https://blog.jgc.org/2024/05/controlling-taylor-swift-eras-tour.html John Graham-Cumming's blog 2024-05-27 Controlling the Taylor Swift Eras Tour wristbands with Flipper Zero Many large concerts feature wristbands that light up on command. They are used to produce varied visual effects across a stadium. One company that makes these is PixMob. Their controllable, illuminated wristbands are currently being used as part of Taylor Swift's Eras Tour. A short Wired article here gives some details and here's a video from the Wall Street Journal: For the Eras Tour the company's X2 product is being used. It looks like this: [eras-1] Since these wristbands are designed for reuse they are easily opened revealing two batteries and a lovely little circuit board: [eras-2] Here's that circuit board: [eras-3] On that board are two RGB LEDs, a little microcontroller, a little bit of EEPROM and an infrared diode to receive a signal. So, simply put, PixMob works by installed a really big (and moveable) IR remote control (you can read about this on their website here) and transmitting commands to the bracelets to produce colours, fades, flashes, etc. Cute. There are a bunch of hardware details here. Since they are projecting infrared with moveable projector they can sweep effects around the stadium, and cover the projector with cut outs to make things like hearts. It's simple technology that works very nicely. And, of course, there's a reverse engineering community built up around this. The best place to start learning about that is this GitHub repository. It brings together a bunch of reverse engineering efforts that have looked into the IR protocol. These have been somewhat successful and, since the Flipper Zero has IR capability, there's a project that makes it control the wristband. Here's a short video of me making the wristbands fade orange. Such nice simple technology that produces very cool effects. at May 27, 2024 Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest No comments: Post a Comment Older Post Home Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom) Labels * pseudo-randomness * hardware * babbage * anti-spam * gnu make * retro * security * codes and ciphers * the geek atlas * mathematics * minitel * behind the screens * popfile * privacy * radio Popular Posts * [AEn0k_uUnp] Controlling the Taylor Swift Eras Tour wristbands with Flipper Zero Many large concerts feature wristbands that light up on command. They are used to produce varied visual effects across a stadium. One compan... * [proposal-1] The original WWW proposal is a Word for Macintosh 4.0 file from 1990, can we open it? The W3C has a page with the original WWW proposal from Tim Berners-Lee. One of the downloads says The original document file (I think - I ... * [tsb-1] "Hacker News" for retro computing and gaming I noticed over time that I was drawn to the retro computing or gaming posts on Hacker News . So, I've set up a dedicated web site in the... * [mac-1] My daily driver is older than I thought; it's positively vintage! I was doing some clean up on my main laptop and realized it had been a while since bought a new computer. Turns out it was a lot older than ... * [Picture] Your last name contains invalid characters My last name is "Graham-Cumming". But here's a typical form response when I enter it: Does the web site have any idea how rud... * [klein-1] The Acme Klein Bottle (from Cliff Stoll and family) Cliff Stoll (who is probably most famous for writing the wonderful Cuckoo's Egg about tracking a hacker when doing so was almost recre... * [701c-39] Complete restoration of an IBM "Butterfly" ThinkPad 701c Just over a year ago there was a discussion on Hacker News about the IBM ThinkPad 701c (the one with the lovely folding "butterfly &quo... * [firecuda-2] Retrieving 1TB of data from a faulty Seagate Firecuda 530 drive with the help woodworking tools So, a while ago I built a gaming PC with the following specification: Case Dan A4 v4.1 Motherboard Z690I Strix Gaming Pro... * [economist-] The Economist's ugly new print typeface Turning to the back page of a recent copy of The Economist to read the obituary of Paul Alexander the eye is assaulted by The Economist'... * [thesis-1] The formal development of secure systems (my 1992 doctoral thesis) Since this doesn't seem to be findable online anywhere here's a PDF generated from the original .tex files that I kept on a floppy ... Blog Archive * V 2024 (8) + V May (1) o Controlling the Taylor Swift Eras Tour wristbands ... + > April (1) + > March (3) + > February (2) + > January (1) * > 2023 (30) + > December (2) + > November (5) + > October (3) + > September (4) + > August (1) + > July (5) + > June (1) + > May (3) + > April (3) + > March (3) * > 2022 (24) + > December (2) + > November (3) + > October (8) + > September (1) + > July (2) + > June (2) + > April (2) + > March (4) * > 2021 (6) + > November (1) + > July (1) + > May (2) + > April (1) + > January (1) * > 2020 (2) + > June (2) * > 2018 (2) + > December (2) * > 2017 (4) + > May (1) + > April (3) * > 2016 (11) + > November (1) + > September (1) + > July (2) + > June (1) + > May (3) + > April (1) + > March (2) * > 2015 (11) + > November (1) + > July (2) + > May (1) + > April (5) + > March (1) + > January (1) * > 2014 (4) + > November (2) + > July (1) + > June (1) * > 2013 (39) + > September (4) + > August (1) + > July (4) + > June (2) + > May (5) + > April (12) + > March (3) + > February (2) + > January (6) * > 2012 (77) + > December (3) + > November (6) + > October (6) + > September (7) + > August (6) + > July (6) + > June (8) + > May (4) + > April (9) + > March (7) + > February (9) + > January (6) * > 2011 (79) + > December (5) + > November (7) + > October (2) + > September (5) + > August (2) + > July (8) + > June (10) + > May (6) + > April (9) + > March (6) + > February (12) + > January (7) * > 2010 (95) + > December (13) + > November (9) + > October (16) + > September (19) + > August (2) + > July (9) + > June (12) + > May (1) + > April (1) + > March (4) + > February (2) + > January (7) * > 2009 (31) + > December (1) + > November (8) + > October (3) + > September (6) + > August (9) + > June (1) + > May (1) + > January (2) * > 2008 (19) + > December (2) + > September (1) + > June (3) + > May (3) + > March (2) + > February (6) + > January (2) * > 2007 (34) + > December (2) + > November (3) + > October (5) + > August (2) + > July (2) + > June (4) + > May (3) + > April (1) + > March (6) + > February (4) + > January (2) * > 2006 (25) + > December (2) + > November (2) + > October (3) + > September (5) + > July (1) + > June (1) + > April (6) + > February (1) + > January (4) * > 2005 (3) + > December (1) + > November (2) Copyright (c) 1999-2024 John Graham-Cumming. Awesome Inc. theme. Powered by Blogger.