The hardware

[Dudemullet]

I know the projects code will be open sourced once units start shipping, but what about the board specs? Basically I’m interested in knowing if we’ll be able to expand the boards functionality, not just software-wise say by adding shields.

Thanks.

[Jeremy Williams]

I have no plans to release the whole board spec, but maybe in the future. I can certainly tell you the pinouts for the expansion area. Those will be unsoldered through holes on the PCB, so you can add female or male headers to suit your needs. Let me get get the final PCB design in order and then I’ll get back to you.

[Damage]

Jeremy, first off, excellent work on this project, I ordered one on kickstarter, I can’t wait to receive it, I had considered doing a pixel art display on my own a few years back, but never got the time. The way the game frame is designed, particularly with the vellum diffusion and separated pixels is absolutely brilliant (pun intended).

My question is, what data pin are are you using to drive the WS2812’s? and what sequence (i’ll elaborate on that shortly). I thought about making a 32×32 version for personal use because I would love to do Basic SNES sprites, I would probably lasercut the grid out of black acrylic and would use overall smaller pixels and spacing. I estimate it would come in at about 500mm square. I would use the Mega2560 to drive it as it has 8K of ram. I think the whole thing could be scaled up even further by adding additional SRAM, the 2560 has support for this at the cost of I/O (but it has more than enough I/O for this type project). The SRAM can be expanded up to 128K which in theory could do 128×128. The issue then becomes one of power delivery and clock speed. 32×32 is probably the largest practical without going to something like an ARM or even FPGA. Plus in my case, since I would just be doing a 1-off, I would be hand soldering 1024 LEDS at 32×32. anything more just scales to ludicrous numbers.

Anyhow, i digress, my question on sequence is this, assuming a shortened 4×4 grid for example sake how do you have your WS2812’s chained. for example..

1 possibility (snake)…
C D E F
B A 9 8
4 5 6 7
3 2 1 0

or are you driving multiple rows/columns via separate data buss (pins)

Anyhow, I love the project, I can’t wait to play around with it and hang it up in my workshop for inspiration.

[Jeremy Williams]

Hey Damage. Sounds great! Please keep us posted about your progress with lots of photos. For Game Frame, I’m just using one data pin (digital pin 6), and the grid zig zags from the top like this:

0 1 2 3
7 6 5 4
8 9 A B
F E D C

At 16×16, of course. Actually, it may start right-to-left on the top row… I have the final panel in route from China right now and will let you know when it arrives. I have versions of the firmware for both variations, since I’ve received both kinds.

[Dudemullet]

Thanks for the reply Jeremy. I was planning to get into the whole Arduino thing with Game Frame. Basically I was planning on extending it with a wifi shield, to support wifi enabled configuration (changing and uploading sprites). Hopefully I’ll be able to do this with the pins available. Thanks again, can’t wait to get my Game Frame in the mail.

[Jeremy Williams]

Hi Dudemullet,

Unfortunately the PCB does not expose SPI pins, which you’d need for the Arduino Wifi shield. I think the best (and least expensive) option for WiFi is to figure way to write to wifi enabled SD cards, and then just code firmware to watch for changes on disc. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens there.

[alexasfb]

Hi Dudemullet,

Any progress with your project ? 🙂

Thanks

[Author]

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