Making RGBW LED's Change color with each button

Using Arduino Project Guidance
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Hello all,
I am very new to the Arduino world and I am looking for some guidance on how to research my project.

My overall goal is to have 2 or more RGBW LED's and 3 or 4 buttons. When you Press Button, 1 The LED's turn one color and when you press Button 2 the LED's turn A different color and so on.

The issue I have, is finding resources to guide me in the correct direction for this specific project. Everything I have seen is typically making the LED change color with a single button, or many of the other common LED + Button projects. On top of that, (and likely the bigger issue) I am not sure how to articulate what it is I am doing without typing a paragraph into google. (as you can imagine, that does not get me far lol)

Not asking for the specific code or anything, Just how to find some good learning resources on how to complete a project like this.

I appreciate any help that anyone can give. (Not sure If its needed, but I plan to use an Arduino Nano)

-Matt

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Hello red_director

Welcome to the worldbest Arduino forum ever.

This is a nice project to get started.

Keep it simple and stupid firstly.

Divide et impera

Follow the example code that comes with the library or
run some tutorials for the hardware selected.
If you are happy with the results of the tutorials you can merge these to your project.

Have a nice day and enjoy coding in C++.

p.s.

Arrays and structs are your friends.

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But actually posting your code would help us help you.

You might want to look at this How to get the best out of this forum before you proceed any further.

It tells you how to post code here.

I doubt you have an RGBW LED as such, you probably have an RGBW LED strip. This is where every other LED is a white one, and the ones in between are addressable. Please post a link to where you bought it from sowe can check out exactly what you have.

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Thank you! I will go through these examples, I really need to get in the habit of learning to walk before I run lol Much appreciated!

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Hello Grupy_Mike, I read that forum that you posted and I appreciate you posting that, definitely helped, gives a good perspective that (as a beginner) I wouldn't have necessarily thought of.

as far as code, I do not currently have a code, the Info that Paulpaulson was great! I do need to really take my time and start from the super basics and learn to combine different projects.

These are the LED's I plan on ordering. If you have any input I am open to suggestions.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01DBZIXJ0/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_1?smid=A14FP9XIRL6C1F&th=1

and for the board I purchased, here is the link to that as well.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07G99NNXL?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

all of this is for a product idea I came up with so I wanted to try and get a working prototype, thats why I choose the LED's I did and the board I did.

Thank you again!

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Those LEDs are very very very bright.

These will each need an appropriate heatsink.

Look at the link below, maybe that's what you want ? :thinking:

1 Like
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Hello red_director

In addition to selecting the right hardware, it is also important to put together a toolbox for programming.

Don´t use the delay() function and use the millis() function instead.

A timer function based on millis() function is actually always required.
The timer function can be easily derived from the BLINKWITHOUTDELAY example in the IDE.
What does the timer function do?
The timer function provides time slots in which actions are executed without the programme being blocked as with the delay() function.
The timer function should be scalable and provide the following services:

  1. make()
  2. start()
  3. stop()
  4. isExpired()
  5. isRunning()

Give them a try.

Have a nice day and enjoy coding in C++.

p.s. Arrays and structs are your friends.

1 Like
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So those are power LEDs and can't just be connected to an Arduino like a normal LED which is to an output pin and resistor. These require a constant current driver to operate. Each LED requires its own driver.these take a lot of current which needs to be supplied by an external power supply. They will also generate a lot of heat and require heat sinks.

All in all they are not the sort of thing a beginner should be using. Look into using strips like advised above. You can always cut a strip into a shorter length.

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I am very glad I made this post! I knew they would get hot and did plan on getting heat syncs for them however, didn't know about the drivers.
Given what I am designing, the strips wont really work. I have these LEDs that I purchased a while ago, but didn't want to use them because of how small they are and how precise the soldering has to be, but do these also need drivers or are these small enough to be able to run off Arduino? It does say "for Arduino" in the title but cant always trust the listing title lol

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01DC0J3UM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

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Each of those LEDs can take up to a maximum of 60mA depending on how bright you want each colour to be. Each colour can take up to 20mA depending on the brightness.

Now an Arduino is not a power supply and the current available is limited. Most libraries have the ability to limit the maximum brightness so you can set a limit so you can't exceed.

Each processor has different li it's on the maximum current it can safely supply, and there are also combinations of pins where the there are limits in excess of the individual pin level.

But basically yes you can run them off an Arduino.

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