A Quick side project

While I was ordering the pogo pins to make up a programmer I was short 10 bucks for free shipping, so I looked around the store and I grabbed a 8x8 WS2812 LED matrix.

I was a bit surprised to see this panel for $23. Last time I saw WS2812 based matrix panels they were upwards of $100 or so, this panel is specifially a GlowBit 8x8 matrix. Looking at the product page, its compatible with any usual LED library that arduino already uses making it perfect for a simhub driven gear indicator on the sim rig.

I primarily drive GT3s in ACC, of which have a dash that I keep visible for me to see things like gear, laptime delta, ABS/TC level, brake bias, ect and then hide the wheel since I'm using a sim wheel and I don't need to see two wheels all the time.

That said Vicmainia Season 14 is GT2s and I chose the KTM. The dash in the KTM is in the wheel - which I hide. Originally I didn't think it was going to be an issue with all the widgets and such I use, but the last race was at a track I wasn't overly practiced at and was oddly missing the gear indicator more than I should have. I guess another project to work on would be an external dash 🤔 I digress

One nice thing about modern LEDs is they only need power and a single signal wire to make them work, along with Simhub this was a 5 minute job. Hidden in the red heatshrink is an Arduino Pro which Simhub has direct support for, all you have to do is open up the Arduino setup tool, enable the matrix feature and select the Arduino port the LED signal wire is comeing from, upload the sketch and you're done!

10 minutes in CAD and an hour a half on the printer and I have case to hold everything with provisions for some threaded inserts for mounting the module to the rig.

i am a nerd. my girlfriend is cooler than me. if i delete this, i do not love her.