Techinc Wheel

Projects
Participants	Narya
Skills	Electronics, Mechanics
Status	Active
Niche	Electronics
Purpose	Promotion

Formerly known as ARTS: Auto stereoscopic Rainbow glowing TechInc logo Steering wheel

Need

• Ideas for function

Things to make and do

This project has several parts: backlit the wheel, mount the wheel to the wall or on some stand, and make the wheel control something. It would be nice to be able to unmount the wheel and take it somewhere else, e.g. to display it at events like OHM.

Painting

Who: Narya

• NO color painting!
• I will fix the scratched parts with varnish

Backlit

Who: Narya, Brainsmoke and Mariejel

Hardware components

• 12V RGB LED strip
• Arduino
• 12V adapter
• RGB LED arduino shield

Conclusion: The LEDs are not addressable (I'm learning... that is also nice....)

And now what?

• Cut current strip to even smaller pieces and buy WS2801's for every pixel you want to address. Or, use the current set-up in another project (space lighting or something like that, where you just have one colour for the entire thing). I prefer the second option, because it is cheaper and it is not a waste of the stuff we already have.
• I also have RGB LEDs (the regular type). Build one small board for every pixel. Takes a long time, but might be fun.
• Buy *addressable* RGB LEDs (WS2801 or WS2811). This is the easiest way to make it work.

Software

• FastSPI library for driving led controllers on arduino based systems
• Take a look at: Neopixel library
• Take a look at: http://www.elcojacobs.com/using-shiftpwm-to-control-led-strips-with-arduino/

Design a few patterns for the wheel

• Info about colors on Wikipedia
• Make a plan for controlling the lights, ideas:
  • No rotation: colors of logo
  • Rotation: full color SpokePOV (PimpMyBike blog) - based on comments: maybe not such a good idea, since wheel has to spin fast
  • Change colors remotely
  • Change colors by turning the wheel

Mount

Who: you?

• Location: on the wall near the door? Other suggestions?

Control

Who: you?

Random ideas, feel free to add your ideas below and add your name if you like to work on it

• Make something that registers when the wheel is turned
• Let it control X when the wheel is turned (don't know what "X" should be, ideas are welcome)
• No function, just let it rotate