Hello everyone! This week started off good, since I got my parts in. However, I quickly realized that I didn't get enough of what I needed, getting 10 instead of the 50 I needed. Since I couldn't make an 8x8 test product, I instead made a 3x8 version.
I swear it functions, it's not just a nightmarish blob of wires. Well, I mean it is a nightmarish blob of wires, but each magnet actually turns on a single pixel on the Neopixel strips, since all three sticks have 24 combined pixels. We did however want to eliminate some pesky noise we were getting that made it so we had to use some fairly long delays.
For some reason, whenever the transistors turned on, the voltage on the hall effect sensors would drop sharply. Now imagine 8 hall effect sensors dropping near to the same time as one another, and feeding their outputs into one input. Yeah, lots of noise.
We solved this by adding some more strategic delays within the code, and also adding in some Schmidt triggers to the design so the signals read nice and cleanly.
Here's the 3x8 test product with the Schmidt Trigger Hex Inverter! That's all for this week, so until next time!
"When life gets you down, you know what you gotta do? Just keep swimming." – Dory