
A giant 360 LED clock - mathieupassenau
https://www.mathieupassenaud.fr/ledclock/
======
elFarto
I really like the Equinox Clock[1], which was made before easily available
addressable RGB LED strips, so each LED is individually placed.

[1] [http://www.bramknaapen.com/equinox-
clock/](http://www.bramknaapen.com/equinox-clock/)

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jimmies
I noticed that the you made a config front-end using a web page and claimed
that you're not up to date with web development. Indeed, I do find that it's
unsatisfying to configure IoT devices over the web, although the web is one of
the most compatible solutions. The drawbacks include the fact that if you want
to configure it you always have to be on the same LAN and figure out its IP or
port-forward, but if you port-forward, it will be not very secure due to the
attack surface of the mini web server. Moreover, it's not very elegant for you
or others to programmatically control it.

My interest recently has been on the mqtt protocol, it's like microservices
for IoT. You will need to connect to a middleman mqtt server and hold that
connection. When you want to change something you push the changes to the
middleman mqtt server. It can be local or on the internet, but since the mqtt
server is maintained and updated, it's much easier to secure the mqtt server.
Or you can use someone else's mqtt server as a commodity. The app called "mqtt
dashboard" acts as a client and allows you to draw a number of controls to the
client if you answer a specific request. I think it's suitable for
applications like this. Hackaday has a detailed article about it. I think mqtt
is a great example of a great protocol for the purpose of
controlling/configuring IoT devices.

[https://hackaday.com/2016/05/27/minimal-mqtt-control-and-
cli...](https://hackaday.com/2016/05/27/minimal-mqtt-control-and-clients/)

~~~
deathanatos
> _The drawbacks include the fact that if you want to configure it you always
> have to be on the same LAN and figure out its IP or port-forward, but if you
> port-forward, it will be not very secure due to the attack surface of the
> mini web server._

But MQTT suffers from all of these same drawbacks, does it not? (MQTT is a TCP
based protocol, and will thus suffer the same issues w/ NAT, and has no
security aside from "can be run over TLS" (which I frankly think is okay / the
point of layers of abstraction / I would not encourage re-inventing the TLS
wheel; my point is only that MQTT and HTTP are in the same boat, AFAICT.))

> _Moreover, it 's not very elegant for you or others to programmatically
> control it._

I would think the ecosystem for HTTP vastly outstrips that of MQTT's…

~~~
Scaevolus
No. With MQTT, the client device makes a connection to some _external_ MQTT
server-- AWS, GCP, and Azure all have IoT bridges that speak MQTT.

There's often an equivalent service over HTTP/1.1, where devices occasionally
poll a remote endpoint for commands and to update state-- but without the
persistent connection, you can't do realtime commands.

~~~
gh02t
> AWS, GCP, and Azure all have IoT bridges that speak MQTT.

Also worth noting for the curious that it's very easy to host your own, e.g.
via Mosquitto.

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ebspelman
very awesome! for further inspiration, you might like the work of Craig
Dorety:

[http://craigdorety.com/objects.html](http://craigdorety.com/objects.html)

Once upon a time I made a project with a similar aesthetic, but not quite as
much function (ie it wasn’t a clock):

[http://www.ebspelman.com/#/james-turrell-
turrellevision/](http://www.ebspelman.com/#/james-turrell-turrellevision/)

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dirkc
Love your clock! I'm working on a similar project, mine is currently being
called a disco donut:
[https://www.instagram.com/p/BgZeIDQlA9z/](https://www.instagram.com/p/BgZeIDQlA9z/)

Do you power your LEDs and Raspberry Pi separately, or do you use the same
power supply?

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nomadtwin
We did this a while ago: [https://github.com/thinking-twins/vjo-
dmx/blob/master/README...](https://github.com/thinking-twins/vjo-
dmx/blob/master/README.md)

Might be a good start for creatives without coding background as it is a
Visualjockey Gold plugin.

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bootmagic
This project reminds me of
[https://www.thelightclock.com/](https://www.thelightclock.com/) where the
time is displayed by blended colors. Maybe this project could have a similar
setting?

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spdustin
I’ve had several strips of these just waiting for the perfect project. Anyone
else have any interesting ideas for weekend projects using addressable LEDs?

~~~
anfractuosity
[https://www.anfractuosity.com/projects/painting-a-
christmas-...](https://www.anfractuosity.com/projects/painting-a-christmas-
tree/) \- I created a little system to 'paint' my Christmas tree using these
addressable LEDs.

The tree could be wrapped with the LED strips then the position of the LEDs
was obtained using a camera (as they pulse out an ID).

I then created a little Flask app, that ran on the same Raspberry Pi which
controlled the LED strips, which let people paint the tree via a website.

~~~
abecedarius
That's cool! And reminds me I'd like to see something like
[http://wry.me/hacking/moirexmas.html](http://wry.me/hacking/moirexmas.html)
on a real Christmas tree.

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acobster
Very cool!

One small quibble: why is the /bright endpoint a GET? GET should never have
side effects. :)

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olskool
Beautiful!

I had not heard about this kind of addressable LEDs but now I'm inspired to
think of my own projects.

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proee
Here's a similar IoT LED clock my friend is working on.

[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1926284625/96766872](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1926284625/96766872)

