New To Arduino Need Wiring and Power Supply Help

[g_rags]

Hello All,

About a year or 2 ago I purchased an arduino kit with the intention of learning how to use an arduino to make some projects I had kicking around in my mind. Well that never happened and everything in the closet has been collecting dust. I finally have moved forward with creating a diorama in which the arduino will have the function of lighting the LEDs. Please bear with me as this is my first endeavor and will do my best to lay out things.

I did some poking around the forum and did my best to absorb as much as I could with laying things out before writing this. Please let me know what I did wrong or need to change! I have a 3d printed sign that will use LED's for illumination. There are 3 different groups of LEDs , each of which will flash/function differently. There is a Chasing group, Cascading group and Flickering group.

The Chasing Group has a total of 38 LEDs broken into 3 groups
Through reading on here I learned that to control the chasing group, the use of a trigger switch would be best to power these.

The Cascading Group has a total of 19 LED's into 8 groups,
In my drawing i also have these wired into trigger switches. For space saving purposes, I would prefer not to use the switches and power direct from the board if possible.

The Flickering Group, I am open to suggestions on. This is just a backlight for the center of the sign. I would like this to flicker like an old worn out sign.

List of questions.

• I would like to dim the output of all of the led's, Upon testing them, they are all too bright. Should this be done with a potentiometer connected to a group or with a resistor to each led?
• As mentioned above, Can the Cascading Group be powered by the board directly to save space?
• What would be sufficient power supply?
• Would it be worth trying to make this Battery Powered along with direct powered? Or would the power requirements not make exploring that idea worth it?
• Any other parts that I would need to purchase to make this function properly or simply it?

LED Specs

• Product Features: Prewired LED For DC 12V (Preloaded 1/4w Metal Film Resistor) - 7.8 inch Wire Lead (7-Core Pure Copper & Tin-Coat At The End)
• Product Parameters: The Anode: White Wire / The Cathode: Black Wire / Forward Voltage: DC 12V / Forward Current: 20mA / LED Viewing Angle: 30°

Trigger Switch Specs
Working voltage: DC 5V--36V
Trigger signal source: digital high and low level (DC3.3V--20V), signal frequency 0--20KHZ : Output capacity: DC DC 5V--36V,

[Terrypin]

@g_rags

I will need the arduino to have the lighting of the LED's function.

I’m guessing you meant to type something like “the arduino will have the function of lighting the LEDs.”

[blh64]

You need to look into getting some W2812 LEDs aka NeoPixels. They come as a series of LEDS that you control. As for powering things, you can not power this with the arduino. You will need an external power supply and not a battery unless you want a car battery. Each Pixel can draw about 60mA so multiply that by how many total LEDs you have and that is the size of the power supply you will need - round up by a healthy margin.

If you have a poteniometer on your system for dimming and use a library like the FastLED library, it can scale your RGB values down automatically to adjust the brightness.

[g_rags]

Terrypin, You are correct.

My brain was/is a little overwhelmed with trying to convey as much information about what is trying to be accomplished. Didnt want to get flamed for leaving out things lol.

[bluejets]

Start working with writing and executing code for 1 LED and work your way up.