Noob desires 12mm LED standalone display, apply within

EL Wire/Tape/Panels, LEDs, pixels and strips, LCDs and TFTs, etc products from Adafruit

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rtrski
 
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Noob desires 12mm LED standalone display, apply within

Post by rtrski »

Hi. Brand new to all this although I do some scripting for work (VBscript, Python, MATLAB) and have a 3d printer which uses an arduino-based controller...but aside from initial firmware tweaks (extruder calibration) I only interface with it thru the controlling GUI package.

So, I'd like to create a standalone display application (automotive) using your "12mm Diffused Thin Digital RGB LED Pixels (Strand of 25)", probably 4-6 strands, with the lights arranged in a non-rectangular 'n x m' diagonal matrix (imagine a roughly wedge-shaped overall perimeter with a fairly even distribution within). I've read the 'read me first' at the top of this forum category, and downloaded the PDF for the 12mm glowy dots, and know I'll have a lot of learning ahead of me but wanted to see if I have the basic gist.

I'll need an Arduino board, some sort of controller switch inputs ultimately, a 5v power supply, and of course the strips. I'm assuming a starting Arduino board has the USB hookup for programming from a PC before going standalone. And of course I'll probably have to come up with some sort of custom function that maps any image or animation I want to my actual (xi, yi) matrix of light positions, I assume starting with the NeoPixel libraries. Anything I'm missing that I should be purchasing to start playing? Not adverse to starting out with an RGB board to learn first so long as I can 'see' the way the (x,y) position addressing is done to move from that to the strips.

Thinking ahead about control, should I look at some display shields etc for feedback once I go standalone? (Ultimately would like say 5-6 'canned' animation loops I can switch between either just on a random cycle or by intentional selection for the display...) Since I'm starting from scratch I'm not tied to any preexisting hardware limitations (e.g. memory, if one board is more recommended than another...go for the Due or is that overkill?). Or should I consider starting with a Pi vs. Arduino, using an SD for memory?

Thanks in advance - I know this is likely a pretty nakedly ignorant first post.

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adafruit_support_rick
 
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Re: Noob desires 12mm LED standalone display, apply within

Post by adafruit_support_rick »

An Arduino Uno is fine for that application. Not ned to go to the heavy artillery (Due, Raspberry Pi, etc.).
The Uno has the USB connection for programming from your PC.

You probably want to have a look through our Learning Arduino tutorials to get yourself oriented.
https://learn.adafruit.com/lesson-0-getting-started

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