Building my own

[jmt1183]

I recently got interested in learning more about programming and Arduino, but have been struggling to find a project that captured my interest. After seeing my friend’s Game Frame in action I was inspired to take it on as my next project. I understand the frame itself, but the electronics are confusing to me. I just have a few questions I need answered before I can move forward, and was hoping this forum could help.

I have an Arduino, but noticed Jeremy made his own PCB.
Is this project possible to complete with an Arduino out of the box, and if so, which model would be best?
If I can’t use an Arduino, I am more than willing to make my own PCB, but I need some sort of schematic or wiring diagram to go from. Is there someone here who could provide me with one? I figured I could design it with a piece of software called Fritzing and have them print it out.

[Jeremy Williams]

Glad to hear you’re taking an interest in Arduino! It’s a great community, and an accessible language. I assume you’ve taken a look at the Game Frame source code. If not, it’s here:

https://github.com/Jerware/GameFrame

You can take a look at that and see how the parts fit together. You can certainly use an Arduino Uno, but you’ll need to connect it to an SD reader (which will require a 3.3V supply, which is why my PCB has an additional power regulator). You’ll also need the clock chip + its crystal.

The schematics for the PCB aren’t published but it’s pretty straight forward once you see what pins are used in the source code. Have fun!

[jmt1183]

Thank you so much!!!
This is exactly what I needed. I will try to post some updates as I go along.
So glad I stumbled upon your creation. It has inspired me to continue my education and given me a tangible goal I am excited to reach. Can’t wait to see your future projects!

[jmt1183]

I have been working hard and learning a lot over the past three weeks, but I finally hit a roadblock I can’t seem to get around.

I ended up purchasing the Adafruit data logger shield and 4-8×8 neopixel matrix displays.

I was able to get everything set up and running correctly (I even bought the $10 e-boy art from this site to be sure). When I plugged everything up I realized the image was not displaying properly. The colors were correct, and I could make out some parts of certain images, but the rest was jumbled.
I soon learned I needed to use the Adafruit NeoMatrix library to properly display images across a matrix.
Unfortunately, this made the original sketch too large to fit on the UNO.
I purchased an Arduino Mega to overcome this problem, and set out once again.

Using the Mega, I was able to fit the original sketch and the Adafruit neoMatrix libraries.
In the original sketch, I replaced the lines defining the LED strip with the proper ones to define the Matrix. Then I replaced every instance of the word “strip” with “matrix”.

From what I could tell, nothing changed from my first try with the UNO, accept the colors were incorrect.

I am looking for guidance on next steps. Is there a simple way to make a matrix work when the code was intended for a strip? Would I have to re-write a bunch of code? If so, where should I start?

Please let me know if this sounds like too great an undertaking, I am more than happy to buy the 16×16 matrix online, and save the 8×8’s for another project.

[Jeremy Williams]

Wow, congrats on the progress you made! Unfortunately the Game Frame source is hard coded for a single 16×16 grid, and it won’t play nice with the Matrix library. It sounds like using a proper 16×16 grid is going to be the easiest path to success. I’d try the one offered from RGB-123 here:

http://rgb-123.com/product/1616-16-x-16-rgb-led-matrix-black/

Report back!

[jasonconley]

Adafruit seems to have a SD shield out now that has a clock and 3.3v regulator built in. I would assume this would work. https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-data-logger-shield/shield-overview

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