star: A C++ repository from counterbeing

Swarming LEDs for LED Fun

This project can be be applied to many projects. Our prototype has been in scarves. These can also go in all sorts of other places:

Wearables such as scarves and hats.
Bike safety helmet.
Bike lights.

Why these? What's the swarm?

The thing that makes this project unique is the swarm. We're working to establish a way for multiple projects to communicate so that you can sync up animations with friends or even strangers.

Cheap simple hardware that can be put together in a robust and ad-hoc way to keep you safe for nights of partying, or bicycling. Keep your friends all in a group with a synchronized mobile light show.

Materials / Shopping List

These are some of the materials we've used to build our own. You can pretty much bank on them workin for your project.

portable battery packs, not a bad idea to have two. These are small enough to fit inside of a fuzzy scarf, and they don't turn off on you. You can get a few hours out of one of these... Depends on the animation you run.
fabric
arduino nanos
led strips
usb cables
rotary encoder
wire

Contributing

Getting Involved

If you'd like to submit a bug, go ahead and use the issue tracker.

If you'd like to make submit a feature or a fix.

Open an issue to get buy in.
Fork the repo.
Make your changes.
Submit a pull request.

Troubleshooting

Things you might be missing.

edit using VSCode with PlatformIO plugin
OpenOCD some USB stuff brew install openocd (or else dyld: Library not loaded: /usr/local/opt/libftdi/lib/libftdi1.2.dylib)

Install and Upload

ESP32

First make sure you can upload a basic sketch.

Download these drivers if you have not: [Espressif USB Drivers](https://www.silabs.com/products/development-tools/software/usb-to-uart-bridge-vcp-drivers]
Use the arduino IDE and add the repo https://raw.githubusercontent.com/espressif/arduino-esp32/gh-pages/package_esp32_index.json in the preferences for installing boards.
Install esptool brew install esptool
In the boards manager install the latest espressif boards.
Select the ESP32 Dev Kit as your target board.
Change upload rate to 921600
Your port should reference UART /dev/cu.SLAB_USBtoUART
Run the following example Blink.

int LED_BUILTIN = 2;
void setup() {
  pinMode(LED_BUILTIN, OUTPUT);
}

void loop() {
  digitalWrite(LED_BUILTIN, HIGH);
  delay(1000);
  digitalWrite(LED_BUILTIN, LOW);
  delay(1000);
}

If you have a flashing blue LED you're in business.

Notes

Ifdef might be able to tap into env vars to contitionally include.

counterbeing/star