Introduction: RGB HexMatrix | IOT Clock

By
About: I am a Computer Science Student. I love playing with electronics and codes. Making Brand new projects.
Fusion 360 Projects »

HexMatrix is the LED matrix having many triangular pixels. Six pixels combining makes a hexagon. There are many different animations that can be shown on the matrix form FastLED library, Also I have designed digits from 0 to 9 using 10 segments for each digit in the matrix and made a IOT clock.

Supplies

  • ESP8266 or Arduino(Uno/Nano)
  • WS2811 LED (96 LEDs)
  • 5V/2A Power Supply
  • 3D Printing

Step 1: 3D Printing:

Step 2: Circuit Connections:

  • Make all the connections as shown in circuit diagram.
  • GND~-Ve
  • Vin~5V~+Ve
  • DataIn ~ Pin 2
  • Also extend the power supply wires to last LED and connect, to prevent the voltage drop across the LEDs.

Step 3: Note:

  • If you use Arduino board then you can only display animations,you cannot display time.
  • If you use ESP8266 board then we can display time and other animations on the matrix.

Step 4: Assembly:

  • Put all the LEDs in snake wise order.
  • Assemble everything together.
  • Solder the connector to Microcontroller board , the connector is taken from the other end of the LEDs line.

Step 5: Coding:

  • Click here for codes
  • For this matrix I have made three codes HexMatrix.ino ,clock1.ino and clock2.ino.
  • HexMatrix code is the code for displaying animations on the matrix,it can run on any Microcontroller board.
  • Clock and clock2 code only runs on ESP8266 boards.

HexMatrix.ino:

  • Open the code given in Arduino IDE.
  • Install the FastLED Library in Arduino IDE.
  • Select the board type,port and upload the code.

Clock1 and Clock2 Codes:

  • Open the code in Arduino IDE.
  • In this code we can change this values as per our color requirement

//Digit color values in RGB
int r=255;

int g=255;

int b=255;

//Background color values in RGB

int br=0;

int bg=20;

int bb=10;

  • Enter the Wifi name and password

const char* ssid = "Wifi_Name";

const char* password = "Password";

  • Enter the time zone of your country(India 5:30=5.5 similarly enter your time zone)

//Your time zone
int timezone = -5.5 * 3600;

  • Select the board type as ESP8266,select the port and upload the code.
  • Apart from this we also have many other animations in the FastLED Examples.