Chick-Lit
Chick-Lit is an interactive LED panel that can be controlled via a wireless mobile application. The LED panel is embedded with 100 neopixels, and an ESP32 which is a microcontroller that responds through strong WiFi connection. The LED panel connects the a mobile application called WLED where you can interact with the neopixels and change them from pixel art, to text, to so much more. The project encapsulates the essence of laser cutting, pick-and-place manufacturing, soldering, and developing pixel art.
The outer box of the panel is made out of ABS which was laser cut from a design made on Maker Case software. Inside there are 4 PCB's each embedded with 25 neopixels that were put on using a Pick-and-Place machine. One of the PCB's is embedded with an ESP32 to allow for a wifi connection so the user can interact with the mobile app. The PCB's were then programmed to WLED to light up with the touch of a button on the application.
Below are some more photos of Chick-Lit:
The Process:
The process began with designing the box using Maker Case software to make sure there was a slot for each neopixel to fit in to. The box was the cut using a laser cutter and put together using superglue. Once the box was made, the process of making the PCB panel was underway. First solder paste was applied using a stencil and then the neopixels were placed on each PCB using a pick-and-place machine. After the process was over, the PCB's were baked for 3 minutes to ensure proper solder. Then solder paste was applied with a stencil to the back of one of the PCB's to solder on the ESP32 and corresponding components. Once the parts were placed it underwent the same baking process to ensure proper solder. The ESP32 allows for connection to the WLED mobile application.
Pictures of this process are below:
After this the PCB boards were soldered together so they would work in unison and then the boards were connected to wifi and WLED was installed and configured. From this point the board was then put together using acrylic and heat set inserts to screw the two components together. Once attached it was ready to be hung up on the wall, and the user can now upload pixel art and interact with the panel on the WLED application.
Below are pictures of this process below:
WLED allows Chick-Lit to light up in many different ways. The chick featured in the beginning is a custom made chick using Piskel software, but the mobile application allows for pre-made designs to be added to the panel as well. Below is a gallery of some of the things that the panel can do!
Heres a close up of the panel, and scale of size:
Thanks for coming!
