WIZnet 2007 Design Contest 2nd Place Winner

A video demonstration of my entry for the WIZnet 2007 design contest. WIZnet makes Ethernet controllers with integrated hardware TCP/IP stacks. The contest goal was to use their W5100 controller in a project of any application.

I made an Internet connected LED News Ticker. It strips news headlines from the BBC world news RSS feed every 15 minutes and scrolls them across the display. DHCP and DNS are implemented, along with a cut-down XML parser.

The display consists of 8 8x8 LED matrices each connected to their own PCB. A PIC18F2221 is used for controlling, while PFETs and TPIC6C596 power shift registrs are used to drive the LEDs. The PCBs constantly refresh the display while waiting for display data from the main board.

The main board handles all networking functions and display/scrolling functions. A PIC18F2525 is used along with the WIZ810MJ module.

Edit: I won 2nd place :D
http://www.circuitcellar.com/archives/viewable/218-Blackwell/Blackwell-218.pdf

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• wiznet
• scrolling
• led
• matrix
• ethernet

[wakwahs2010]

cool! great work!

How did you interface your dot matrices to the back circuit boards? Just curious, the dot matrices looked like they're floating, not soldered to the board. And how did you connect the matrices together?

[azoore]

@wakwahs2010 They're not soldered, I used 2 rows of rectangular headers. The matrices arent connected together, each one connects to the main board via a 4 or 5 pin cable.

[wakwahs2010]

@azoore: I see.. So those "black holders" connecting the board and matrices are actually are 12-pin male headers. Neat!!

How about the circuit board, is that composed of several individual boards ? Or just a single large board?

Thanks in advance. And congratulations by the way on winning the contest!

[azoore]

@wakwahs2010 Each matrix has it's own board. I added a link in the video description for an article I wrote about the project.

[zxcvbqwertu]

is the message content coming via radio?

[azoore]

Nope, wired Ethernet.

[topekqq]

hey man!! great project...im working on the same project..can u give me the schematic or the details on the application board??

[pekepowah]

@AssemblerGuy hahaha i love it! I have implemented your font on a 8x128 LED matrix array and looks so cool. Also Im creating a new parallel array with all characters width to place each char near to other and really looks great. Thanks for you info and keep on the good work :)

[AssemblerGuy]

@pekepowah It's one of the two raster fonts that's built into the Commodore 64 home computer.