Stadium Pro Ball Cap

The Stadium Pro Ball cap is the ultimate sports fan's dream. Now you can rep every team you love to see with one hat. Simply dial in whatever sport you are watching and the LED matrix will display their logo. Infinitely Customizable!!! Use programming to make any logo or symbol you want!

Hat

8x8 LED Grid

Arduino Nano

Wire

Female jumper wire ends

Potentiometer

soldering iron and solder

9v to 5v reducer

2 9v batteries w/ connectors

3D printer filament

Plastic light diffuser (used milk jug sections)

2 part epoxy

Hot glue

The schematic shows the basic structure of the electronics. Everything in the green box is wholly contained within the 3D printed enclosure. I modelled the enclosure and printed it, but something could be made out of other materials. It just needs to hold two batteries and the arduino nano. It also needs to be small enough to fit within the hat, comfortably if possible.

1. I soldered the battery connectors and voltage reducer together. Two leads go from one battery to the arduino. Two leads go from the other battery with the voltage reducer to the led matrix. The ground for the arduino and the ground of the battery going to the led grid must be shared. I added a wire in to complete that connection.

2. The potentiometer, nested in a slot on the enclosure has its power and ground come from the arduino and the signal feed into it.

3. I put a slit in the hat for the led grid wires to run through and used 2 part epoxy to attach it to the front of the hat. Wires run from one battery connector to the led grid and a signal wire comes from the arduino. I put a few layers of plastic on top of the led grid to diffuse the light. It becomes a better looking device as a result. The enclosure was also secured in the hat with epoxy. The location of the enclosure is important. The area it rests does not make much contact with my head, so it remains comfortable when worn.

Code:

https://gist.github.com/casion392/da6a3f91112748a7...

The above code is what is used to control the hat. Simply put in the location and color of each pixel to create bright, vibrant, and colorful imagery. I used a drawing program to create simple 8-bit style logos of my favorite American sports teams. I then translated those pixel images into arduino code. Each pixel is read as 0-63 out of the 64 lights in the grid and the RGB color values can be set for each one. Brightness can also be adjusted in code. I have created logos for the Colorado Rockies, Chicago Bulls, Minnesota Vikings, and Seattle Kraken.

The hat is operated by plugging in both batteries. Turning the potentiometer changes the image on the display. Brightness can be changed in code or by adding more layers of plastic to the diffuser. I am happy with the level of brightness here. Its less severely bright in person. Happy building!!!