Yes, they're finally here-- The third generation of our Interactive LED Panels!

Now available to order, either as soldering kits or fully assembled and ready to use!

Wait-- what?
Interactive LED panels are giant circuit boards filled superbright LEDs that respond in a complex, subtle, and gentle fashion to stimulus provided by human interaction. They can be used as interactive art on your wall, or tucked under glass to make your own Interactive LED Coffee Table. The best way to get the idea is to watch a video and see how the panels behave.

(That's an 8-panel setup in the video. Incidentally, the video showing our previous model panels-- in dull orange not black-- has also been very popular, presumably because of the cat.)

The LEDs in our panels are normally dim and constant-- the most you'll see in a dark room is a faint glow of twinkling like the night sky. But when you set your glass down on an interactive table, the table "sees" the motion, and induces a slight ripple starting in that location that can spread out to other areas as it dissipates. The overall effect is a bit like touching a pool of water, in that your local disturbance turns into an overall gentle rippling, and eventually settles down. It is decidedly not a disco floor-- there is no blinking, no programmed oscillations, or for that matter, any digital electronics at all-- the circuitry is completely analog for improved aesthetics and reduced eyestrain.

The panels work well under clear or frosted glass or plastic surfaces, and work in light conditions from darkness to sunlight.

New Design
Our new circuit board panels are black, 12" x 12"(~30.5 cm) square, with 80 superbright white LEDs arranged on a regular grid. Each circuit board panel has four motion sensor nodes, each of which controls 20 of the LEDs. So, a 6-panel setup covers six square feet of area (1x6 or 2x3), has 24 sensors and 480 LEDs, while an 8-panel version has 32 sensor nodes and 640 LEDs. We have also added new plug-in plug-out connectors to each board edge making it easy to reconfigure the panels in any rectangular arrangement.

Interactive panels are essentially stand-alone devices. They require power to be provided but no computer or other external control is needed. Neighboring panels that are connected together through their edge connectors can share power and communications between sensor nodes.

Our standard power supplies can provide power to up to 12 panels. Larger numbers of panels can also be connected together if you wish to build a larger display; instructions on how to do this ship with the panels. You mount these panels on a wall, in a coffee table, or on facing sides of a hallway, for an interesting art project.

Ready-to-use Interactive LED Panels. Assembled and tested. Items ship from stock in one week or less. (Volume pricing is also available; please contact us.)

1 Panel	2 Panels	4 Panels	6 Panels	8 Panels
$130	$250	$480	$660	$800
In Stock	In Stock	In Stock	In Stock	In Stock

Interactive LED Panel Kits.
These soldering kits [?] include circuit boards, components, and clear step-by-step printed instructions. You should have some experience soldering and allow 1-2 hours per panel.

Note: Kits are slightly backordered due to high demand. Reserve your place in line by placing an order; orders for kits and accessories placed now will ship in 1-2 weeks.

1-Panel Kit	2-Panel Kit	4-Panel Kit	6-Panel Kit	8-Panel Kit
$85	$135	$230	$330	$430
Ships 1-2 Weeks	Ships 1-2 Weeks	Ships 1-2 Weeks	Ships 1-2 Weeks	Ships 1-2 Weeks

Power Supplies sold separately.

	US/Canada Small	Universal Small	US/Canada Medium	Universal Large
Powers	1-3 panels	1-3 panels	1-7 panels	1-12 panels
Style	Wall Plug	Wall Plug	Corded	Corded
Plug	US/Canada	Multi-plug*	US/Canada	US/Canada**
Price	$28	$32	$40	$50
Purchase

Options and Accessories

Extra Switch + Jack
Interactive LED Panel sets (and kits) come with one DC power jack and one power switch. So, if you get (for example) an eight-panel kit and want to make two smaller four-panel Interactive LED end tables, you'll need (1) an extra power supply, but also (2) an extra power jack and power switch for the other table.

The extra jack and switch can be used with either kits or ready-to-use panels, but do not come soldered to the board-- you get to do that yourself.

Extra Jack + Switch	$5

Resistor Lead Bender
Handy high-productivity tool for making neat bends in the leads of your resistors when assembling kits. Read more about these here.

Resistor Lead Bender	$7.00

5/64" Ball-point Hex Wrench
Interactive LED Panels and kits ship with 3/4" aluminum standoffs and stainless screws. You can use this wrench (An "Allen" wrench-- a little wisp of hexagonal steel wire) to tighten the screws if you like. It's hardened steel with a tough but clean gold-plated finish. You probably don't need one of these-- you can actually tighten the standoffs by hand without it. You can also get hex wrenches (for less) elsewhere. But these are really nice ones and we've been asked... so here they are.

5/64" Hex Wrench	$2.00

View Cart or Check Out:

About our kits
We take great pride in our kit designs; we believe in clear instructions, unambiguous labeling, goodies, and including a few extras of most small, easy to lose and/or break components. Assembly of the boards is pretty straightforward if you like to solder; it basically requires stuffing the components in the boards and soldering (a lot of) easy through-hole components. You should have prior experience soldering and basic soldering tools. Read more about what to expect in our kits here. Kits include superbright white LEDs. If you plan to use your own LEDs instead of ours, please see also this note.

About ready-to-use panels
Preassembled panels come with brief usage instructions, including how to manage the power supplies for larger scale installations. One panel in the set comes with a power jack and a power switch on 6" wire leads, so that you can mount it in an accessible location.

About our power supplies
The power supplies are compact and energy efficient (Energy Star Level IV compliant) laptop-grade 24 V DC adapters. Our "Large" power supply (actually quite compact) powers from 1-12 panels. It accepts US or international AC power. Outside of US/Canada, this power supply ships without an AC line cord: international customers will need to supply a local line cord for the power supply, which accepts an IEC C7 ("Figure 8") cord. (Typical cost is under $5 equivalent.)

If you are providing your own power source, it should be 24 V DC, well-regulated and capable of supplying at least 200 mA per panel. Do not power more than 12 panels from a single power supply; the inter-panel connections are designed for 2.5 A maximum.

Power consumption
Our panels are energy efficient and typically use 1 W or less in the steady state-- under 8 W for a full 8-panel table top. (Most of this power is used to operate the sensor network.) At maximum amplitude when heavily stimulated, power consumption can reach as high as 5 W per panel, or 40 W for an 8-panel set.

Lead Free
Our Interactive LED Panels, kits, and power supplies are all RoHS compliant (lead free). If you're building one of our kits, you'll find that everything works well with either regular or lead-free solder-- whichever you care to use.