LedCube Visualisation

[jdbruijn]

LedCube Visualisation

Thought of a couple of different ways to send the data from the uC to the PC.

1. Send the x, y, z before sending red, green, blue. The x, y and z range is 0-7, while the red, green, blue range is 0-15. So this would take quite a lot of data that needs to be send, but no mistakes could be made determining to which coordinate the colours belong.
2. Send a start transmission character and than send red, green, blue for all the LEDs. This would reduce the amount of data that needs to be send, but it's easier to make mistakes in determining to which coordinate the colours belong.

Data protocol

The data protocol I have chosen is the first one, since this is easier on the PC side and could be easily extended with, for example 5-bits BAM instead of 4-bits.

Version info

Note: The number of ASCII characters below is the minimal amount of ASCII characters needed for the transmission.

Description	start	version major + minor + patch	end	total
ASCII Characters	1	5	1	7
ASCII Abbreveration	SOH	ASCII numbers and dot	EOT
ASCII Hexadecimal	01		04

Example SOH 0 . 1 . 1 EOT.
Optionally, in case the version number uses more than a single digits, it could be like SOH 15 . 8 . 1 EOT.

Cube LED data

Note: The number of ASCII characters below is the minimal amount of ASCII characters needed for the transmission.
The total column specifies the total number of ASCII characters that would be needed to send the data of the complete LED cube, so the data for 512 LEDs.

Description	start	start of block	x-Coord	y-Coord	z-Coord	red	green	blue	end of block	...	end	total
ASCII Characters	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	...	1	4098
ASCII Abbreveration	SOH	STX	0-7	0-7	0-7	0-F	0-F	0-F	ETB	...	EOT
ASCII Hexadecimal	01	02							17	...	04

Successfully tested the LedCubeVisualisation_sendVersion and LedCubeVisualisation_sendRow functions using the following code

LedCube_setPixel(0, 0, 0, 15, 0, 0);
LedCube_setPixel(0, 1, 0, 14, 0, 1);
LedCube_setPixel(0, 2, 0, 13, 0, 2);
LedCube_setPixel(0, 3, 0, 12, 0, 3);
LedCube_setPixel(0, 4, 0, 11, 0, 4);
LedCube_setPixel(0, 5, 0, 10, 0, 5);
LedCube_setPixel(0, 6, 0, 9,  0, 6);
LedCube_setPixel(0, 7, 0, 8,  0, 7);
LedCube_updateUsingCopy();
LedCubeVisualisation_sendVersion();

LCV_SEND_CHAR('\n');
LedCubeVisualisation_sendRow( 0, 0, pCubeControlData->pCubeDataRead );

output:
SOH``STX0.1.0ETB``EOT
STX000F00ETB``STX010E01ETB``STX0D0E02ETB``STX0C0E03ETB``STX0B0E04ETB``STX010A05ETB``STX010906ETB``STX010807ETB

uint8_t z, x, y, t;

for(z = 0; z < 8; z++) {
    for(x=0;x<8;x+=2) {

        LedCube_setPixel(x,   0, z, 0,  7,  15);
        LedCube_setPixel(x,   1, z, 1,  6,  14);
        LedCube_setPixel(x,   2, z, 2,  5,  13);
        LedCube_setPixel(x,   3, z, 3,  4,  12);
        LedCube_setPixel(x,   4, z, 4,  3,  11);
        LedCube_setPixel(x,   5, z, 5,  2,  10);
        LedCube_setPixel(x,   6, z, 6,  1,  9 );
        LedCube_setPixel(x,   7, z, 7,  0,  8 );

        LedCube_setPixel(x+1, 0, z, 15, 8,  15);
        LedCube_setPixel(x+1, 1, z, 14, 9,  14);
        LedCube_setPixel(x+1, 2, z, 13, 10, 13);
        LedCube_setPixel(x+1, 3, z, 12, 11, 12);
        LedCube_setPixel(x+1, 4, z, 11, 12, 11);
        LedCube_setPixel(x+1, 5, z, 10, 13, 10);
        LedCube_setPixel(x+1, 6, z, 9,  14, 9 );
        LedCube_setPixel(x+1, 7, z, 8,  15, 8 );
    }
}
LedCube_updateUsingCopy();
LedCubeVisualisation_sendCubeData(pCubeControlData->pCubeDataRead);

This showed the following block for every layer. So this test was succesfull.

SOH
STX00007FETB``STX01016EETB``STX02025DETB``STX03034CETB``STX04043BETB``STX05052AETB``STX060619ETB``STX070708ETB
STX100F8FETB``STX110E9EETB``STX120DADETB``STX130CBCETB``STX140BCBETB``STX150ADAETB``STX1609E9ETB``STX1708F8ETB
STX20007FETB``STX21016EETB``STX22025DETB``STX23034CETB``STX24043BETB``STX25052AETB``STX260619ETB``STX270708ETB
STX300F8FETB``STX310E9EETB``STX320DADETB``STX330CBCETB``STX340BCBETB``STX350ADAETB``STX3609E9ETB``STX3708F8ETB
STX40007FETB``STX41016EETB``STX42025DETB``STX43034CETB``STX44043BETB``STX45052AETB``STX460619ETB``STX470708ETB
STX500F8FETB``STX510E9EETB``STX520DADETB``STX530CBCETB``STX540BCBETB``STX550ADAETB``STX5609E9ETB``STX5708F8ETB
STX60007FETB``STX61016EETB``STX62025DETB``STX63034CETB``STX64043BETB``STX65052AETB``STX660619ETB``STX670708ETB
STX700F8FETB``STX710E9EETB``STX720DADETB``STX730CBCETB``STX740BCBETB``STX750ADAETB``STX7609E9ETB``STX7708F8ETB
...
EOT

Removing the last two items from the list in the opening post because those are related to the LedCube Visualisation program, which is currently being rewritten to C++ with Qt by the way.
So this closes this issue.