Hello,
I would like to create a project where I have a 8x8 red LED matrix which will show a heart and based on different conditions the heart will change. This will be in my car, so when I go above 40mph I would like it to beat fast. When Im at a stoplight, I want it to show a "broke" heart.
Im just wondering what sort of board would I need for this? What sort of programing would I have to do? Where could I find resources on this?
Im new to Adafruit so any help would be greatly apperciated.
Heart Project
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Please be positive and constructive with your questions and comments.
- adafruit_support_mike
- Posts: 67391
- Joined: Thu Feb 11, 2010 2:51 pm
Re: Heart Project
Pretty much any microcontroller will work, and you'll need to write code to support everything you described:
You can measure speed with an accelerometer, or with a combination of an accelerometer and a GPS module if you really want to be accurate. You'll need code to draw the heart, make it beat at different speeds, and draw the broken version for when the car is at rest.
The best thing you can do is start small and work your way up a little bit at a time, making sure you get each version working before you move on to the next change. It's *much* easier to find and fix problems that were added in the most recent change than to change a whole bunch of things and then try to figure out why the system doesn't work.
If you're new to programming and programmable hardware, I'd suggest using a Feather M0 and CircuitPython:
https://www.adafruit.com/product/2772
We've designed those to be beginner-friendly, and to make moving code from one development board to another easy.
We also have a couple thousand tutorials over in the Learning System:
https://learn.adafruit.com/
And most products in the shop have links to tutorials that show how to work with them. Search through that looking for keywords or projects that look similar, or just interesting. Even if you don't build a project entirely, you can usually find pieces that you can adapt to your own project.
You can measure speed with an accelerometer, or with a combination of an accelerometer and a GPS module if you really want to be accurate. You'll need code to draw the heart, make it beat at different speeds, and draw the broken version for when the car is at rest.
The best thing you can do is start small and work your way up a little bit at a time, making sure you get each version working before you move on to the next change. It's *much* easier to find and fix problems that were added in the most recent change than to change a whole bunch of things and then try to figure out why the system doesn't work.
If you're new to programming and programmable hardware, I'd suggest using a Feather M0 and CircuitPython:
https://www.adafruit.com/product/2772
We've designed those to be beginner-friendly, and to make moving code from one development board to another easy.
We also have a couple thousand tutorials over in the Learning System:
https://learn.adafruit.com/
And most products in the shop have links to tutorials that show how to work with them. Search through that looking for keywords or projects that look similar, or just interesting. Even if you don't build a project entirely, you can usually find pieces that you can adapt to your own project.
- jps2000
- Posts: 811
- Joined: Fri Jun 02, 2017 4:12 pm
Re: Heart Project
Forget the accelerometer
GPS velocity signal is the right choice
GPS velocity signal is the right choice
- Sono81
- Posts: 3
- Joined: Mon Sep 20, 2021 1:46 pm
Re: Heart Project
Which one would you recommend?jps2000 wrote:Forget the accelerometer
GPS velocity signal is the right choice
Thank you!
S
- Sono81
- Posts: 3
- Joined: Mon Sep 20, 2021 1:46 pm
Re: Heart Project
Are there any micro controllers with accelerometers built in?adafruit_support_mike wrote:Pretty much any microcontroller will work, and you'll need to write code to support everything you described:
You can measure speed with an accelerometer, or with a combination of an accelerometer and a GPS module if you really want to be accurate. You'll need code to draw the heart, make it beat at different speeds, and draw the broken version for when the car is at rest.
The best thing you can do is start small and work your way up a little bit at a time, making sure you get each version working before you move on to the next change. It's *much* easier to find and fix problems that were added in the most recent change than to change a whole bunch of things and then try to figure out why the system doesn't work.
If you're new to programming and programmable hardware, I'd suggest using a Feather M0 and CircuitPython:
https://www.adafruit.com/product/2772
We've designed those to be beginner-friendly, and to make moving code from one development board to another easy.
We also have a couple thousand tutorials over in the Learning System:
https://learn.adafruit.com/
And most products in the shop have links to tutorials that show how to work with them. Search through that looking for keywords or projects that look similar, or just interesting. Even if you don't build a project entirely, you can usually find pieces that you can adapt to your own project.
S
Please be positive and constructive with your questions and comments.