LED Chasing Lights 40 ft long

Projects General Guidance
1

Hello all,

I would like to set up a light string approx 40 feet long. I would like to use an LED string and program it to light up one light progressively every minute. I am using this as a project in my plant to show exactly how fast a moving assembly line would progress (new concept in my facility so people are nervous). I have search for out of the box controllers, but I could not find one that would chase that slow. I found several forums where people have used the Arduino controllers for LED lighting. I would think it would be possible with the proper programming, I just haven't found anything that slow. I have called numerous places about their controllers and got laughed at due to the speed. Here are my questions if someone could help me out:

  1. Is the project possible?

  2. Are there any recommended LED strings that work better?

  3. What would the recommended Arduino controller be?

I know that I probably would have to have numerous power supplies etc. due to the length of the run. I would appreciate any guidance the pro's on here could provide. I have programmed micro controllers before, but it has been a long time... Thanks in advance!

2

  1. Yes

  2. WS2812B strips are very common, cheap (which is relative, of course) and easy to work with, so...

  3. ... most if not all arduinos should be perfectly capable of that task (e.g. UNO)

lg, couka

3

It's also possible to wire-up 40 individual LEDs (or 80, etc.) with [u]shift-register serial addressing[/u]. (The addressable LED strips use the same concept.) You can daisy-chain a virtually unlimited number of shift registers to address a large number of LEDs.

4

I see led strips with 300 leds in 5 meters (16 ft) and some with 600 leds in 5 meters. They're not cheap.

If you put 2 pulleys 40 feet apart with a string around them and tied white ribbons on it then drove one pulley with a stepper motor --- would that be visible enough?

However slow you show it will be done, management will push faster. It's another form of clock and quota.