As Wordpress gains more features it is also gaining more bugs! I am getting annoyed with some of the bugs as they do not make a lot of sense. The most annoying one is that if some text is bold and you change the font color the font color remains black in the editor screen, but it has the correct color in the actual web page.
Here are there bugs I have found so far.
1. The items picture sometimes replaces the header picture. This was meant to be a feature, avoid using large images that may get cropped and used to replace the header image or delete a few lines of code to prevent this from happening.
2. 'Strong' overrides 'Font Color=' in editor (Text appears to be black), but it appears correctly on actual web pages.
3. 'Remove featured image' does not work unless you go into 'media' and delete the image. Otherwise the thumbnail image will be the one you tried to remove.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Wordpress and Twenty Ten Header Image Bug Fixed!
Houston we have a problem! There is a bug whereby randomly the header image changes to be an image from the item or post that you are currently viewing. What causes it is some code in Twenty Ten that looks for an image that has the same dimensions as your header image. If it finds one it will then make that into the header image.
The solution is to edit the Twenty Ten Header file (header.php) to remove the entire PHP IF, ELSE and ENDIF statement as can be seen in the image below. With this modification the header image will not change from the one that you have set up as your header image.
On the other hand if you want to take advantage of this code you just need to make images the same size as your header and include them in your post. Actually for some reason that sometimes happens because every now and then it crops the image to be the right size. I have not yet determined why that happens.
On the other hand if you want to take advantage of this code you just need to make images the same size as your header and include them in your post. Actually for some reason that sometimes happens because every now and then it crops the image to be the right size. I have not yet determined why that happens.
Monday, May 16, 2011
Silent Radio LED Sign Part 4
There are at least three solutions for the brightness problem.
One solution lays in the cathode drivers. There are brown resistor arrays consisting of 100 ohm resistors in series with the cathodes of the LED arrays. They can be bypassed with 10 ohm resistors. The arrays go every other pin so the replacement resistors can be jumpered in on the back side of the board from pin 1 to 2 then next resistor goes from pin 3 to pin 4 , etc. You would need to do this like 90 times to fix the brightness problem that way.
Another solution lays in the Anode drivers. If you add a ULN2003, then a PNP driver like the TIP125 you can then deliver much more voltage to the anodes. With the Tip120's there is 5 volts on the collectors, 5 volts to the base but only 4 volts is delivered to the anodes of the LED arrays because of the Base-Emitter voltage drop. Even if you increase the power supply to 8 volts the NPN drives still only send 4 volts on the the LED arrays. I tried using a PNP driver and i tried using FET's to no avail as long as the power supply is still at 5 volts. So you need to change the driver configuration to a ULN2003 to a 1 k resistor to a TIP125 driver. The emitter goes to a 8 or 9 volt at 2 amps power supply and the collector goes to the LED arrays. That also means that the driver transistors cannot be on a common heat sink.
Then I came up with what might be the best solution, a 4017! It runs off 9 volts and can connect to the Arduino for reset and clock. By not using output 1 of the 4017 a reset can be used to blank the display then we clock the 4017 to the row that you want to light up. I have wired it up and am working on the necessary software changes.
Here is the schematic:
Here is a picture of the controller with the 4017 added. So far the maximum operating voltage is 6 volts at 7 volts it stops working for some reason? Problem solved, it was a bad AC adapter, it runs fine on 9 volts at 2 amps. If you try 10 volts the shift registers stop because the clock and data levels are too low.
To get it to fit back into the aluminum cabinet I had to move the Arduino down below the brown circuit board. Otherwise it scrapes the top of the aluminum and shorts out.
Here is a video of it running.
Here is the code to make it work with the 4017. Note that I turned the sign upside down so the greeen arrays are on the left for this version of the code.
//**************************************************************//
// Name : Silent Radio Driver with 4017 //
// Author : Bob Davis //
// Date : 20 June, 2011 //
// Version : 1.0 //
// Based on work of Hari Wiguna - http://g33k.blogspot.com/ //
//****************************************************************
// Pins for the 4017 Row select
int RowReset = 3;
int RowClock = 2;
// Pins for the Column shift registers
int clockPin = 4;
int dataPin = 5;
// Set the pins to output to the circuit
void setup() {
pinMode(clockPin, OUTPUT);
pinMode(dataPin, OUTPUT);
pinMode(RowReset, OUTPUT);
pinMode(RowClock, OUTPUT);
}
//=== B I T M A P ===
//Bits in this array represents one LED of the matrix
// 8 is # of rows, 7 is # of LED matrix we have
byte bitmap[8][12]; // Change the 12 to however many matrices you want to use.
int numZones = sizeof(bitmap) / 8;
// I will refer to each group of 8 columns (represented by one matrix) as a Zone.
int maxZoneIndex = numZones-1;
int numCols = numZones * 8;
//=== F O N T ===
// Font courtesy of aspro648
// http://www.arduino.cc/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1203747843/22
// The @ will display as space character.
byte alphabets[][5] = {
{0,0,0,0,0},
{31, 40, 72, 40, 31},
{127, 73, 73, 73, 54},
{62, 65, 65, 65, 34},
{127, 65, 65, 34, 28},
{127, 73, 73, 65, 65},
{127, 72, 72, 72, 64},
{62, 65, 65, 69, 38},
{127, 8, 8, 8, 127},
{0, 65, 127, 65, 0},
{2, 1, 1, 1, 126},
{127, 8, 20, 34, 65},
{127, 1, 1, 1, 1},
{127, 32, 16, 32, 127},
{127, 48, 24, 12, 127},
{62, 65, 65, 65, 62},
{127, 72, 72, 72, 48},
{62, 65, 69, 66, 61},
{127, 72, 76, 74, 49},
{50, 73, 73, 73, 38},
{64, 64, 127, 64, 64},
{126, 1, 1, 1, 126},
{124, 2, 1, 2, 124},
{126, 1, 6, 1, 126},
{99, 20, 8, 20, 99},
{96, 16, 15, 16, 96},
{67, 69, 73, 81, 97},
};
//=== F U N C T I O N S ===
// This routine takes whats in the array and display it on the matrix
void RefreshDisplay()
{
for (int row = 0; row < 8; row++) {
//-- turn off the display --
// if (row==1) {
digitalWrite (RowReset, HIGH);
digitalWrite (RowReset, LOW);
// }
//-- Shift out to each matrix (zone is 8 columns represented by one matrix)
for (int zone = maxZoneIndex; zone >= 0; zone--) {
shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, bitmap[row][zone]);
}
//-- turn the current row on --
for (int rowclk = row; rowclk > 0; rowclk--) {
digitalWrite (RowClock, LOW);
digitalWrite (RowClock, HIGH);
}
//-- Wait a little bit to get more brightness --
delayMicroseconds(1000);
}
}
// Converts row and colum to actual bitmap bit and turn it off/on
void Plot(int col, int row, bool isOn)
{
int zone = col / 8;
int colBitIndex = col % 8;
byte colBit = 1 << colBitIndex;
if (isOn)
bitmap[row][zone] = bitmap[row][zone] | colBit;
else
bitmap[row][zone] = bitmap[row][zone] & (~colBit);
}
// Plot each character of the message one column at a time, updated the display, shift bitmap left.
void AlphabetSoup()
{
char msg[] = " ARDUINO LED SIGN ";
for (int charIndex=0; charIndex < (sizeof(msg)-1); charIndex++)
{
int alphabetIndex = msg[charIndex] - '@';
if (alphabetIndex < 0) alphabetIndex=0;
//-- Draw one character of the message --
for (int col = 0; col < 6; col++)
{
for (int row = 0; row < 8; row++)
{
// Set the pixel to the alphabet for columns 0 thru 4
bool isOn = 0;
if (col<5) isOn = bitRead( alphabets[alphabetIndex][col], 7-row ) == 1;
Plot( numCols-1, row, isOn);
}
//-- The more times you repeat this loop, the slower we would scroll --
for (int refreshCount=0; refreshCount < 20; refreshCount++)
RefreshDisplay();
//-- Shift the bitmap one column to left --
for (int row=0; row<8; row++)
{
for (int zone=0; zone < numZones; zone++)
{
// This right shift would show a left scroll on display.
bitmap[row][zone] = bitmap[row][zone] >> 1;
// Roll over lowest bit from the next zone as highest bit of this zone.
if (zone < maxZoneIndex) bitWrite(bitmap[row][zone], 7, bitRead(bitmap[row][zone+1],0));
}
}
}
}
}
//=== L O O P ===
void loop() {
AlphabetSoup();
}
One solution lays in the cathode drivers. There are brown resistor arrays consisting of 100 ohm resistors in series with the cathodes of the LED arrays. They can be bypassed with 10 ohm resistors. The arrays go every other pin so the replacement resistors can be jumpered in on the back side of the board from pin 1 to 2 then next resistor goes from pin 3 to pin 4 , etc. You would need to do this like 90 times to fix the brightness problem that way.
Another solution lays in the Anode drivers. If you add a ULN2003, then a PNP driver like the TIP125 you can then deliver much more voltage to the anodes. With the Tip120's there is 5 volts on the collectors, 5 volts to the base but only 4 volts is delivered to the anodes of the LED arrays because of the Base-Emitter voltage drop. Even if you increase the power supply to 8 volts the NPN drives still only send 4 volts on the the LED arrays. I tried using a PNP driver and i tried using FET's to no avail as long as the power supply is still at 5 volts. So you need to change the driver configuration to a ULN2003 to a 1 k resistor to a TIP125 driver. The emitter goes to a 8 or 9 volt at 2 amps power supply and the collector goes to the LED arrays. That also means that the driver transistors cannot be on a common heat sink.
Then I came up with what might be the best solution, a 4017! It runs off 9 volts and can connect to the Arduino for reset and clock. By not using output 1 of the 4017 a reset can be used to blank the display then we clock the 4017 to the row that you want to light up. I have wired it up and am working on the necessary software changes.
Here is the schematic:
Here is a picture of the controller with the 4017 added. So far the maximum operating voltage is 6 volts at 7 volts it stops working for some reason? Problem solved, it was a bad AC adapter, it runs fine on 9 volts at 2 amps. If you try 10 volts the shift registers stop because the clock and data levels are too low.
Here is a video of it running.
Here is the code to make it work with the 4017. Note that I turned the sign upside down so the greeen arrays are on the left for this version of the code.
//**************************************************************//
// Name : Silent Radio Driver with 4017 //
// Author : Bob Davis //
// Date : 20 June, 2011 //
// Version : 1.0 //
// Based on work of Hari Wiguna - http://g33k.blogspot.com/ //
//****************************************************************
// Pins for the 4017 Row select
int RowReset = 3;
int RowClock = 2;
// Pins for the Column shift registers
int clockPin = 4;
int dataPin = 5;
// Set the pins to output to the circuit
void setup() {
pinMode(clockPin, OUTPUT);
pinMode(dataPin, OUTPUT);
pinMode(RowReset, OUTPUT);
pinMode(RowClock, OUTPUT);
}
//=== B I T M A P ===
//Bits in this array represents one LED of the matrix
// 8 is # of rows, 7 is # of LED matrix we have
byte bitmap[8][12]; // Change the 12 to however many matrices you want to use.
int numZones = sizeof(bitmap) / 8;
// I will refer to each group of 8 columns (represented by one matrix) as a Zone.
int maxZoneIndex = numZones-1;
int numCols = numZones * 8;
//=== F O N T ===
// Font courtesy of aspro648
// http://www.arduino.cc/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1203747843/22
// The @ will display as space character.
byte alphabets[][5] = {
{0,0,0,0,0},
{31, 40, 72, 40, 31},
{127, 73, 73, 73, 54},
{62, 65, 65, 65, 34},
{127, 65, 65, 34, 28},
{127, 73, 73, 65, 65},
{127, 72, 72, 72, 64},
{62, 65, 65, 69, 38},
{127, 8, 8, 8, 127},
{0, 65, 127, 65, 0},
{2, 1, 1, 1, 126},
{127, 8, 20, 34, 65},
{127, 1, 1, 1, 1},
{127, 32, 16, 32, 127},
{127, 48, 24, 12, 127},
{62, 65, 65, 65, 62},
{127, 72, 72, 72, 48},
{62, 65, 69, 66, 61},
{127, 72, 76, 74, 49},
{50, 73, 73, 73, 38},
{64, 64, 127, 64, 64},
{126, 1, 1, 1, 126},
{124, 2, 1, 2, 124},
{126, 1, 6, 1, 126},
{99, 20, 8, 20, 99},
{96, 16, 15, 16, 96},
{67, 69, 73, 81, 97},
};
//=== F U N C T I O N S ===
// This routine takes whats in the array and display it on the matrix
void RefreshDisplay()
{
for (int row = 0; row < 8; row++) {
//-- turn off the display --
// if (row==1) {
digitalWrite (RowReset, HIGH);
digitalWrite (RowReset, LOW);
// }
//-- Shift out to each matrix (zone is 8 columns represented by one matrix)
for (int zone = maxZoneIndex; zone >= 0; zone--) {
shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, bitmap[row][zone]);
}
//-- turn the current row on --
for (int rowclk = row; rowclk > 0; rowclk--) {
digitalWrite (RowClock, LOW);
digitalWrite (RowClock, HIGH);
}
//-- Wait a little bit to get more brightness --
delayMicroseconds(1000);
}
}
// Converts row and colum to actual bitmap bit and turn it off/on
void Plot(int col, int row, bool isOn)
{
int zone = col / 8;
int colBitIndex = col % 8;
byte colBit = 1 << colBitIndex;
if (isOn)
bitmap[row][zone] = bitmap[row][zone] | colBit;
else
bitmap[row][zone] = bitmap[row][zone] & (~colBit);
}
// Plot each character of the message one column at a time, updated the display, shift bitmap left.
void AlphabetSoup()
{
char msg[] = " ARDUINO LED SIGN ";
for (int charIndex=0; charIndex < (sizeof(msg)-1); charIndex++)
{
int alphabetIndex = msg[charIndex] - '@';
if (alphabetIndex < 0) alphabetIndex=0;
//-- Draw one character of the message --
for (int col = 0; col < 6; col++)
{
for (int row = 0; row < 8; row++)
{
// Set the pixel to the alphabet for columns 0 thru 4
bool isOn = 0;
if (col<5) isOn = bitRead( alphabets[alphabetIndex][col], 7-row ) == 1;
Plot( numCols-1, row, isOn);
}
//-- The more times you repeat this loop, the slower we would scroll --
for (int refreshCount=0; refreshCount < 20; refreshCount++)
RefreshDisplay();
//-- Shift the bitmap one column to left --
for (int row=0; row<8; row++)
{
for (int zone=0; zone < numZones; zone++)
{
// This right shift would show a left scroll on display.
bitmap[row][zone] = bitmap[row][zone] >> 1;
// Roll over lowest bit from the next zone as highest bit of this zone.
if (zone < maxZoneIndex) bitWrite(bitmap[row][zone], 7, bitRead(bitmap[row][zone+1],0));
}
}
}
}
}
//=== L O O P ===
void loop() {
AlphabetSoup();
}
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Silent Radio LED Sign Part 3
Its up and running! I am cleaning up the code some before posting it here. This is what it looks like with the Arduino all connected up. All it takes is the 7 driver transistors to interface it to the sign.
The biggest problem now is that the display is too dim. The problem relates to the fact that I am using 5 volts at 2.5 amps to power everything. The Positive Row drivers should have about 7 or 8 volts on them. The code was borrowed from http://g33k.blogspot.com/2010/02/arduino-56x8-scrolling-led-matrix.html and heavily modified to work with the silent radio sign. I am awaiting his permission to post it here.
I used the serial out test program that is available on the Arduino web site to make a simple test program to check everything out. With that serial output test program you should see lines top to bottom representing the binary values of 1 to 255, they repeat across the sign each 8 LED's has a binary number that is one lower that the one to its left.
Here is the video of it working on YouTube:
Here is the schematic, I am currently running the TIP120 Transistors on 5 volts because if you use 8 volts they get too hot, but the display gets brighter. Another solution might be to use an IC or FET's instead.
Here is the test code to make it all work:
//************************************************************//
// Name : Silent Radio Driver //
// Author : Bob Davis //
// Date : 25 April, 2011 //
// Version : 1.0 //
// Based on the work of Hari Wiguna - http://g33k.blogspot.com/ //
//*************************************************************
// Pins for the row drivers
int row1Pin = 1;
int row2Pin = 2;
int row3Pin = 3;
int row4Pin = 4;
int row5Pin = 5;
int row6Pin = 6;
int row7Pin = 7;
// Pins for column shift registers
int clockPin = 8;
int dataPin = 9;
// Set the pins to output to the circuit
void setup() {
pinMode(clockPin, OUTPUT);
pinMode(dataPin, OUTPUT);
pinMode(row1Pin, OUTPUT);
pinMode(row2Pin, OUTPUT);
pinMode(row3Pin, OUTPUT);
pinMode(row4Pin, OUTPUT);
pinMode(row5Pin, OUTPUT);
pinMode(row6Pin, OUTPUT);
pinMode(row7Pin, OUTPUT);
}
//=== B I T M A P ===
//Bits in this array represents one LED of the matrix
// 8 is # of rows, 7 is # of LED matrix we have
byte bitmap[8][12]; // Change the 7 to however many matrices you want to use.
int numZones = sizeof(bitmap) / 8;
// I will refer to each group of 8 columns (represented by one matrix) as a Zone.
int maxZoneIndex = numZones-1;
int numCols = numZones * 8;
//=== F O N T ===
// Font courtesy of aspro648
// http://www.arduino.cc/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1203747843/22
// First char is @, next is A, B, etc. Only lower case, no symbols.
// The @ will display as space character.
byte alphabets[][5] = {
{0,0,0,0,0},
{31, 36, 68, 36, 31},
{127, 73, 73, 73, 54},
{62, 65, 65, 65, 34},
{127, 65, 65, 34, 28},
{127, 73, 73, 65, 65},
{127, 72, 72, 72, 64},
{62, 65, 65, 69, 38},
{127, 8, 8, 8, 127},
{0, 65, 127, 65, 0},
{2, 1, 1, 1, 126},
{127, 8, 20, 34, 65},
{127, 1, 1, 1, 1},
{127, 32, 16, 32, 127},
{127, 32, 16, 8, 127},
{62, 65, 65, 65, 62},
{127, 72, 72, 72, 48},
{62, 65, 69, 66, 61},
{127, 72, 76, 74, 49},
{50, 73, 73, 73, 38},
{64, 64, 127, 64, 64},
{126, 1, 1, 1, 126},
{124, 2, 1, 2, 124},
{126, 1, 6, 1, 126},
{99, 20, 8, 20, 99},
{96, 16, 15, 16, 96},
{67, 69, 73, 81, 97},
};
//=== F U N C T I O N S ===
// This routine takes whatever we've setup in the bitmap array and display it on the matrix
void RefreshDisplay()
{
for (int row = 0; row < 8; row++) {
//-- turn off the display --
digitalWrite(row1Pin, LOW);
digitalWrite(row2Pin, LOW);
digitalWrite(row3Pin, LOW);
digitalWrite(row4Pin, LOW);
digitalWrite(row5Pin, LOW);
digitalWrite(row6Pin, LOW);
digitalWrite(row7Pin, LOW);
//-- Shift out to each matrix (zone is 8 columns represented by one matrix)
for (int zone = maxZoneIndex; zone >= 0; zone--) {
shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, bitmap[row][zone]);
}
//-- turn the current row on --
if (row == 1) digitalWrite (row1Pin, HIGH);
if (row == 2) digitalWrite (row2Pin, HIGH);
if (row == 3) digitalWrite (row3Pin, HIGH);
if (row == 4) digitalWrite (row4Pin, HIGH);
if (row == 5) digitalWrite (row5Pin, HIGH);
if (row == 6) digitalWrite (row6Pin, HIGH);
if (row == 7) digitalWrite (row7Pin, HIGH);
//-- Wait a little bit to let humans see what we've pushed out onto the matrix --
delayMicroseconds(500);
}
}
// Converts row and colum to actual bitmap bit and turn it off/on
void Plot(int col, int row, bool isOn)
{
int zone = col / 8;
int colBitIndex = col % 8;
byte colBit = 1 << colBitIndex;
if (isOn)
bitmap[row][zone] = bitmap[row][zone] | colBit;
else
bitmap[row][zone] = bitmap[row][zone] & (~colBit);
}
// Plot each character of the message one column at a time, updated the display, shift bitmap left.
void AlphabetSoup()
{
char msg[] = "ARDUINO LED SIGN";
//OLD-for (int charIndex=0; charIndex < (sizeof(msg)-1); charIndex++)
for (int charIndex=(sizeof(msg)-1); charIndex >= 0 ; charIndex--)
{
int alphabetIndex = msg[charIndex] - '@';
if (alphabetIndex < 0) alphabetIndex=0;
//-- Draw one character of the message --
// Each character is only 5 columns wide
//OLD-for (int col = 0; col < 7; col++)
for (int col = 5; col >= 0; col--)
{
for (int row = 0; row < 8; row++)
{
// Set the pixel to the alphabet for columns 0 thru 4
bool isOn = 0;
if (col<5) isOn = bitRead( alphabets[alphabetIndex][col], 7-row ) == 1;
Plot( numCols-1, row, isOn);
}
//-- The more times you repeat this loop, the slower we would scroll --
for (int refreshCount=0; refreshCount < 50; refreshCount++)
RefreshDisplay();
//-- Shift the bitmap one column to left --
for (int row=0; row<8; row++)
{
//OLD-for (int zone=numZones; zone > 0; zone--)
for (int zone=0; zone < numZones; zone++)
{
// This right shift would show a left scroll on display.
bitmap[row][zone] = bitmap[row][zone] >> 1;
// Roll over lowest bit from the next zone as highest bit of this zone.
if (zone < maxZoneIndex) bitWrite(bitmap[row][zone], 7, bitRead(bitmap[row][zone+1],0));
}
}
}
}
}
//=== L O O P ===
void loop() {
AlphabetSoup();
}
Here is the video of it working on YouTube:
Here is the schematic, I am currently running the TIP120 Transistors on 5 volts because if you use 8 volts they get too hot, but the display gets brighter. Another solution might be to use an IC or FET's instead.
Here is the test code to make it all work:
//************************************************************//
// Name : Silent Radio Driver //
// Author : Bob Davis //
// Date : 25 April, 2011 //
// Version : 1.0 //
// Based on the work of Hari Wiguna - http://g33k.blogspot.com/ //
//*************************************************************
// Pins for the row drivers
int row1Pin = 1;
int row2Pin = 2;
int row3Pin = 3;
int row4Pin = 4;
int row5Pin = 5;
int row6Pin = 6;
int row7Pin = 7;
// Pins for column shift registers
int clockPin = 8;
int dataPin = 9;
// Set the pins to output to the circuit
void setup() {
pinMode(clockPin, OUTPUT);
pinMode(dataPin, OUTPUT);
pinMode(row1Pin, OUTPUT);
pinMode(row2Pin, OUTPUT);
pinMode(row3Pin, OUTPUT);
pinMode(row4Pin, OUTPUT);
pinMode(row5Pin, OUTPUT);
pinMode(row6Pin, OUTPUT);
pinMode(row7Pin, OUTPUT);
}
//=== B I T M A P ===
//Bits in this array represents one LED of the matrix
// 8 is # of rows, 7 is # of LED matrix we have
byte bitmap[8][12]; // Change the 7 to however many matrices you want to use.
int numZones = sizeof(bitmap) / 8;
// I will refer to each group of 8 columns (represented by one matrix) as a Zone.
int maxZoneIndex = numZones-1;
int numCols = numZones * 8;
//=== F O N T ===
// Font courtesy of aspro648
// http://www.arduino.cc/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1203747843/22
// First char is @, next is A, B, etc. Only lower case, no symbols.
// The @ will display as space character.
byte alphabets[][5] = {
{0,0,0,0,0},
{31, 36, 68, 36, 31},
{127, 73, 73, 73, 54},
{62, 65, 65, 65, 34},
{127, 65, 65, 34, 28},
{127, 73, 73, 65, 65},
{127, 72, 72, 72, 64},
{62, 65, 65, 69, 38},
{127, 8, 8, 8, 127},
{0, 65, 127, 65, 0},
{2, 1, 1, 1, 126},
{127, 8, 20, 34, 65},
{127, 1, 1, 1, 1},
{127, 32, 16, 32, 127},
{127, 32, 16, 8, 127},
{62, 65, 65, 65, 62},
{127, 72, 72, 72, 48},
{62, 65, 69, 66, 61},
{127, 72, 76, 74, 49},
{50, 73, 73, 73, 38},
{64, 64, 127, 64, 64},
{126, 1, 1, 1, 126},
{124, 2, 1, 2, 124},
{126, 1, 6, 1, 126},
{99, 20, 8, 20, 99},
{96, 16, 15, 16, 96},
{67, 69, 73, 81, 97},
};
//=== F U N C T I O N S ===
// This routine takes whatever we've setup in the bitmap array and display it on the matrix
void RefreshDisplay()
{
for (int row = 0; row < 8; row++) {
//-- turn off the display --
digitalWrite(row1Pin, LOW);
digitalWrite(row2Pin, LOW);
digitalWrite(row3Pin, LOW);
digitalWrite(row4Pin, LOW);
digitalWrite(row5Pin, LOW);
digitalWrite(row6Pin, LOW);
digitalWrite(row7Pin, LOW);
//-- Shift out to each matrix (zone is 8 columns represented by one matrix)
for (int zone = maxZoneIndex; zone >= 0; zone--) {
shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, bitmap[row][zone]);
}
//-- turn the current row on --
if (row == 1) digitalWrite (row1Pin, HIGH);
if (row == 2) digitalWrite (row2Pin, HIGH);
if (row == 3) digitalWrite (row3Pin, HIGH);
if (row == 4) digitalWrite (row4Pin, HIGH);
if (row == 5) digitalWrite (row5Pin, HIGH);
if (row == 6) digitalWrite (row6Pin, HIGH);
if (row == 7) digitalWrite (row7Pin, HIGH);
//-- Wait a little bit to let humans see what we've pushed out onto the matrix --
delayMicroseconds(500);
}
}
// Converts row and colum to actual bitmap bit and turn it off/on
void Plot(int col, int row, bool isOn)
{
int zone = col / 8;
int colBitIndex = col % 8;
byte colBit = 1 << colBitIndex;
if (isOn)
bitmap[row][zone] = bitmap[row][zone] | colBit;
else
bitmap[row][zone] = bitmap[row][zone] & (~colBit);
}
// Plot each character of the message one column at a time, updated the display, shift bitmap left.
void AlphabetSoup()
{
char msg[] = "ARDUINO LED SIGN";
//OLD-for (int charIndex=0; charIndex < (sizeof(msg)-1); charIndex++)
for (int charIndex=(sizeof(msg)-1); charIndex >= 0 ; charIndex--)
{
int alphabetIndex = msg[charIndex] - '@';
if (alphabetIndex < 0) alphabetIndex=0;
//-- Draw one character of the message --
// Each character is only 5 columns wide
//OLD-for (int col = 0; col < 7; col++)
for (int col = 5; col >= 0; col--)
{
for (int row = 0; row < 8; row++)
{
// Set the pixel to the alphabet for columns 0 thru 4
bool isOn = 0;
if (col<5) isOn = bitRead( alphabets[alphabetIndex][col], 7-row ) == 1;
Plot( numCols-1, row, isOn);
}
//-- The more times you repeat this loop, the slower we would scroll --
for (int refreshCount=0; refreshCount < 50; refreshCount++)
RefreshDisplay();
//-- Shift the bitmap one column to left --
for (int row=0; row<8; row++)
{
//OLD-for (int zone=numZones; zone > 0; zone--)
for (int zone=0; zone < numZones; zone++)
{
// This right shift would show a left scroll on display.
bitmap[row][zone] = bitmap[row][zone] >> 1;
// Roll over lowest bit from the next zone as highest bit of this zone.
if (zone < maxZoneIndex) bitWrite(bitmap[row][zone], 7, bitRead(bitmap[row][zone+1],0));
}
}
}
}
}
//=== L O O P ===
void loop() {
AlphabetSoup();
}
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Gateway W350 over heating and turning off
As you may already know I maintain a few gateway W350's. This one was shutting down every few minutes and running very hot.
Underneath the laptop there is a big cover that comes off with just one screw. Under there there is a cooling fan that comes apart by removing 4 tiny screws. Once the fan is dissembled you might see something like this:
Needless to say cleaning out the heat sink fixed the problem.......
Underneath the laptop there is a big cover that comes off with just one screw. Under there there is a cooling fan that comes apart by removing 4 tiny screws. Once the fan is dissembled you might see something like this:
Needless to say cleaning out the heat sink fixed the problem.......
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