GE-35 Christmas Lights and Fez Panda II

Archive
1

Hi all,

I’m playing around with the GE-35 lights and using Andrej Kyselica’s driver from http://www.tinyclr.com/codeshare/entry/146.

However, I’m not getting the expected behavior. I altered the “Usage” code from above link to target a single light, but the behavior didn’t change.

The lights are powered by the power brick, but the data is coming from my Fez Panda II powered by the USB port.

Any ideas on what I can do to get the expected behavior?

Thanks,
Duane

2

Think you might need to show us code - and take a pic showing that the data wire is not connected :wink:

3

Thanks for the response.

Here’s the code where I think I’m targeting a single light:
(Again, I just modified the code I downloaded from the link in the original post.
if (true)
{
while (true)
{
// init
//for (byte i = 0; i < 50; i++)
{
//c.WriteValue(i, 0xcc, (byte)r.Next(13), (byte)r.Next(13), (byte)r.Next(13));
c.WriteValue(8, 0xcc, (byte)r.Next(13), (byte)r.Next(13), (byte)r.Next(13));
}
}
}

I included three photos:
Photo 1) Wire from the lights: White: V+, Black: V-, Green - Data
Photo 2) Power Brick: White: V+, Black: V-
Photo 3) Putting it all together. Power: Lights White to Brick White, Lights Black to Brick Black, and Lights Data to that white wire leading to the Fez Panda II.

The White data wire is connected to SPI1.MOSI on the Fez board. I get lights and they all dance around. When I disconnect the data line, the lights freeze where they were.

Thanks again,
Duane

4

Connect grounds on your Panda and lights as well.

5

Thanks…that helped some. Now instead of all 50 lights flickering, I only have about 4 or 5 lights.

I appreciate the help!

Since this is new to me, I appreciate the patience with my noobie questions and fumbling around.

Right now, I’m only going off the code sample provided at http://www.tinyclr.com/codeshare/entry/146. Are there other resources out there that discuss connecting the Fez and the G35 lights? I’ve come across lots of videos of what people have done using Fez to do this, but not necessarily how to do it for idiots like me. :slight_smile:

Thanks…Duane

6

Are these lights individually addressable?

7

Yes, they are. The first thing it does is sets the address for each light…and it’s during this phase that I have some lights turning on…when they should all still be off after completing the initialization phase.

This is where I wonder if I had a Logic Analyzer, would I be able to see what the Fez board is doing and compare that with original controller board?

1 Like