Published May 26, 2025

Wildfire Data Visualization

The sculpture is a moving physical sculpture that represents and displays wildfire data.

IntermediateShowcase (no instructions)79

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Adafruit NeoPixel Digital RGB LED Strip 144 LED, 1m White

Particle Photon 2

ULN2003 28BYJ-48 4-Phase Stepper Motor with 5V Drive Board

Timing Belt and Pulley Wheel

5v DC Power Supply and Barrel Jack Adapter

Jumper wires (generic)

Software apps and online services

Particle Build Web IDE

Hand tools and fabrication machines

Soldering iron (generic)

Solder Wire, Lead Free

Breadboard, 170 Pin

Protoboard

Hot glue gun (generic)

Cardboard

Story

Purpose for Project

This was a project was created for data visualization project for a physical computing class, and was completed in collaboration with the sculpture class. Each student was assigned a partner from the sculpture class where the sculpture student is in charge of creating the elements of the sculpture and the physical computing student is in charge of creating the electronics that move and display data. The theme for this year's project was struggle. The idea behind this sculpture, that matched the theme, was displaying the struggle of first responders. The way we did this was by creating an moving diorama of a firefighter scaling a burning building. The higher the fire and firefighter goes up the building the more fires there are and as a result, the level of struggle for first responders increases.

Pulling Wildfire Data

To get data for the project, Ambee API's wildfire data was used. A webhook was used to pull data from Ambee API. To set up a webhook using the particle environment first, create an integration and then create a custom webhook. The URL that gets put into the webhook can be found on the Ambee API documentation page for wildfires in the wildfires by place section. The request type in the webhook should be a get request and the request format should be query parameters. The parameters needed can also be found in the Ambee API documentation. To get an api key, you need to register for one with Ambee API. Calling this webhook will return an json array where each element corresponds to a different wildfire and is a json object that stores information about the wildfire. Since we only care about the number of wildfires we do not have to search through each element and can just find the length of the array. This can be done using the arduino json library.

1 / 3 • Custom Webhook in the Particle Environment

Neopixels

The lights used in the project were Adafruit's neopixels. Adafruit has very detailed documentation and instructions on how to used the neopixel on their website. The first part of setting up the neopixels is testing the light sequence you want on a smaller strip of neopxels. After testing the lights, you can cut out each neopixel and attach it to a piece of carboard in a 3 by 6 arrangement. Then you have to solder each neopixel together. To light this arangement of 18 neopixels, you can create a 2D array and iterate through the array to set the color and brightness of each neopixel.

Neopixel Strip Test

Neopixel Arrangement

Soldering Neopixels

Neopixel Panel Test

Stepper Motor

To use the stepper motor you first need to connect the power and ground pins on the motor controller to a 5v power source and ground. Then, connect the other 4 pins to any 4 digital pins on the photon except for the spi pin that is labeled mo, since that pin is needed to control the neopixels. You can then connect the stepper motor to the stepper motor controller. To control and set up the stepper motor, you can use the Stepper library. To tell the stepper which direction it needs to spin and for how long, we can set up a position system. We initialize an integer that stores the position on to 0. Using the data pulled from the api we can set the position to the number of fires. Then we subtract the number pulled from the api by the current position. This gives up how many positions the stepper motor needs to spin forwards or backwards.

Stepper Motor Test

Full Build

Before placing the electronics into the box we need to put everything onto a protoboard. To do this lay everything out onto the protoboard, then solder each component in. Next, measure, cut, and solder solid core wire to connect each component to the right pins on the photon. After the protoborad is completed, you can then place everything into the box. The trickiest part is attaching the stepper motor to the fireman. The way the fireman moves from the stepper motor is through a timing belt and pulley system. To create the mechanical structure attach the pulley gear to the stepper motor. Then cut the timing belt to size and wrap it around the ladder, built by the sculpture student. Secure the timing belt in by attaching both ends of the timing belt together. Finally attach the fireman to the timing belt.

1 / 4 • Front View of Completed Sculpture

Completed Sculpture Demo

Code

// This #include statement was automatically added by the Particle IDE.
#include <neopixel.h>

// This #include statement was automatically added by the Particle IDE.
#include <Stepper.h>

// This #include statement was automatically added by the Particle IDE.
#include <ArduinoJson.h>

// Include Particle Device OS APIs
#include "Particle.h"

// Let Device OS manage the connection to the Particle Cloud
SYSTEM_MODE(AUTOMATIC);

SerialLogHandler logHandler(LOG_LEVEL_INFO);

#define IN_1 10
#define IN_2 7
#define IN_3 6
#define IN_4 5

const int stepsPerRevolution = 1019;

int position;
int next;

int startDay;

Stepper myStepper(stepsPerRevolution, IN_1, IN_3 , IN_2, IN_4);

#define LED_COUNT 18

Adafruit_NeoPixel strip(LED_COUNT, SPI, WS2812B);
int row;

int lights[6][3] = {{0, 6, 12},
                    {1, 7, 13},
                    {2, 8, 14},
                    {3, 9, 15},
                    {4, 10, 16},
                    {5, 11, 17}};

String jsonText = "";
JsonDocument doc;
int numFires;

// setup() runs once, when the device is first turned on
void setup() {
    waitFor(Particle.connected, 5000);
    
    //ambee is the name of the webhook that pulls data from ambee API
    Particle.subscribe("hook-response/ambee", handleEventResponse, MY_DEVICES);
    
    startDay = Time.day();
    
    myStepper.setSpeed(17);
    position = 0;
    next = 0;
    
    row = 0;
    strip.begin();
    
    Particle.publish("ambee");
}

void handleEventResponse(const char *event, const char *data)
{
    jsonText = String(data);
    
    retrieveValues();
}

void retrieveValues()
{
    DeserializationError error = deserializeJson(doc, jsonText.c_str());
    if (error)
    {
        return;
    }
    
    JsonArray fires = doc["data"];
    numFires = fires.size();
}

void loop() {
    //next two for loops for setting which rows turn on and off
    row = numFires;
    for(int i = 0; i < row; i++){
        for(int j = 0; j < sizeof(lights[i]); j++){
            strip.setPixelColor(lights[i][j], 255, 69, 0);
        }
    }
              
    for(int i = row; i < 6; i++){
        for(int j = 0; j < sizeof(lights[i]); j++){
            strip.setPixelColor(lights[i][j], 0, 0, 0);
        }
    }
    
    //correction for problem in lighting the first neopixle
    if(row >= 1 && row <= 5)
        strip.setPixelColor(0, 255, 69, 0);
        
    //next two for loops for burning fire effct
    for(int i = 5; i < 75; i++){
        strip.setBrightness(i);
        strip.show();
        delay(10);
    }
    
    for(int i = 75; i > 5; i--){
        strip.setBrightness(i);
        strip.show();
        delay(10);
    }
    
    //spins the stepper based on the length of the array 
    next = numFires;
    if(next != position){
        myStepper.step((next - position) * stepsPerRevolution);
        position = next;
    }
    
    //calls API every new day to get new fire data
    if(startDay != Time.day()){
        Particle.publish("ambee");
        startDay = Time.day();
    }
}

// This #include statement was automatically added by the Particle IDE.
#include <neopixel.h>

// Include Particle Device OS APIs
#include "Particle.h"

#define LED_COUNT 18

Adafruit_NeoPixel strip(LED_COUNT, SPI, WS2812B);

SYSTEM_MODE(AUTOMATIC);

SerialLogHandler logHandler(LOG_LEVEL_INFO);

void setup() {
    
  for(int i = 0; i < LED_COUNT; i++){
        strip.setPixelColor(i, 255, 69, 0);
    }
    strip.begin();
}

void loop() {
    for(int i = 5; i < 75; i++){
        strip.setBrightness(i);
        strip.show();
        delay(10);
    }
    
    for(int i = 75; i > 5; i--){
        strip.setBrightness(i);
        strip.show();
        delay(10);
    }
}

// This #include statement was automatically added by the Particle IDE.
#include <Stepper.h>

#include "Particle.h"

SYSTEM_MODE(AUTOMATIC);

SerialLogHandler logHandler(LOG_LEVEL_INFO);

#define IN_1 10
#define IN_2 7
#define IN_3 6
#define IN_4 5

const int stepsPerRevolution = 2048;

int position;
int next;

Stepper myStepper(stepsPerRevolution, IN_1, IN_3 , IN_2, IN_4);

void setup() {
    myStepper.setSpeed(17);
}

void loop() {
    myStepper.step(stepsPerRevolution);
    delay(200);
    myStepper.step(-stepsPerRevolution);
    delay(200);
}

Credits

Scott Phan

3 projects • 0 followers

Wildfire Data Visualization

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Software apps and online services

Hand tools and fabrication machines

Story

Purpose for Project

Pulling Wildfire Data

Neopixels

Stepper Motor

Full Build

Schematics

Circuit Diagram

Code

Final Sculpture Firmware

Neopixel Firmware Test

Stepper Motor Firmware Test

Credits

Scott Phan

Comments

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Wildfire Data Visualization

Wildfire Data Visualization

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Software apps and online services

Hand tools and fabrication machines

Story

Purpose for Project

Pulling Wildfire Data

Neopixels

Stepper Motor

Full Build

Schematics

Circuit Diagram

Code

Final Sculpture Firmware

Neopixel Firmware Test

Stepper Motor Firmware Test

Credits

Scott Phan

Comments

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