Which Arduino is Right For Me?

Forum 2005-2010 (read only) General Frequently-Asked Questions
1

I'm a student studying design and am currently working on a project that requires knowledge of constructing circuitboards and programming LED's. I need to build a circuitboard that can control either 12 RGB LED's in 12 separate 'areas' (one for each area) OR 12 separate Red Green and Blue LED's (for a total of 36 LED's (3 for each area)) Depending on whichever is easiest.

Each 'area' will cycle through 12 colours produced by the LED's, one preset colour every hour, untill each colour has been used (12 Hour cycle), which is when the cycle will repeat. Each of the 12 'areas' will follow the same cycle only it will have a delay of 5 mins from the previous 'area'. So for arguments sake if the first area will turn from blue to green at 1:00 the second will turn form blue to green at 1:05, third at 1:10 and so on.

As i am new to electronics i was looking for a relatively easy solution, if Arduino is not suited to my application then maybe someone could inform me of the most practical product. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Cheers, Ryan

2

What we need to know is how big these areas are? Are we talking about a whole room that requires lots of bright LEDs to illuminate it or are we taking about something like a dolls house?

The basic Arduino Uno will be a suitable basis for this but you will probably have to add extra hardware like a TLC5940 to drive the LEDs.

3

Thanks for the help Mike it means alot. The areas are small and of triangle shape with a footprint of roughly 100cm2. They will be relatively bright as they need to illuminate semi-opaque acrylic. They should only require 3 LED's at max (Red, Green, Blue) or just one combined RGB LED.

To make this circuit work is there anything i need apart from - LED's, Resistors, Driver, Power source, Arduino and a breadboard to mount them on?

4

wire :slight_smile:

5

Haha nice, good to see you got my back..