94 lines
3.8 KiB
Markdown
94 lines
3.8 KiB
Markdown
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# Fadecandy Workshop
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This is going to be a small guide for using the [NeoPixels](https://www.adafruit.com/category/168) together with the [Fadecandy](https://github.com/scanlime/fadecandy) controller. We are going to use a single 8x8 NeoPixel board and a single Fadecandy controller.
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## Components
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We are going to use very few components:
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- 1x Adafruit NeoPixel 8x8
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- 1x Fadecandy
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- 4x Jumper cables (male to male)
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- Header pins
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- Breadboard
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- Mini USB cable
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- Power Supply
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## Soldering
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This is a one time thing and I just did it to make the NeoPixels easier to use later on.
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Take the header pins and put them so you have two sets of 3 pins and two sets of 2 pins.
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First take the two sets of 3 pins and solder them on the back of the NeoPixel matrix so we can plug the matrix into the breadboard.
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Next solder the two sets of 2 pins on the GPIO pin 0 and 7 on the Fadecandy. We are actually just going to use one of the ports (GPIO pin 0) but if we have header pins on both 0 and 7, it will be better fastened to the breadboard.
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## Wiring
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The wiring is very simple. We have 4 jumper cables:
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- 2 groung
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- 1 power
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- 1 input
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(source: https://github.com/scanlime/fadecandy)
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We connect the top port (blue) on the GPIO port 0 to the DIN (input) pin on the NeoPixel matrix. The bottom port (black) to the ground pin on the NeoPixel and that's all for connecting the NeoPixels to the Fadecandy.
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We are now going to need some power. There are two options, if we are just running a single board we can use USB power. So for this we need a USB cable with header pins in one end (as seen on the picture below).
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Attach the cable to the board and attach a black jumper cable from ground on the USB cable to ground on the NeoPixels, and a red jumper cable from the power on the USB cable to the 5v input on the NeoPixels.
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## Code
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Download the Fadecandy software from their GitHub site [link](https://github.com/scanlime/fadecandy) and extract it somewhere on your computer.
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Open the terminal (OS X/Linux) or command line (Windows) and go to your downloaded folder.
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cd ~/Downloads/fadecandy-master
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Inside that folder we need to go to the bin folder.
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cd bin
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Now we can run the fadecandy server depending on our platform. I'm using OS X.
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open fcserver-osx
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Connect the fadecandy to the computer using the mini USB cable and it should now be registered.
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Open up the folder called `examples/processing/grid8x8\_dot` and open the processing sketch `grid8x8\_dot.pde` with Processing. Run it and the fadecandy should have a green light on and Processing should look like this
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Connect the USB power to your computer and you should now be able to move your mouse around in the Processing sketch and change the light on the NeoPixel matrix.
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If you don't have a USB cable with header pins on you can use a regular 5V ~2A power supply. Connect the ground and 5V pin from the NeoPixel matrix to the power supply and run the Processing sketch for the same result.
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