I didn't see a newbie forum, so I thought this would be the best place to post my questions. I've never done any type of programming, but I saw this article ( Build It: An LED Lamp that Visualizes Data From the Web | Popular Science ) in popsci and found the build instructions ( GitHub - vinmarshall/Orb: Code for the Orbs of Approximate Data ) on GitHub. I do have a few questions though, well mainly one... I see the build instructions, but I need something more detailed, for I have NO CLUE what I am doing. Can I do this running OSX? Do I need to use a soldering iron? Where can I find the code? How do I plug the code in? I feel like such a noob
Thanks for the help! I'm starting to understand. About the soldering, I was assuming that it was understood that you would do it, just clarifying on that.
The question about the code, I see where it is on GitHub... But, for instance, I want the light to change colors say when I get a Facebook notification, how do I go about that? The author says the data streams are pulled off of his server at 2552.com but I go there and the website appears to be changing.
Blackwidow is the arduino controller + wifi connectivity... from the build materials part:
Alternate for the Above: Arduino Duemilanove w/ Atmega 328 and a WiShield.
Source for the Arduino: Adafruit, Sparkfun, etc...
Source for the WiShield: Asynclabs or any of their distributers http://asynclabs.com/distributors
I emailed the webmaster of 2552.com, he's the same guy who wrote the tutorial on GitHub... from the code section of GitHub:
Orbs of Approximate Data
This code supports the "Bring Information To Light" article in the
June 2010 issue of Popular Science. The article deals with using
subtle glowing Orbs (or cubes) to visualize the trends in a data
stream. This mapping of a data feed into two variables - color and
intensity - provides a way to preattentively identify trends
in the data. These orbs are something that one can unobtrusively
embed in their environment.
In this version of the code, data streams are pulled from a server
which has pre-digested the data and parsed it into a format suited
for these Orbs. That output is hosted on my server, 2552.com.
If you'd like to use a data feed that is not available there, you
can either suggest it to me or create your own feed and point
your Orb at it.
This code will need a certain amount of configuration to work. Look
in the Configuration section below.
Waiting on his reply, will post with an update as soon as I have one. I appreciate you warning me about how difficult this will be, especially it being my first time trying one of these projects. I may possibly try something simpler, but I may go ahead with this one. Thanks again for all the help.
