I am trying build a Christmas gift project that when a battery pack is switched on, a set of led lights light up, then with the lights still on, when a button is pushed a song is played through a speaker.
This is what I have right now
Adafruit Pro Trinket 5v or Arduino Nano 5v (if needed)
DFPlayer Mini
Makerhawk 3watt 8ohm mini speaker
3xAAA battery pack and 4xAA battery pack (will be using regular Duracell batteries)
12mm push button momentary switch
Adafruit mono 2.5w class D audio amplifier (if needed)
Neopixel led strip : Maximum 5V @ 80mA draw per Led. (I am only using 18 led lights)
Am I on the right path or do I need something more or better to accomplish what I am wanting to do? I am still pretty new to all of this but I am determined to make this gift.
Any help that would save me headache and time would be very appreciated. Thank you so much in advance.
Why two different sizes? You may want to consider batteries with more power like 18650s, or even better a premade rechargeable battery pack.
Which Neopixel strip exactly, can you link it? 80mA seems a bit high.
This has an amplified output so you shouldn't need the other amp. It also is >= to 4ohm so you can get more sound with a 4ohm speaker connected directly to it than your spec'd 8ohm.
well LEDs are 5v and you don’t seem to have any 5v converter on your list, I only assume you are planning to add smoke effect to your gift by powering LEDs directly from the Arduino
Most 5mm LED Lights only use 20ma, 18 LED's gives a total of 360ma. Are you including the other hardware in your calculations for the required current?
I will get a 4ohm instead, I want to do this right.
This doesn't necessarily have to be battery powered, I thought that would be the easiest. However, it is looking more and more like this might need to be powered by a wall adapter.
Thank you for letting me know, I am still really new at this. I know it is a big project for a newbie, but I am determined to do it and learn in the process. Then build upon my knowledge
I see where you got the 80mA, but if you look at the datasheet for the SK6812RGBW It's actually only 50mA. That on full blast white, most colors will be much lower.
This is a barrel connector screw terminal:
It will work well to break out your power directly to your LED strip and to the 5V and ground pins of your Nano and mini player. That's important! Run a power and ground to each of your three devices directly from the screw terminals so they all draw from the power supply and not through the Nano itself.
You can use a button module and avoid soldering all together, but you will need a 1K resistor at least for the connection as the button modules are made to pass power I think. I don't have any on hand to test.
Wait at least a day before ordering stuff so others can offer opinions as well.
You'll turn it on and off with the switch, the button will serve to activate the lights and the sounds as you'd like.
By definition, batteries have a limited capacity. This means the primary consideration of your project immediately becomes how long the batteries can continue to operate it, which is according to the battery capacity divided by the current drain, So you have to look at what the capacity of each candidate battery is, and what how much current each design option will draw. You then have an ongoing juggling act.
If you operate from the mains, your only concern is to find an adequately rated power supply. In this case, the NeoPixels, Nano and I believe other components require 5 V, so you want a 5 V power supply.
18 NeoPixels will draw 18 mA when dark, and one Amp at full white brightness.
I also created a little bit in illustrator to illustrate and map a layout. I haven't added any resisters or wiring to the image yet, this is my starting point. (i forgot to label the push button)
First and foremost, THANK YOU everyone for helping me through this. I have been able to prototype the lights and audio, everything works!
I currently have 2 different wire sizes.
24awg and 20awg
My question is: Is it safe to use the 24awg with the whole setup (wiring/soldering 19 neopixels together, wiring to pcb, and the other components) or should I try and use the 20awg? I am using the 5v 2a power adapter to power this thing (as suggested).
I have wired similar amounts of components using #24 single conductor copper wire, worked fine.
IMO as long as you aren’t using long runs of it to deliver significant current the #24 will be OK.
Have you looked to see what the in-use actual current required for your project turned out to be? I ask because standard recommended supplies for LEDs always seem to think we are interested in running them all at full brightness from power up to power down.
