[Request] New Years Countdown for v3

lenny · December 31, 2021, 10:04pm

Hi All,

I’m a complete noob and just got my pixelblaze v3 with expansion boards setup. Absolutely love it and all the capabilities (all your preset patters)

Request: would anyone be able to throw together a cool New Years countdown pattern like the ball drop? For tonight

Would be nice to have it drop and do some strobes at the end and fireworks type pattern like in presets.

And ability to select which direction it starts from…up or down because mine are setup with pixel #0 at bottom and #207 at top so I’d need reverse going down count and fireworks up count (sorry I’m using lamen terms here… still a lot to learn)

Also not sure if it can pull a system clock from somewhere and actually count down based on time in your time zone… if not possible, then a simply pattern activation would be great too.

No idea how hard any of this is… sorry if I’m underestimating the effort.

Appreciate all the hard work so far from the community… will learn a lot here.

Happy New Year!
Lenny

GodmanchesterGoblin · January 1, 2022, 5:55pm

Happy New Year!

It’s probably all possible, but since you posted on New Year’s Eve (and well into the evening for those east of the US) there would be little to no chance of anyone being able to advise. In the UK, if folks were socialising, they would already be out for the evening. This is not a quick hack that only takes 30 minutes or so (at least, not for me!).

I have been playing with my Pixelblaze units for a few weeks, and I still have loads still to learn. While I can visualise what you’re asking for, it’s not trivial. And anyone writing this would need to have some understanding of the light setup that you have, ideally including the mapping.

Flipping left to right or up to down is relatively trivial. For example of 0 is at the bottom, then keep in mind that PB scales everything between decimal values 0.0 and 1.0. So to flip, you need to subtract from 1.0. If y was 0.3, it becomes 0.7, and so on. The same principle works for left-right reversal. I did this to reverse rotation of a map around a tree after I have wound my pixel string around it in the wrong direction.

I am not sure about the clock question, but it may be possible. It is possible to display text on a matrix, and there is at least one example pattern that does this, but it is quite complex since this is not a function built in to the native Pixelblaze software. However, I would suggest getting better acquainted with the simpler examples first. There are many on the Electromage web site that are not supplied with the default firmware. Playing around with them is a great way to learn.

jeff · January 2, 2022, 3:49am

Yep! This should be pretty clear:

github.com

simap/pixelblaze/blob/master/README.expressions.md#clock--time-functions

# Table of Contents

1. [Writing Patterns](#toc_1)
2. [Watching Variables](#toc_2)
3. [User Interface Controls](#toc_3)
2. [Supported Language Features](#toc_6)
3. [Language limitations](#toc_7)
4. [Variables](#toc_8)
5. [Constants](#toc_9)
6. [Functions](#toc_10)
7. [Expansion Board](#toc_84)

# Writing Patterns

Enter code above, and everything you type is compiled on the fly. If your program is valid, it is sent down to Pixelblaze, and you'll see your changes instantly! Look for syntax or run-time errors in the left sidebar and the status area just below the editor.

Pixelblaze looks for a few exported functions that it can call to generate pixels.

The exported `render(index)` function is called for each pixel in the strip. The `index` argument tells you which pixel is being rendered. Use the `hsv` or `rgb` function to set the current pixel's color.

This file has been truncated. show original

lenny · January 3, 2022, 5:56pm

Happy New Year everyone!
Thanks for looking into it. I knew it was a longshot given the date and time before the count down.

I have a simple 2 vertical and 1 horizontal LED strip setup in my family room. Will try to make this my first project… 362 days left to figure it out

Scruffynerf · January 4, 2022, 2:00am

I’d say a Ball drop pattern would make sense, combined with some fireworks, and yes, the date/time functionality.

It’s a nice idea, and I look forward to see what you do with it.