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Large 'Retro' Power System Display


HedgeSlammer

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How's your one coming along, @WannabeSolarSparky?

I've got mine up on the wall... 😎

spacer.png

Here's a video (note the 'fake PV' data injection, then SOC plus inverter load to demonstrate - I'm fighting the real data as it comes in, so it jumps around a bit, but you get the idea).

I used the '144 LEDs per metre' WS2813 strip for the legs, battery, inverter and house, with 60 lpm WS2812 for the sun and pylon.  I'd made the legs to take 10mm wide strip, but the 144 was 12mm wide so I had to trim a mil off the power tracks on each side - luckily they were generous with the tracks, so I got away with it for such short runs.

Getting it to bend around in nice curves and stay flat was a right pain, as the LEDs are less than 2mm apart, but it worked out in the end.  Basically, by folding it back on itself, squeezing one side sharp and then flattening it back out whilst bending it into a curve with the sharp crease on the inside of the curve.  It's best to completely remove the stick tape first, though.

I didn't fill any/everything with hot glue (as a diffuser) as originally planned as it looks OK without it, plus it's too easy to lose the shape of the parts when they're heated.

The code still needs a bit of fine tuning, plus there are a few oddities with the FastLED lib that need addressing (like the LEDs in the 'arms' don't go completely off when they should).

I'll post the code / stl files once it's sanitised. 🤪

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9 hours ago, HedgeSlammer said:

Here's a video (note the 'fake PV' data injection, then SOC plus inverter load to demonstrate - I'm fighting the real data as it comes in, so it jumps around a bit, but you get the idea).

Nice, the video shows nicely how your diffusers work, job well done :) Great job on how the levels show as well :)

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16 hours ago, HedgeSlammer said:

How's your one coming along

This is as far as I got last week...
Managed to get all 10 servo's running nicely after I upgraded to a bigger power supply, seems like those tiny servo's want plenty amps to work correctly 🤣
I had a smaller 3amp converter and had the servo's jittering like crazy, now have a decent 6amp one and a nice beefy cap to smooth out everything.

WhatsAppImage2024-01-15at1_47_16PM.thumb.jpeg.2d894a063ee5ee030a8720e855e9c544.jpeg

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Ah, yep... I had that problem, too.  I got away with a 2A PSU and a 3300uF cap, but also I think in the code I might have made each needle move in turn (rather than more than one at the same time) - although in the 'test' mode they do all move at once, seemingly without the ESP8266 going nuts. 🤔

I've definitely found the ESP32 can be a bit more fussy (than the 8266) about voltage dips and noise.

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 2024/01/14 at 9:41 PM, HedgeSlammer said:

How's your one coming along, @WannabeSolarSparky?

I've got mine up on the wall... 😎

spacer.png

Here's a video (note the 'fake PV' data injection, then SOC plus inverter load to demonstrate - I'm fighting the real data as it comes in, so it jumps around a bit, but you get the idea).

I used the '144 LEDs per metre' WS2813 strip for the legs, battery, inverter and house, with 60 lpm WS2812 for the sun and pylon.  I'd made the legs to take 10mm wide strip, but the 144 was 12mm wide so I had to trim a mil off the power tracks on each side - luckily they were generous with the tracks, so I got away with it for such short runs.

Getting it to bend around in nice curves and stay flat was a right pain, as the LEDs are less than 2mm apart, but it worked out in the end.  Basically, by folding it back on itself, squeezing one side sharp and then flattening it back out whilst bending it into a curve with the sharp crease on the inside of the curve.  It's best to completely remove the stick tape first, though.

I didn't fill any/everything with hot glue (as a diffuser) as originally planned as it looks OK without it, plus it's too easy to lose the shape of the parts when they're heated.

The code still needs a bit of fine tuning, plus there are a few oddities with the FastLED lib that need addressing (like the LEDs in the 'arms' don't go completely off when they should).

I'll post the code / stl files once it's sanitised. 🤪

hey @HedgeSlammer any chance of having 2 LEDs on the grid (Red & Green) Red when there's a grid failure?

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 2024/01/15 at 7:10 AM, WannabeSolarSparky said:

Nice, the video shows nicely how your diffusers work, job well done :) Great job on how the levels show as well :)

Looking nice. Is the flow on the Grid bi-directional or it's just uni-directional?

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