LCD Smartie

Hi there,

I was wondering if anyone here would be able to whip up a small plugin to simulate the classic Knight Rider led effect?

I was thinking of having a go at this myself but I am a n00b to LCD programming and i'm sure one of you experienced bodz would be able to whip something up in your coffee break.

The idea I had was to simulate the led scanner using some custom chars using blocks of various sizes to simulate a trailing effect of where the scanner has been relative to where it is if you get my meaning?

I thought that perhaps some speed and size options could be incorperated so that the length and height of the scanner could be specified and also the speed. I was wondering if it would be possible to have a kind of speed-throttle variable so that you could use say the 'CPU % use' or something else so that the speed of the led fluctuates the higher the value it speeds up and the lower the value it slows down. This would be cool I think!

Also an option to turn on all the segments initially to give a kind of scanner powered up effect before the scanner moves back and forth?

I hope i'm not asking too much here?

Okay i've decided i'm going to have a go at this myself! If I get a decent working plugin working i'll be sure to post it so others can try it!

At the moment i'm not sure how I can speed up and slow down the effect with a millisecond timer? If anyone has any help to offer on that aspect that would be appreciated!

I'm going to try and code this with C/C++.

Will let you know how I get on. It shouldnt be too difficult. Just a bit of custom char trickery, a shifting array and a timer!

jaybee wrote:Okay i've decided i'm going to have a go at this myself! If I get a decent working plugin working i'll be sure to post it so others can try it!

At the moment i'm not sure how I can speed up and slow down the effect with a millisecond timer? If anyone has any help to offer on that aspect that would be appreciated!

I'm going to try and code this with C/C++.

Will let you know how I get on. It shouldnt be too difficult. Just a bit of custom char trickery, a shifting array and a timer!

You just need to create a counter and drift the custom characters. There is no need for timer, the plugin will be called in timed base by the program.

Good luck