[Noisebridge-discuss] Led display

Jonathan Foote jtfoote at ieee.org
Sun Sep 28 17:48:01 UTC 2008


I've actually built something like that using "Dotz" from LEDeffects.
Something to consider is how the costs and manufacturing add up for a
large display: 180 x 140 = 25K pixels.  Even if you can make one pixel
(LED + driver) for $3, that's $75,000 in pixels alone, not counting
wiring, high level controller, and programming. (And that's a lowball
estimate: the Dotz came out to $6/pixel for the 1440-pixel array I
built.)

I've also worked with the Mad Scientists who built the L2K and L3K LED
rings around the Burning Man. My takeaway from them is you *don't*
want to wire 25K pixels (or 25K anything) by hand. The Mad Scientists
had tiny little PIC pixel boards fabricated (including components) and
they were daisy-chained, but that still took several person-years of
volunteer soldering for two orders of magnitude fewer pixels (~3K).

Mark Lottor (Cubatron) was at one time selling his light strings
("Triklits?") but I think he ran into similar manufacturing issues.

But someone is building all these lightwall displays -- likely in
China.  Some surfing on alibaba.com may turn up a cheap supplier.

Happy hacking and congratulations on the space!

-Jon Foote

On Sat, Sep 27, 2008 at 5:35 AM, Jonas S Karlsson <jsk at yesco.org> wrote:
> Just wanted to mentioned that I visited the CSE revue when I arrived in
> Sydney. The show was soso but what kept my attention was the LED display in
> the background. If no led is on then it is just a "see thru grill". But
> where graphics is shown one can't see thru. My estimate is that there is
> maybe 140 x 180 positions with 3 color LEDs. I was thinking that that be a
> cool thing to have and build and program in noisebridge new place!
>
> I'm so happy you signed the lease. Now I'll just see if I can find a way to
> support you and see if there is some ppl in Syd Rachel had some contacts
> that I'll follow up on.
>
> Btw my picture blog is ozbl.org
>
> //jonas
>
>
>
>
>
> Sent from ozPhone
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