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I have been playing with Arduinos for about a year now, and I noticed that none of my projects were really utilizing the speed capabilities of the ATmega328 chips. At 16 MHz, they can do a hell of a lot more than blink LEDs. To improve my appreciation of their capabilities, I wanted to build a project which required very fast and precise timings. That is what motivated me to build a persistence of vision alphanumeric laser projector.
My projector uses a single laser and has only one moving part. 6 mirrors are hot glued to a spinning platform. Each mirror is at a slightly different angle, and each is responsible for 1 of the 6 lines of vertical resolution. One full rotation sweeps the laser across the target 6 times at 6 different heights. An optical sensor detects the start of a rotation and times the laser pulses to produce readable text.
Nice!
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Python for Microcontrollers – Adafruit Daily — Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: CircuitPython 2025 Wraps, Focus on Using Python, Open Source and More! #CircuitPython #Python #micropython @ThePSF @Raspberry_Pi
EYE on NPI – Adafruit Daily — EYE on NPI Maxim’s Himalaya uSLIC Step-Down Power Module #EyeOnNPI @maximintegrated @digikey
