DIY LED Matrix Pong Clock

This neat LED clock mimics the display of the Pong video game to show the time as two paddles play back and forth. The game plays on automatically and updates the time by scoring a point.  It also has a built in menu to change the clock mode and set the time.The project is built on 2 green LED matrix...
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Controlling Ten Thousand RGB LEDs

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RGB LEDs are awesome – especially the new, fancy ones with the WS2812 RGB LED driver. These LEDs can be individually controlled to display red, green, and blue, but interfacing them with a microcontroller or computer presents a problem: microcontrollers generally don’t have a whole lot of RAM to store an...
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POV Display with an Element of Danger

Persistence of vision displays are always cool, although we must admit this one looks like it could very well explode at high speeds… Safety concerns aside, this desk fan based display provides a great starting point for learning about making POV displays. It makes use of an old cellphone battery, an ATmega8,...
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LED Matrix Mask Will Scare Up Holiday Cheer

[Davide] sent us this fun LED matrix mask he built using an ATMega8 and 74LS595N shift registers. Each of the eyes is an 8×8 LED matrix, and the mouth is made from two 8x8s. [Davide] used a ULN2803A Darlington transistor array to drive the matrices.When the user steps behind the mask, an IR sensor detects...
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Fubarino Contest: A Sculpted Room With LEDs

[Sisam] and [Mclien] are a father and son team that built this sculptural room with an organic looking built-in seating area and sculpted lamp shades. When you have a room that looks this cool, the only option you have is to fill it with RGB LEDs, and it just so happens their light controller has...
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Snowden Immortalized as Bond Villain in Edge-Lit Acrylic Poster

[Wilywyrm] needed to come up with a final project for art class that commented on a social issue. Healthcare, schmealthcare, he said, and busted out this movie poster about the NSA spying scandal instead. The circuit uses three extended-duty astable 555 timers to control the brightness of the 5050...
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Reverse Engineering a Candle Flicker LED

Candle flicker LEDs are a one part replacement for a real candle. They contain both a yellow LED and a control chip that modulates the light to create a candle effect. [Cpldcpu] took a deep look into reverse engineering one of these LEDs.To analyze the circuit, which is potted into the LED itself, a shunt ...
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Full LED Snowboarding Suit

Nighttime in the French Alps means the mountains are pitch black and the temperature is a frosty -13°F.  The perfect time of day to go snowboarding, right?  One filmmaker thought so, and created the suit above featuring thousands of white LEDs.  As long as the snowboarder doesn’t fall, I’m sure...
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Controlling High Voltage 7-Segment Displays

The MAX7219 is one of those parts in your bin that has a “done and done” attitude. In case you’re unfamiliar, this chip can be used to control 7-Segment displays, 8×8 Matrix displays, or even a pile of random LEDs. You talk to it via a simple serial interface and it handles the tasks you don’t want to fuss...
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