u/-2811

The Pi 5 is the brain. It runs Python, holds all the modes (ambient, data-driven, event-reactive, and the touch mode you're seeing in the video), and talks to 2 Adafruit Feather RP2040 Scorpio boards over USB serial with a custom binary protocol. The Scorpios are dumb pixel pushers, they just take the frames the Pi sends and drive ~800 RGBW LEDs across 16 parallel channels using NeoPXL8 (PIO + DMA). Those were too many channels to drive from just the pi even though, in retrospect, I could have just put the LEDs in series.

Originally, I thought that I could do it without a pi. But having a central brain that can calculate the position needed and push it to the right microcontroller, interact with APIs and on which you can host a LAN control panel is just such a life savior. Main problem I ran into is heat. In a closed box with that many LEDs, the Pi was heating up really fast. So I made a passive heat sink with a few aluminium corner brackets and installed 2 fans to pull air from the bottom and push it out from the top!

Other point, originally, I wanted to use a switch with ethernet connection but I found out that USB can be more than quick enough for that type of application!

Each of the 179 acrylic cuboids maps 1:1 to a real 100m x 100m cell of Monaco. Elevation data pulled from Copernicus, building heights from OpenStreetMap, gridded in QGIS.

In the clip I'm using the touch mode via a Flask panel on my phone, tap anywhere on the map, ripple spawns at that lat/lng :)

I have the full build video were more code and details are shared : https://youtu.be/-wLMfcOFt5M

Just finished this build after a few months of work. It's a physical 3D map of Monaco made of 179 hand-cut PMMA cuboids, each individually lit and driven live off real-time event data (Grand Prix weekend lights the circuit red, yacht show lights the harbor blue, etc.).

Hardware:

• around 800 RGBW LEDs across 16 channels, ~10m total, hand-cut and soldered
• 2x Adafruit Feather RP2040 Scorpio boards (8 chanels each via NeoPXL8, PIO+DMA)
• Raspberry Pi 5 as the master controller
• 2x Meanwell PSUs, 2x fuseboxes
• 2020 aluminum extrusion frame, birch ply shell, laser-cut stainless top plate

Software:

• Pi runs Python, talks to both Scorpios over USB serial
• Custom binary framed protocol: start byte, length, payload, checksum. Scorpios push the info sent by the Pi
• Mode system (ambient, data, event-reactive, touch) with crossfaded transitions
• Flask operator panel on LAN, phone-controllable
• Data pipeline: elevation from Copernicus (via a weather API bc institutional access wasn't realistic), building heights from OSM, gridded around 90m x 9m in QGIS, mapped 1:1 to the cuboids

Originally built the LED driver stack on Olimex boards, industrial-looking, PoE, seemed ideal. In practice: constant flashing failures and random crashes that ate a couple weeks of the schedule. Swapped everything to the Adafruit Scorpio boards and it's been rock solid since. Not the answer I expected going in.

full build : https://youtu.be/-wLMfcOFt5M

This year, after years abroad I came back to Monaco and created this interactive installation. From the design to the electronics and coding, I spent a few months putting this piece together. The pillars of light are made of acrylic, cut and sanded by hand, every pillar is proportional to the height of the actual terrain of the city! Each of them can light up independently thanks to addressable LEDs!
I would love to know what you think :)

hey monaco subreddit,

born and grew up in Monaco, worked around Europe and came back recently to build this. A 1.3m x 90cm x 90cm interactive sculpture as a testament to the Principality's beautiful territory. It reacts to touch, events, weather and time!
All made by hand with high end materials.

Got it booked for a couple of HNWI events. Let me know what you think :)

Frank Stephenson designer of the Mini explaining how he designed the iconic BMW Mini Cooper design language.

You can follow his Youtube channel here https://www.youtube.com/@frankstephensondesign

Following internal review of user adherence data, the Q2 build cycle introduced an ankle-mounted feedback module that delivers a corrective TENS pulse when the athlete fails to strike the rhythm cue. Early field testing with the Spermator 3000 (our flagship model) indicates a measurable reduction in off-beat repetitions and a measurable increase in panic-driven repetitions. Net engagement is up. Form is down. Investigation ongoing.

Last year, after receiving a second edition tamagotchi rerun as a birthday present, I decided to use my 3D printing and electronic skills to good use! After a few months of work, my giant tamagotchis were born! Just like the original, it has minigames, stats and many ways for it to die!

Setup a mediapipe flow on a Pi5 with pre-determined poses. Connected to an Olimex through its webserver. The Pi calls out a pose through a speaker, if it's not matched by the player, an electromagnet releases the spring-loaded hand to punish the player.
Fun little project :)

olimex, pi 4 and a lot of scrap wood and PVC tubing for whole MINUTES of fun. Until it ends in landfill

Speech to Whisper to GPT4 (at the time) with a JSON output to then instruct both the motor controller and the solenoid valves. got drunk off my gourd. Full build breakdown : YouTube Video

Pop Mart's $1B plushie. Pi Zero 2W. Mic, speaker, unaligned LLM. Whisper → model → TTS, all running in the doll.

The whole build video is right here : https://youtu.be/khj-SyWd8Qg

Voice-controlled AI-powered bartender robot. The reason of the build is still unknown.

We are proud to unveil our latest prototype, developed in partnership with the Office of Armless Drunks. Pre-orders open Q3, ahead of our anticipated Q4 IPO.

Hitting the coin with 12V solenoid. it took 5 versions to get here. The ONLY thing it does is flip a coin and bring it back to the center for another round.