Okay, so the other day I saw this cool project called “Love on the Block” and I was like, “I gotta try that!” Basically, it’s about creating little pixel art hearts and displaying them on, you know, a block. Sounds simple enough, right? Well, let me tell you how it went down.
Getting Started
First things first, I needed to figure out what I was going to use. I decided to go with some LED matrix I had lying around from another project, an board, and a power supply. I’m no expert at wiring, but I looked up some guides and got it running on the board first.
- LED Matrix (an 8×8 one)
- Board (you know, the basic kind)
- Power Supply (5V, nothing fancy)
- Jumper wires (a bunch of those colorful things)
The Wiring Nightmare
Connecting everything was, let’s just say, interesting. I followed a basic wiring diagram I found online, making sure to double-check the positive and negative connections. I definitely didn’t want to fry anything.
It was a bit messy, with wires going every which way, but eventually, I got it all hooked up. I said a little prayer and plugged it in, holding my breath for a moment there.
Coding the Heart
Next up, the code! I found some sample code to display a simple heart on the LED matrix. It was, of course, some version of C, since that’s what the board talks.
I spent a good chunk of time tweaking the code, trying to get the heart to look just right. I played around with the brightness, the animation speed, and even added a little pulsing effect, just to make it extra lovely. I think the tweaking process is the most fun for the most people, lol.
The Big Moment
Finally, it was time to upload the code to the board and see the magic happen. I hit the “upload” button, crossed my fingers, and… boom! There it was, a bright red, pixelated heart glowing on the matrix. Success!
It wasn’t perfect, of course. The animation was a little jerky at first, and I had to adjust the brightness a few times, but seeing that little heart light up made all the fiddling worthwhile.
I’ve got plans to make it even better. Maybe add some more animations, different colors, or even make it react to sound. The possibilities are endless! But for now, I’m pretty happy with my little “Love on the Block” project. I think I’ll try to share the code so people can do it, I mean, if they wanted to.
