With nearly twenty days remaining in the campaign that went live on August 11th, makers of a new modular scrolling LED matrix, LEDgoes, are happy to announce successful traction of their Kickstarter project.
Two years in the making, LEDgoes is much like the kind of scrolling screens seen at convenience stores displaying the worth of this week's Lotto, or those seen in front of stock exchanges displaying real-time quotes. However, LEDgoes’ modular design allows the user to make the display practically any length from just one, 5x7 LED matrix panel wide, all the way up to sixty-four panels in total. An even longer length could be attained through software control.
The LEDgoes board display board system. (Photo: Apps FALYF/LEDgoes)
Unlike other LED displays, users of LEDgoes do not have to be technology geniuses nor spend massive amounts of time configuring it to display a personalized message or animation. LEDgoes features easy-to-use software in order to program the matrix to display any desired message over USB and Bluetooth.Since LEDgoes flipped the switch on Kickstarter, they have garnered substantial traction, and with plenty of time left on the clock to fund, its creators hope to reach high stretch goals. The original goal was set to US$ 1,600. To date LEDgoes has raised 726% of its goal and is attracting an average of over $1,000 in funding per day.
A side view of the LEDgoes board display system. (Photo: Apps FALYF/LEDgoes)
Users may write messages manually, set the board to monitor certain hashtags, keywords, or handles on Twitter, plus hook up to additional services to be supported over time including real-time stock quotes. Animations can also be displayed using the software. Additionally, where most of the cheaper DIY products feature only one color on the board, LEDgoes supports three—red, green, and yellow—to create a vibrant display.
For highly tech-savvy users who want to utilize the hardware in different ways, each individual LEDgoes panel has two ATmega168 processors. These chips are easily programmable and feature numerous exposed I/O pins. By combining highly sophisticated hardware and user-friendly software, makers behind the product Stephen Wylie and wife Stacy hope to attract a diverse group of users.
“You don't need to run an LED matrix if you don't want,” said Stephen, Technology Specialist, of the hardware. “Perhaps you have a custom application that requires more pins than you can usually get on a development board; the LEDgoes hardware can support that too.”
The software supports vertical orientation of the panels as well, so users can create double-sized font letters (or bigger) if desired. The communication protocol between panels is designed to carry information on a pixel level, thus it is possible to get a LEDgoes matrix to display animations and graphics as well, beyond simple text.
Stacy Wylie replied in reference to the software’s utility, “We recognized that not everyone who would be interested in funding our project would be software wizards. That’s why we wanted to create something that was simple enough for a parent to use for her child, or a DJ to use in his booth.”
Some of the makers behind LEDgoes have ties to Apps FALYF’s technology department where they plan to expand upon new paradigms of mobile technology. The Kickstarter officially ends on Sep. 9th at 11:40 PM CDT.
