What is this?

• The photo stick is a DIY project to build an LED-based light-painting device
• Using long exposure times, the photo stick allows you to project arbitrary images into the air
• The images are BMP files loaded from a microSD card
• The photo stick provides comfortable touchscreen-based navigation and configuration
• The project requires very basic soldering skills
• The total material cost is around 150€ (but you might already have some required parts)
• The photo stick is a DIY clone of the Pixelstick

Example shots

Using this software

• Install the Arduino IDE
• Clone the repository
• Install the following libraries via Arduino's library manager:
  • FastLED
  • SdFat
  • Adafruit_GFX_Library, Adafruit_ILI9341, Adafruit_STMPE610, Adafruit_TouchScreen
  • GUISlice
• IMPORTANT: Modify GUISlice's configuration in the following way:
  • Open Arduino/libraries/GUIslice/src/GUIslice_config.h
  • Remove the comment in front of the line #include "../configs/ard-shld-adafruit_28_res.h"
• Open Photostick.ino in the Arduino IDE
• Compile, load, and use
• Optional: Adapt settings config.hpp, especially if you used non-standard pins

Material

• 1x Arduino Mega or compatible (Example)
• 1x 2.8" TFT Touch Shield for Arduino (Example)
• 2x WS2812B LED strip with high LED density, ideally 144 LED/m (Example)
• 1x DC/DC Converter, at least 100W rating (to be on the safe side) (Example)
• 1x LiPo 2S battery, 7.4V (Example)
• 1x LiPo compatible charger
• 1x XT60 connector (male)
• 1x cable conduit 40mm x 60mm, length: 30--40cm
• 2x aluminum profile rail, length 2 meters, with plastic cover, not fully transparent
• 1x switch (Example)
• 1x microSD card
• Cables
• Soldering iron
• Multimeter

Connection Diagram

Assembly Instructions

• Solder jumper 3 on touch display
  • This enables backlight toggling from software
  • https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-2-8-tft-touch-shield-v2/backlight-touch-irq#
• Solder the two LED strips into one
• Solder LED data wire to data pin 2 of Arduino
• Connect LED shield to Arduino
• Flash software

Usage

• Create image with height of 288 pixels (and arbitrary width)
• Rotate clockwise by 90 degrees (image now has width of 288 pixels)
• Save as BMP with either 24-bit or 32-bit depth

Finished assembly

Compact assembly with external battery:

User interface: