Motion Activated Message Display

Recently, I tested the 0832 LED Matrix Board that I purchased from Sure Electronics. Since I have a simple AVR microcontroller breakout board and a PIR sensor that senses motion, I decided to make something fun using the 0832 LED Matrix Board.

Microcontroller + PIR Sensor + LED Matrix Board  = Motion Activated Message Display

The idea of this project is to make an electronic moving display system that is activated by movements in its surroundings. It can be placed in commercial establishments and it can be used to greet or welcome people who pass by. The motion triggering system means that the display is inactive if there is no motion (or if there is no people around). Therefore, this consumes less power than those electronic moving display system without the motion trigerring system.

PIR Sensor

PIR sensor

The PIR  sensor or Passive infrared sensor is an electronic device that is commonly used as motion detector. It is made of a material that can measure the amount of infrared radiated by objects in its field of view.

If you want to read more about this sensor, here is the wiki page.

Microcontroller

28-pin AVR breakout board and ATmega8

I used the 28-pin AVR breakout board and ATmega8 for this project. Just to reiterate, ATmega8 is an 8-bit microcontroller under the AVR family manufactured by Atmel. It is the brain of this project and it does all the processing from interpreting the PIR sensor’s output to controlling the LED matrix board.

LED Matrix Board

Putting It All Together

Motion Activated Message Display Schematic

Shown above is the schematic of the Motion Activated Message Display project. The power supply that I used is a 5-volt regulated power supply that can provide at least 500mA  (just to be safe) .

I also prepared the firmware as a reference for those who want to make the same project.

Build it…

Download Motion Activated Message Display Demo Firmware

You may also want to check the AVR based 8×8 Matrix Board.