Project Logs

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• BYOBeamer Event

  Michael Shaub • 05/01/2016 at 21:17 • 0 comments

  I had the opportunity to setup 2 of the projectors at an art event called BYOB(beamer) and join quite a few other artists showing active and interactive projected projects. The projectors I built received a lot of attention, being the only unconventional projectors and installed in an entry point where they were able to utilize a narrow corridor with quite a bit of ambient light.

  See below for some images and video from the event

• Completed Projector Test

  Michael Shaub • 02/26/2016 at 05:00 • 0 comments

  With the addition of a second 12v DC to 5v DC adapter I was able to get enough power to both the LED and the Raspberry Pi.

  Here's a shaky video looking into the projector. The next step is to do some keystone correction on the projected image and then test networking between 2 or more of them

  And another shot through the back of the projector:

• Assembly - Complete

  Michael Shaub • 02/25/2016 at 05:34 • 0 comments

  Here are a couple quick shots of the completed assembly, showing the projector attached to the cymbal stand.

• Assembly - 3 More

  Michael Shaub • 02/25/2016 at 05:22 • 0 comments

  Once the first projector seemed to be working well, I gathered all the parts needed to assemble 3 more projectors. Here are all the components on half of my ping-pong table:

• Assembly - LED Carriage

  Michael Shaub • 02/25/2016 at 05:16 • 0 comments

  With the Flashlight cut down and wired up to a USB cable, the LED carriage could be assembled. Unfortunately, my T-Bolt assembly didn't work that well here. I ended up gluing the nuts into position before assembly so they wouldn't fall out when I loosened things.

• Assembly - Main

  Michael Shaub • 02/25/2016 at 05:12 • 0 comments

  After a lot of laser cutting, I test fit all of the outer case. The T-Bolt construction worked really well, as long as I was able to hold the nut in place.

• Hacking the LEDs

  Michael Shaub • 02/25/2016 at 05:02 • 0 comments

  My test with 50 Watt LEDs purchased from Sure Electronics did not go well at all. Maybe the driver was under-powered or the LED was faulty. I looked for a plan B and found some decent options at the local hardware store. I picked up a 4 Million Candle Power searchlight (not LED), an LED work-light, and a 1200 Lumen LED Flashlight. Since the Flashlight worked really well reflecting off the flip-dot display using the adjustable focus, I decided to run with that.

  The flashlight came with 9 AA batteries, so I assumed the LED had a driver that ran off 12V DC. But, when I took the flashlight apart and hooked my multi-meter up to the battery pack, it read 5V. It must have been using 3 sets of 3 batteries in series, running in parallel.

• Processing on the Pi - Networking

  Michael Shaub • 02/25/2016 at 04:48 • 0 comments

  Date: 2/20/2016

  With the sequences all animated and timers allowing them to run one after another and looping back to the beginning, the last step was to add the networking. When I was testing the programs, even on a single machine, I got a bunch of errors from incomplete messages. I ended up needing to put in catch statements throughout the "Client" sketch to deal with them. I attempted to save the previous successful frame to be used in place of any that had an error.

  Below is the "Client" sketch that works with the Combined 5 sketch. You'll need to adjust the IP address of your Server.

  Read more »

• Processing on the Pi - Assembly

  Michael Shaub • 02/25/2016 at 04:28 • 0 comments

  Date: 2/20/2016

  The next step in Processing was to put the 3 animations together, with timers to run each for a certain amount of time and then automatically advance to the next. When I was assembling the code for the sequences, I also decided that a fourth sequence of a random dot pattern.

  Below is the combined code. This also includes the first attempt to write the pixel display to the networked displays:

  Read more »

• Processing on the Pi – Scrolling Text

  Michael Shaub • 02/25/2016 at 04:18 • 0 comments

  Date: 2/19/2016

  Scrolling text looks great on even the lowest resolution displays. The persistence of vision effect is so strong that the words move by and I never notice the pixels. I remembered some really tiny pixelated typefaces including Silkscreen and thought I could easily get that working in Processing. I got the typeface loaded in Processing just fine, but when I scaled it down to just 5 pixels tall the text was very blurry.

  I wasn't sure how to fix that problem so I decided to just make some high-res images with text, scale them down, and display the images. It's not ideal, doesn't allow for any adjustment or customization, but worked just fine for the moment.

  Below is a video of text scrolling across the flip-dot display:

  Here's a video of the reflection off the display onto the ceiling:

  And, after an image of the text I used, the code for scrolling text:

  Read more »

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