view-board

For our very own AnyPixel.js board

Architecture

Project uses a Teensy 3.2 board to control the WS2812 LED strip and buttons, using serial data to communicate.

Install

To install the library, simply type this into your nearest console:

npm install nopixel

At this point, depending on the distribution, you may note that your computer is slightly unhappy. This is due to the fact that nopixel relies on serialport to get access to, well, the serial port. serialport however, relies on node-gyp which is notoriously hard to build. Therefore I recommend you go to https://github.com/nodejs/node-gyp#installation for your troubleshooting needs.

If installation of nopixel still fails, please run

npm install serialport

Usage

• Flash the firmware found in firmware/arduino_firmware to the Teensy. For this you will need to install Teensyduino
• Create a config.json following this template

   [{
   	"comPort": "/name/of/comPort",
   	"baudRate": "BAUD_RATE"
   }]

• Run node app.js for the example app

Canvas support

This module supports node-canvas. Simply create a 7x7 canvas, then export it to the board using

	var data = ctx.getImageData(0,0,7,7);
	nopixel.fromCanvas(data);
	nopixel.update();

For a working example, look into examples/ConnectFour

API

Events

All nopixel events, with the exception of ready, sends back an object eventDetail with the coordinates of the button press in the form of

var eventDetail = {
	x: 	X-coordinate of the button press (0-6),
	y: 	Y-coordinate of the button press (0-6),
	index: 	Index of the button press (0-48)
}

.on('ready')

Emits when established a connection with the board. Throws an error otherwise.

.on('clicked')

Emits when a button is pressed quickly - aka 'onButtonDown'. Pass an eventDetail object.

.on('pressed')

Emits when a button is held down. Pass an eventDetail object.

.on('released')

Emits when a button is released - aka 'onButtonUp'. Pass an eventDetail object.

.on('idle')

Emits the default state, when nothing is happening. Pass an eventDetail object.

Functions

.setPixel()

nopixel.setPixel(x, y, colorObj)

Where x,y denotes the coordinates on the board (0-6), and colorString is a valid tinyColor2 object. Examples includes string input ("black", "f0f0f6", "rgb (255, 0, 0)", "hsla(0, 100%, 50%, .5)"), or RGB/RGBA/HSL/HSLA/HSV/HSVA objects ({ h: 0, s: 1, l: .5 })

.update()

nopixel.update()

aka render. Pushes and set all changes to LEDs at the same time. This prevents multiple refresh calls to the board and saves clock cycles.

.clear()

nopixel.clear()

Sets all pixels to black, essentially turning them off.

.fromCanvas()

nopixel.fromCanvas(canvasBuffer)

node-canvas integration. Takes in a Canvas buffer and send it to the LEDs.

.write()

nopixel.write(string, colorObj, scrollSpeed)

One of the two text writing functions. .write() is used for anything more than a single letter, and will scroll the text in string, in color colorObj, looping indefinitely at a speed (delay between updates) scrollSpeed.

Passes back a setInterval object. To stop scrolling use the built-in clearInterval().

For more information check out the TextDisplay example.

.writeLetter()

nopixel.writeLetter(letter, colorObj, x, y)

The other text writing function. As opposed to .write(), .writeLetter() as the name suggests, only prints one letter at a time, in color colorObj, starting at coordinates x y.

Fonts configuration is stored in letters.json as two-dimentional arrays, with 1 as filled, and 2 as unfilled - feel free to change them as you see fit.

Opcodes

See commands.md

Future work

[ ] Emulator

[ ] Make an even bigger one!

[ ] Use pre-wired WS2812 instead of manually soldering wires

[ ] Utility buttons?

[ ] Flushed USB port

[ ] getPixelData() function