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Recently I have been exploring Physical Computing. I have always preferred learning new subjects by developing self-defined projects that use the topics, skills or components I want to understand. Here is my latest project that is helping me understand digital electronics. This whatchamacallit uses an Arduino NG for the microcontroller and an LED Red/Green/Blue Serial Matrix from Spark Fun for the display. When left on its own the display randomly displays patterns and alphanumeric characters that dissolve by way of some random shenanigans. It also picks colors randomly from a set that I have deemed aesthetically pleasing. My first computer was an Atari 400 (1979). Its system font used an 8 X 8 matrix which just fits the RGB LED matrix. So for old-times-sake I found the font on the internet, and with a little massaging in Photoshop and Actionscript, encoded it in a form I could transfer to the Arduino for use on the LED Matrix display. I am also using a QT113 Touch Sensor from Parallax. This ended up being an easy sensor to incorporate. You connect the QT113 to something metal and when it's touched it responds. In my project, it's hooked up to one of the alligator clips so anything metal put in the clips, when touched, makes the LED Matrix respond. I have the Arduino programmed to respond by analyzing the current colors displayed on the screen, determine which of the two colors displayed is used least, and through a series of animated steps move that color to the top of the display. Kind of like bubbles rising. Update: The original version pictured to the left was getting a little unreliable so I re-did it in a milled acylic case. It's pictured below.
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