If the campaign makes it to $22K they are going to make a Zigbee module. I can see this as an interesting possible way to display status of things. It could be an visual alarm. It could be a way to show is a windows or doors are open. Some interesting possibilities.
They have not promised any sort of SmartThings support don’t expect anything, but it might be an interesting idea.
tgauchat
(ActionTiles.com co-founder Terry @ActionTiles; GitHub: @cosmicpuppy)
2
There just seems to be so much redundancy in the connectivity and processing.
Parts are cheap … but not that cheap.
Isn’t there a more (or would that be… less?) modular approach?
i.e., a controller + any number of lights?
On a small scale, I guess the expense is not bad… but I like truly cost-effective scalability.
CosmicPuppy, actually they are that cheap! When you buy in orders of more than 100, those chips become about $1.30 each. The LEDpanels are about $1.25 in bulk. The PCB is less than $1. All other parts total to less than $1. The BOM is about $5.50. The production cost is about $4/each including the programming.
Working with the WS8211 RBG LEDs is actually MUCH more expensive ($0.40/LED in bulk) and you cannot power those effectively off of a battery as they use 30ma PER LED (which would mean 1-Amp per 5x7 matrix). You cannot really run 2240 of those LEDs off one Arduino (and more than one i2c port) like you can with LEDgoes…You need a MUCH more powerful ARM board (Like a BeagleBone) to control them for smooth scrolling and color. Then you run into adding more and more together. They need individual control and indexing which is hard to set up for automatically adding to the system. You also cannot get them to have the same resolution as the Pre-made LED matrix displays.
By using independently smart backboards that drive the LEDs, you can simplify what the end user has to do and give far more flexibility on control.
The LEDgoes board and all of the partner boards as designed with a dual purpose. Upcycling and Learning platform. You can actually use this system to grow with your skill level.
We are working on a LEDgoes version which uses those “all in one” Neopixels but with all of them shoved right up next to one another for high resolution. that is aimed more for the Commercial market where people will want to make quick Video and advertising Displays (limited to 256 displayboards hooked together from a single controller). The price would be much higher for them because of the very high production and parts costs associated (8x8 displays).
tgauchat
(ActionTiles.com co-founder Terry @ActionTiles; GitHub: @cosmicpuppy)
4
Thanks for the response. I need to find bulk suppliers like you guys
The WS2811 RGB pixels actually can use much less power if they are run at low brightness values. The color gamut is not affected very much.
I’ve run 120 pixels off of a single 2A 5v 9000mAh battery for hours, because even at 25% brightness they were quite visible.
There’s definitely a place for both technologies. Since putting a processor in for each pixel in WS2811 makes sense, I agree it makes sense to put one in each LEDgoes too!
