The Atmega Hearth

If you noticed it is only 20 or 21 (for the people on the other side of the World) days left until Christmas :-)

So its time to get or prepare the gifts ;-)

For my mother i will prepare a glowie orchid. The plan is to submerge the sealed AtmegaHearth in the flower pot and illuminate a glass "thing" (i even don't know the german word) which stays next to the orchid.

On the Pro side:

• my mother likes plants
• my mother likes orchids
• my mother likes those glass things

On the Con side:

• It needs Power
• Its a bit complicated to add the pcb to the flower pot

First i "casted" the PCB in Hotglue. Only the LED got a Window made by a part of a MonCherie box.

I tested it in water... it worked:

After this nice success i also tried a bit of toner transfer - worked also okay but the standard paper was a bit difficult to remove... should try some other paper types. It was pretty easy. Just print the "artwork" mirrored on a paper and put it on the hotglue as long as it is still hot.

In person it looks a lot better. It's a bit kitschy but its not visible by default :) Here is another close up.

I hope you enjoyed this post also.

I just found a Mini Kit Falcon on Amazon ... https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B000KSJOSG/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I had to enlarge my Order for free shipping ... so i added it to my Basket.

Steps:

1. Build a AtmegaHearth, which works. I had a bit of issue with this this time --> The Crystal is needed to flash the µC. But at least i have now 3 more assembled boards...
2. Solder some Magnetwire to some SMD LEDs.
3. Add some Resistors to the AtmegaHearth (Thombstonestyle).
4. Check if all LEDs are working (Worked suprisingly well)
5. Programm the µC with a small Programm which lights the LEDs and lets the Engine LEDs flicker a bit (Kinda SW PMW)
6. Match and Glue the LEDs into the Falcon.

I think it looks nice. What do you think?

... could have done be better.

... the Base it a bit poor.

... the µC is a bit oversized for such a simple Task but it is still extendible

... the Falcons "Metall pieces" are a bit too translucend for the light

I just tried to attach the TLC59116 [https://hackaday.io/page/818-hmmm-what-about-an-i2c-port-led-driver-ic] to the Atmega Hearth. Unfortunately it is not working.

Not sure why. Perhapps i have to try it again with external 16MHz crystal.

Do you have Ideas why it couldn't be working?

The same sketch works at a Atmega328p...

I just done my Christmas Decorations ;-)

Atmega Hearth LED Christmastree and LED Advent wreath :)

Just thought about a small seasonal project...

Please enjoy (17s, tell me if you need more ;-P):

The code is here, if you want to sparkle some simple connected LEDs by SW PWM ;-)

https://gist.github.com/Stefan-Xp/f1159327086bc0448415

I'm always happy about comments ;)

Have you seen some of the interactive LED tables? How awesome are they!?

The IR and IR Diode part is still strange to me :D

In fact i have no clue whit it is working... Last time it worked it had Analog Values between 0 and 60 (active) with Internal Reference (2.56V). Is it enough to work with? Do you have a better schematic proposition?

Too sad i did't take my time to figure out the progmem feature of the Atmega.

My newer Idea is to use the EEPROM to store the animation Data. It would have at least a few pros ;-)

+ 256kB for 1€ or less

+ You could load the current data directly from eeprom

+ you always can upgrade to 512kB or 1024kB... if its still not enough you can add more EEPROMs :-) (My largest Animation took 567 Byte)

Cons:

- One Part more on the BOM

- You need a PC tool to write the EEPROM (USB connection o.s.)

What do you think?

Hmm... I have no clue why this code

https://gist.github.com/Stefan-Xp/e0cd595200d31ee6518c

doesn't work :-(

If i assign a fixed mode, every mode works ...

Perhapps I have to sleep over it. 

So after a short revision of the existing code i added two new functions just for fun.

You can find them here:

https://gist.github.com/Stefan-Xp/e0cd595200d31ee6518c (Forked from DaveDarko)

I would love to get some feedback ;)

Next: Create some nice animations :D With a 3x3x3 Cube how many different "frames" could be created before repeating? ;)

Inspired by Daves comment below i started a 3x3x3 smd LED (0603 *holy crap*) cube.

I created the circuit according to this website:

http://www.ledstyles.de/index.php/Thread/5912-Cube-3x3x3-leicht-gemacht-mit-Fotos-und-Schaltpl%C3%A4nen/

The Software was taken from this page (Many Thanks to DaveDarko):

https://gist.github.com/davedarko/62b2d3f6584ba7f11fdf

I didn't check out the SW until now, but it works realy nice :-) I like it!

But at first i found some distraction by soldering the LED Cube ... about 3h. 

Please take a look at my video. I will add a better one soon.

Remarks: At the moment the cube is driven by the Arduino uno board ... i forgot my trusty AVRISP MKII at an other place :-/

Result: I'm not the best person to solder LED-Cubes... I think without further preparation 3x3x3 is my limit :-/