message wand

[davidwf]

Anyone designed (or come across) one of those message wand thingies....usually have 8 or more LED's arranged in a straight line and, due to the persistence of the human eye, when the wand is "waved" a message can be seen in "mid-air"

 

[Jaguarjoe]

You mean like this:

http://www.mcselec.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=92&Itemid=57

 

[jpyle1]

POV wand

I have built three of these--easy to construct and they all work very well. You can change the text easily. However, I do not know of a Picaxe version. I believe there are execution speed issues with the Picaxe.
John

http://www.josepino.com/?p=7#more-7

 

[davidwf]

Yep, that's the sort of thing...any ideas on pricing, any leads to a PIC version ?

Thanks

 

[Michael 2727]

Try this, from the archives (a good place to search also )
http://www.picaxeforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=5435

 

[jpyle1]

POV

I built mine for about $15.00 each, with a few junk box findings (a switch and an old printer bar with support for the pivot). Main cost--strip board , 8 pin pic holder, LEDs, AA batteries,from Radio Shack. The Pic was $2.75 from local supplier. The Hex and Asm files are there to download at the site. (You do have to program the pic with the Hex file) I do not know if there have been any further POV projects with the newer Picaxe offerings.

John

 

[Rickharris]

http://www.rapidonline.com/Educational-Products/Projects-Robotics/Electronic-Projects/POV-Wand-project/73215/kw/

Will get you a PIC kit to do this.

It is possible with a picaxe - Search on POV to get some help.

POV = Persistence of Vision.

 

[davidwf]

That Rapid kit looks pretty good - for £5 I will try one

Thanks for all the replies ..... so far

 

[hippy]

The simplest PICAXE POV wand software is just a long sequence of "pins=$xx" instructions. That suits the 18X and the X1's best with their larger program memory. Beyond that it's just a matter of churning out a LED 'bar' at a time at a consistent and fast enough rate and triggering the start of message if you want that.

 

[davidwf]

further info required please

Thanks for all the posts & pointers, somwhere I came across a circuit that looked very promising using an 18X, it had a schematic attached as well as the PIC program but I am dammed if I can find it again::.....anyone ?

 

[davidwf]

Thanks for all the posts & pointers, somwhere I came across a circuit that looked very promising using an 18X, it had a schematic attached as well as the PIC program but I am dammed if I can find it again::.....anyone ?

.....anyone ???

 

[inglewoodpete]

Is this what you can't find?

 

[westaust55]

While noting that the request has varied:
- from, “has anyopone come across one of those message wand thingies”,
- thru “any leads on a PIC based one”
- to looking for a PICAXE 18X based wand,

here is my contribution for general and PIC based message wands.

http://www.apogeekits.com/led_magic_message.htm

or

http://www.apogeekits.com/led_message.htm
with info here on how to change the message – a thought on flexibility that avoids having to download a new program for each new message: http://www.apogeekits.com/space_flag.htm

and here’s a PIC 16F627 (not PICAXE but same chip as PICAXE 18) based project with schematic and other info.
http://www.techlib.com/Karen/micro.htm#Wand



westaust55
=========
Hey Hamlet, 2B OR NOT(2B) = 255

 

[davidwf]

Inglewoodpete.... thanks but this is not quite the one.....

Westaust55....yes that's more or less it...but surely someone MUST have designed one for a PICAXE (rather than a PIC) ??

Thanks

 

[westaust55]

David,

are you actively looking for yourself?

Have you considered writing the program yourself?

The last link I gave you in my earlier thread included the machine code which was just a few lines and that included delays. The PICAXE due to BASIC interprreter will be a bit slow but the program far from hard I would think.

Here is a link to a stack of other links on the topic - look at Post No 6.
I leave it for you to search through them all.
http://www.picaxeforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=3894&highlight=moving+message

The very first link took me to this:
http://www.ianpaterson.org/projects/spokepov20070731/downloads/index.htm

where there is construction and programming details including in QBASIC.
see the attachment here.

 

[davidwf]

westaust55

yes I am looking for myself.....
like I said I am new to PIc so don't really understand very much of it,,,but I AM trying to pick it up !

I would dearly love to (be able to) write it myself...

Am I correct in thinking that a PICAXE is different to the PIC's used in these projects, and if so why ?

 

[slimplynth]

Thats the devil at play. Typed text, instant messaging, SMS all easily lack intonation leading to misunderstandings. A smiley face for everyone and an ice cold pint if you're heading my way in ten mins :0)



Beer - the solution to all life's good causes

 

[hippy]

This could be a search issue for terms with three letters or less; for POV try POV*

No idea if it will help here, but is a trick to remember when searching for I2C*, PWM*, LED*, LCD* etc.

 

[westaust55]

PIC versus PICAXE

In simple terms:

A PIC is the base microcontroller as manufacturered by Microchip. These are usually programmed in machine code / assembler.

The PICAXE is a PIC that has been preprogrammed with a BASIC interpreter program. You then type up your BASIC programme in the free Programming Editor and download it into the PICAXE.

Have you downloaded the Programming Editor and 3 parts to the manual at the Rev Ed website.



There is a link on the orange toolbar at the top of these forum pages to the manuals.

like I said I am new to PIc

did not see that in your earlier posts to this thread . The number of posts is not always a good indicator of someones experience.
Like you, I too was new to the PICAXE just 4 months ago but have years of related experience.

If you make a start on programming, there are plenty here who will guide you when you have difficulties. Many newbies have been helped through their problems via this forum.

This raises a question or two.

Have you actually bought a PICAXE kit yet? If so, what do you have?


EDIT: okay trolling back through your own past threads you have a PICAXE 18X already

 

[slimplynth]

I guess its better to have tried to make something/write some code then let people scrutinise when it doesn't work.

Part of the fun is finding things out for yourself and after pulling your hair out after hours of non productive tinkering its just as nice to get a second pair of eyes on things. (especially when they are more qualified than your own)

 

[Mycroft2152]

There was an 18X project in one of the PICAXe Educational magazines out of Oz. It was called "ghostwriter", "spooky writer" or something like that.

Myc

 

[westaust55]

I guess its better to have tried to make something/write some code then let people scrutinise when it doesn't work.

Part of the fun is finding things out for yourself and after pulling your hair out after hours of non productive tinkering its just as nice to get a second pair of eyes on things. (especially when they are more qualified than your own)

Well said slimplynth and very true.
The driver of a car quickly learns the route whereas the passengers spend time looking at the scenery and typically do not learn the way.