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Friday, January 30, 2015

Office name plate using Arduino Nano, LED backpacks (Adafruit)

My laboratory/office is located in the basement of Biology Department building which is difficult to find because there are many offices. I decided to make my name plate to be more visible using Arduino and LED packs.

- List of items
  1. Arduino Nano (Here)
  2. 4 character LED (Here)
  3. 8x8 LED matrix (Here)
  4. Power adapter
  5. Jumper wires
  6. Breadboard
  7. Potentiometer
I also used CNC router (from HackRVA) to carve my name and spaces for the LED matrix.
Matt, helping me to carve my first CNC project
Then, I connected Arduino Nano with the two LED backpacks.
Testing LEDs
 It turns out that the 8*8 LED backpack is way more powerful (or functional) than I originally thought because I can scroll a sentence (although I don't know how many characters I can use).

I use a potentiometer to control the display.
The window is not really clear transparent but still I can see my name and LED characters clearly.

I thank Aron, Matt, and other HackRVA members for helping me to build, learn, and do electronic work!