Bump.... any help on this?

I just bought 10 for $5 on eBay over the weekend.  They have the female clamp for LED strips at one end and the 4 pin plug suitable for the typical LED power supply at the other end.  I plan to lop of the pin end

Also, aliexpress.com is the low-volume outlet for alibaba.com.  You will find 10, 20, 50 quantities more easily on the former than the latter.

Can you point me to an example? The ones I have seen are just a bit too narrow with the pin placement too tight together.

I have looked there and I have been looking around other places too, but I am not really sure what the correct connector works best. I am crappy at soldering so a snap on would be ideal for me. When measuring a LPD8806 strip it looks like it would take at least something advertised as a 14mm connector but all I have been able to find are 12 mm like these. http://goo.gl/H462g I would like to hear from someone that has actually had firsthand experience with the LPD8806 and connectors that work and where they got them. I have never dealt with Alibaba and was a little skeptical about the payment system. Thanks.

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Is there a snap on connectors for LPD8806 LED strips that is available. Thanks.

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Is it possible to define each color with its RGB equivalent as a constant. I have tried something like the code below but it returns 0 instead of 127,0,0 as I would like. I would like to do this to make my code more readable. Any guidance? Thanks

const char red= '127,0,0';         //Red

setSpoke(0,strip.Color(red));   //red
Serial.println(red);

Thanks,

I have seen that post before and the guy custom programs a chip not an Arduino in assembler and not c. Where I need some help is working with the arrays as I have never used them before and I want to learn using this project.

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Hi,

New to the forum and arduino. I have a QuadCopter that I want to modify with a round matrix of LPD8806 RGB LED strips. I have a sample now that I am playing around with to see if my concept will even work. I am also new to C programing so I need a little advice. I want to arranged the LEDs in a radial pattern around the base of the quad, see attached pic. They will be wired in a serpentine manner with the data connections going totally through the entire array and with new power connections every meter of the LED strip. A small example of the array is below. With 0 being the first spoke in the array and 11,12 and 23 being the start of the next 3 spokes.

0   1   2   3   4   5
11   10   9   8   7   6
12   13   14   15   16   17
23   22   21   20   19   18

I want to be able to address each individual spoke and be able to send the entire spoke one color. In addition I would also like to address each, what I will call a ring in the same manner. The first ring being 0,11,12,23 and the second being 1,10,13,22

That being said and since the addresses of the strip can't easily (not sure about this) produced with a regular for loop, I am at a loss as to how to start to program for this array. Can anyone point in the correct direction.... Thanks in advice that you can give this poor lost soul.

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Thanks Rob. Will update here at least I have a direction to work towards.

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You might want to look at addressable RGB LEDs found here http://www.adafruit.com/products/306
 or if you search on LPD8806 you will find the same LEDs from different suppliers. There is also a library for programing them found here https://github.com/adafruit/LPD8806  With this setup the data wires are connected to the Arduino and the power is connected to a separate battery of the correct size. You can't power the LEDs from the Arduino as it draws too much amperage and it will cook your Arduino. This is another library that will drive the LEDs from the SPI bus. https://github.com/cjbaar/LPD8806. Good luck.

I think you said that this channel is controlled by a switch on the transmitter, how many positions on this switch? That will determine how many different "programs" you can run.

Right now the switch I want to use is a variable pot. But with the flight mode switch that I currently have, it was originally a variable pot but I modified the transmitter to have a 6 position switch with four trim pots to dial in the exact PMW with the high end of the switch being the high end of the PMW and the low end being the other end of the scale. So this might be a possible solution. Thanks for the feedback.

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The receiver is fully connected to the Ardupilot with a spare channel to play with.

I've not used these bits, what exactly is the has a spare RC channel got to do with the Arduino hanging off the Ardupilot?

If it's just an RC channel I don't see how it's of any use for "talking" to the Arduino except in the most simple of ways. Certainly not for reprogramming. That said

Like I said I am a newbie to the Arduino platform so I am not sure what can and cannot be done. I do know that with only the Ardupilot that flight modes which are part of the programing can be changed via a switch on the transmitter which in turn change the flying characteristics of the quad. These modes are acrobatic, stabilized, loiter, simple. I believe that it is using PWM to do this. Also not sure how and or if this same method can be used to accomplish what I want to do but I believe it can. Something like if the PMW is in this range have the LEDs do this part of the program on the Arduino and if it is in a different range do this other part of the program on the Arduino.

I would like to somehow change how the LEDs are behaving

You don't have to "reprogram" the Arduino to do this, just write a program that accepts some data from the Ardupilot and drives the LEDs differently according to the data.

That should be possible using an RC channel. Do I have this right?

RC channel ---> Ardupilot ----> Arduino

If so what do you get into the Arduino? Pulse train, SPI data, something else?

I do understand that branching of some sort would be required on the Arduino and have no problem in doing that. I just need to understand how to communicate that from the Ardupilot. I am currently using SPI on the Uno to drive the addressable RGB LEDs and I am not familiar with what Pulse train or whatever the alternatives are if any. Separately the Ardupilot and the Uno function just fine by themselves. I just want to modify the program on the Uno to accept a signal from the Ardupilot to trigger a branch in the program on the Uno to make the LEDs behave differently. As it is now I can only start the Uno on the ground with the program I currently have. It is my goal to be able to change modes on the Uno in flight. Thanks for your help.

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which is connect to an RC radio on which I have a free channel.

Does this mean a free servo channel or is there a data channel? Or do you want to program via the autopilot?

Yes on the aruopilot. Servo for sure not sure about the data.

program on the Uno in mid-flight

I hope its functions aren't mission critical

Uno is specific only to the RGB matrix. I would like to somehow change how the LEDs are behaving via the connection between the two. The receiver is fully connected to the Ardupilot with a spare channel to play with.

This site is where I got all of my info for my quad. Everything is open source. https://diydrones.com

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Hi,
 
New to the forum and to arduino so please forgive my ignorance. I have a Quadcopter that is controlled by an arduino based card called autopilot. I am also currently constructing a LED array which is controlled by an Arduino Uno and it is using SPI to do that. What I need help with is that I would like to communicate somehow with the Uno via the autopilot which is connect to an RC radio on which I have a free channel. This would give me the ability to change the program on the Uno in mid-flight. Can this be done? If so then very very long descriptions with lots of pictures and graphs would be GREAT. Thanks in advance for any help you might give this poor lost soul.
 
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