BlinkenLEDsPlusEnglish

project overview
Year	2007
Number of pixels	144
Grayscales / Colors	8 grayscales
Illuminant	5mm standard LEDs
Power input
Contact person	Arne Rossius
Project website

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The BlinkenLEDs Plus is a multiplexed display consisting of 144 standard LEDs (Blinkenlights resolution and aspect ratio) that can play movies from the ATMega16's flash memory or an RS232 MCUF stream, support for playing BLM- and BML-files as well as Blinkström Advanced BS2.BIN files from an SD card (FAT16) is planned.

Das Projekt soll außerdem als MCUF-Blinkenserver dienen, da die von SD-Card gelesenen Dateien gleichzeitig mit der Anzeige auch als MCUF-Stream ausgegeben werden.

The project can also be used as a Blinkenserver as movies read from SD card are output as MCUF stream simultaneously to being displayed.

Hardware

The hardware is built on two stacked veroboards (160x100 mm). The upper board contains only the LED matrix, wired in two planes on the solder side: the rows are connected directly on the board as usual while the columns' wiring stands out a few millimetres from the board. Wires connect it to the lower board which contains everything else (controller, row driver transistors, RS232 port, SD card etc.). I used an edge connector glued flat to the board for an SD card slot.

• Schematic (you can leave out the SD card or the RS232 port if not needed)

Software

The software for the ATMega16 controller is written in assembly language and can be downloaded here. A perl-script that converts BLM files to assembly code (movies stored in the ATMega16's flash) is included.enthalten.

• Software without SD card (first version)
• Software with SD Card, but without BLM support (second version)

There are a few options at the beginning of the assembly code:

Option	Explanation
STREAM_TIMEOUT_VAL	If no valid frame is received via RS232 for this period (in seconds), the BlinkenLEDs Plus continues playing movies from flash. The value '0' means infinity.
USE_SDCARD	Activates SD Card functionality. Disable to save program memory (more space for movies).
BLINKSTROEM_COMPATIBLE	The Blinkström Advanced plays movies slightly too fast. If this option is set, the BlinkenLEDs Plus will play a BS2.BIN file in the root directory at the same speed.
STREAM_INPUT	If set, the BlinkenLEDs Plus accepts a stream via RS232 when no SD card is inserted.
STREAM_OUTPUT	If set, the BlinkenLEDs Plus outputs all displayed frames as a stream via RS232 (regardless of the source of the data, be it movies from flash, from SD card or an incoming RS232 stream).

Contents of the SD Card

The BlinkenLEDs Plus can only read FAT16-formatted cards. SDHC cards can be read if a FAT16 partition is created (partition type 0x04 or 0x06) which can't use the entire space of large cards (max. 4293787648 Byte = nearly 4 GiB). The files on the SD card must be in certain directories and have specific names to be found by the BlinkenLEDs Plus. This means you can use the same SD card with different projects without having to exchange the files on it all the time. The SD Card must be inserted before powering on, if you plug it in when the BlinkenLEDs Plus is already running it will be ignored.

• If a directory "BLPLUS" is found, only files in this directory will be played.
  • In this directory, all files with the endings "BIN" and "BML" will be played in the order they're listed in the directory entry in the FAT. When the files are copied onto an empty card, that will usually be the same order they're copied onto the card in.
• If no "BLPLUS" directory exists, the BlinkenLEDs Plus will look for a "BS2.BIN" file in the root directory (Blinkström mode). This file will be played in an endless loop, just like with the Blinkström.
• If neither the "BLPLUS" directory nor a "BS2.BIN" file are found, an error message will be displayed and no movies will be played.

Photos

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  Chaosknoten

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  8 grayscales