make blinkM replacement yourself?

Hi,

I'm a novice in electronics, so if my questions will sound stupid - I am sorry :slight_smile: But I have question - I am planning to do some ambient lamp with arduino (the simple one which is smoothly changing colors from one to another) - and was looking for LEDs, and found blinkM, which looks great, but it's kind of expensive one. So I was wondering - is it possible to archive the same, for example, with some cheaper LEDs like Superflux RGB or any other RGB LEDs? Would it be possible to control with arduino such multiple LEDs (up to 5 or 10 pieces) and make then smoothly change colors from one to another?

Looking forward to any help, thanks!

Small update:

I would like use LEDs like this:

http://www.led1.de/shop/product_info.php?pName=superflux-rgb-4pin-1-piece-p-399&cName=led-rainbow-rgb-rgb-superflux-fullcolor-c-48_93

or maybe this:

http://www.led1.de/shop/product_info.php?pName=led-5mm-rgb-4pin-1-piece-p-124&cName=led-rainbow-rgb-rgb-5mm-fullcolor-4-pin-c-48_27

Here's something that was designed for your exact requirement: Headerless ShiftBrite 2.0 - Macetech Electronics Store

Fading will require code on your Arduino, but it's been done before and isn't hard.

Disclaimer: I make and sell them. I don't know of anyone else selling similar devices, or I'd refer you to them as well. There are a few people out there who have interesting designs using small PICs, and may soon make them available for sale.

Is there any limit how many such ShiftBrite LEDs you can control with single Arduino board?

The main limit is memory, if you wanted to store all the colors in an array. If you just calculate the colors, you could control up to the Allegro recommended limit of 255 modules. You could also control multiple chains from the same Arduino.

The most I've chained together is 32, for this thing: