Pulsar: Smart, Wireless, Wearable LED Pixels

We love being surrounded by awesome people here in Pasadena. A few days ago we stopped by @Deezmaker to brainstorm on a few projects using the Pulsar. Given the built-in RTC, we decided to go for an LED-based Clock using translucent 3d-printed filament.

We figured it'd be a nice feature to have a "Soundless Alarm" feature, so we're developing a simple smartphone app that allows you to synchronize your alarms with this device!

We also had a bit of fun recording segments of our video. In this bit, we had the Pulsar sewn to an undershirt so that it aligned with the Iron Man t-shirt. Not a bad idea for a quick-n-easy halloween costume!

Had a bit of fun on Sunday afternoon working on some product photography and videos that will be included in our documentation for the project.

To give you a sample of what's involved, here's a view of our tabletop setup:

And these are some of the results we get:

Not too shabby :)

Our original plan for the Pulsar was a 2-part board, one carrying the LEDs and another carrying the RFduino and all other electronic components. This would allow us to have more control over the size of each (e.g., we could have a huge ring of LEDs controlled by the same tiny-sized controller board).

Photo credit: MakerBro; prepared for ISS Above HD+ Kickstarter campaign.

After a few use cases, and feedback from potential users we discovered that the one-size fits most approach wasn't out of the question. After considering assembly costs it as a clear choice for us that we wanted one board to rule them all...

I was thinking of doing something related to Fury Road this year for halloween, but now that I've made progress in developing the Pulsar I'm tempted to go as IronMan!

Photo credit: MakerBro