Hello arduino users.
I'm planning to use led strips whose leds would be independantly controlled.
would you have any advice for me?
I can borrow a usb to dmx device if needed, but I'm a bit lost between all those controllers and led strips. which ones will allow me to control each diode as a dmx channel? (RGB strip are not useful for me, white led will do the job)
Thanks for sharing your experience.
leira
I have never seen white strips with individual control over each LED. Do you see such a product? If so - so you have a link?
@ marklar .
I did not have any special led strip in mind
before choosing any strip, I wanted to know which product would allow me to get an individual control
I thought it would be possible on "non RGB" strips.
If I have to get RGB strips it does not matter, I will simple use the white color....
@ KE7GKP
I'm thinking about this kind of ribbon: http://www.sparkfun.com/products/10259
Operating voltage:12V DC
Current per 3 LEDs(separable every 3LEDs): 60mA
Consumption watts per 3 LEDs: 0.72W
thanks
The most important thing to understand at this point is that there are few strips that give you individual control. If you go with one that does have individual control it will have RGB lights. You can turn the R/G and B lights on at the same level to get white with dimming of each LED individually.
This strip has individual control - the at sparkfun do not.
You may want to consider a non-strip solution and even raw chips for this project unless you need a small number of lights or have a good budget. One TLC can run 16 leds with around 4000 levels and one WS2801 can run 3 leds at 256 levels.
Hope that helps - best of luck.
sorry for my previous post that was not clear.
I just wanted to say that I did not know anything about strips.
moreover I misunderstood marklar post ...
now it's clear. ribbon needs to be adressable. and adressable strips are always RGB.
I should have precised it before, sorry:
I need to build a 10 meters long ribbon (if possible) I look at ready made strips because I thought it would have been a fast solution combined with a dmx controller.
Leds will be hidden in a long bag which will diffuse the light so I approximately need 30 led per meter. that is to say 300 for the 10 meters
If building my own strip will help me save money, I'm ready to learn. but setting 300 leds may be a hard task?
Thanks again
thanks.
I'm afraid of my electronic level at the moment. Not shure to achieve this in time.
I found a tutorial on ladyada: Digital RGB LED Strip tutorial that could be a more secure solution for me at the moment, the problem being the current that several meters will need If I'm allways using white lighting. I may have to split my 10 meters ribbon in several parts.
I would forget the DMX protocol and simply use the arduino.
What do your think of these solution?
your right.
It 's a challenging project for me.. but It's a great occasion to learn...
I will try the The MAX72 solution. Chaining them is not clear for the moment but I will try.
Thanks KEYGKP.
I think the max72 led drivers is finally not suitable for my project:
the drivers can't be chained with longer wires than 10cm... I would have need to put a driver each 64 leds that's to say each 3 meters. (if using a white led strip with 60 led/m being mounted by groups of 3)
even if I chain all the drivers in the same breadboard at one end of my led ribbon, Extension wires to each meter of ribbon will certainly be too long to properly drive the signal..
Hi ke7gkp
I read this at the end of this paragraph:
http://arduino.cc/playground/Main/MAX72XXHardware#WiringArduino
I purchased today a 5m/ 300 white led strip( 3528 cms) to try its brightness.
12V 1,5 A for the entire strip...
I think I will only fade the entire strip, it will be simpler for me I guess.
How do I have to protect the arduino from 12v and 1,5 amp?
yes, sorry, I have difficulties to be clear
actually, I want to control this 12v 1,5 Amp led strip with an arduino .
It will be a duemilanove, can this one control a 12V strip without an external transistor?
thanks