LARSON SCANNER 2021

Name: LARSON SCANNER 2021
SKU: 13470
Price: 20.00 USD
Availability: Discontinued
Rating: 4.25 (16 reviews)

(16 Reviews)

Battlestar Gallactica Cylon Eye / Knight Rider K.I.T.T. Style Larson Scanner with 16 addressable LED and many more functions!

Designed by Burgduino in Greece

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Battlestar Gallactica Cylon Eye / Knight Rider K.I.T.T. Style Larson Scanner with 16 addressable LED and many more functions!

LARSON SCANNER 2021 New Larson Scanner is expected soon! What is it? Larson Scanner 2021 is my 4th revision on this very interesting subject Only this was time to add more to it. Why did you make it?…

What is it?

Larson Scanner 2021 is my 4th revision on this very interesting subject Only this was time to add more to it.

Why did you make it?

It is fun! Need more reason? And new version is also practical!

What makes it special?

Instead of using an attiny13 or similar this time I am using an attiny1616 and 16 addressable LED. Besides the Larson Scanner pattern, one can program it with different patterns and there is a push button to select function/patterns. There is more to it though... Onboard the pcb which is same size as previous versions (165x17mm) you will find an I2C ambient light sensor, an I2C temperature sensor & a microphone! On the back you can solder Grove connectors giving access to UART, I2C & GPIO including DAC output. Supplied are right angle PH2.54 connectors but the connections are more or less following Grove ecosystem guidelines It is powered through the mUSB connector but can also use PSU4056L modules same as previous versions. mUSB is also used to access the UPDI programming pin and I even made a programmer to help with this (optional) Larson Scanner is using WS2812C addressable RGB LED for relatively low power consumption.

Using the LED as a bar graph you can use it as a VU Meter, Thermometer, Night Light, indicate various conditions etc. An add on board is on the making which will hold a 14500 Li-Ion or LiFePO4 cell and power management (charger etc.) and possibly a small audio amplifier & speaker to use with the DAC output.

How many LEDs? 16x WS2812C RGB addressable LED
How much current? around 5mA when idle with LED off, 250mA max
What kind of power supply needed? Any micro USB 5V source will be just fine but any 5VDC source can also be used. Combined with PSU4056 voltage regulator it can be used in automotive environment or be powered from any DC source from 5-40V. Here you will be able to order a modified PSU4056 using ceramic capacitors only for a slim profile.

I have also made a simple programmer for the new Larson Scanner as the UPDI is passing through the mUSB port.

Ambient light sensor OPT3001
Temperature Sensor LM75BDP,118
Microphone AP2718AT

LARSON SCANNER 2021 is using attiny1616

**First batch expected to ship out late January!

Also available with Larson Scanner 2021 UPDI Programmer PSU4056L

Source code for PREVIOUS VERSION (LARSON SCANNER III)

Review Breakdown

Average Ratings

Product: (4.62)

Documentation: (4.25)

Shipping: (3.88)

Communication: (4.25)

A.R. | Dec. 31, 2020

All working well, cool gadget. Very slow postal servthough.

The scanner is great, as described. The Greek postal service is a mess though. Delivery to the Netherlands took 3 months!

James | Dec. 5, 2020

Nice Cylon Eye scanner

High quality boards, connected to 5vdc micro usb power supply and worked as expected!
I had a shipping question and received quick support from the seller.

John | Dec. 8, 2019

"Slim, light and very bright (everything I am not)"

From away back when I watched the original Battlestar Galactica and Knight Rider I've wanted to get my hands on a scanner. Back in those days it was all mosfets and (for me) hard to find electronics.
Skip forward a decade or three and I found these Larson Scanners. Not only are they pre built and ready to go, but I can get them delivered to my door, happy days!
Slim, light and very bright (everything I am not), this board is a simple joy. Simply power it via the micro USB connector or optional Buck convertor and you are up and running.

The PCB is of decent quality with a little bit of flex but I wouldn't push it too much.
LEDs are bright and clear.

No printed documentation (not that you need any) but there are links on the website to the original project this board is based on, and also links to the Source Code that is used in the scanner.

A small hiccup in postage (wrong tracking code), but fantastic communication throughout.

All in I'm very happy to have my scanners, I will be back for more.

George | Dec. 3, 2019

The product is good but delivery time was really slow.

It works as intended. Quite nice actually. Good brightness too. Looks hand soldered but solid made. Unfortunately the item was posted one month after payment and there was no direct communication with the seller to explain this delay. There was no reply through the tindie mail system. Only after cancellation request through paypal and tindie supervisors the item was send. Despite been a good product, the poor communication with the seller and delay in fulfilling the order was a major drawback.

Response from Burgduino | Dec. 3, 2019

I would like to apologize for the delay.
I think i have resolved problems with shipping related to my remote location and available time for access to the PO.
I want to assure everyone shipping times at least as far as it concerns delivery to the PO have been resolved and things are back to the normal fast turn-around times

John | Oct. 21, 2019

Awesome piece for my project.

I'm building a cart for moving items around in my school. Needed some cool visual effects and found this!
It will be my centerpiece. Very nice compact design and functionality.
Thanks!

Paul | Oct. 16, 2019

I love it!

The scanner is super cool! It really looks like a Cylon Centurion eye from Battlestar Galactica, or the eye of KITT from Knight Rider. I mounted the scanner on the front of my VR headset, so I can look like a bad-ass while playing VR! As others have said, there were some issues with shipping (not the seller's fault), but the seller was super cool and responded helpfully to all my emails. Those issues have been taken care of. I would buy from this seller again. Recommended!

William | Oct. 13, 2019

Beautiful scanner circuit.

I am extremely pleased with quality and performance of the product. There was some delay in the shipping that was NOT the fault of the seller. Mr. Apostolidis provided a detailed account of a terrible situation with his local post office and that affected his customers. I, fortunately received my order and could not be happier. The scanners are terrific!

Stefan | Oct. 6, 2019

Cool tiny scanner

Good build quality.
Low consumption over usb .
Bright red leds.
Good seller , solved my issues and I am happy with it.

Thank you and good job !

Thomas | Sept. 14, 2019

Good Product

Just got the scanner today and first impressions are good
Will have to see how it holds up
I will more than likely endup getting more

Dominic | July 24, 2019

Never got the item - seller will not email me back

One month to the day and never got the item. 3 weeks after order I emailed the seller and they did not even email me back.

Such a shame - going to have to find a Larson scanner somewhere else.

James | April 12, 2019

The absolute best larsen scanner kit

I ordered 2 green and 2 yellow kits for delivery to United States. Was notified of shipment on mar 25th, items arrived today (apr 12th), so 14 days total, which is pretty good in my opinion.

So on to the review:

Product: 5 stars
Build quality is great, circuit board is a bit thin but is fine for the purposes. All solder joints are good, no dead leds or cold joints even after flexing the board a bit. Drop test from 3 meters, still works fine; shit it out of a paintball gun with some wadding towards a wall 5 meters away, plugged it in, works fine. Before anyone thinks these are unrealistic tests, I plan on printing a back plate and diffuser for these and using them on backpacks for search and rescue + night hiking use.

Shipping: 5 stars
Free shipping, arrived in 14 days from the time I was notified it shipped. Better than most of my aliexpress orders, so am definitely no complaining.

Documentation: 5 stars
Absolutely no documentation. 5vdc model has a usb port, if you need documentation to figure out where to apply power... well... documentation probably won't help you, you have bigger issues.

Communication: 5 stars
I was notified of shipping, it arrived, I ordered more. I am 90% sure if I had an issue, it would be resolved quickly, as ordering and notifications were handled quickly.

In conclusion:
The leds are bright, timing on the movement is perfect, and these will work perfect for my needs. I went ahead and ordered 4 more in red (2x 5v, 2x variable voltage) for later use. Will probably install one as a third brake light in my jeep, and use the others for markers and such. Great product, great price, good shipping times. Dude makes a great product.

Tate | Feb. 10, 2019

Exactly as described. Fast shipping

This is not a complicated piece or even a kit - it's fully assembled and there's one function - connect a power supply. Still some kind of documentation would've been nice, even if not needed. Not sure it'd be worth the extra expense. I've had both of 'em up and running literally within minutes of arrival - and they got here MUCH faster than I expected! Never received anything from Greece before and they make some others look down right slow and sloppy. Arrived in good shape, well packed and sooner than expected. Left 'em running for several hours with out a hitch. These are fun!

Linus | Feb. 3, 2019

Fun light with rich strong colours!

I've made two 3D-print mounts for this Larson scanner and uploaded them at Thingiverse. One with Molle mount and one for textile.
You'll find the stl files here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3399338

I made the mounts to use for visibility and recognition as someone walking in the dark.

If you use these light on you, the sinusodial motion of the Larson scanner will be superimposed on your walking motion and hopefully, you will be more easily recognized as someone walking. This would be in the principle of addition of waveforms and the Larson scanner will give you an additional variation of 13 cm to your natural motion. Thats plenty.

Thank you for this scanner :)

Tom | Jan. 17, 2019

eye-catcher on a 19" rack

Put on the side of a 19" rack holding computer equipment not only every nerd will notice it - the LEDs are bright and of rich color.
did glue some small neodym-magnets to the backside to make it stick professionally :)

Laura | Oct. 31, 2018

Simple, effective led array

This is an excellent piece for the money. Just plug in and go. Loved it. It probably can also be programmed to do other things but the default is nice.

Gary | Oct. 10, 2018

Quality item at a good price.

Looks and works great. Have it enabled with a PIR motion sensor, which also enables a sound module with a looped recording of the Cylon eye warble'
Activates whenever someone walks by. A nice addition to the tech area.

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