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First off, you know you can scroll/pan around images, right? However, I agree a 32×32 one would be epic. It would be very expensive though, and I would probably have to run a minimum 1000 32×32 grids to get the price at all reasonable (since a panel of that size doesn’t exist using bright LEDs). Power requirements would also be 4x. Yuck.
As for microcontroller, that’s beyond the Arduino’s capabilities. I would probably use something like the Teensy or Spark Core.
Anyway, yes, food for thought.
This is a very good question, and I need to start a Game Frame FAQ that includes it.
The sequential playback mode is not alpha-numeric. (The SD spec doesn’t have any such sorting method, and the Arduino itself lacks the memory to handle it.) Instead, the files are played back in the order they were written to the SD card. More specifically, they are played back according to their index on the device, so actually if you delete some files and write new ones, they will likely be inserted into the previous deleted indexes.
If you have a particular order you want “sequential playback” to follow, the solution is to copy your folders (including /00system) to a folder on your computer, then format the microSD FAT32, and then copy the folders onto the microSD in the order you want them to appear. (You can copy 00system anytime, since it’s ignored by the playback function.)
Hope this makes sense! It’s a hassle, but part of life in Arduino land.
P.S. There are two other ways to link folder together, covered in this thread.
I don’t see the problem, Chef…? The image you attached (41.bmp) is 824 bytes, just like the images I made. Looks perfect to me! 🙂
I don’t think his is painted black (it’s just the lighting) but I agree that would look great! So glad you’re enjoying it, Farhad.
Yes, for a filmstrip it’s just be a single 0.bmp (maximum x/y resolution of 32,000). If you want to attach the file you made here, I can take a look.
Fogleman, are you still interested in working on a graphic -> Game Frame conversion tool? If so, maybe we could discuss it over email (I’m jeremy at this domain). I’m sure there will be a surge of interest now that it’s shipping.
Hi Andrew. The best place to start is going to be the NeoPixel library from Adafruit. It drives the LEDs in Game Frame, and the examples in the library will show you how to address individual lights. From there, the real fun will be figuring out the input engineering. 256 buttons is way beyond the limited Arduino pins, so you’re looking at additional hardware. I’m sure others can specific chip suggestions, but I know old school computer keyboards employ a switch matrix to solve the same problem.
Nice work, John! What was the problem with the filmstrip versions? Was there an issue reading the files, or writing the correct CONFIG.INI file?
Yes, the RTC is a DS1307. You could modify the firmware so that brightness is controlled by the time of day.
That sounds totally amazing, Steven. Can you send me an email (jeremy at this domain) when you have a moment? I’d love to discuss Spark integration further with you.
Thanks, yeah. The delay won’t affect post-Kickstarter orders since the power supplies will be in stock before their scheduled ship date.
Well, for most people, adding a battery isn’t going to be an option. I tied both of the battery pins to ground, as suggested if you don’t incorporate a battery. That said, if one were dedicated, they should cut the pins off of the RTC chip itself and solder battery leads to them instead. There is almost certainly enough space in Flash to add a check to see if the clock is set or not on boot (currently compiled sketch size: 30,796 bytes of a 32,256 byte maximum).
Sorry if this is a hassle. It really does draw minimal power on low brightness setting, and barely anything when the display is turned off (.5 Watt), so leaving it plugged in seems practical.
It’s just that in your graphic, your HOURS column has the hour hand pointing to 12:00 in every row, but in your MINS and SECS columns, the hands point to every 5 minute interval. Shouldn’t the HOUR column have just the hour hand pointing to every 5 minute interval (i.e. every hour)? If you did that, you’d have all of the elements for the layered approach.
You’d also need a special firmware that redraws the clock every 5 seconds based on the real-time clock chip. Currently sequencing of animation frames (and between animation folders) is handled by the much less accurate internal Arduino clock (millis function). If you’re making a clock, you definitely want to tie into the RTC chip. I’d be happy to help with this.
