USB-Stick/LED-Matrix Senior Keepsake & Snake Game

When confronted with my first hackathon, I chose to hack for everlasting friendship!

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Inspiration

"Ohana means family. Family means nobody gets left behind... or forgotten." - Stitch

What it does

  • Commutes everlasting love through a personalized text-based message
  • Entertains one's friends and family with a 5x6 pixel snake-game

How I built it

Step 1: Built a PCB and LED matrix, based off the Max7219 and an Arduino Pro-Mini (AtMega328) as the micro-controller Step 2: Realized the PCB was flawed and waited until the day before HackBU for the fixed board to arrive Step 3: Hand assemble 38 separate electrical components, most of which were surface-mount, at 7 in the morning Step 4: Spent a 24-hour hackathon writing drivers for the board, and repeatedly testing, until the blue lights shined true!

Challenges I ran into

  • The coordinate system ended up having an origin in the top right-hand corner of the display
  • Designing code to only use 6 of the 8 bits in each of the Max7219's registers, lead to unused data
  • Developing letters that are readable in a 3x5 pixel resolution (A-Z, 0-9, etc. converted into 3-Byte sets)
  • Creating a snake-game algorithm that fir the hardware scheme I had designed

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

  • Successfully used a coordinate system with an origin in the top right-hand corner of the display
  • Designed code to only use 6 of the 8 bits in each of the Max7219's registers
  • Developed letters that are readable in a 3x5 pixel resolution
  • Created a snake algorithm that uses the Arduino-based LED-driver hardware, which I designed

What I learned

  • Arduino IDE is still in need of some major improvements and development
  • Hackathons are fun, and a great place to get things done
  • Code can compensate for inefficient design work, but should not be used as an excuse to finish a PCB design project early, or with unqualified results
  • 1_Half_Cup_of_Nutella + 1_slice_of_break == A_good_time

What's next for USB-LED-Matrix Senior Keepsake & Snake Game (Arduino)

  • Build more of them!... possibly adding some code too
  • Improve responsiveness on the snake-game controls
  • Add personalized messages for all of my friends, who will be receiving them before graduation
  • Investigate "crash on button press" (Possible connection issue between board and power source)

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