Input/Output: Interactive Object Final

For this project, Alice and I decided to work together. Our workload ended up being split up something like this: I soldered all of the LED's and worked on all of the coding while Alice did all of the drawing, worked on the frame, and stripped most of the wires linking the LED's together. Overall, I tended to work on the more technical side of things while Alice handled the creative side of the project.

Circuit diagram:

When wiring up our circuit, we had to bring in an external power source to make sure I wouldn't fry the Arduino and to make sure I have enough power going to the LED strip.

Arduino Code: (This is when it was initially tested, so the values for the microphone are subject to change)

// LED VARIABLES ======================================================= #include <Adafruit_NeoPixel.h> #ifdef __AVR__ #include <avr/power.h> #endif #define PIN 9 #define NUMPIXELS 113 Adafruit_NeoPixel pixels = Adafruit_NeoPixel(NUMPIXELS, PIN, NEO_GRB + NEO_KHZ800); // Bridge Variables int brightness = 20; int fadeAmount = 5; // Star Variable Arrays float ranBright[23]; float follower[23]; int timer[23]; float maxTime[23]; // Mic Variables ============================================================ int mic = A0; int micMapped; float delta; //range converted to 0-1023 rather than jumping above and below baseline) float smoothed; // more "averaged" value void setup() { pixels.begin(); // This initializes the NeoPixel library. pixels.show(); // start with all pixels off pinMode(9, OUTPUT); //LED strip pinMode(mic,INPUT); Serial.begin(9600); } void loop() { //bridge (leds 0 - 13) ======================================================= for (int a = 0; a < 13; a++){ pixels.setPixelColor(a, pixels.Color(brightness, 0, 0)); } pixels.show(); brightness = brightness + fadeAmount;// Q? if (brightness <= 20 || brightness >= 255) { fadeAmount = -fadeAmount; } //buildings ==================================================================== int micValue = (analogRead(mic)); micMapped = map(micValue,0,200,13,90); //make the second value lower to make it more sensitive float ease = 0.25; //also can change this to affect the thing smoothed += (micValue - smoothed) * ease; Serial.print("mic value = "); Serial.println(smoothed); //Serial.println(micMapped); //used for testing purposes for (int b = 13; b < 90; b++){ if(b<=smoothed){ //to make a gradient: float red = map(b,13,90,0,255); float blue = map(b,13,90,220,0); pixels.setPixelColor(b, pixels.Color(red,0,blue)); } else{ pixels.setPixelColor(b, pixels.Color(0,0,0)); //without this, it kept climbing without going back down } } pixels.show(); //shows the pixels after the previous coding // stars ======================================================================= //randomly generating star brightness for each LED in array for(int i = 0; i < 23; i++){ timer[i]++; //generate next brightness value if(timer[i] > maxTime[i]){ ranBright[i] = random(0,200); //this is seen as brightness timer[i] = 0; //this is speed maxTime[i] = random(25,80); } //ease to next brightness value follower[i] += (ranBright[i] - follower[i]) * .1; } //individual star brightness for(int c = 0; c<23; c++){ pixels.setPixelColor(c+90, pixels.Color(follower[c],follower[c],follower[c])); } pixels.show(); }

Some challenges I ran into on my end involved largely memory issues and inefficiency in the coding. I found that initially, as I was working I could only program the stars part (the white flicker LED's) up to the 96th one instead of up to 113. This was because I made arrays going all the way up to 96 (as any further would not upload, despite the Arduino telling me I had additional memory), when I really just needed to make the arrays go to 23 (this is how many LEDs there were) and just add 90 later in the for statement, which you can see here:

for(int c = 0; c<23; c++){

    pixels.setPixelColor(c+90, pixels.Color(follower[c],follower[c],follower[c])); }

What I initially did was set c = 90; c > 114; c++, which ended up using up a large portion of global variables/dynamic memory and leaving little to no room for local variables, hence it wouldn't turn on.

The only other really notable thing from this project was that it was very time consuming. As in, I spent every single day of my reading week in the electronics lab either trying to fix the coding or else I was spending hours soldering the LED's together. I worry that the level of care I put into mapping out the LED's to the paper is not going to show through, but there is not much I can do about that considering it is going to be hidden anyways

Video showcasing Interaction with working concept: