LED Map Lights
Me and my better half bought ourselves a
map of north America....a BIG map of North america.
6 feet by 7 feet!
We mounted it to the wall and put pins in it to mark our previous trips, but the pins were underwhelming, can you see them?
*DM hangs his head in sadness.*
Leading us to consider updating the 'old school' cartography with a 21st century twist .
Very, very carefully we removed the whole thing from the wall and remounted it on a hinge for DM R&D. The wife didn't have a lot of faith in her original build. It was designed to sit on the wall, not move again for years. We do tend to overdesign... piano hinge and supports to the rescue.
There are the pins! Very viewable from this angle.
Lately I have been playing with micro controllers and I came up with the idea of using addressable LEDs to mark locations.
Controlled by a computer, any led can be lit up with any colour at any time. Just takes a little more solder, wire and c++ code. So this is what happend...
Led test mockup.
Ok, so now all we need is some lights! lots of lights. I ordered 100, then more, and more... good thing someone stays up late making them
Six connections per LED. So here I am soldering connection nunber 867 of 1200. (I soooo need a beer!!)
Nothing like soldering with a
fence post! 
Now the hard part...
Drilling the first hole in our fantastic map. I really hope this works!
Eureka!
No wait, thats further down on the map in California. We were there too!
Off to my 3D printer to make an asthetically pleasing box for the controller.
My loving wife said "BLACK!!!??! Why Black?! Not if your going to mount it in the ocean! I want a nice ocean Blue!" Good thing Ebay has lots of choices.
So back to my 3D printer.... It's sure paid for itself, just keeping the wife happy.
Home
6 feet by 7 feet!
We mounted it to the wall and put pins in it to mark our previous trips, but the pins were underwhelming, can you see them?
*DM hangs his head in sadness.*Leading us to consider updating the 'old school' cartography with a 21st century twist .
Very, very carefully we removed the whole thing from the wall and remounted it on a hinge for DM R&D. The wife didn't have a lot of faith in her original build. It was designed to sit on the wall, not move again for years. We do tend to overdesign... piano hinge and supports to the rescue.
There are the pins! Very viewable from this angle.
Lately I have been playing with micro controllers and I came up with the idea of using addressable LEDs to mark locations.
Controlled by a computer, any led can be lit up with any colour at any time. Just takes a little more solder, wire and c++ code. So this is what happend...
Led test mockup.Ok, so now all we need is some lights! lots of lights. I ordered 100, then more, and more... good thing someone stays up late making them
Six connections per LED. So here I am soldering connection nunber 867 of 1200. (I soooo need a beer!!)
Nothing like soldering with a
fence post! Now the hard part...
Drilling the first hole in our fantastic map. I really hope this works!
Eureka!
No wait, thats further down on the map in California. We were there too!
Off to my 3D printer to make an asthetically pleasing box for the controller.
My loving wife said "BLACK!!!??! Why Black?! Not if your going to mount it in the ocean! I want a nice ocean Blue!" Good thing Ebay has lots of choices.
So back to my 3D printer.... It's sure paid for itself, just keeping the wife happy.
Home