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IKEA Frekvens LED box hack
- serf 7y agolooks like ikea carries over their minimalism to their PCB design, too.
- stbtrax 7y agothe firm they collaborated with on this line is no stranger to PCB as art and function: https://teenage.engineering/products/po https://teenage.engineering/products/po
- person_of_color 7y agoOh these guys have a really cool synth
- pjc50 7y agoThe use of a standard PCB bonded to the back of an aluminium-core one is a nice combination. Quite possibly they were developed seperately with a view to upgrading the product in the future by changing which back PCB they put on.
- rightbyte 7y agoFunny how abit of clever software can take full advantage of the hardware. The authors eye is way more impressing than the OEM's.
- Exorus18 7y agoWell, he didn't take full advantage of the hardware - he changed significant part of it (raising total final price by 1/3). Nevertheless I agree - it is very impressing ! :)
- whywhywhywhy 7y ago> he changed significant part of it (raising total final price by 1/3) Have to say the coolest thing about the recent collaboration projects from Ikea is you get work from well regarded product designers at prices everyone can afford.
- ahartmetz 7y agoThat is Ikea's usual modus operandi. Their merchandise is well designed and engineered for the most part. The cheap furniture is good - but only for the price. Some of the less cheap stuff is pretty good quality, like kitchens.
- freepor 7y agoIKEA needs to Apple it up a bit. Increase the hardware specs, , add 1/3 to the manufacturing cost, double the price, build an app store for people to download new effects to their box, charge 30% of the revenue from these effects.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- boobsbr 7y agoThis is the same guy that installed Linux on his hard drive's controller. A very interesting read: https://spritesmods.com/?art=hddhack https://spritesmods.com/?art=hddhack
- jablan 7y agoMaybe I'm mistaken, but it doesn't look to me that the Linux is running there. (Of course, it doesn't mean his effort is any less)
- LeonM 7y agoThat is correct. I have been following Jeroen's (sprite_tm) work for quite a few years now. I first encountered him on the GoT forums (which are in Dutch) back in the early 2000's iirc. His website is a delight to read, there are many interesting hacks. Edit: here is an interview with Jeroen from 2013 [0], it is in Dutch though, there seem to be no captions available. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otjnmtSy4H4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otjnmtSy4H4
- barbegal 7y agoCan anyone explain how PWM (pulse width modulation) uses more computational power than binary code modulation (or bit angle modulation)?
- Sprite_tm 7y agoI can. Say you want to display one 'frame', that is, one run where you display all the pixels where the pixels on average have the intensity you want them to have. Because you can only turn the pixels off and on, you need to send a certain amount of 'subframes'. PWM works as such: you send 256 subframes at the same time interval, and if you want a pixel to be 50% dimmed, you turn it on in half of the subframes and off in the other half. When you want it at 1/255 brightness, you turn it on in only one of the 255 subframes. BCM/BAM works as such: you send only 8 subframes, but each subframe has a specified time when they are visible: each following subframe stays on for twice as long as the previous one. For example, subframe 0 is visible for 1 ms, subframe 1 is visible for 2 ms, subframe 2 is visible for 4 ms, subframe 3 is visible for 8 ms, etc. Now, by turning on the pixels in some subframes, you can exactly specify how long they are on in the total frame: say you want to have your pixel at a dimness of 200, you'd turn it on in subframe 3, 6 and 7. As to CPU use: because you only need to calculate and send 8 subframes instead of 256, everything takes up less CPU. Especially during the longer subframes, the CPU can context switch out and go do something more useful while waiting.
- StavrosK 7y agoDoes this not increase the flickering?
- mannykannot 7y agoYes, for an intensity that is not a power-2 fraction of fully-on, but all the additional flickering is at frequencies that are harmonics of the fundamental frame rate. If the fundamental is high enough that you do not notice the flickering, you will not notice the additional components.
- 0xff00ffee 7y ago
- gorgoiler 7y agoFeels like IKEA could capitalize on an opportunity here to provide a beginner friendly devkit to control the patterns. I love writing software but am less delighted by physical messing around :)
- jansan 7y agoI think this is a too small niche for IKEA, but they should help selected hackers or small companies to fill these niches. Maybe this is already happening and we do not notice.
- distances 7y agoThis is happening at least with more traditional Ikea items, for example cabinets: https://www.semihandmade.com/pages/about-us https://www.semihandmade.com/pages/about-us
- johnchristopher 7y ago> Ikea is an interesting store. Even if you go in having in mind you're only going to buy that one thing that you actually need and this time you're not going to be distracted by other crap, you tend to come out with about three times the amount of things you wanted to buy. Yeah, there's a lot to say about Ikea's psychological warfare. They are really good (not to mean their products isn't, you get my drift).
- hestefisk 7y agoI’ve always been amazed by how IKEA are thought of as this highly ethical, sustainable company. Despite making billions revenue in Australia every year, they pay almost zero $ in tax.
- hestefisk 7y agoWhy downvote? It’s a fact.
- johnchristopher 7y agoWe obviously both hit a nerve :D.
- cc81 7y agoI assume it is because they are like all other huge international companies in that aspect so people ignore that part and focus on other parts. i.e. Facebook does the same and is, like IKEA, hammer by it in Europe and elsewhere but Facebook also have privacy scandals while IKEA has fewer of those types of scandals.
- brokenmachine 7y agoThat is a failing of the Australian government, not Ikea.
- hellojere 7y agoUnreadable design on the website, but a cool project.
- Sprite_tm 7y agoYeah, sorry, last time the CSS got updated was 2010... what specifically makes it 'unreadable' for you?
- sagichmal 7y agoThe fact that one article is split to N pages, for one thing. I gave up on page 2.
- smcl 7y agoThere are only five pages (it shows you in the right pane). I had no problem with clicking "Next" but even if you dislike that I suggest you persist - it's a nice project, a well written article and worth reading.
- Sprite_tm 7y agoIt's a good point, though, and one I heard earlier. Spritesmods used multi-page articles from the beginning (which is nigh 14 years ago now), initially because, I dunno, more of the web was like that? Later, when I needed the money, it was because I liked header ads more than long articles with interstitial ads. Now I don't quite need the money anymore, maybe I should throw out ads and either default to everything-on-one-page or at least give that as an option.
- chaps 7y agoYes please. The less ad tech sprawled all over the internet, the better, and it sets a great example!
- _0ffh 7y agoWorked the same for me. I actually like the css on the site, but I refuse to click through multi-page articles. Especially when I am not even informed about the total number of pages.
- Tepix 7y agoSo this IKEA thing is a 16x16 LED box. (btw: Ikea is evil) Related: LEDmePlay 32x32 LED box with some cool games: http://www.mithotronic.de/ledmeplay.php http://www.mithotronic.de/ledmeplay.php The actual 32x32 RGB panel (6mm pitch) is around $19 from AliExpress. There is even a handheld version with 4mm dot pitch.
- cheesysam 7y agoWhy is Ikea evil?
- Tepix 7y agoI had some issues with them. They screwed up and their customer support didn't even answer two written letters.
- morsch 7y agoI don't know about evil, but they were pretty good at tax evasion, spanning decades: https://medium.com/@jurgeng/ikeas-tax-scheme-a-corporate-structure-designed-to-facilitate-profit-shifting-and-tax-avoidance-798caf842fb6 https://medium.com/@jurgeng/ikeas-tax-scheme-a-corporate-str...
- deleted 7y ago
- jgrahamc 7y agoReminds me of when I went crazy with some Christmas lights: https://blog.jgc.org/2011/11/turning-ge-color-effects-g-35-christmas.html https://blog.jgc.org/2011/11/turning-ge-color-effects-g-35-c...
- paulhart 7y agoI own two strings of those lights because of you and that article. Thanks for the inspiration and entertainment!
- neom 7y agoShout out to the amaaaaazing folks at Teenage Engineering who built this with Ikea, you can also 3D print accessories for the Ferkvens: https://teenage.engineering/designs/frekvens-hacks https://teenage.engineering/designs/frekvens-hacks
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- retSava 7y agoIndeed. Had my eyes on this for a long time until release, then just around those days had too much to do and missed out on it completely. All sold out. :(
- noelwelsh 7y agoThis isn't the only project to hack the Frekvens. Here's code + instructions (not mine) for hacking the box with an Arduino + AdaFruit GFX library: https://github.com/frumperino/FrekvensPanel https://github.com/frumperino/FrekvensPanel It seems fairly approachable if you don't mind the disassembly / reassembly required.
- TickleSteve 7y agoFor a much more interesting (but similar) bit of kit, see the Pixoo (http://www.divoom.com/product/pixoo.html http://www.divoom.com/product/pixoo.html)
- yllus 7y agoI am very into this. Did anyone ever come up with an API style interface to control what gets pushed to one of these?
- FriendlyNormie 7y agoHaving the ad so close to the “Previous” and “Next” buttons is a violation of AdSense terms of service because it strongly encourages accidental clicks, especially on mobile. But I suppose that’s the whole reason they broke their blog post up into multiple pages in the first place.
- Sprite_tm 7y agoMy excuse is that the design is close to a decade old by now, and that back in the days, there were enough pixels between the two as the resolution was much lower. I don't need ads anymore, so I disabled them site-wide; that's the best way to fix the issue I figure.
- fit2rule 7y agoIf you like Blinky toys, check out the magicShifter3000 which is a persistence-of-vision-based pocket computer with its own built-in web editor and other crazy features (lightshow, arpeggiator, etc.): http://magicshifter.net/ http://magicshifter.net/ Fully open source, available here: https://github.com/magicshifter https://github.com/magicshifter
- abetusk 7y agoLooks like the firmware is AGPL but the electronic schematics are under a non-commercial license [1]. [1] http://magicshifter.net/#features http://magicshifter.net/#features
- StavrosK 7y agoThis is a very nice hack, and I enjoyed the writeup (minus the fact that the site isn't easily readable on mobile). As someone who does a lot of this stuff too, I've kind of realized that it's hard to get an audience unless you're making YouTube videos. I've heard of many "YouTube makers" but very rarely has someone sent me an article like this one. Does anyone have first-hand experience with this? I don't much like making videos, but if that's what gets more people to see my stuff, maybe it's worth it. Am I correct or do I just see the videos from creators because they managed to already get popular, and they just happen to be on YouTube?
- GuiA 7y agoVideos are easier and more entertaining to consume than text for most people. The audience of a text post like this is mostly hacker types; if turned into a video that’s as much about the entertainment value as the nitty gritty, your audience now becomes 99% bored tech enthusiasts and 1% hackers, and you could plausibly go from a few thousand reads to your article to a few hundreds of thousands views for your video as on top of that, the YouTube platform itself acts as a reach multiplier. So yes, if your goal is to make money/get an audience rather than purely documenting (nothing wrong with that), you’re much better off making a 10 minute YouTube video than writing a 5 page article.
- MisterTea 7y agoThis. Your target audience is the determining factor. Though, you can do both: Put the gritty technical stuff in an article while the live demo and a talk goes into a video. Personally I don't care for video and most videos people send me go unwatched. It's just not productive and I can scroll and skim text for interesting bits faster than skimming a video. Most "technical" videos are simple tear downs for entertainment or a lengthy demo with a long winded how-to or technical overview. ZZZZzzzzzzz.
- monkpit 7y agoReader view on safari works brilliantly on this site, if you’re using an iPhone of course.
- panpanna 7y agoThis will probably be the only Teenage Engineering device I can afford. I just need to find a store that carries them.
- Hamuko 7y ago>I just need to find a store that carries them. What, apart from IKEA?
- fermienrico 7y agoThese are sold out everwhere. I couldn't find them besides on eBay.
- roberto 7y agoPocket operators are pretty cheap, but still very powerful.
- nomanlaghari 7y agoplease vist below website for poetry https://bit.ly/2yErlmt https://bit.ly/2yErlmt
- 2muchcoffeeman 7y agoI’m really annoyed this range isn’t getting a more global release. We won’t be seeing these in Australia.
- rattray 7y agoFor the impatient, the final product is here: https://youtu.be/UCPUPO21Cwk?t=17 https://youtu.be/UCPUPO21Cwk?t=17 linked from the fifth page of the post: http://spritesmods.com/?art=frekvens&page=5 http://spritesmods.com/?art=frekvens&page=5 It's an eye that follows movement around, pretty cool.
- JaggerFoo 7y agoI would love to see this installed above a doorbell. Blank until someone approaches, then the "Eye" appears with no sound, and follows the persons movement at the door. Super creepy.
- hatsunearu 7y agoI think the gamma on that code is off. Pixel values != linear luminance