Moving on to https://yetifrisstlama.github.io/

I'm moving to github pages.

Newposts will come out on https://yetifrisstlama.github.io/

Current state of Fan-Tas-Tic pinball

The ESP32 Pinball RGB Matrix Animation Clock (Espirgbani)

Displays the time and random DMD animations from various pinball machines. The whole show is run by a single ESP32. The inspiration came from http://run-dmd.com/.

The project on github

https://github.com/yetifrisstlama/Espirgbani

Fan-Tas-Tic Pinball, Part 8, LED - display!!!

I've finally received the 32x32 panels in the mail and started assembling the play-field screen. Seeing this thing come together was a real joy!

I made some brackets from scrap wood to precisely align the LEDs with the pixel grid, which worked out quite well. And yes, no joke, right now the panel is mounted with fishing line.  

 

The panel is driven directly from the GPIO ports of the Raspberry PI. This is possible thanks to hzellers LED library. The 3 ICs on the adapter board are TTL buffers for 3.3 V to 5 V conversion. On the right is the complete Fan-Tas-Tic controller board including all PSUs, mounted on a wooden plank

I'm quite happy with the way it turned out. Especially adding the diffusor sheet from a LCD screen and replacing the window with tinted acrylic gave it exactly the stealth and pixelated look I was after. This is especially obvious in the video below, where I put it all together:

Next step is integrating the screen in the Mission Pinball framework and finally coming up with some  game-rules, graphics and sound-effects.

Hydroponic Veggies Part 3 -- Calibrating the PH probe

Step 1: Buy calibrated PH buffer solution (at least 2 different reference points are needed)

Step 2: Dip the probe in, log the raw values

Step 3: Install Python and calculate correction values

Here's the Jupyter Notebook I used for that purpose

 

Hydroponic Veggies Part 2 -- The water level sensor

The initial idea was to stick a VL53L0X TOF distance sensor to the reservoir lid and get the water level from there.

Didn't work out. Not enough light reflected from the water surface lead to super flaky readings. What did work out in the end is this ...

Fan-Tas-Tic Pinball, Part 7, Back to a LED - display!

The original Fan-Tas-Tic machine had a mechanical roulette wheel assembly, visible through a window in the middle of the playing field. For some time now I had it replaced with a 1280x720 LCD panel.

 

However, I'm not completely happy with this configuration and recently decided, the LCD panel has to go!