• Registered: 2010-09-27
  • Posts: 4

Topic: Chumby as controller for an LED cube

I am just building an RGB LED Cube an wonder if it is possible to use a Chumby as a controller for it. I need a fast SPI interface and additional 8 Bits of IO, maybe I can this reduce a bit.

Why use a Chumby, not an AVR or so: WLAN!

But the Chumby has not enough free IOs. But maybe it is possible do detach the display (an LED Cube does not need one) and use these pins as IO. But can the kernel boot without LCD or what is to do to free the LCDs pins from the kernel's use.

You may say: use the chumby hacker board. But to my opinion it is to expensive. For the same price as the hacker board plus WLAN stick I get a complete Chumby with Display, housing, ... And the hacker board is not available in Germany.

Another way is to add an AVR to the cube which does all that muxing stuff and a chumby connected via serial port to the AVR to write the images to the cube. But it has to be fast. At 20 fps I need about 380kbps on the serial port. Don't know if that is possible.

What do you think about my ideas?

Greetings from Germany
Bluescreen

2 Reply by dydimos (edited by dydimos 2010-10-12 12:07:06)

  • Registered: 2010-09-04
  • Posts: 5

Re: Chumby as controller for an LED cube

Hello Bluescreen,

mh, if you want to detach the display, then, the hacker board would be better - an extra wlan stick is not so expensive. :-)

If you want to use the ios from the display, you have to recompile the system. You can also use an AVR connected via SPI or USB.

With RGB LED cube, do you mean something like this? http://vimeo.com/10982197

So long,
Dydimos, also from Germany :-)

  • Registered: 2010-09-27
  • Posts: 4

Re: Chumby as controller for an LED cube

An AVR connected to SPI would be good, but Chumby One has no free SPI.

Yes, I mean such thing as in your link, but only one of these cubes. But I use another hardware, currently based on an AVR not a PIC. And I build all the stuff onto one doublesided PCB (LEDs and Controller/Driver). So not such a cable-mess that these Luminade Version. Backdrop of this is the price. About 110 Euro for the empty PCB (24x24cm). If you know a cheaper PCB maker let me know.

  • Registered: 2010-09-04
  • Posts: 5

Re: Chumby as controller for an LED cube

Hallo Bluescreen,

for the empty PCB (doublesided, ROHS) I know one maker which is below 30 Euro. But it needs some time to get them (I think about 4-6 weeks or something like this).

So long,
dydimos