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Wait but how?

• The LED panels are driven by an ESP32, controlled by a phone via Wifi!
• Yes, he’s built using “Arduino”! No, they aren’t normal “Neopixel” LEDs, they’re HUB75! Yes, he is adorable!
• The LED panels were $25 each and the microcontroller was $5. It’s powered by a normal USB battery pack!
• The original pixel art animation was done by the extremely talented Alex Illustration! We used Photoshop to modify the original animation and to make all the other animations!

Where is Furret?

Furret uses Meshtastic, a peer-to-peer LoRa mesh network, for long range (up to 10km!) reliable texting and GPS coordinate sharing! After getting your hardware (~$30) and setting up the device, join his channel and you can find Furret easily at festivals! We’ll try to announce future planned events on Instagram!

Click here to join his channel, or scan the QR code below!

Special Thanks

• @alex_illustrat - who originally created the 8bit pixel art for Furret Walking. See more of his work on ArtStation!
• narpy - for starting the most adorable, wholesome, meme
• @pikachutotem - who inspired me to make Furret!
• Sprite_tm, Craig A. Lindley, Louis Beaudoin, and Marc Merlin - for the below libraries and helpful forum posts :)
• bigclive for showing me the perfect bubble blowing mechanism!

Code

This repository isn’t meant to be a good sample project, it’s just my personal project. It was built on top of so many incredible libraries:

• Arduino core for the ESP32
• SmartMatrix Library for ESP32
  • I did a dirty hack to free up some DMA memory to enable Wifi for this project.
• Animated GIFs on ESP32
• Arduino plugin for uploading files to ESP32 file system

Hardware

• PCB I designed to drive HUB75 panels with an ESP32: Buy on Tindie!
  • This part is optional, but greatly simplifies your wiring!
• ESP32-DEVKIT-V1: Amazon ($14 for 2)
  • You can use a different ESP32 if you don’t use my PCB. Just remember to verify it has the required pins mentioned below!
• 128x64px, P2.5, 1/32, HUB75E purchased on AliExpress
• Bubble machine extracted from children’s bubble wand toy, purchased on eBay
• Some PVC pipe and a tripod!
• Furret’s powered by a 100Wh USB battery bank! At full brightness, one panel can pull about 2 Amps @ 5 Volts. Since the LED panel power requirements can spike depending on the animation, I recommend running the ESP32 from a separate 5V power source to avoid brownouts due to voltage sag.