The set up consists of 12 LED poles, 3 LED boxes, and 8 DMX colorblast fixtures. LEDs are mounted behind frosted acrylic to diffuse the light evenly.
Each unit is operating from it’s own dedicated Arduino. At the helm of the Arduinos is an Adafruit FTDI Friend that communicates one way to all 16 at once. Each Arduino has its own internal address and receives 14 byte packets of data telling it what to do (rate, pattern, color, brightness).
All patterns are baked into the Arduino code- that way if there’s ever a serial disconnect, the lights will continue to run. In addition to the pattern data, the computer sends a heartbeat 10 times a second, insuring they stay in sync for patterns like color fading and strobing.
A processing sketch running on the computer controls everything, and is extended further to use an iPad for wireless control via touchOSC and oscP5. We are working on an update for a Lemur sketch to offer even more control.
Make a robot friend with Adafruit’s CRICKIT – A Creative Robotics & Interactive Construction Kit. It’s an add-on to our popular Circuit Playground Express, FEATHER and other platforms to make and program robots with CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. Start controlling motors, servos, solenoids. You also get signal pins, capacitive touch sensors, a NeoPixel driver and amplified speaker output. It complements & extends your boards so you can still use all the goodies on the microcontroller, now you have a robotics playground as well.
