Is it all done in NETMF or is any of it in RLP?
All top end - NETMF.
To be clear - all the ones on my site are old school arduino controllers. The FEZ is steaming - much heavier duty - and it is all NETMF.
Speaking of FFT:
[url]http://www.eetimes.com/electrical-engineers/education-training/webinars/4218805/FFT-and-frequency-analysis-using-an-oscilloscope[/url]
I was thinking of starting a new thread but this one is cozy so I’ll post one more link here. I did mention I would add more videos and someone asked - so here it is.
I am pretty sure I’ll be FEZerizing (or whatever the official term is) the LED suit in the below videos. A Domino with USB host will help make this robot suit easily controllable with various devices.
Here is a video that describes the physical build of the suit.
- This is also posted on the arduino forum as it is currently being run on that platform.
The above video is only a single color pattern since it was a discussion on build. Here is the initial video, in backwards order like star wars, which shows some patterns.
I realize it seems I am straying away from the original thread, but this type of suit is exactly what my product line is designed to do. Our controllers and expertise can help DIY and/or artist types to create cool stuff without it turning into a hard to pull off electronics project. So from that perspective I hope this response is in line with the spirit of this thread.
On that note, just yesterday we shipped our first LED matrix kit to our pilot customer. It is actually two matrix kits … a 1000 led matrix kit and a 300 led development matrix kit - each with a FEZ Panda II based controller with a Java API for steaming and emulation. We also have a basic .net version of the streaming / emulator API as well not being used by this pilot customer.
Note: A final decision to use FEZ for a release product has yet to be made but price for performance it has yet to be beat for projects that need over 500 LEDs.
Thank again to FEZ and the community for such rock solid products and support.
Sweet! My kids would flip if I showed up on Halloween with one of those. Thanks for sharing!
I want one for xmas! or maybe now! 
I want it for Halloween!
so with all those leds, you can probably get us a good deal on the 5050 RGB led boards 
Yes but I don’t want to be known / seen as a spammer. I am not here to sell my products and normally do not sell the version you saw in the video that looks like a little board. That is the “naked” version and it can be tricky to deal with. The stress points are solder joints and with no protection there are too many ways to kill one of these things to the general public without some serious warnings and handling instructions.
I suggest using the type that has waterproofing. The cost is the same, just the amount of space needed changes. I found this type is best diffused so you end up needing space anyway. I had put up a channel in my living room I just had to fill and had to try them wearable - but they are a serious pain if not needed for that type of purposes.
Each one of the LEDs is a RGB (5050 in this case) along with three resistors and a WS2801 chip the little board and wires already attached. They are not cheap but way less than doing it myself. When I sell these in kit form the price will be around a buck fifty each not including power and controller.
The only place I know outside sparkfun that sells this stuff is bliptronics. I have purchased from them many times and they are great. I do not suggest the older style LPD6803 chips - they are OK but the WS2801 is stellar. I for sure can not beat this price on the specific item below - which is basically the same thing as what is in my video in strip form.
http://www.bliptronics.com/item.aspx?ItemID=128
- In fact I just noticed these and may order some myself.
While you there check out his spectrum analyzer. Sparkfun copied the design but with no pins. I have posted code here on how to use the spectrum analyzer with Panda.
The bliptronics price is nice! While you’re considering LED strips, take a look at Adafruit’s, [url]http://www.adafruit.com/products/306[/url] . It uses the LPD8806 PWM chip, is less expensive than SFs version, and only slightly more than bliptronics.
I got the SF version in a ‘ding and dent’ sale, and wrap it around a 6V lantern battery powered Domino as a ‘light bomb’. Very bright and runs all night! Also works great as a conference badge lanyard.
[edit] digression is good
I recently purchased some Teensy boards from Adafruit and was happy with the transaction.
As far as the LPD8806 chip goes, it looks better than the LPD6803 with 7 bit instead of 5 bit color. 2 million is better than 32K for sure. This must be a new chip as I have never seen or used it. After reading the specs I personally prefer the clean 256 steps (one byte) per color for 16 million colors and no bit conversions, I think it will become the standard for LED control. That said, nice to see new options - thanks for posting.
Also - looking around that site - I see my baby 
- The price in that link is pretty high and not currently available – but that is “the animal”.
Tip: There is also another style that is “stubby” and has a 5050 LED. The one in the above link is a normal “hole through” style RGB LED. The hole through ones are better diffused and best suited when you will actually see the LED. The 5050 style are best when you want to diffuse something as they are brighter for that purpose but not as diffused as the hole through type. There are also larger form factors that are 12V with multiple LEDs per chip and the list goes on and on.
In any event - I have spent thousands on this stuff and tried many solutions and have years of experience. If I can help point someone in the right direction for a specific project I am glad to do so.
I will call you “LED God” from now on. ;D
Just Checked Alibaba,
Has lots of RGB strip tapes.
[url]http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/330504146/ws2801_256_grey_level_led_flexible.html[/url]
[url]http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/396209656/WS_2801_64m_per_Controller_Dream.html[/url]
Looks like its going to be a fun Christmas here 
Both of those are 12v versions and have multiple LEDs per chip. So be sure you know the end result you want and what power you need before you order in bulk. Also when you order power … assure the 110 vs 220 A/C input matches your region.
I prefer the 5v version with individual control over these 12v multiple LEDs per chip models. Just for starters - it is really easy to fry your chips with 12v. Also, if your controller runs on 5v (like most) you can pull your board power directly from the power supply for easy stand alone operation.
After working the the strips I would suggest using them when know exactly what you want to do in advance and know they work for the location. Also, handle them with care. If one light goes sound then you have to chop it out and soldering those “pads” is not a fun task. If it is for outside … you have to re-waterproof it or use for another job / use. The pre-wired pixels are easier to fix, not as fragile, go around corners and provide light placement options you don’t get in the strip.
Just some tips on 12v and LED strips 
I just discovered that Colin Miller at Microsoft has been asking the same question. I’ve inquired to see if he’ll share his results.
I just finished a FEZ product a few weeks ago for a bathymetry-mapping boat. The Panda II (which is buried deep inside the control system) takes two separate data streams from the GPS and sonar and combines them into one, then transmits the depth and position data out via Bluetooth to an operator on shore.
I love how easy it is to do all this via NETMF, instead of mucking around with registers and such in C.
Here’s a video of the end product. You can’t see the Panda itself, but you can at least see the data relays. [url]Oceanscience Z-Boat 1800 Remote Control Hydrographic Survey Boat - Dredging Bathymetry - YouTube
Adrian,
Welcome to the community! That’s an awesome boat! Very cool. I saw something similar on Hack-a-Day(?) a few days ago. I think it was a different one. Yours looks much more polished. Do you use typical ultrasonic rangefinders for finding depth under water or is there something better?
@ Adrian,
Very cool. Out of curiosity, at 1:50 in the video, the grid shows some dots outlining the pond…were those entered manually, or some other way? And how wide is the area the boat is able to map in one pass? Would be pretty cool to be able to automate this in some way, so the boat could be set to map a body of water within a given boundary area, similar to how the Roomba covers an entire room.
Hi!
Glad to be here.
@ devhammer:
The dots were entered manually by the surveyor to designate the boundary of the survey area (point-and-click connect-the-dots, essentially) and was done using a Google Maps overlay. We estimate that with its current set of batteries, the boat can maintain 2 thru 2.5 hours of endurance at 3 knots, so you can estimate area coverage from there. As for control range, with line of sight, it should be able to go out from 750 meters to 1 kilometer, although we find it’s very hard to see beyond 500 meters distance. And yes, automation is our next step!
@ ianlee74:
There are many depth sounders on the market. The particular one we’re using here is an Airmar DT800 sounder. A lot of them follow the NMEA0183 communication protocol, so they are essentially interchangeable. You can choose your frequency, beam width, etc. to be better tailored for your particular application. We chose this sounder for quick-and-easy shallow water surveys. Do you have a link to the boat you saw on hackaday? I know some other guys who do this too, and I’m curious to see if the boat you saw is the same one they’re working on.
I’ve so far been unsuccessful at find it again… I’ll post it if I happen across it again. You would think a search of “boat AND sonar” would only return a couple hits, right… You guys need to come up with a catch unique term for what you’re doing, maybe “autobonar”…