ECE434 Project-Infinity Mirror

Embedded Linux Class by Mark A. Yoder

Team members: Tyler Thenell, Aidan Moss

Grading Template

I'm using the following template to grade. Each slot is 10 points. 0 = Missing, 5=OK, 10=Wow!

09 Executive Summary
09 Packaging
09 Installation Instructions 
09 User Instructions
09 Highlights
09 Theory of Operation
09 Work Breakdown
09 Future Work/Conclusions
09 Hackster.io
09 Demo/Poster
00 Not Late

Score:  90/100

Executive Summary

Using the Beagle Bone we are bouncing and changing the brightness and color of a LED strip that is also attached to the Bone. We are then encasing this system in a physical system of mirrors to create a optical illusion that makes it appear the moving lights go on forever. We are very early on in this project still, as we are still gathering the physical parts needed to construct it. We have found a dedicated library for the LED strips as well.

Packaging

8 sections of plexiglass, 5m strip of LEDS, adhesive

Installation Instructions

Clone repo located here: -> https://github.com/mossac/InfMirror <-

This repo contains all the code needed to run the SK6812 LED strands to begin running the PRU driver simply:

-cd down into InfMirror/LEDStatic/ -run $source setup.sh -run $make

The kernel driver should be active, to test you can run commands in ExampleCommand.sh which will turn the first LED in your strip white if it is running correctly if not follow the commands in section 1.16 of the link below as you may not have the rpmsg.pru driver installed that the kernel driver requires:

https://markayoder.github.io/PRUCookbook/05blocks/blocks.html

User Instructions

Simply run "python3 main.py" in the directory you downloaded to run the program.

Theory of Operation

The software for this project uses a kernel driver that is coded in C to talk directly with the PRU that then relays info to the SK6812 LED strip that uses RGBW LEDs. Using this driver there is then python programs that can be written to communicate with driver. This is super nice because it allows the software and coding of new light shows to be easy using a high level language but also we maintain a lot of the advantages of using something that's low level like C.

Work Breakdown

Tyler:

Hardware assembly - Nov 12th
Circuit analysis on the system - TBD

Aidan:

LED library integration - Nov 5th

Future Work

Add a microphone input to the system to change the leds based off music played around it.

Conclusions

Fun project that we will be using later on as a cool decoration item to use in our rooms. Has its own unique challenges but its also very expandable as you could add control from your phone, or a microphone input or sever different types of light shows.

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Embedded Linux Class by Mark A. Yoder