www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVAlNAf-2P8

Downloads:

• gametable.tar.gz

www.youtube.com/watch?v=yv6CJdWgSJo

The bluetooth module can be used to bootload the AVR and to transfer images. Now I’m thinking of writing a VLC extension to stream video data to the table

And here the gif animation:

• surematrix_animation.tar.gz (the Arduino PDE)
• pyconvert.tar.gz (the python script for converting images)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7-wtJGhpzE

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Bu621bRCZ8

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gubQbWLMAnI

Displaying a 64x64 pixel animation exported from a GIF Animation with a custom python script.

UPDATE: After some optimization in the animation loading, the set pixel functions and the display refresh function the Arduino is able to display about 50 frames per second when displaying a 96x64 monocolor animation from flash memory.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXHrMa2NvqM

The displays are connected to the Arduino to share the row select pins (A,B,C and D) and the control lines EN, CLK & LATCH. The serial lines R1,R2,G1,G2 have their dedicated pins. So there are 19 pins needed out of possible 20 (not counting the reset pins as I/O). As the displays are loaded in 16 rows a 64bit some transformation has to be done while loading the display. This limits the update rate hard. A possible way to improve the frame rate is moving the transformation to the function setting the pixels. Or maybe changing the connection scheme to common R1,R2,G1,G2 with separate EN & LATCH for each display which would result in 15 I/O pins needed but maybe suffer from slower update rate. As the display modules are chainable it is possible to connect them in series and load the 16 rows with 192bits each and using only 11  pins, but reducing the frame rate again. Since the ATMega328 cannot achieve high enough frame rates at any connection scheme I would suggest using the chained way.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=twW3xie_QBo

Download PDE:

• surematrix.pde

• foam rubber as carrier for the LED’s
• 10mm diffuse RGB LED’s (I used those sold here: http://evilmadscience.com/partsmenu/89-led )
• silver wire
• insulating tape
• solder iron

First mark the spot where you want to add the LED’s on the foam rubber using some pen. I spaced them 20mm apart and printed some guides on a sheet of paper that i fixed on the rubber and pushed the LED’s through. After that I assembled one column and bended the R,G and B cathodes by 90 degree, shorted them at the next LED (using this one can only space the LED’s by the max. pin length) and solder the pins to next LED. So I proceeded all the way down. I did not cut the wires of the last LED, those I used to connect to the circuit board. After that I but some insulating tape on the connection to ovoid short circuits. After that I used the silver wire to connect the common anodes in a row. DONE !

The circuit uses 74HC595 shift registers with output latch. Each shiftregister interfaces one color + one shiftreg for the matrix rows. The interfaces uses 6 I/O lines for faster speed and easier interfacing. An AVR running at 8MHz can update the matrix with 8 brightness levels displaying nice fading colors patterns or colored text (or both). The sample program creates fading color patterns using a sine table. For smoother display a double buffer was implemented.

Download: rgbmatrix.c