The first iteration of this project went from initial idea to working prototype in about 4 hours, a new record for myself and a testament to the power of open software/hardware. I had been teaching at the FSU STEM Camp all week with my usual geek attire (8-bit tie, PCB tie, LED Lab coat) and the kids asked me what ‘outrageously cool’ thing I was gonna wear on the last day. The problem was I had nothing left in my closet and feared I would let them down. So when I went home exhausted that night (it’s tough teaching over 100 8th graders to solder!) and sat down at the work bench trying to decide what I could do in a night. Inspired by Adafruit’s Amplie-Tie, this is what I came up with.
This will be a short post as this is only revision 1 and I plan to vet this out to a more thought out project at some point. Here’s a video of what I had at the end of the night: (skip to bottom of page for newest video)
The tie is made out of 80 WS2811 based RGB LED pixels and is driven by a DigiSpark microcontroller. I pulled in this library written in assembly to drive the display and modified this tetris engine heavily to suit my needs. With limited RAM I had to strip out unneeded features and optimize the code that runs the game similar to Tetris to make it work, I also converted it to support color values as it was originally monochrome only. The code is a definite WIP but posted on here on Github as I play with it in the future. Game moves are random and I plan to attempt some puzzle solving algorithms soon. I had all parts on hand and total project cost comes in around $50.
It’s powered by 2 18650 Li-Ion battery cells in a battery box I used for my Wedding Suit and had lying around. They are installed in a 3D printed battery box with switch.
Battery box and the original suit it was designed for.
Structurally it’s just two pieces of card stock with fun bits sandwiched between and taped to a cheap clip-on. I plan to revisit the design and embed the strips directly into a fabric tie for long term use. Remember, I only did this in a single night. The kids loved it and the mission was accomplished.
Future Features
Next I’d like to add a basic AI to play the game, and/or a bluetooth connection for a human to play the game using a smart phone.
Update 1
I’ve restructured the tie so that the LEDs are now embedded into the tie instead of pasted on the front. It looks much cleaner now, thought the LEDs are dimmer, diffused by the fabric. I’ve also rewritten a new program that simulates a firework display, in time for Independence Day parties.
Update 2
I’ve built a second tie run by an Arduino Pro mini with all electronics and battery built into the tie itself. No more extruding wires. The battery is an older aftermarket Samsung Galaxy S1 cell phone battery, and I designed and printed a battery holder with my Makerbot. The LED driver library has been switched to Adafruit’s Neopixel library, and a AI player has been written by Mofidul Jamal.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
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85 Comments.
[…] Source […]
[…] I, for one, hate wearing ties. I had to wear one everyday for about 5 years at one point of my life. Life would have been a lot better if I had a tie like this. The Tetris Tie. […]
Looks great! Could you post a link to the LED strips you are using? I found a few different products that use the WS2811, but none seem to be the strips like you used. Thanks!
Hey Bill,
Keep up the great work!
http://uglytietuesday.com/post/54116822464/taking-it-to-the-next-level-wether-bill
-Andrew, Ugly Tie Tuesday
This system looks simple enough to modify for a daft punk helmet I am trying to make for Halloween. I have zero experience or knowledge on this stuff. Is this simple enough that someone like me could make and program to do a few simple actions?Could this be retrofitted into a smaller size?
First post I have seen online that give me hope that a simpleton like me could make this happen!!!
I want one.
[…] cravate LED Tetris est un projet de Bill Porter. Ce dernier souhaitant amuser les participants à sa conférence s’est amusé à assembler et […]
[…] LED Tetris Tie « The Mind of Bill Porter […]
[…] geeks que hemos visto hasta ahora ni, seguramente, las que vendrán después. Pero la propuesta de Bill Porter es curiosa: una corbata con LEDs que permite jugar al Tetris mediante cualquier móvil con […]
[…] on the couch watching a fake reality show Bill Porter created this (really- in just 4 hours!) Tetris Playing Tie. Now the tie doesn’t exactly “play” Tetris, it’s more like randomly falling […]
Your tie is amazing! What a brilliant idea!
Here’s a bit of advice you didn’t ask me for:
Stop calling it a “Tetris” tie. The owners of the Tetris trademark are not the friendliest family, and will probably C&D you when they hear about your awesome tie. While it obviously is inspired by falling-block puzzle games, the limited number of columns and the fact that you are not using shapes composed of square blocks create a distinction between Tetris and what you have made here. Of course, if you want to sell $300 licensed ties, you could contact them and pay for the license to use the name “Tetris.” That’s up to you.
Hope you sell these ties in the near future, I’d love to get one!
[…] on-board system that plays a game of tetris all on its own – albeit not the most masterfully. Buy It 50.00 +Add to Wish […]
[…] For more details on how it was made and how much it cost to make (you will be surprised), check out Bill Porter’s page. Only thing I can think of to improve to this project it is to hook up a simple remote control to […]
[…] http://www.billporter.info/2013/06/21/led-tetris-tie/ […]
[…] http://www.billporter.info/2013/06/21/led-tetris-tie/ […]