Spinning LED POV Display Sphere

Description

Fairly standard LED POV display using 24 blue LEDS and a PIC18 microcontroller.

If i was to build a newer version of this i would definitely use surface mount LEDS, shift registers, and make the whole things generally more sturdy, but for a first attempt it works (quite well until the zero position sensor moves...)

All the images are held in bit field arrays, so it can hold quite a few pages of animation/images before the memory is full.

Project Logs

Collapse

Not really an update....
sad_ken • 03/24/2015 at 15:49 • 0 comments

With more people starting to follow this project, i guess it's time to start improving and rebuilding parts ;)
I think this unit has reached it's bodge limit, so i will probably need to go with a whole new version. This time i'll use a plastic support (less chance of severing a finger while it's running), powering the display without having to spin the battery, and either getting the images to the display by sd card, or some kind of serial data link. If i feel brave enough to do the extra fiddly soldering i might even use surface mount parts to minimise the visible circuitry.

View project log

Discussions

tomi.makinen wrote 05/21/2018 at 18:41

How did you do the wiring to the spinning part? Your PIC and power source is outside the sphere, right?

Are you sure? yes | no

John wrote 04/08/2015 at 22:19

This is really cool. Do you think you could try turning it into a Kerbal Space Program NavBall? I'm sure the KSP community would go nuts for it, being so much cheaper than mechanical alternatives.

Are you sure? yes | no

sad_ken wrote 04/09/2015 at 07:04

Interesting idea, if I can get a reliable signal to the spinning globe I don't see any reason why not. Hopefully V2 will be a bit more compact, maybe with a smaller, lighter ring so it's not so dangerous ;)

Are you sure? yes | no

John wrote 04/09/2015 at 07:23

I found this today -- you might like it:

Apparently there are such thing as 'spherical displays' that use fancy lenses and projectors and a sphere is of diffusing glass. I think this might be a little more feasable though...

Looking forward to mark 2!

Are you sure? yes | no

johnowhitaker wrote 06/19/2014 at 05:09

Just 'cause it'ss been done before doesn't make it bad! I mean come on, it's spinning blue LEDs for goodness sake! :P

Are you sure? yes | no

sad_ken wrote 06/19/2014 at 07:19

I have to say it was a fun build ;)

Are you sure? yes | no

Spinning LED POV Display Sphere

Become a Hackaday.io member

Just one more thing

Description

Project Logs Collapse

Not really an update....

Enjoy this project?

Discussions

Become a Hackaday.io Member

Does this project spark your interest?

Report project as inappropriate

Send message

Remove Member

Project Logs

Collapse