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This was too fun to pass! So I put together 20 Hexabitz RGB LED modules (H01R00) in a truncated icosahedron shape, a.k.a., soccer ball, and turned it on.
I 3D-printed a shell model of half truncated icosahedron (soccer ball) shape to use as soldering fixture. Holes in the fixture are used to hold modules in place using M2 screws while being soldered.
Step 2 - Solder the first half of the sphereSolder the first half (10 modules). Start by doing the upper ring and attaching five modules to the fixture using M2 screws. Solder main joints (array ports) then remove the modules from the fixture and solder remaining joints from the other side (internal side). Put this back on the fixture and attach the next five modules and solder them similarly.
Alternatively, you can also solder all ten modules from the outside, then remove the shell from the fixture and solder the internal joints.
Repeat step 2 by soldering the second half of the sphere. After that, put the two halves together and solder them inside and outside. Try to get as many solder joints as possible. Particularly important are array joints (the ones in the middle of the module side) as you really need to solder all of them to get full connectivity. You can skip some power (corner) joints if they're hard to reach. This really requires some ninja soldering skills but it gets easier with training and better with patience :)
I messed up my measurements a bit and ended up with small displacements and alignment errors between modules. Solder surface tension helps you a bit in bridging these miss-alignments but you really need to be patient with such project and pay attention to the dimensions because geometrical alignment is key. Once you finish assembling the modules, you can add whatever connectors/wires you want (e.g., for power).
Step 4 - Program the modulesThis is a bit easier to do before assembly but using the wired Kelvin clamp really makes your job much easier!
Power on your beautiful creation! It's always better to power on such complex array first time from a current-limited power supply. It's possible you have a short somewhere and you don't want that to destroy your USB port! If all looks good, you can power the sphere completely from a single USB port. Its current draw is 300-400mA.
Step 6 -Explore the arrayConnect to any array port on any module via the command line interface (CLI) and run the explore command. After a minute or two (it's a slow process currently), all 20 modules will be discovered and the complex routing table will be constructed and displayed in the terminal along with all ports that must be swapped (top & bottom) to allow connectivity. The topology is saved in the MCU Flash memory in each module so that next time you power up, no need to run array exploration again. Below is the terminal dump of the explore command.
====================================================
====================================================
|| Welcome to BitzOS CLI! ||
|| (C) COPYRIGHT HEXABITZ 2016. ||
|| ||
|| Please check the project website at ||
|| http://hexabitz.com/ ||
|| ||
|| Type help for a list of available commands. ||
====================================================
====================================================
Connected to module 0 (H01R0), port P6.
>ping
Hi from module 0
[Press ENTER to execute the previous command again]
>explore
The array is being explored. Please wait...
Hi from module 2
Hi from module 3
Hi from module 4
Hi from module 5
Hi from module 6
Hi from module 7
Hi from module 8
Hi from module 9
Hi from module 10
Hi from module 11
Hi from module 12
Hi from module 13
Hi from module 14
Hi from module 15
Hi from module 16
Hi from module 17
Hi from module 18
Hi from module 19
Hi from module 20
The array exploration succeeded. I found 20 modules including myself. Here is th
e discovered topology:
(Module:Port) P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 P6
Module 1: H01R0 2:5 0 3:1 0 4:1 0
Module 2: H01R0 5:5 0 6:1 0 1:1 0
Module 3: H01R0 1:3 0 7:3 0 8:5 0
Module 4: H01R0 1:5 0 9:1 0 10:1 0
Module 5: H01R0 10:5 0 11:1 0 2:1 0
Module 6: H01R0 2:3 0 12:3 0 7:5 0
Module 7: H01R0 13:3 0 3:3 0 6:5 0
Module 8: H01R0 14:3 0 9:3 0 3:5 0
Module 9: H01R0 4:3 0 8:3 0 15:5 0
Module 10: H01R0 4:5 0 16:1 0 5:1 0
Module 11: H01R0 5:3 0 17:3 0 12:5 0
Module 12: H01R0 18:3 0 6:3 0 11:5 0
Module 13: H01R0 14:5 0 7:1 0 18:1 0
Module 14: H01R0 19:5 0 8:1 0 13:1 0
Module 15: H01R0 19:3 0 16:3 0 9:5 0
Module 16: H01R0 10:3 0 15:3 0 17:5 0
Module 17: H01R0 20:3 0 11:3 0 16:5 0
Module 18: H01R0 13:5 0 12:1 0 20:1 0
Module 19: H01R0 20:5 0 15:1 0 14:1 0
Module 20: H01R0 18:5 0 17:1 0 19:1 0
These ports are reversed:
Module 2 : P5
Module 3 : P1
Module 4 : P1
Module 5 : P5
Module 6 : P1
Module 7 : P3
Module 7 : P5
Module 8 : P5
Module 9 : P1
Module 9 : P3
Module 10 : P1
Module 10 : P5
Module 11 : P1
Module 12 : P3
Module 12 : P5
Module 13 : P3
Module 14 : P3
Module 14 : P5
Module 15 : P5
Module 16 : P1
Module 16 : P3
Module 17 : P3
Module 17 : P5
Module 18 : P1
Module 18 : P3
Module 19 : P3
Module 19 : P5
Module 20 : P1
Module 20 : P3
Module 20 : P5
All other ports are normal
[Press ENTER to execute the previous command again]
>
Send some broadcast LED commands and enjoy the show!
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