Wi-Fi Controlled Open Scoreboard

Doing some YouTube research on lunch.

Driving LED matrix displays with an FPGA:

I've update the project page a little bit this morning, adding the ICE40 FPGA to the components list, and adding a link to my DigiKey BOM (It's public but I think you have to login to see it.) 

I've also made sure my GitHub was up to date with the latest changes. Current progress on the schematic has two custom footprints complete, one for the WF121, and the other for a QFN package on the voltage regulator (adjusted for hand soldering). 

I'm also considering creating a project Spec document. Just a thought.

This log is to document progress up to this point, as I have just started documenting this project on the Hackaday.io site. At this point, the main controller and Wifi module for the project is going to be the Bluegiga WF121. Apart from being a complete Wifi solution with network stack and on module antenna, it also contains a user programmable PIC32 microcontroller that can be used as the brains of the device. Currently the main focus of the project is to get the main schematic and board design done, which will mostly be copying the reference design for the WF121 and the power supplies it requires. Sorta up in the air at the moment is the display driver section. Most chips I'm finding are meant to drive lower current LEDs directly, whereas I'll be attempting to drive LED strips meant for 12 volts and higher current. I may end up creating my own display controller for the using a low cost FPGA and some MosFETs. I have an eval board for the ICE40 from Lattice to experiment with. 

Other than that, I do already have some LED strip rolls to experiment with, and I can begin building the display portion at any time. I'm thinking of using a plastic panel to glue the LED strips down to, and covering it with a frosted/translucent front panel that would be masked off and painted black, to give sharp edges to the display segments, and hide the internals a bit.