All the LEDs; or, Flora/Gemma and SewIOs
2014-Apr-06, Sunday 02:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chebeIf you follow me on twitter you may have noticed that I have been playing with getting the maximum number of LEDs for the minimum amount of microcontroller that I can. Here's a short summary.
First came the Flora with SewIO16. Straight forward enough. Just required a fair few crocodile leads.
Then I swapped the Flora out for the Gemma. The Gemma needs external pull-up resistors (5-10k) on the Data (D0) and the Clock (D2) lines. Oh, and a special I2C library is required! But otherwise, same code as for the Flora.
But then I swapped the SewIO16 out for SewIO8s. Cue moar crocodile leads!
So far both SewIO8 boards are playing the same light sequence. My next task is figuring out how to get them to act independently. And then, to add SewIO16s into the mix as well, for nearly unlimited LED blinkiness!
Here's a short video clip of this twisted setup in action.
Video of Gemma and two SewIO8 boards doing the blinky
Video by chebe
I have to thank Rob for being very patient in answering all my questions. And also to note that although I'm using the Adafruit wearables, Rob has been using the LilyPad boards (including the Tiny!) with the SewIOs quite successfully. Yay for interoperability! And finally, that they don't have to be regular LEDs, you can connect anything you could normally. I think RGB pixels, and smile.
First came the Flora with SewIO16. Straight forward enough. Just required a fair few crocodile leads.
Flora and SewIO16
Photo by chebe
Then I swapped the Flora out for the Gemma. The Gemma needs external pull-up resistors (5-10k) on the Data (D0) and the Clock (D2) lines. Oh, and a special I2C library is required! But otherwise, same code as for the Flora.
Gemma and SewIO16
Photo by chebe
But then I swapped the SewIO16 out for SewIO8s. Cue moar crocodile leads!
Gemma and two SewIO8s
Photo by chebe
So far both SewIO8 boards are playing the same light sequence. My next task is figuring out how to get them to act independently. And then, to add SewIO16s into the mix as well, for nearly unlimited LED blinkiness!
Here's a short video clip of this twisted setup in action.
Video of Gemma and two SewIO8 boards doing the blinky
Video by chebe
I have to thank Rob for being very patient in answering all my questions. And also to note that although I'm using the Adafruit wearables, Rob has been using the LilyPad boards (including the Tiny!) with the SewIOs quite successfully. Yay for interoperability! And finally, that they don't have to be regular LEDs, you can connect anything you could normally. I think RGB pixels, and smile.
