The original 8x85 Pixel RGB LED POV Display
This is my original RGB POV design that I made back in 2008. It is based around my favourite PIC microcontroller at the time which was the PIC16f628A. The display is capable of running static images or animations upto 256 frames.
The great race was the first LED based game that I ever made. It was a lot of fun to make and quite a learning experience for me. The project uses just two chips, an 8x8 LED matrix and a few other components to get it all up and running. All up you can make one of these for around about $10
The 32x64 Pixel RGB LED POV Display
Having built the 8x85 POV display I thought I would have a go at making a bigger and better version. So that is how I came up with the 32x64 display with four times the number of LED's! This project was not without it's problems unfortunately. Check out the page for more information.
I saw someone do a similar thing on the internet and was quite interested in using a standard digital pin as a pseudo analog input. This simple run through will show you how I managed to convert the analog output from an old atari paddle into a digital representation which could be used for a wide variety of applications.
This is a basic run through of how you can generate black and white composite video signals by using a pic microcontroller and a simple resistor DAC network.
The LEDBOY Handheld Video Game System
This is the second handheld game system that I designed. It uses an improved RGB 8x8 matrix display and a more powerful pic18f4550 microcontroller. I would have liked to have made a few more games for this but at the moment I only have two. The Great Race II and Super Pixel Bros.
This is my original handheld game system. It uses a cheap as chips RG 8x8 LED matrix display, a pic16f648a microcontroller and a few other cheap components. I have actually programmed a number of games for this project including The Great Race, Invaders and Pong.
Wireless Transmitter and Receiver (by bitfogav)
This is a really great project designed by one of the resident forum members - bitfogav. There are loads of uses for these wireless devices limited only by your imagination (and distance...)
I actually didn't come up with the idea to make this game but rather it was one of the members from my old forum. Basically this game tests your reaction speed and gives you a score from 0 to 9. It is a really simple game to make and is (kinda) fun too.
By Brad Slattery 2010
Musical Programming Centre (by SDudley)
Ever wanted to build yourself a mini toy organ with inbuilt LED’s?
Well this project is certainly for you!
The Musical Programming Centre uses just one chip and is great for beginners just starting out with microcontrollers.
Christmas Tree Decoration with Scrolling Message and Inbuilt Game
Have you ever wanted to have a ‘Merry Christmas’ scrolling message display hanging on your Christmas tree? And how would you like that same little ornament to have an inbuilt game?
Well this project is for you!
Measuring just 3cm x 3cm x 2cm this little device will liven up your Christmas tree.
Super Nintendo RGB Mode Select Hack
I am a fan of retro video game consoles and a few years back I hacked into my SNES by adding extra switches which allowed me to select between 50hz mode and 60hz mode.
I believe that I have gone one better with this hack because you actually don’t need to drill any holes in your SNES to achieve the same result. This version uses the already present reset switch to cycle through different modes. The Power LED changes color to give you some visual feedback - once you are on the color (mode) that you want, you simply release the reset button to select it.
If you have ever wanted a coffee table that doubled as a four player video game,
then this is the project for you!
This project uses 900 red LED’s as the display for this action packed game of
skill and wits - who will be the last player standing?
The One Chip Spinning RGB LED display
This project is quite an improvement on my previous persistence of vision display.
It has all the features of the old version and more, and it does it all with just one single chip - yep, just one! So what does it do?
Well, this project spins 8 RGB LED’s at high speed to create text, images and animations in mid air!
It has been a long time coming, but here it is, my version of Nintendo’s 1985 classic. Super Mario Bros. My version compresses everything into just 64 Pixels but is still quite a fun game to play. Click the link above to find out more.
BJT Biasing app for iOS devices
This app is not only free, but is quite useful for those studying transistor biasing theory. It allows you to adjust values of resistors, power supply voltage and transistor gain and will give instant feedback by plotting the Q-point of the circuit as the values are adjusted.
The PICnDuino is a Arduino and Amicus18 compatible device which contains a PIC18F25K20 microcontroller and an Atmega328 microcontroller in one tiny direct to USB device.
Listed here are all of the projects that I have uploaded to the site. I try and document these as best I can and with as much info as I feel is needed so that you also can make these projects for yourself.
As always, if you have any questions - feel free to post in the forum
I am venturing into displaying graphics on a VGA screen and wanted to make sure I get accurate timings. So I decided to go through some oscillator / PLL experiments to make sure I understood these timings as best I could. This page will hopefully help those who are confused about oscillator settings including PLL and instructions per second. These tests are performed with an 18F2550 and a 20MHz crystal.
Gameboy to VGA Converter (in progress)
This project aims to display an old 1989 Nintendo Gameboy on a modern VGA monitor.
