GG430 53 Posted March 12, 2013 Share Posted March 12, 2013 This was a present for my daughters first birthday. Actually I wanted to have it ready one year earlier before her real birthday but had some project delay ;-)The plate is mounted to her rooms ceiling close to her bed and there is no day going to bed without her switching it on. She had her 4th birthday back in January. It's a starry sky with 32 LEDs showing 5 signs (Gemini, Cancer, Capricorn, Aries and Virgo). I was only able to share 3 LEDs and that was the minimum I needed. A MSP430F2012 is driving two TLC5940 on a proto board, dimming the LEDs in and out. Actually I planned to etch a PCB but then I stayed with the proto. Three buttons are controlling the different operating modes. Due to the lack of ports I added different resistors to the buttons which I measure with the ADC once triggered by an interrupt to see which one was pressed. This reduces the required port to one for three buttons. The code is in Assembly, guess today I'd write it in C. I added some features over time, like switching all LEDs to full power to have an additional light in the room. There is a funny story behind the signs for me. I had chosen the signs of my wife, dad, mom, myself and my daughters projected date of birth which was Capricorn. But unfortunately live is sometimes not as predictable as we think and my daughter took another 12 relaxing days with her mom and slipped over being an Aquarius. Since I already had finished the wooden plate I didn't change it anymore. So her sign is the wrong one in the project. I'm looking forward to tell her the story in a couple of years StarrySky.ppt Rickta59, calinp, cubeberg and 5 others 8 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
gwdeveloper 275 Posted March 12, 2013 Share Posted March 12, 2013 Wow! Looks great! Get her started early in electronics. My daughter turned 10 a few weeks ago. She has ditched me and electronics for makeup and fashion. GG430 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
GG430 53 Posted March 12, 2013 Author Share Posted March 12, 2013 Get her started early in electronics. I keep trying ;-) She is very interested already and wants to help when I build stuff. At least she knows MSP430 and that this is the part driving her starry sky and sundial clock :-) The other day I tried to explain her what a Launchpad is. I guess I was not 100% successful yet 8-) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
cde 334 Posted March 12, 2013 Share Posted March 12, 2013 Neat. The non-constilation types of star skies tend to use fiber optic cable instead of multiple leds, but obviously in your case, being able to address specific combinations is important. GG430 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
timotet 44 Posted March 13, 2013 Share Posted March 13, 2013 I must say you do very nice work! good job. GG430 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
roadrunner84 466 Posted March 13, 2013 Share Posted March 13, 2013 I noticed a lot of your projects use 2-series instead of value line chips. That is MSP430F2013 instead of MSP430G2231. You just happened to have a lot of them on stock? Are they same price as value liners? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bluehash 1,581 Posted March 13, 2013 Share Posted March 13, 2013 Wow! Looks great! Get her started early in electronics. My daughter turned 10 a few weeks ago. She has ditched me and electronics for makeup and fashion. I keep trying ;-) She is very interested already and wants to help when I build stuff. At least she knows MSP430 and that this is the part driving her starry sky and sundial clock The other day I tried to explain her what a Launchpad is. I guess I was not 100% successful yet 8-) Good work GG. Now you two need to band up and ask cube his secret. He has successfully taught his daughter to read 1-10 in binary. gwdeveloper, GG430 and cubeberg 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
GG430 53 Posted March 13, 2013 Author Share Posted March 13, 2013 I noticed a lot of your projects use 2-series instead of value line chips. That is MSP430F2013 instead of MSP430G2231. You just happened to have a lot of them on stock? Are they same price as value liners? True, I keep using all the non-G versions I've flying around. The VL devices are cheaper than the original F20xx. Well for home projects it doesn't matter too much anyway. BTW, there is no equivalent for the F2013 in the G series, that's the one with a Sigma Delta ADC. But F2012 with the ADC is still one of my favorites. And not to forget F2132. Good work GG. Now you two need to band up and ask cube his secret. He has successfully taught his daughter to read 1-10 in binary. Good point, I read the post the other day and told my wife about it. She had that confused look in her face at first but than she found it an interesting thing to do. She's still a bit miffed about the sequence of first words my daughter was able to say ;-) But she accepts that she's more the tec guy starting to take stuff apart to see what's inside and how it works Unfortunately in the lab soldering seems most attractive to her and she wants to do it :? but I keep telling her, that this is years out until she's going to touch that... cubeberg 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
cubeberg 540 Posted March 14, 2013 Share Posted March 14, 2013 Awesome project! Kids are always a great inspiration/excuse for projects You definitely have to get them started young! My 8 year-old can solder, and my 6 year-old is already asking - I'll probably teach her soon. roadrunner84 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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