Interactive String LED Floor Mandala at ...

Dave Hrynkiw
June 1, 2017

Because... of things... Solarbotics didn't do a booth or official presence at this year's Bay Area MakerFaire. We opted to do something fun this time, building a custom just-for-the-fair piece of sorta-interactive LED artwork. Following on the success of the quickie LED floor mandala resting area we did at the NYC MF, we turned it up to 11 for the Bay area, making a WiFi-enabled version of the same thing.

Here's the technical detail on what we did:

The project is based on a modified "Double Rainbow" controller, with the Ardweeny brains replaced by a ESP-12. We set up the three major axis as "always on", with six zones controlled by the controller for animations. We advertised the WiFi SSID point and the URL for people to login to select one of the 6 animations available.

Dan set us up a nice 10' layout cord to speed layout of the major axis:

  

The franken-Double-Rainbow merged with the ESP-12F.

Setup at the Faire grounds, with our co-founder & CFO, Cheryl. The darkroom (Expo hall..2?) has a very hard rubber floor, so installing them directly to the floor would have turned the LEDs to dust with all the foot traffic. It took us 2 hours and some negotiating to find a 12'x20' carpet at a local Home Depot to mount the piece.

Floor Mandala in full operation! We had zero complications with the piece, other than the WiFi point saturating and not allowing us to login ourselves. Nothing a quick reboot didn't fix.

Sunday, and the lights have just come up at the Maker Faire. Cheryl, Alan Yates, and Elizabeth (sales coordinator extraordinaire) and two other tired attendees are getting ready to wrap up.

Peel up the art and signage, and you get ...more art! Remember, this was brand new (end-of-roll) carpet. That's what several thousand dirty feet can do to a carpet over a long weekend.

Interesting thing about going from a static LED display (in NYC) to a dynamic display is people (especially children) were interacting with it as if their footsteps were making things happen. Huh. We didn't expect that. I suppose the most natural interaction with blinky lights is to turn them on and off physically (not via your cell phone). Lesson learned for next time!

MORE POSTS

January 26, 2012
Brutusbot Vids, Dragon PumLantern

Well, we have some good news and some bad news. First, the good. We've been keeping incredibly busy working on bringing in some new products. The bad news... We've been incredibly busy. So busy on new products (and a few big projects), in fact, that we don't really have anything ready to show you (yet). […]

November 25, 2004
Solarbotics Now Accepts PayPal

Just in time for the Holiday season, Solarbotics is now able to accept PayPal payments through our web site. When you view your cart, you will now see the option to either make your purchase the usual method using your MasterCard or Visa, or the new option of proceeding with PayPal. Check the help page […]

May 19, 2017
New ESP Offerings at Solarbotics

ESP8266 ESP-32 CAD 13.50/ USD 9.99 The much anticipated ESP32 is here!! Bluetooth, Wifi, Dual Core, IoT just became doable! ESP-12F AP+STA Remote Serial Port WIFI Controller / Module CAD9.38/USD6.95 You can't turn over an internet-connected rock without finding an ESP8266 of some sort wired to it. This ESP-12F AP+STA is a solid way to […]

May 8, 2010
Moved In and Headin' Out

What a cah-razy week we've had. We're officially all moved in at our new location. There are still mounds of boxes to unpack and things to organize and some renovations to finish, but, all things considered, it went pretty well. If you happen to know where my USB extension cable went, though, I'd love to […]

Solarbotics Ltd Logo
Solarbotics has been operating for more than 25 years, bringing electronics know-how and supplies to both the electronics professional and hobbyist. We'll be happy to help you too!

Solarbotics, Ltd. is not responsible for misprints or errors on product prices or information. For more information, please see our Terms and Conditions.

Warning: This product contains chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm.
Please visit www.P65Warnings.ca.gov for more information. This item was manufactured prior to August 31, 2018.