Brand new to arduino and have a basic knowledge of electronics. I’m fine with doing research on my own and have been doing some, and don’t want to use other people for their knowledge, but I could use a bit of direction so I know where to start so any advice is very much appreciated. Wife wants me to build her a mini plinko board for her to use at work. I could just build a basic one, but I want to make it cooler with some lighting. I’m thinking led strips that stay lit up along each side anytime it is plugged in. That part is easy. However, I’m thinking it would be nice to have LEDs in each channel where the puck? lands and have those flash different colors in the one that the puck lands. Maybe 10 seconds flashing rotating colors. I will need to learn to code for this but for now, I’m focused on what hardware I need. Let’s say there are 5 channels for the puck to land.
I’m thinking I should use 3mm break beam sensors on each one. I watched the video linked below to get me started. I understand his use of 3 mosfits to power/switch on each individual color but my question is, will I need to run 15 mosfits (3 for each channel)? And another 3 if I want to have the main 2 strips that go up the sides to cycle through colors at all times? If so, that is fine, but is there a board with that many pins or would I just buy a multiple? What board would you all recommend? Can I also have one controller also play a recorded sound to a small speaker when the puck lands in one of the channels? Thank you for your time. Let me know if there is any other info I can provide.
@ls1_ss is not planning to use that type of strip. The video they linked is about using "analog" RGB strips, where the LEDs are not individually controllable, and so 3 MOSFETs, plus 3 Arduino PWM pins are required for each separately controlled section of strip.
I would strongly urge @ls1_ss to consider using the "Neopixel" or addressable strips. Even if they are a little more expensive, the benefits completely outweigh any difference in price.
Benefits:
No need for MOSFET drivers, they are built in to each individual LED, making the project much simpler.
Only one Arduino pin needed to control multiple separate strips independently.
Individual LED control allows for more creative patterns and animations.
'Neopixel' is the name given by Adafruit to strips that use WS2812-type LEDs. They are not unique to Adafruit and are available at the usual on-line retailers eBay/Amazon/AliExpress etc.
For the Audio aspect, I would recommend a DFplayer Mini.
What I can't figure out is what job @ls1_ss 's wife has where a Plinko board is helpful
Ok thank you that is excellent information. I am somewhat familiar with addressable LEDs but I will do some more research. Sounds much easier that way. And wife is a mgr at a bank. She wants to use it as a fun reward for her staff. When they do well, they get a token and at the end of the week they get to play. Each plinko channel is worth something like “get to leave early on a Friday coupon” or things like that mixed in with physical prizes. Gift cards, fun stuff from Costco, etc.
Ok I think I’ve made some progress on planning this out but before I order everything, I want to be sure I’m on the right track. I think the Arduino nano will work for me. I will go with addressable LEDs. 7 total strips (5 for the channels at the bottom and 2 to go up the sides). For the sides, can I cut to length and then run wires to tie them together so I can hook them up with one set of wires to the arduino? I assume so but I wasn’t sure how that would work with the data line. I already ordered 5 break beam sensors with the 3mm LEDs from adafruit to run in each of the 5 channels. Can those be powered by the arduino itself? I also plan on getting a DFPlayer mini. Where I’m most confused is powering everything. I want to make it simple for her to operate so it would be ideal to have one plug for everything. I think I can buy a 5v 10a power adaptor and get a 1 to 8 barrel connector adaptor used for security cameras. I can run dedicated 5v from that to each of the LED strips (and I think capacitor and resistor for each one?) and then one to the mp3 player. Regarding powering of the board, can I just cut one of the barrel plugs off and run power directly to the 5v pin on the board itself?
The Arduino doesn't supply any power, as I'm sure you realise. You will need a power supply for the whole project. The led strips will consume most of the required power. The Arduino and other sensors need only a small amount of power by comparison.
The led strips will determine the capacity of the power supply you need. It's not the number of strips, but the total number of ws2812 LEDs that's important. Each led can consume up to 50~60mA when at full brightness white. However, at lower brightness, other colours and flashing patterns, the average current per led will probably only be a fraction of that.
If you allow an extra 500mA for the other components (Arduino, DF player, sensors) that should cover it.
Not sure what you mean, please post a link or photo. Why is this needed?
Good idea about the wiring. You may not need a capacitor and resistor for each strip. One large cap may be enough, and resistors may only be needed at the end of longer wires.
As an example, I recently built a digital wall clock using ws2812 strips. Each segment of the 4 digits has 6 ws2812 LEDs, plus a couple for the colon between hours & minutes. 170 LEDs in total. All 170 LEDs are wired as a single linked strip. The wires between the segments are mostly <100mm, so I did not need resistors there, only a single resistor at the end of the 2~3m wires from the control box containing the Arduino up to the clock display itself was needed. I placed one 1000uF cap in the control box.
Forgive me for the very generic schematic. Obviously I have left out a lot of data to the Arduino as my questions mainly pertain to how to power everything. I will need to add in power for the mp3 player as well but I couldn't find an object in the schematic maker for something similar to that. I also just used the default values on the cap and resistors. Thoughts? Thank you again for all the time you have spent giving me great advice. It is very appreciated!
Ah, is this because the Plinko board will disassemble for transportation, and each section will have its own barrel socket for power? How will you make the data connections between strips or from the strips to the Arduino?
You seem to have series resistors in the power lines to the strips, if I'm reading your schematic correctly. That's not a good idea at all. With WS2812 LEDs, current limiting circuits are built into the LEDs, so you don't need to add external ones. If you did, the strips won't work correctly and those resistors may overheat and fail.
I was thinking of that barrel adaptor just as an easier way to hook up power to everything. Just thinking that would be cleaner than wiring everything back to one main wire. It won’t be disassembled or disconnected ever really. I plan on mounting everything to the back of the board and possibly 3d printing a box for the arduino and wiring just for a clean solution there. Is there some sort of terminal block for power that I could use instead?
Regarding the resistors, I couldn’t wrap my head around why resistors would be needed in line with power but after some more research I guess those would go on the data lines right?
I would run data lines back to the arduino for each strip. Can the top two vertical strips share one line back to the arduino or should those each have their own dedicated line? And if they have their own dedicated line, if they are the same length and amount of LEDs, can they both be wired to the same pin on the arduino?
Sorry for all the questions. I just have to have a plan before I start digging in and want to make sure I’m going about it correctly the first time.
