I was the director and designer for spacewriter so I have an interest in LED image progressions the spacial display editing software although old could be useful to someone?.. have the source code for this sorftware and our old hardware products … SignLine / FanScreen / iBall / spacewriter…my robot insect will eventualy be 3D printed and will provide a color pixel in a 3D sky screen… have developed a tethered drone to suspend and power equipment in the sky like LED curtains Big Love all … keep playing
Awesome! And pleased to meet you.
I have an old serial iBall still sitting on my desk. I play with it from time to time but it’s fairly limited compared to today’s technology.
cool cool… so many things one can make…Im making a light curtain that is mostly see through at night and will be held in the sky with two drones powered and controlled by tethers from the ground could be 3Dish…would also like to make a SpaceWriter edited via Bluetooth and smart phone app… maybe put in a glove… years ago we made a prototype drum-screen with a helix of LED veins to illuminate in 3D space… shame we never completed it big love keep up the fun g
@Jon_Bruno please to meet you too… glad you like the iBall my old Taiwan partner is looking to make them again with some upgrades … Im into robot insect design “miBeez” now, will be firing up my iBalls at Xmass
Hah. I’ve gotta check that out.
Any idea of some hacks/upgrades I could do to my old iBall?
SD, esp8266, arduino… Looking to make it a little more useful but I haven’t opened it up yet.
It would be nice to be able to stream data to it without the sde
yes streaming is the way to go … came to that conclusion 10 years ago when I wished to redesign the product range… would be good to stream via Bluetooth or WiFi or something so eliminating the rotary data coupling and offering direct to media device… best way is to bypass the PIC controller and tap strait on to the display drivers that use SERIAL-IN/CLOCK/LATCH…will dig out iBall schematic and driver info (how can I get these files to you?) The Display drivers are “ST2221C”…there are 16 drivers with 16 serial ins to feed, this is you will need a special long tool to get the sphere off might have a spare will look … would like to see ya do it… would like to convirt my 3 iBalls, always a hastle creating content in SDE and its limmeted “memory” was designed 20 years ago…g
@Jon_Bruno yes streaming is the way to go … came to that conclusion 10 years ago when I wished to redesign the product range… would be good to stream via Bluetooth or WiFi or something so eliminating the rotary data coupling and offering direct to media device… best way is to bypass the PIC controller and tap strait on to the display drivers that use SERIAL-IN/CLOCK/LATCH…will dig out iBall schematic and driver info (how can I get these files to you?) The Display drivers are “ST2221C”…there are 16 drivers with 16 serial ins to feed, this is you will need a special long tool to get the sphere off might have a spare will look … would like to see ya do it… would like to convirt my 3 iBalls, always a hastle creating content in SDE and its limmeted “memory” was designed 20 years ago…g
miBeez: Yeah I always loved the wallscreen… especially when they are ganged up together… but the Fanscreen was probably my absolute favorite. although i could never afford one nor did I know how to get one… Actually Ive had this iBall so long I cant remember where I got it from? I must have bought it from a supplier because I have the original paperwork somewhere… But yes… I would love any info you’re willing to share… I think this thing would be a hoot if it was more useful… as of now it just sits over there with a soft bag over it…you can send anything you have to me at my gmail account “sigmazgfx” …
Interfacing with the ST2221c’s shouldnt be all that much of a chore since they a re just glorified shift registers… But 16 lines… hmm… some thought will need to be put into it. perhaps a couple of 74HC595’s ??
Hmm… looking at the unit I see the drivers are mounted on the LED Blade…I also gather that the pic is is fed data from down in the base up the column shaft to the rotating blade mount… I do see the TX and RX lines as well as tach. I wonder if an ESP8266 could be mounted up there on the platter to feed the PIC? Of course I don’t have any Understanding of the firmware in the pic at this time… so I’m just speaking my observations out loud.
I am very fond of the work you’ve done
just seen ya txt , yes use 16 shift regiter to break out the serial if the data streem is fast enough… the Pic was not fast enough at the time so used 16 bit data bus…the large solder conections from the PIC pcb and the LED pcb are a good place to interface to
I have a handful of assorted PCBs here… so could develop it on a static board first… let me know address I could send something across if you think this would be a good first step
g
I really do think it would be a great project to revise with the new technology.
You’ve already done 99% of the legwork with the original design. We really just need to find a way to update the way it’s done. That’s all
Guy, I haven’t given up on this… I have the boards you sent on my bench and I WILL find the time to work on this… IWILL! ( I’ll keep telling myself that)
best way is to bypass the PIC controller and tap strait on to the display drivers that use SERIAL-IN/CLOCK/LATCH…will dig out iBall schematic and driver info (how can I get these files to you?) The Display drivers are “ST2221C”…there are 16 drivers with 16 serial ins to feed, this is you will need a special long tool to get the sphere off might have a spare will look … would like to see ya do it… would like to convirt my 3 iBalls, always a hastle creating content in SDE and its limmeted “memory” was designed 20 years ago…g