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

Code

PCB layout and code for the LEDs

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 (needs extra stuff to make it addressable)
• about 60 regular common anode RGB LEDs
• 60 WS2811 chips
• 5V RGB LED strip (addressable, needs more powerful adapter)
• Arduino (diecisomething and a nano)
• 12V and 5V adapter
• RGB LED arduino shield

Lesson 1: the 12V LEDs are not addressable

And now what?

• Cut current strip to even smaller pieces and buy WS2801's or WS2811'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, e.g. in combination with this color sensor, in house)
• There are also RGB LEDs (the regular type, not smd or part of a strip). Build one small board for every pixel. Takes a long time, but might be fun. (needs: WS2811/WS2801 chips, resistors, board)
• Use *addressable* RGB LEDs (WS2801 or WS2811). This is the easiest way to make it work. I currently have 30 LEDs of the WS2811 type at home. Maybe use these.

Next: learn how to make a PCB design

• KiCad getting started guide
• Component libraries

Software

• FastSPI library for driving led controllers on arduino based systems
• Take a look at: Neopixel library https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_NeoPixel
• Take a look at: ShiftPWM http://www.elcojacobs.com/using-shiftpwm-to-control-led-strips-with-arduino/
• Related projects @techinc: LEDLightDistrict, Neopixel

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
  • From center to outside and vice versa
  • Rotating colors
  • ...

Mount

Who: justa, narya, control-k

• Location: on the wall - done

wheel mounted on the wall

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
• For now: no rotation