Alfa Romeo RGB Grill LEDs with Bluetooth
The Look
I wanted to make my new Alfa stand out from the couple others I’ve seen round rarely. As if the front end of the Giulia isn’t beautiful enough. It seemed like it was a necessary and obvious mod.
The Guts & Brains
I made this 49 LED strip out of SK6812 addressable RGB LED strips. Similar to the common WS2812b strips but brighter and with a true white. Check them out here on amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07FVRR4KL/. I also used an Arduino Nano clone that has its own USB to serial chip built-in. Another new key component is the HC-05 serial Bluetooth module. It’s an older V2.0+EDR version of Bluetooth but it has great range. The only downside is that iOS/Apple devices don’t support 3rd party Bluetooth unless it’s made for iPhone/iPad or its the newer Bluetooth 3.0/4.0+LE
The Interface
I wanted to create a menu system and be able to hit buttons to ascii characters to change the light show modes. So far I have the default/power on mode of pure white. Then by Bluetooth you can choose “Demo” to change to an animated demo reel that comes with the LED library FastLED on the Arduino. Then I have added a Knight Rider mode. Even a special Alfa Knight Rider mode that doubles up the “V” in the grill. And finally, I have a “Fire” mode that looks like flames.
There is a menu display when you first connect with a Bluetooth terminal app on Android. I use, “Bluetooth Terminal HC-05”. It lets you assign rows of buttons to macros of strings of text to send to the device. It also allows to to see the available options in the device and you can enter, “H” to see the menu at any time.
The Code
The code is still in progress, feel free to check it out on GitHub. I hope to be updating and completing code so I can add this to my car permanently.
The Bugs & Improvements
I hope to add a few more modes and brightness control very soon. Currently the only bug in the system is the Bluetooth communication is talking to the Arduino over software serial. There are a lot of timer interupts between the FastLED library to control the lights that sometimes (30% of the time) the Bluetooth message to change a mode is missed and a different ascii character comes through. This means you have to enter the command or hit the button a couple, few times. This is easily fixed by changing over to the hardware serial UART. I have not yet done this but feel free to make a pull request for an alternative sketch.
I also have plans to design and print a circuit board to easily house the Arduino, Bluetooth module, connectors for lights and power. I have already 3D printed a couple cases to protect the guts on the road.
Magic Time-Lapse Video of Mask
Yesterday I started this print last night and it took about 15 hours to complete. It was very large and I experimented with a different pattern for the top and bottom infill, the. It also has a 5% infill on the base with a 3D honeycomb design for strength while saving plastic and print time.
File: FinalMask5.gcode
Filament (Tool 0): 48.91m / 117.65cm³
Approx. Total Print Time: 15 hours
Filament (Tool 0): 48.91m / 117.65cm³
Approx. Total Print Time: 15 hours
Print Time: 14:58:55
My Make on Thingiverse: https://www.thingiverse.com/make:487301
Please watch the video below. It turned out great. LIKE & SUBSCRIBE
Googles Cool New Song Maker web app
Googles cool new Song Maker web app. Check out what I made.
3D Printing Star Wars Characters
Lately with the new Star Wars trailer coming out I thought it would be a great idea to 3D print some Star Wars items. I started with a couple Yoda heads and tried to print them as large as possible while saving plastic. I printed one with only 3 layers thick and no bottom or infill layers. Then the larger with 4 layers thick on the vertical walls setting in Slic3r. Much better but not perfect. It’s hard to print in mid-air in some spots.
I plan to put LEDs in side them with an Arduino and a mic module to make them light up to music. I can even add a seven channel equalizer to add to the quality of the light effects.
Leap Motion Menu Web Interface
Flying FPV with a Boom Cam on a Servo
I whipped this up in an hour or two. It lets me fly FPV (first persion vision) while recording what I’m seeing live in the goggles. I added the boom camera which forced me to move the battery way back to balance it. I added the servo to look around what the HD Mobius 1080p camera that was recording video and audio. Was thinking to add a video switcher on my next newer 600mw 5.8Ghz video transmitter and 800 line camera to switch to the mobius HD camera mid-flight.
Enjoy the video,
Joe
RC Plane Stunt Flying
Flying at Jefferson St and Larkin Ave in Joliet
Went out with my beautiful girlfriend, Maritza today and took a short flight with my Bixler 1.1 from Hobbyking. Also flying with my Mobius action camera that I feel is way better for the size, weight, form factor and price over the GoPro camera line. Anyway without further adieu, here are my back to back flights on the same 11.1V 3S Lipo battery.