Madison's Wearable Puts a Little LED Matrix Twist on the Hello, My Name Is Name Badge Theme

Maker Madison Holmberg has built a classic "Hello, My Name Is" name badge with a twist: It scrolls the text of the wearer's choice over three LED matrices, under the control of a Microchip ATiny45.

"A makerspace I'm a part of has a night that we're open to the public for people interested in joining," Holmberg explains of the badge's origins. "It's a fun community event, and it's wonderful to see people get excited about the makerspace too when we offer tours of the facilities. Typically, members wear just a piece of tape with their name written on it, but I wanted to do something a bit extra and shows off what you can do at the space."

That "something a bit extra": A wearable badge, inspired by iconic hand-written adhesive "Hello, My Name Is," which drives two or three LED matrices with scrolling text.

The badge is built from Maxim MAX7219 LED drivers linked to a Microchip ATtiny45 microcontroller running text-scrolling code originally developed by educational development site Electronoobs. To this Holmberg added two or three bright-white 8x8 LED matrices, depending on badge variant, an MCP73831T LiPo charger, and an Adafruit MiniBoost 5V boost converter, plus a USB Type-C connector for charging.

An initial batch of boards was found to be faulty — "my matrixes were oriented 90 degrees clockwise of where they should have," Holmberg explains, "and my boost converter had a horrible feedback path and inductor choice that meant it wouldn't work" — but a new set of PCBs has already been built with the error corrected.

"For those who've asked for files on my name badge, please be patient," Holmberg asks of those eager to try building their own. "I'm only one person, and I'm very much new to all of this. I want my designs to be accessible and enjoyable to any skill level."

The build logs and bill of materials, meanwhile, can be found on Holmberg's Hackaday.io project page.