Magic Panel Part 1

My Magic Panel arrived.  It is a pretty thing. :)

So i soldered up the pins (or James did), and powered it up.  Nothing, so read the guide.  It defaults to flash every 8-12 mins.  So i added the jumper to test the other options.  It seemed like it had loads of potential, but some of the default scrolls and patterns seemed jumpy.  So i started over.  :D

The grid layout of LEDs is complex.  The rows of 8 LEDs are actually the first 2 rows of the 1st chip and not in the same positions.  e.g. Row 0 B11110000 and Row 1 B00001111 will turn on all the LEDs in the top row.  So this was going to be fun.

I used a 2 dimensional boolean array (8x8) as what i wanted to see and mapped that to the actual LED layout.  So i simply change the boolean array to say what should be on/off and then map and print that to the LEDs via the chips.  It works beautifully.  I can set rows and columns and work with it very easily now.

So once i got that setup i decided to do the pattern i had my heart set on.  Random in and out so it is almost like a fade.  I really like this one, it took a few goes to get it looking right, and being random it doesn't always look perfect, but im happy with it now. 

Then i looked at shapes, i applied the Logo on the back of the PCB as one option, but when difused the image isnt easily seen, but it isnt horrible. :) 

Here are a couple of videos of what it can currently do:

So it is now ready for me to decide on when it should be used and add in the triggering, i have started working on the spreadsheet, and hope to have the I2C stuff added this week.  Then i need to cut the hole in the dome and im good to go. :)