LED disco light panels

Hi, I work part time as a mobile DJ and I would like to make my own light panels to make my setup have that extra visual effect. I would like to make led panel(s) that can either be controlled by sound or by dmx. I am an electrical/mechanical engineer by day so I have fabrication and electrical skills (but no programmming skills)

I have been told arduino is the way to go and have viewed youtube videos of arduino controlling led's on its board. But how to make led's work in a panel.

Can anyone recommend where I should start, maybe a simple project leading up to more complicated LED panels. I would also like to evetually build my own mobile LED dance floo

Grateful for any suggestions
Cheers Globeworker (Chris)

You will need to learn basic programming since its unlikely that someone has done exactly what you are doing. Try my m5451 Arduino library google arduino m5451. That talks to the chips but you'd have to tell it what leds to turn on when. You can DIY your own circuit on a breadboard or use my lightuino hardware. Www.toastedcircuits.com

Making a panel with LEDs on it isn't that hard to do. There are different ways of skinning that cat. The programming on the other hand, that's all you (or whoever you hire to do it for you.) My xmas window show which was made out of LED strings, actually attracted the attention of a DJ across the street and he had me build a similar setup for him, but on a rigid board. He wanted different effects than what I had, and he didn't care for having it react to music, but that's not that big an issue. This is the xmas display I build:

KirAsh4

Hi, the window display looks great, I can see it working as a panel I could use. Can you recommend/advise me on what hardware items i need to buy. Not too worried about how many LED's as I can work this out on what size panels I will make. What programming language do I need to learn or should I just commission (pay) someone.

Any help or advice would be gratefully recieved
Globeworker

Well, consider that I made it all from scratch ... I used 5mm RGB LEDs paired with a WS2801 LED driver. Call each one a pixel if you will. Add a 4 conductor ribbon in between to daisy chain them. At the end of the line you just need a controller to drive them. Since I made my own, it's just a Mega328P, a couple of caps, a regulator to lower the voltage and programming to do whatever with the lights.

The questions you should be asking are, how big an area do you want covered, as this will determine how many panels? How dense do you want the panels to be (as this will dictate how many LEDs, and how to drive them, whether you're using individual ICs, or using shifters.) How do you plan on driving those panels? How do you want to control them? There are so many ways of building what you want, but there are way too many unanswered variables here.

You might want to read http://sites.google.com/site/artcfox/demystifying-the-tlc5940 - that's a shifter method of driving a lot of LEDs.