Is it also possible to select, drag and drop? That'll be cool.
"Don’t know how long, this one’s gonna take;
I could fail, but I’d rather be a fuckup, than a fake"
BRONZE Member
old hand
1,174 posts
Location: Great Malvern [UK]
old hand
1,174 posts
Location: Great Malvern [UK]
Posted:
So far, you can drag and drop commands / sequences from the left over to the main panel. I'm working on adding code so that you can drag them around in the main editor window (amongst other things!). High on my list of priorities for it now is getting it reading / writing files so you can save what you create.
So far, you can drag and drop commands / sequences from the left over to the main panel. I'm working on adding code so that you can drag them around in the main editor window (amongst other things!). High on my list of priorities for it now is getting it reading / writing files so you can save what you create.
Cake or Death?
SILVER Member
member
133 posts
Location: Churchill College, Cambridge, United Kingdom
member
133 posts
Location: Churchill College, Cambridge, United Kingdom
Posted:
That's mad! well done. Hopefully this will work for our PIC glow-staff ... it would be worth modifying the code to match your app's output. I totally forgot to say, I met Yakumo at Synergy, and the Hyperlights are beautiful - truly setting the bar for people like us to aim for. Hope I can meet you soon sometime!
That's mad!
well done. Hopefully this will work for our PIC glow-staff ... it would be worth modifying the code to match your app's output. I totally forgot to say, I met Yakumo at Synergy, and the Hyperlights are beautiful - truly setting the bar for people like us to aim for. Hope I can meet you soon sometime! BRONZE Member
old hand
1,174 posts
Location: Great Malvern [UK]
old hand
1,174 posts
Location: Great Malvern [UK]
Posted:
The way I'm putting it together, all you need to do is write a module that interrogates the GlowPRO model and translates it into something your toy can understand.* I'm hoping that by providing the software in this way, it'll encourage more and more people to share their shiny sequences and build a bigger better glow-spinning community
*One thing to bear in mind though is that the data model in the software is tailored to the instruction set that HyperLights use. That means that if your toys can't do as much or as efficiently, you'll either have to emulate the behaviour or warn the user that they can't use sequences that use those commands. For example, I don't think (please correct me if I'm wrong here) Aerotech's Ultimates do fades natively - you have to set colours one after the other. So something that takes a single instruction on a HyperLight might take 100's on an Aerotech which means you might not be able to fit long sequences in. This is mostly speculation though so please take it with a pinch of salt
The way I'm putting it together, all you need to do is write a module that interrogates the GlowPRO model and translates it into something your toy can understand.* I'm hoping that by providing the software in this way, it'll encourage more and more people to share their shiny sequences and build a bigger better glow-spinning community
*One thing to bear in mind though is that the data model in the software is tailored to the instruction set that HyperLights use. That means that if your toys can't do as much or as efficiently, you'll either have to emulate the behaviour or warn the user that they can't use sequences that use those commands. For example, I don't think (please correct me if I'm wrong here) Aerotech's Ultimates do fades natively - you have to set colours one after the other. So something that takes a single instruction on a HyperLight might take 100's on an Aerotech which means you might not be able to fit long sequences in. This is mostly speculation though so please take it with a pinch of salt
Cake or Death?
SILVER Member
veteran
1,228 posts
Location: on the wrong planet, United Kingdom
veteran
1,228 posts
Location: on the wrong planet, United Kingdom
Posted:
I has a cunning plan (an I has bin spendin wey to much time at icanhascheezburger.com)
I have 2 lengths of polycarbonate tubing, each 25" long.
I have 1337 programming skillz.
I'm kind of OK at electronics.
I remembered these things (Linux computer with 64MB ram, MMC card slot, 400MHz processor, USB, Bluetooth, WiFi, and a lot of serial I/O, and just 2x8cm).
Just need to work my way through a couple of expensive projects until I get back to this one (one of which is sitting on the old polar-lights website, at flightschool.polar-lights.org.uk. Will get round to putting the text from the old site up once I've got the gallery program running again).
I has a cunning plan (an I has bin spendin wey to much time at icanhascheezburger.com)
I have 2 lengths of polycarbonate tubing, each 25" long.
I have 1337 programming skillz.
I'm kind of OK at electronics.
I remembered these things (Linux computer with 64MB ram, MMC card slot, 400MHz processor, USB, Bluetooth, WiFi, and a lot of serial I/O, and just 2x8cm).
Just need to work my way through a couple of expensive projects until I get back to this one (one of which is sitting on the old polar-lights website, at flightschool.polar-lights.org.uk. Will get round to putting the text from the old site up once I've got the gallery program running again).
You aren't thinking or really existing unless you're willing to risk even your own sanity in the judgment of your existence.
Green peppers, lime pickle and whole-grain mustard = best sandwich filling.
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