“I hope the title is weird enough that you will want to know what my project is about :)
Firstly, a few words about tilling or tessellation.
The tilling (or tessellation) consists of the division of the Euclidean 2D plane with the help of some geometric figures, the condition being that between these figures there is no gap but also no overlapping. There may be regular tessellations, obtained by repeating the same geometric figures but also semi-regular in the case of tessellations with several types of geometric figures. Here the difference between tiling and tessellation can be established. The tiling is done with the same geometric figure but the tessellation is made with several geometric figures. For example, a regular tiling known to nature is the honeycombs of bees, using regular hexagons and a very common tessellation is the combination of triangles and squares found in different floor mosaics.
Tetrakis Square Tiling is achieved by joining rectangular isosceles triangles by translating and rotating them. It can also be obtained by joining squares whose opposite and median vertices of opposite sides are joined 2 by 2. The result looks like in the figure below
More information on wikipedia here.
I’m sure you’ve seen this kind of graphics in many places. Even I used it earlier in my “project”. Tetrakis tiling also occurs in quilting, in different models of carpets, textile prints, faience patterns or other types of ceramics. There are hundreds of examples of vector graphics or graphic art. I only saved a few in a Pinterest list here.
But what I want to show you in this project is a dynamic tetrakis square tiling, made with the help of programmable LEDs. What means dynamic? Because a practically infinite variety of color patterns of the component triangles of this type of tilling can be generated.
If you like beautiful geometric art, this project is for you!
Supplies:
- a 6mm thick MDF board, the dimensions I used are in the SVG file attached below;
- WS2812 LED strip, 60 leds/meter, 512 LEDs;
- Wemos D1 Mini board;
- 5.5x2.5mm DC Female Plug with Cable;
- 5V/6A power supply with 5.5x2.5mm DC Male Plug;
- smoked Plexiglas sheet, 450mmx450mm and 3mm thick;
- white colored auto adhesive sheet;
- optional, white wrapping paper (I had about A2 size sheets);
- 3mm screws with nuts and washes (I used some with 35mm length and 20mm length) ;
- wires for connections, heat shrinking tubes;”