[Noisebridge-discuss] Massive LED Project at Noisebridge needs your help!

[Andy Isaacson]

On Wed, Oct 22, 2014 at 11:04:52AM -0700, James Sundquist wrote:
> Dana and I have a grand idea for setting up easily programmable LED
> displays at Noisebridge in a massive matrix. What we need are donations of
> panels, which will be purchased and shipped by Mitch on his China trip. See
> our nicely organized wiki page for details, source code, and more info.
> 
> https://noisebridge.net/wiki/LED

Awesome idea, awesome project!

A few suggestions, note that this is totally not backseat driving and
y'all should totally do the thing whatever way works for you. :)

1. Consider getting WS2812 pixels rather than cheaper knockoffs, and
driving them with Fadecandy http://www.adafruit.com/products/1689 rather
than other solutions.  Fadecandy has truly incredibly beautiful
dithering, giving much much nicer subtle color gradients compared to
straight PWM systems.  Micah (aka @scanlime, creator of Fadecandy) has a
really nice installation of Fadecandy open to the public sidewalk at 80
Turk St in the Tenderloin, and if you check it out at evening and then
walk over to Yerba Buena Gardens and check out their currently installed
non-Fadecandy LED art you can really tell the difference.

However I see you're aiming at doing video, which I don't know if that
is very well supported with fadecandy; would require additional
research.

2. Don't use an ATX power supply, get an appropriate 5V power supply
that's properly sized for the application.  It'll be cheaper, overall,
and easier, and save power.

3. the LED wall panels are somewhat expensive per pixel, last I looked.
It can be cheaper to get the flex-pcb strips and mount them to panels
yourself, then mount diffuser panels appropriately.

-andy