Basics

Lumatron is a LED sculpture system. You are free to play with this code, but as per the license you may not make money from it.

Contributions Welcome

Contributions are encouraged! The easiest ways to contribute:

• New idle patterns — See idlepatterns/README.md for details.
• New games — See games/README.md for details.
• Clarifications or other improvements to any READMEs
• General optimizations or improvements

Connecting an existing piece to the internet

• If you have never connected a piece before the following instructions can be viewed by visiting https://my.lumatron.art
  • Plug in the Lumatron box into the power source and the box into the piece (do not plug the piece directly into the usb-c wall plug)
  • Wait for a few minutes for the box to boot up (until pink light is flashing)
  • Join the wifi named Lumatron
  • Once on that wifi, the visit url http://10.42.0.1
  • Enter the wifi name (SSID) and password in the page that loads
  • Refresh the page once the first pixel turns off

Controlling a piece

• Visit https://my.lumatron.art
• Turn into a progressive web app by following the instructions at the bottom

Using the Emulator

• Clone this repo (git clone https://github.com/adrianmarple/orbitron) on your local machine (Windows not supported)
• Run utility_scripts/admin_install.sh from the repo directory (should be named "orbitron")
• Start the emulator by running sudo ./startscript.sh
• Open http://localhost:1337/view for the emulator
• Open http://<localhost or your IP address>:1337 to open one or more controllers on either your desktop or your phone

The admin console

• In terminal cd to creation folder
• Install node dependencies npm install
• Run node pixelserver.js
• Visit url http://localhost:8080/?local
• More details in the creation folder README

Controlling a piece

• Same as above, replacing my.lumatron.art with your server

Designing a new pattern

See the idlepatterns folder README

Making a new Game

See the games folder README

Setting up your own server

• Create an ubuntu server, for instance the lumatron.art is currently hosted through Digital Ocean
• Open a console into root of your new server
• Clone this repo: git clone https://github.com/adrianmarple/orbitron
• Run utility_scripts/admin_install.sh from the repo directory (should be named "orbitron")

Connect a piece to your own server

• Request an unlocked SD along with a piece, email adrian@marplebot.com an request it be unlocked remotely, or follow the Micro SD card setup instructions below
• Get local IP address sudo nmap -sn 192.168.1.0/24 (once the admin console is set up, you'll be able to get the ip address directly from there)
• ssh pi@<IP address> (password lumatron) into the piece and change the password
• Edit config.js to add the line RELAY_HOST: "your-domain-or-ip",
• Run sudo pm2 restart all

The admin console

• Same as with a local admin console, in terminal cd to creation folder
• Install node dependencies npm install
• Run node pixelserver.js
• Visit url http://localhost:8080/ (without the ?local)
• If in creation mode, click the "LUMATRON CREATION" button at the bottom to switch to admin mode
• I recommend hitting the "Set ORB_KEY" button followed by the "Save config.js" button for all connected orbs (including the server itself - default named "demo")
  • Note: if this button is not visible hit the "config" button first
• Again see the creation folder README for more details

Micro SD card setup

• Download an unlocked SD card image from dropbox
• Burn to SD card using dd or Balena Etcher
• Using dd
  • Update /dev/disk4 or /dev/sda below with the correct drive as determined from diskutil list or lsblk on Linux
  • diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk4 or sudo umount /dev/sda1 && sudo umount /dev/sda2 on Linux
  • go to Download directory or wherever the SD image download is
  • sudo dd if=lumatron.img of=/dev/disk4 status=progress
  • On MacOS use gdd instead
    • Install with brew install coreutils
    • sudo gdd if=lumatron.img of=/dev/disk4 status=progress
• Insert SD card into raspberry pi and power on
• Connect via ssh pi@<<IP_ADDRESS>> password lumatron
• Change to your own password

(alternative) Fresh Setup

Image an SD card

• Download Raspberry Pi Imager: https://www.raspberrypi.org/software/
• Select the latest 64-bit Raspberry PI OS
• Click the gear icon to change the settings of the install
• Set hostname to orbitron
• Enable SSH with password authentication
• enter pi as the username and enter a password
• Configure wireless LAN to connect to your local wifi
• Set timezone and select us Keyboard layout
• Save and click WRITE to burn the image
• Plug SD Card into PI

Getting connected

• Connect PI to monitor/TV via HDMI cable
• Connect USB keyboard to PI as well
• Power on the PI
• Wait for some time, it may need to reboot 2 or more times
• You should see orbitron login: when it is ready
• Login with the username and password you set

Install git

• sudo apt install git

Clone Repo and run installer

• git clone https://github.com/adrianmarple/orbitron
• ~/orbitron/utility_scripts/pi_install.sh

Additional useful things of note

Ripping a new SD card version

• Update /dev/disk4 below with the correct drive as determined from diskutil list or lsblk
• sudo dd if=/dev/disk4 of=lumatron.img bs=8M count=820 status=progress
• On MacOS use gdd instead
  • Install with brew install coreutils
  • sudo gdd if=/dev/disk4 of=lumatron.img bs=8M count=820 status=progress