10/18/2023 Map Stopped Working?
Visit this post for the fix
Hi all!
First and foremost, thanks for putting this all up on the web. It's very helpful.
I grabbed the maps from the FAA and carefully lined them up and cutout SC. I included the approach plates for our closest airports. The idea being that I'm eventually going to have a panel at each airport plate and a larger display on the right hand by the legend.
I've printed the map and love that piece of it. Plan is to backlight and not punch through, but if it does color bleed then I might put a pinhole at each airport. I've already created the airport list and it's working great. FYI - I tried this on a rpi 4 and I couldn't get it to work. Had same issue as another recent poster in the forums. I went ahead and purchased a rpi3-B instead. It's working great.
Now for the issue 🙂
So I'm plugging in the rpi3B directly since I saw a recommendation here to do so. I'm also plugging the ALITOVE WS2811 LED's directly into the ALITOVE 5V 10A Power Supply. Since I'm running direct, I've taken the breadboard and Level shifting chip out of the equation, but I did try that as well. I'm plugging the rpi pin 12 (6th on the outside) directly into the data (middle white) female end of the LED Lights.
Lights are on, but nothing in the software is causing any changes. They are just all white.
Any thoughts? I shouldn't need the level shifting chip if I'm plugging directly in to the rpi power supply? Look forward to doing something more advanced, but just trying to crawl at the moment.
Thanks again. Also, FYI once I get this working I'll be throwing this on my Civil Air Patrol Aerospace Education YT channel. If it's easier and you would be willing to review over the phone / video chat I would be happy too. Much appreciated
One other piece of information. When I unplug the data wire from the rpi the lights flicker a little which would tell me they are receptive to what the data line is outputting.
Hey, thanks for the Kudos.
I love your idea of doing plates. I hadn't thought of that but that could be very helpful. Can't wait to see it working.
Regarding your White LED's. First and foremost, based on the picture of your wiring you do not have a ground connected to the RPi, only the signal wire. You must have the ground wire connected for the signal wire to send the proper information to the LED string.
So at minimum, you need 2 wires connected to the RPi, the Signal and the Ground. Also, you MUST connect the ground on the RPi to the Ground on the LED string. Otherwise you will get a flashing effect on the LED's.
Finally, the Level converter needs to be installed because the LED string needs a 5 volt signal but the RPi only provides a 3.3v signal. So without it, you will probably get flickering of unwanted colors. It won't hurt anything, but its not ideal. So if it works, then I guess go with it.
Once you connect a ground wire to the RPi via the LED string, you will be in business. Bounce back and let us know how it goes.
BTW: You can limit the diffusion of light through the map by using hole in a opaque material placed on the tip of the LED. I've done this by using a 3D printer to create an orifice of 3 mm in diameter and it works quite well. But you could use a hole punch on aluminum foil stuck to the tip of each LED to create a similar clean look. - Mark
Sweet - I did it with the chip and with only a common ground. Had to play with it a little bit to get used to the interface, but for the most part it's working great. Only issue (kind of) is two of the LED's are showing white, even though the airport map shows them as one for MVFR and the other VFR. I NULLed them and they did turn off. They also went through the rainbow colors good so I know the colors work on them. I put in different airports and they did turn to the correct color. So I'm assuming its a reporting issue and the program just wasn't sure how to handle it and made them white. They definitely aren't in snow. It might resolve itself when the stations report new data. They aren't near my home aiport so I can just NULL them if I need to. Also I did change it with a new light string to see if it was an issue with those two LED address and the second light string did the same thing.
Other than that it's good. Next thing is to wire it to the board. I'm going to be cutting the wires and putting extensions in the middle so I don't have to worry about distances two far between and skipping LED's.
Thanks for the help. I'll send a picture of my V1 of the board. I'll end up putting this at the hangar wall in our Civil Air Patrol hangar. I'm going to build a V2 with the displays.
Thanks again. Much appreciated.
You are right. If the FAA isn't reporting a METAR for an airport, it defaults to white. You can change this color in the LED Colors settings in the web interface if you want to verify that this is what is happening.
Another note, There a number of weather products used from the FAA, and the online map uses a different product than the LED map. This was out of necessity. So there is going to be discrepancies between the timing of the weather being reported between these FAA weather products.
Glad its working for you. Enjoy the project. We are here to help if needed. - Mark
