LED cube as an IoT demonstrator

Reference report #2

Why a demonstrator?

Theoretical understanding is not yet implementation, because the actual challenges only become visible during practical implementation. This is why we, as CSA, use demonstrators to realize complete breakthroughs in order to clarify interfaces, identify stumbling blocks and develop solutions.

Project

Our LED Cube is equipped with IoT technologies and offers an impressive combination of technology and design. The system consists of three parts:

Embedded Hardware
Backend in the Cloud
Web frontend

The LED cubes can be centrally configured, controlled and supplied with firmware updates thanks to their internet capability. The interface between the 8x8x8 RGB LED matrix, which is controlled by an FPGA, and the backend is the M4MCU board with the .NET nanoFramework.

The technologies used include

Angular
Node.js
Javascript
HTML / CSS
Azure App Services
Azure Kubernetes Service
Message Broker (MQTT, JSON)
Twin (JSON)
PostgreSQL
.NET 6
RESTful API
Azure Blob Storage
.NET nanoFramework
C#

Technical details

8 x 8 x 8 RGB-LED matrix
Displays animations and texts

STM32F427 with 8MB external SDRAM and Flash each

Various interfaces:
- Ethernet, CAN, ModBus, UART, SPI, RS485
- USB host and USB device
- SD cards

Communication with M4MCU board decoupled via DeviceTwin architecture
MQTT Broker

Device management
User authentication
Microservices architecture
Deployment on Azure Kurbernetes Services (AKS)
Azure Blob Storage for the storage of animations and firmware images

Frontend

Our solution includes a modern front end based on Angular technology. This intuitive interface makes it easy to configure and control the LED cube. Users can make various settings via the application and control the LED cube efficiently to create individual light patterns and effects.