Programmable color LED array from Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories
Our evil pals over at Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories have a neat demo video of their Peggy 2 Light Emitting Pegboard kit that they've populated with red, green, blue, and white LEDs.
One thing worth noting (and that we demo in the video) is that you can diffuse the big RGBW pixels into one continuous full-color display by placing a thin diffusing plastic layer above the LEDs-- it really works well.
(The Peggy 2 just so happens to be the cover star of MAKE Vol. 18.)
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Perfect for the demoscene.
This is brilliant and I'm going to have to get one for my little nerdling. Maybe we can cause a scare through town by making people think there's alien zombie bombs.
how much does that cost to make? that's a lot of LEDs
Make them large enough to be held overhead in a sports arena and the whole thing sort of comes full circle...
http://www.digitalartform.com/archives/2004/12/history_of_phot.html
That would make the coolest coffee table ever.
...I was wondering how long it was going to take these guys to make Peggy programmable. What's next is to make them work with tri-color LEDs, and then you'll have...damn, a low-rez TV that's cool as hell :-P
They've had this for a long time. It's called a Lite-Brite. All these people have done is switched to LEDs, which is not really anything extraordinary.
Reminds me a little of this complicated readout using virtual wires, lights and logic gates
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0ZhSjwMfpw
using this great Flash simulation
http://joshblog.net/projects/logic-gate-simulator/
I resent that I probably can't come close to building something this cool. There are some really terrific large psychedelic LED creations at Burning Man and they get more amazing each year. What's the learning curve for this sort of stuff?
since way back once I discovered giant billboards were planning on using led technology for their displays, I had contemplated doing this!!
I never thought it was economicly feasable compared to just buying a giant tv.. plus I cant program a green board to save my life *sigh*.
cant wait to give this a look over.
Attention city of Boston: this is not a bomb.
My first thought was that these would make great ceiling tiles for my unfortunately windowless office. With a drop ceiling diffuser I'd be able to program all sorts of cool time-of-day effects.
however
At essentially $100 per square foot it's a tad pricey even for my little office for that application.
The same technology can be seen in the video link here as a permanent installation in a subway tunnel in Singapore.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3AA9aq8itU
@#7: It's significantly more than just a LED lite brite, Alpha, since you can send a nice chunk of code - which addresses individual LED locations - to the Peggy. All kinds of possibilities there.
I put together an all-white version that I picked up from the creator at last year's Maker Faire. Quite a bit of soldering for the LEDs, but well worth the effort. As an example of the cool hacking possibilities: http://planetclegg.com/projects/QC-Peggy.html
Exactly the kind of effect Philips uses at the back of its amibilight TVs, which really creates a spacy feel.
I can imagine hanging a few peggies on my walls as art. It would be great to control all of them by wifi or bluetooth.
@ #9 Anonymous: What's the learning curve for this sort of stuff?
I've been playing with LEDs since I was a little kid. Very, very simple DC circuitry is all that's required.
As for controlling them in complex ways, I'd look for kits that use a "Basic Stamp" controller or something similar. Very user friendly, very easy to program.
If you're a complete newbie RE programming, I'd say the learning curve is 2 to 4 days. A couple of weekends, and you'll be up and running! Look for a project in MAKE: magazine and give it a shot.
@Anonymous #13
That installation was the first thing I thought of when I saw this post!
@#11, I live in Boston. You think you're being funny. You're not. You are really acknowledging a sad fact of life here.
http://www.boingboing.net/2007/02/28/boston-police-blow-u.html
My own Peggy art project. Because I live in Boston, and was enthralled by the TV coverage and scanner traffic that day!
01/31/07: Never Forget!
I've always liked artist Jim Campbell's stuff. He's been working with LEDs for quite a while. I fist saw his stuff in 2001 at the Whitney in a show called "BitStreams."
http://www.jimcampbell.tv/
Although it's pretty neat, things like this have been available on the commercial market for some time now.
Actually, I'd call Element Labs' product line a gazillion times cooler.
Anyone have a recommendation on where to get the diffusing plastic?
"I live in Boston. You think you're being funny. You're not. You are really acknowledging a sad fact of life here."
...I live in Texas, so I take offense to people making fun of Boston and it's Keystone Kops.
[/sarcasm]
1 out of 3 that come,s of the conveyor belt has to be sent back so as to improve upon a world view