Note that this page is shown in archeological order, namely newest first. If you want to understand the events in order, start at the bottom.

The individual tests will be listed below, bear in mind that with some programming, any of these effects could be combined.

Idle loop sections in no particular order

• xmas tree
  Simple xmas tree. Starts with just the green tree shape, with a trunk, then adds a star on top. Then adds xmas lights in colors, and eventually the green background disappears making it just xmas lights in a tree shape.


• snow
  This emulates a snowstorm. You can set the density of flakes, and the occasional wind shear that makes the flakes jump a little right or left. Note that the density will increase slightly over time as if it was snowing harder.


• drunkard's walk
  This implements the classic Random walk in 2 dimensions. The center of the grid is lit up white to show where we're starting. Each cycle a random direction is chosen, only one step - up, down, right, left or the 4 possible diagonals. The color of that dot is then changed to show where our drunk is. Each time he hits the same dot, it increases the color; starting at light blue, bringing in green, then eventually adding red for a final white appearance. It quits when our drunk has hit the same square enough times for it to go brght white (at this writing 12 hits). Note that this is a wraparound world, if he hits an edge, he'll appear on the opposite side.


• game_of_life
  Implements the classic Conway's Game of Life. The rules are:
  
  1. Any live cell with two or three live neighbors survives.
  2. Any dead cell with three live neighbors becomes a live cell.
  3. All other live cells die in the next generation. Similarly all other dead cells stay dead.
  Items of note:
  • My "universe" is NOT wraparound - if a "glider" hits the edge, it croaks.
  • It is either seeded with a set of 75 random cells, or with a set of interesting objects. The objects are, left-to-right, a "blinker", a "toad", a "beacon" and "glider". The former three change but do not move, the latter changes and moves. Which method is chosen at random so you'll see one or the other when the idle loop repeats.
  • The game stops when there's no living cells left, or no changes happened between two adjacent generations, or there were no changes between the new and one-step-back generations (in other words, all oscillators), or finally, after 200 generations (half second pause per generation).


• dark_fill_v
  Lights the entire matrix with a solid color (at this time green), then rapidly turns it black, by filling in black, starting at the leftmost column, going downwards, then starting from the top of the next column, going downwards, etc. until the whole matrix is dark.


• us_flag
  A crude attempt at a static American flag.


• bg_fill (white)
  These Alitove WS2811 LED strings have an annoying deficiency, namely that with the provided wiring, you can only power about 3 strings (of 50 bulbs). This grid started out at 10 strings, and will be increasing. This means that I have to bring in additional wires from the power supply every 3 strings, making for a bunch of extra cabling. If any of these cables were to fail (connector fall out or some such), this all-bright-white display makes it immediately obvious.


• chaseblock
  Diagonal red stripe with white edges moves rightwards. Sort of a candy cane look.


• curtain_up, curtain_down
  Self explanatory.


• calibrate
  Draws the perimeter of the matrix. It uses different colors on each of the 4 edges in order to facilitate figuring out exactly what's wrong when you're originally setting up. Bear in mind that the matrix may not exactly correspond to strings of lights. One step further, there may be lights that are not usable as they are stuck dangling between rows - the light strings are 2-3 inches apart, but I'm using them on a grid of every other at 2 inches, thus one bulb is unusable at the end of each row. This display aids in building/correcting the corresponding layout array in the software. (See "OuputArray" in previous page.)


• test_chars
  Displays all the characters that we know how to display. Bear in mind that I had to implement this character set entirely myself, apologies if it's a bit crude. Also note that not every ASCII charcter is present, I've only implemented those I needed plus a few extra punctuations I may use some day.


• show_str
  See also test_chars. This is the final mechanism for displaying a text string. Simply give it a text string and it will smooth scroll it for you. Test implementation is "PerennialVintners.com".


• step_scroll, cute_scroll
  When I was first implementing characters, I had to immediately build in automatic sideways scrolling as the matrix could only fit 3 characters across! These are two of my early attempts. They both had such a cool look, that I decided to keep them around. cute_scroll ("Perennial") draws 3 letters, then moves them one at a time, leftwards one character. step_scroll ("Vintners") draws 3 chars, then moves all 3 at a time leftwards.


• fill_fade_in_out
  Starts with a black background, and fills the screen with a single color, slowly bringing it brighter, until maxium is reached, then fades back out to black.


• black_hole_h, black_hole_v
  Draws a background bright color pattern. As it goes, this background moves rapidly in blurry stripes leftwards. It's hard to see in the camera view, but there's a little black block that moves through the image. The h version has a 2x2 black block that moves left-to-right across the top 2 rows, then starts over at the left side one row down, and contiunes until it reaches the bottom. The v version is only a single black dot, and goes down the leftmost column, then the next column, etc.


• diags
  Draws diagonal lines, on a light background, showing the whole matrix. Again, this is for help in verifying calibration.


• binary_dots
  Simulates the bits in an 8 bit number as it increments up from 0 to max 255. Also shows the decimal or hex value, chosen at random each time.


• back_n_forth
  A thick vertical bar moves back and forth across a random color background.


• sparkle
  A random color background is drawn, then white highlights pop across it at random. The idea was to simulate sunlight sparkling across water.


• singlechase
  A light blue diagonal moves across the screen, rightwards, fuzzily turning heavier as it goes. This was probably an early offshoot of sparkle to emulate waves across water.


• rowdown
  Like curtain_down, is a single background color, but is only a single dark row moving down.


• colorstep
  A set of fuzzy colors moving diagonally left and down. Same as used in background for black_hole_h and black_hole_v.


• border
  Same as calibrate but all one color.


• forest candle
  Randomish green background with a yellow dot mvoing slowly across the middle. This was an attempt to look like someone walking along the edge of a forest with a candle at night.


• flashlight
  White circle moves at random across screen, dark background.


• Spinner
  Alternates slash, vertical bar, backslash to give a spinning effect.