It might be difficult to convey just exactly how impressive this thing really is with just that picture. What you’re seeing there is the Megascroller. It is comprised of 32,768 RGB LEDs and, while I don’t have any size measurements, I’d guess it is over 4 feet across based off of the assembly pictures.
Created for the NYC Resistor creative Art Sow 2014, the Megascroller is actually the 3rd and most impressive version of the project. It started as the Hexscroller, underwent a few upgrades like RGB and a couple extra panels and became the Octoscroller, and then, after considerable growth became the Megascroller! The Display itself is constructed from sixty-four 16×32 RGB LED panels all attached together with custom 3D printed brackets. The directional grills have been removed allowing for better viewing from more angles.
Controlling all of those bright and shiny bits can be a daunting task if you don’t have the right tools. In this case, the right tool is a BeagleBone Black loaded with a custom firmware specifically for driving RGB LEDs called LEDscape. The Megascroller appears to be at the maximum amount of LEDs capable of being pushed at 30 frames per second from this current setup.
Here’s a test run, if you want a better video, you can find one on the creator’s Flickr page. Embedding is disable though, so you have to go there to see the megascroller in action!
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