Post by SDL on Feb 17, 2018 8:23:07 GMT -8
Update June 2, 2018 - The BC24 lives!!!! Kickstarter is live at this link:
bit.ly/SDBC24LAUNCH
UPDATED March 9, 2018)- Changes in Bold: We changed to SK6812RGBW lights in order to provide a separate white LED channel and increased the circle to 24 Pixels
Folks,
We are putting together a new Kickstarter project (this will be #12) and are looking for some suggestions for features.8
We are building a series of boards based on the ESP32 and NeoPixels. The ESP32 is a new chip that has two cores, WiFi, Bluetooth and BLE. Also some very interesting peripheral hardware that lets us drive SK6812RGBW strings (NeoPixels) without consuming the CPU. This is the main problem with using these devices. You can connect them together in long strings as they are all controlled by a single serial string connected to a single GPIO line. The problem is that timing requirements to make the serial line work are very tight and will consume the entire CPU if you are bit banging the GPIO line (which you need to do on most processors to get a responsive light string).
Since the ESP8266 and Raspberry Pi are both multi-tasking operating systems, it is tough to meet these timing requirements and do much else. The ESP32 has some special hardware (designed for Infrared systems) that some clever people have repurposed to drive NeoPixel strings (up to four strings at a time!).
Here is what we are planning on doing:
1) A circle of 24 SK6812RGBW lights around the ESP32 Processor. There will be a significant number of Grove Connectors for GPIO, I2C, Analog and UART ports on the BACK of the board, so you can mount it under a panel. We are considering mounting an OLED display on the board too, depending on feedback and cost. You will be able to drive 3 more NeoPixel strings from this board (but you will have to buck up your power supply). This is designed to be a remote display that you can connect wirelessly to our other weather products and SmartPlantPi, as well as serve as the base for other projects.
2) Same board as above but without the processor on board. It would just be a display board driven locally by another computer.
3) Grove connector based NeoPixel strings: We are looking at 1 and 8 based boards. All connected to Grove connectors and can be strung together to make matrices and longer strings. Grove connectors on the back.
4) We will supply Open Source software for the ESP32, ESP8266, Arduino and Raspberry Pi
5) We will modify our main kits (GroveWeatherPi, SmartPlantPi and OurWeather) to support this display.
Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated!
Design is now underway. We plan to finish the design around the beginning of March and Launch the Kickstarter in April. We will get our design prototypes back before we launch the kickstarter. That is the way we work.
Best regards,
John C. Shovic, PhD
CTO
SwitchDoc Labs
bit.ly/SDBC24LAUNCH
UPDATED March 9, 2018)- Changes in Bold: We changed to SK6812RGBW lights in order to provide a separate white LED channel and increased the circle to 24 Pixels
Folks,
We are putting together a new Kickstarter project (this will be #12) and are looking for some suggestions for features.8
We are building a series of boards based on the ESP32 and NeoPixels. The ESP32 is a new chip that has two cores, WiFi, Bluetooth and BLE. Also some very interesting peripheral hardware that lets us drive SK6812RGBW strings (NeoPixels) without consuming the CPU. This is the main problem with using these devices. You can connect them together in long strings as they are all controlled by a single serial string connected to a single GPIO line. The problem is that timing requirements to make the serial line work are very tight and will consume the entire CPU if you are bit banging the GPIO line (which you need to do on most processors to get a responsive light string).
Since the ESP8266 and Raspberry Pi are both multi-tasking operating systems, it is tough to meet these timing requirements and do much else. The ESP32 has some special hardware (designed for Infrared systems) that some clever people have repurposed to drive NeoPixel strings (up to four strings at a time!).
Here is what we are planning on doing:
1) A circle of 24 SK6812RGBW lights around the ESP32 Processor. There will be a significant number of Grove Connectors for GPIO, I2C, Analog and UART ports on the BACK of the board, so you can mount it under a panel. We are considering mounting an OLED display on the board too, depending on feedback and cost. You will be able to drive 3 more NeoPixel strings from this board (but you will have to buck up your power supply). This is designed to be a remote display that you can connect wirelessly to our other weather products and SmartPlantPi, as well as serve as the base for other projects.
2) Same board as above but without the processor on board. It would just be a display board driven locally by another computer.
3) Grove connector based NeoPixel strings: We are looking at 1 and 8 based boards. All connected to Grove connectors and can be strung together to make matrices and longer strings. Grove connectors on the back.
4) We will supply Open Source software for the ESP32, ESP8266, Arduino and Raspberry Pi
5) We will modify our main kits (GroveWeatherPi, SmartPlantPi and OurWeather) to support this display.
Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated!
Design is now underway. We plan to finish the design around the beginning of March and Launch the Kickstarter in April. We will get our design prototypes back before we launch the kickstarter. That is the way we work.
Best regards,
John C. Shovic, PhD
CTO
SwitchDoc Labs
