So, thanks to mem on the arduino forum, I managed to figure out the damage to the code:

What was wrong?
Short version: I was being really wasteful.

Long version: the way the code was written, each LED took a whole byte to assign. With the fixed code, each row takes a byte. (Taking it from 64 bytes per pattern, to 8. Serious savings!)

Code in the comments.

Ok, this is my personal project update/post for the evening. (Also explains why I’m up at 4 am.)

I’ve found that adding 15 or more “characters” for the code to go through, totally breaks the matrix. 14 or less, fine. 15 or more, mess. Also 15 screws it up differently than 16+ (15 just freezes the loop, 16+ start creating garbage) What’s weird is that there is nothing changed in the code except the length of the array, and the adding of a few more array entries. So I can’t figure out why it’s breaking like this.

Wanna see what I’m talking about? Sure.

And if you care, like last time, code is in the comments.

Are these tables by Formtank made from a single sheet of metal:

I’ve been staring at them for a few hours now, and I think I finally figured out how they’re cut. The seem on the supports is near invisible! (At least on the online photos anyway)

[via unplggd]

…dear lord, did I just refer to something as neat. Yes, yes I did.

Alright, moving on then:

Came across this project while at work today (I get bored easily and sometimes distract myself with awesome blogs…but I didn’t admit to that.) Basically it’s a quick and simple yard light, made of LEDs, batteries, and canning jars. Quick, cheap, simple, and totally repurposable.

AWESOME!

[via Evil Mad Scientist]

I went out and bought more gator clips and wrote up some code so I can give my cork board led panel a test drive.

AND IT WORKS!

8×8 Red LED Matrix driven by Arduino. from Andrew Parnell on Vimeo.

For those of you interested in the code, see the comments section.

Well, more accurately I’m sick of YouTube’s horrid quality on videos, so I went to Vimeo to finally sign up for an account over there.

While signing up I came across this (they had it right on the front page):

Great for a giggle.

I might as well share the one I’ve watched atleast daily since my internet got hooked up at the house:

Admittedly, part of my love for this video comes from the mass amount of naked (albeit censored) people running about in it, but that aside it’s an incredibly clever idea. Also, the little details: such as the singing along at 0:44 and the fact that the shirts with prints on them correlate to the various artists in this collab (David Byrne on the yellow shirt, Dizzee Rascal on the red, and BPA on the brown) make this video just amazing.

Higher quality available on Keith Schofield (the director)’s site: [here] (Highly recommend watching the high quality version)

So, I don’t know when, where, or how, but apparently at some point I downloaded Ima Robot’s “Creeps Me Out” and it recently started coming up regularly on my ipod (I listen to music very passively. Just set the entire library to random)

The song itself is fairly catchy, but what I really love is the music video by Frank Borin. Giant game of musical chairs for the win!

If the low quality of the youtube video drives you nuts (like it does me) Frank Borin has a quicktime version of it on his site: [here]

Is Wurfel some language (I’ve eliminated Dutch and German) for “Waffle” or does it just sound like my Opa (dutch grandfather) saying waffle. I’ve got to believe that’s intentional.

[Via swissmiss]

So, I just moved to Portland… 2 weeks ago.

Sadly, aside from going to work, I haven’t left the house all that much.

But while Googling for a place locally that might sell atmega chips (I may need about 16 arduinos in the near future) I found out about this place: Free Geek. It sounds really cool. I’m going tomorrow. I’ll let you know how it goes.