Jolt Country

Have you ever wanted to buy something that makes absoluely no sense? This is that thing for me right now.

http://ledpixelart.com

"Pixel" is a display screen that does 32x32 resolution. It has 1024 LEDs mounted on it. It's designed for displaying pixel artwork. They released a Pixel V1 and now they are Kickstarting Pixel V2. I don't know how much it's going to retail for but on the Kickstarter there are three prices ($230/$260/$300) and the $230 level is sold out and the $260 will sell out today, so you're looking at $300 essentially. There are some upgrades that can easily take you past $400, but let's just say you can get into one for $300.

Essentially this thing is a screen that shows off 32x32 artwork. It'll display still pictures and animated GIFs. If you look at the examples they look really awesome. With an Android device or a computer you can make your own as well.

Looking into it a little deeper and I see the thing runs off of bluetooth. In fact, you HAVE to have a bluetooth device connected to it. It comes with a couple of bluetooth USB dongles for your PC, or you can connect it via bluetooth to an Android device (iOS not supported.). When you walk away or turn your computer off it'll show the last thing you uploaded.

Here's where I'm at. I love pixel art -- LOVE it. I love 8-bit and even 16bit pixel artwork. I think this is one of the coolest things ever. I would love to put one on my desk at work and have it cycling through 8-bit videogame sprites all day long.

But. $300.

I looked this morning and the Kindle Fire HD with the 8.9" screen is $229. That's with 16gb of storage, which I'm assuming can hold every pixel art ever made. Plus if I get tired of looking at pixel art on it I could play Angry Birds or Flappy the Turd or whatever. I'm sure there are a billion Youtube videos of pixel art out there that a Kindle Fire could play all day long.

I really really realy want to like the idea of an LED-powered Lite Brite, but at $300 I just can't pull the trigger. I want to though.

You know at Sam's Club, they have 32" televisions for under $300. I could make one big ass pixel art photo screen with one of those.

Two more things and then I'll shut up.

One, it looks like you can control the Pixel from EITHER bluetooth or USB. That appears to be a new feature (I'm guessing?) with the 2.0 -- some of the older documentation doesn't reflect this.

Two, the software to drive this thing is available for Android, Windows, Mac OS, and ... Raspberry Pi! They do say that the Android version is the only one that supports every function. The Pixel has an optional proximity detector for example and the Android version is the only one that supports that.

Is it a next-gen Lite Brite? I'm not sure exactly what it does, and this is after I had a look at the website.

Essentually it's a next-gen Lite-Brite. It displays 32x32 pictures -- either still ones or moving ones (animated GIFs). You can display the ones that come with it (around 150 different ones), load up ones you find on the internet, or make your own.

The pictures are not stored on the device itself but either on your computer or an Android device. If you turn the computer or device off, the screen will display the last thing you sent to it.

Flack wrote:Essentually it's a next-gen Lite-Brite. It displays 32x32 pictures -- either still ones or moving ones (animated GIFs). You can display the ones that come with it (around 150 different ones), load up ones you find on the internet, or make your own.

The pictures are not stored on the device itself but either on your computer or an Android device. If you turn the computer or device off, the screen will display the last thing you sent to it.

Glad to see PIXEL being discussed here. I'm the creator of PIXEL. PIXEL V2 has a local SD card so now animations and images will remain after being powered off and on. The other new feature is up to 4 LED displayed can be cascaded to create a larger LED display, see here I agree $300 isn't cheap, PIXEL is a low volume, niche product and even at this price, I'm not making a whole lot. The effect of the LEDs is quite unique, you just don't get this brightness from back lit TVs and tablet screens, sounds cliche but its just something you need to see as it doesn't really come across on the video. Would love any other feedback.
Best,
Al

Points to Al for linking this forum to a video of him standing next to a Burger Time cab. - he knows his audience.