A Celebration of Visual Artistry Through the Lens of 1024 Pixels' Brightness
In an intriguing fusion of technology and artistry, YouTuber Cleggy has brought a captivating LED matrix to life, transforming the urban landscape with a mesmerizing grayscale visual display. The project, powered by a Raspberry Pi Pico, showcases Cleggy's meticulous engineering skills and creative vision.
At the heart of the LED matrix is a 1000-LED monochrome display, each diode carefully hand-soldered into place. The construction of the matrix is far from a simple plug-and-play job, with D-latches and demultiplexers engineered from the silicon up to control the multiplexed scanning of the matrix's rows and columns.
The visual output of the LED matrix is a symphony of square waves, produced by pulse-width modulation (PWM). This technique allows for grayscale levels by varying the duty cycle of the LEDs' current, resulting in a mesmerizing grayscale visual effect. The Raspberry Pi Pico, acting as the project's main controller, translates intensity values into shimmering time slices for the LED matrix.
The grayscale video data is compressed into CSV files and parsed line-by-line by the Raspberry Pi Pico. This data drives the LED matrix, which refreshes at a rate that appears continuous and smooth to the human eye, creating a captivating display.
Cleggy's LED matrix project is not just a technical feat; it is a highly personal endeavour. Each light show is slightly different, reflecting Cleggy's unique perspective on the world. Some of the light shows are simple, resembling "kid stuff", while others are complex and thought-provoking, serving as an ode to the aesthetic of light.
The video essay by Cleggy is an exploration of this aesthetic, providing a glimpse into the process behind the project and the inspiration that drives it. In essence, Cleggy delivers a project that materializes his way of viewing things into a physical build, offering a new and fascinating way to see and perceive the world around us.
[1] For those interested in replicating this project, the detailed step-by-step technique is typical of projects where a Raspberry Pi Pico drives large LED arrays using multiplexing components such as D-latches and demultiplexers, alongside PWM for brightness control, as described in LED matrix projects similar to Cleggy's build.
Gadget enthusiasts might find an intriguing project in replicating Cleggy's LED matrix, as it involves the utilization of a Raspberry Pi Pico, a popular gadget in data-and-cloud-computing technology. This project, showcasing creative visual effects, also embraces the realm of technology by employing gadgets like LED arrays, D-latches, demultiplexers, and pulse-width modulation.
