ECE497 Project - LED Matrix Graduation Cap

Team members: Devon Adair, Andrew Lund

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

 00 Executive Summary 00 Installation Instructions 00 User Instructions 00 Highlights 00 Theory of Operation 00 Work Breakdown 00 Future Work 00 Conclusions 00 Demo 00 Late Comments: I'm looking forward to seeing this.

Score: 10/100

(Inline Comment)

Executive Summary
The project that we are doing involves an LED Matrix and the Beagle Bone. We are putting this matrix inside of a graduation cap. An example can be seen here: https://imgur.com/gallery/xr0P0.

Here is the final product just not in the graduation cap yet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1br--LgNsak&feature=youtu.be

Packaging
The final packaged product is the LED matrix with everything wired neatly behind the matrix. There is cardboard to make sure that everything stays in place and supports the cap.

The final product looks like this:



This cap is powered off a power bank that supports more than 2.4 Amps.

Installation Instructions
GitHub The project is located on GitHub here: https://github.com/ObbyKing/ece434_linux/tree/master/finalProject

The GitHub has a README on how to install the necessary software for this project.

Hardware Here are the links for the specific hardware we used for this project.

LED Matrix - https://www.adafruit.com/product/1484

WIFI Dongle - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003MTTJOY/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Power Bank - https://www.amazon.com/Portable-Charger-Anker-PowerCore-20100mAh/dp/B00X5RV14Y/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1541185514&sr=1-3&keywords=anker+20100mah+portable+charger+powercore+20100

Pocket Beagle - https://www.amazon.com/BeagleBone-Beagleboard-PocketBeagle/dp/B07663NS35/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1541185560&sr=1-1&keywords=pocketbeagle

USB Type A Female Connector - https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/CUI/UJ2-AH-4-TH?qs=sGAEpiMZZMulM8LPOQ%252byk%252br6FietFiXB9kYqxJAMIhCTiPAQWqJbLA%3d%3d

User Instructions
Graduation Cap Schematic Pocket Scroller Wiring This table maps the Pocket Scroller for the Pocket Beagle to the pins on the the Pocket Beagle to eliminate the need for the scroller and reduce space.

Below is the reference to the Pocket Beagle to map to the pins given above. Pocket Beagle Pinout

Pocket Beagle USB Type-A Wiring

Highlights
Our matrix starts on bootup and runs a test sequence. We have successfully put GIFs on the matrix. We will modify the sequence to make it longer when we put it in the final cap.

Here is the example of the test sequence: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1br--LgNsak&feature=youtu.be

Work Breakdown
List the major tasks in your project and who did what.

Also list here what doesn't work yet and when you think it will be finished and who is finishing it.

We tried to get the twitter API to work with Falcon. However, because of a lack of documentation and an unfamiliarity with PHP, we could not get this done. Instead, we tried to get texting to the LED display to work. However, for the same reasons as the twitter API, we also couldn't get this to work! Therefore, we ended up using a weather API that prints out the current conditions of Indianapolis.

Future Work
Twitter API: Figure out how the twitter plugin works with falcon and get it working. You can then display tweets on the LED matrix.

Twillio: Figure out how to get Twillio configured with falcon. If this ends up working, you can then text a default number and display "Congratulations RANDOM_NAME!".

Accelerometer: Get the Pocketbeagle to work with an accelerometer so that you can have a "sand effect" on your LED Matrix

Conclusions
Overall the project was interesting and fun to work on. It was difficult to get things working due to information being in forums and no documentation.

It was annoying that we couldn't get some of the features we wanted to work. Before graduation we are going to try and get the things we couldn't working.