Neopixels in our machine

[kelad]

Hi All, thought i would share how we used neopixels at work. We had to build a demo machine to take to trade shows. Its basically a machine with two XZ axis robots and a conveyor. We move white blocks around the machine. We decided to buy 4m neopixel strip and install around the perimeter of the conveyor inside the 10mm FMS slot (perfect fit). As the blocks move around the conveyor, we track the block with the neopixels. Some blocks are 'PASS' blocks, so 7 green neopixels track it, some blocks are 'FAIL' blocks, so 7 red neopixels track it. Whether blocks are pass or fail is random and depend if XZ robot has picked it up. There was also a disco mode, where robots move quicker and neopixels all go ON in a disco mode. Attached are some pics.
Cheers, Kelad.

[Disciple]

Shiny! Is the suction arm the robotic element? What processor controls the pixels? I've found the attention-getting power of flashy LEDs hard to beat, at least in the technical domain.

Hallelujah!
Disciple

[adafruit_support_bill]

Very nice! Thanks for posting that.

[kelad]

Raspberry pi controls the neopixels. The main machine plc communicates to the pi via MODBUS TCP. I used the fantastic s/w pymodbus (https://github.com/bashwork/pymodbus) on the pi. Yeah, you can see two suction cups, one on RHS Z axis and one on LHS Z axis. The suction cups also move left to right via X axis linear motors.